Changing Substrate

[MSU Fan]

How likely is the compacting to happen - meaning, is it inevitable without MTS? I can't keep them because of the slew of loaches I have. That might have tipped the scales there if that is a big problem.

 

[itafx]

Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I need to get some of those...

 

[MSU Fan]

Yeah, I really wish I could keep them alive, but I have 3 yoyo loaches in there, and they devour the little guys.

 

[itafx]

I don't have any loaches, but I've been considering getting some. My background reading on loaches tells me that many of the species are somewhat aggressive, but I seem to remember that Clown loaches aren't. Maybe a bigger tank with lots of snails and only 1 or 2 loaches would allow the snails to survive and keep the population going. It would be interesting to see about trying to achieve a balance between snail reproduction and loaches feasting on them.

 

[MSU Fan]

I don't know - I had a clown loach, 3 yoyo's, and a burmese border loach all in a 75g with no non-food related agression. Nor did I see any inflicted wounds on any of my fish...but they clicked their barbs a lot when they found an algae wafer!

I do have 2 blueberry botias in with my cichlids, and the cichlids don't mess with them. And I have Lake Malawi Cichlids!

 

[MSU Fan]

Oh, and I think that you would need only one loach and a huge snail population. The loaches just don't seem to stop eating them at all. They just keep going like the Energizer bunny. I got hundreds of them from my LFS, and I only had 1 clown loach, and the next morning there were less than 5 left...

 

[rkilling1]

How likely is the compacting to happen - meaning, is it inevitable without MTS? I can't keep them because of the slew of loaches I have. That might have tipped the scales there if that is a big problem.

I really can't answer that question, but I haven't heard of this problem before. It could be that I just never researched it enough, but I try and stay on top of problems that other people have.

 

[itafx]

There is a loach forum that says loaches cause trouble in planted tanks by uprooting the plants. To what extent is that true?

 

[MSU Fan]

I would say "YES!". But in my case, I have playsand which offers almost no grip to stem plants in the first place, so...

That is part of the reason I want new substrate, so that it can hold in the stem plants better. I have no problems with loaches and heavy rooters like crypts and swords.