chopper Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 As I am in the process of shifting all my tank occupants about i have several tanks with nothing in them and was thinking of trying to capture a torrent fish aka shark bully.I have never had them before and was wondering if its good to use a wave maker in their tank instead of pumps with a high flow rate? When I kept blue gills I had big pumps in the tank . In the long run I am attempting to get as many bully species ( i know a torrent fish is not 1)in my tanks ( in different tanks) ask i can, I doubt I will be able to obtain a tarndale though! I am a big fan of bullies and have had most in the past but not all at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 torries are neat :f77: I have 3 adults in my native tank and the more or less ignore the bullies. There are two wave makers in this tank, a 5000 and a 5000-15000 l/h. The othere way to do it would be like the riffle tank I had set up for a while: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=59465 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Torries are awesome! Not su that a wave maker would suit them unless it was not making waves. They like a reliable flow and I think waves would confuse and tire them. Torries are very sensitive to raised temperatures, and most submersed pumps can be bad for increasing the water temperature. They are also a little bit tricky to get enough food to in a community tank. They have quite 'tight' tummies and the fins obscure them a little, so it can be easy to not notice that they are being underfed till they get really skinny and start getting fluffy patches. They should have a little round tummy after each meal. You can tell if they are hungry when they start sucking rocks like an algae eater! As usual, ox heart is a fantastic nutrient-dense food that all natives love. Hey blue ether, can you look up in my book the calculation for the amount of volume turnover for a riffle tank? I loaned out my last copy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 Torries are awesome! Not su that a wave maker would suit them unless it was not making waves. They like a reliable flow and I think waves would confuse and tire them. Torries are very sensitive to raised temperatures, and most submersed pumps can be bad for increasing the water temperature. Stella, by wave maker we mean flow pumps, high flow with low presure. they don't put much heat back into the system - the one that I have to hand is 5000 l/h at 12w They are also a little bit tricky to get enough food to in a community tank. They have quite 'tight' tummies and the fins obscure them a little, so it can be easy to not notice that they are being underfed till they get really skinny and start getting fluffy patches. They should have a little round tummy after each meal. You can tell if they are hungry when they start sucking rocks like an algae eater! As usual, ox heart is a fantastic nutrient-dense food that all natives love. My torries are such aggressive feeders now I just about have to make sure the bullies are getting their share :fshi: Hey blue ether, can you look up in my book the calculation for the amount of volume turnover for a riffle tank? I loaned out my last copy...I'll have to find it... no riffle tank in the index, I give up... Then when I do find the page you don't mention turnover :cofn: The riffle tank I had was doing about 50 - 70 x turnover per hour, 3200 or 3500 l/h external pump on a 50 l tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopper Posted July 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 I read about the heat out put of submersed pumps so its good to know you think the same. I feed ox heart to my other fish sometimes but have read on overseas forums it is too fatty over long periods and is bad for fish. I feed earthworms (I have mother loads in the garden) and hear they are a good staple diet supplemented with other tidbits. What are peoples opinions.Would torrent fish eat these?me bullies go nuts over these as well as the stream critters I catch and the bugs I breed in my ponds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 I guess they will eat worms, but none of the ones I feed ever make anywhere near the bottom. Beef heart's not too fatty if you trim it (and I suspect that it's a lot less fatty than US beef). I feed beef heart, shrimp/prawn, mealworms, earthworms, waxmoth (very fatty), pond life, commercial granules, etc for all my natives Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopper Posted July 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 Choice thanks for that info blue ether. Yeah they are yanky forums I have looked at. Some of the Aussie sites are good though as they have similar fish species to us. I will keep the torrent fish only with bluegills so maybe some worms will reach the bottom but most of the bullies I have rush to the top when I open the lid to be fed by hand so they will probably pilfer much of the food . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 once torrentfish get used to manna from heaven they will swim up the water column to grab food. I think that they would be easier to adapt by themselves or with another acclimatized torrentfish or maybe a a single bully. Mine started taking beef quite fast and granules soon after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M@. Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 what type of granules do you feed blueether? im trying to get mine onto Wardley Cichlid Crumble, but they dont seem to like the taste? - they go to eat it, then spit it out and ignore it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 Ah ha!i am now in the presence of my book! Oops regarding riffle not being in the index. Riffle tanks discussed on p78, current discussed on p68. My recommendation here was a flow of total tank volume turnover of minimum 20 (or 30) per hour. I now err towards 30 as a minimum. So the calculation to find the minimum flow rate is (tank volume) x 30. It is best to then divide this number across several pumps to get an even flow, and position the pumps horizontally at the bottom of the tank. Thanks for the clarification on wave makers, I wasn't familiar with how they work (but I do envy yours! Awesome flow) Bluegills are definitely hard to keep fed with other species too. In my riffle tank the torries and shortjaws kept scaring them off, and cutting the ox heart small enough for them was difficult (later I discovered mouli graters on frozen heart). I would thaw bloodworms under the tap (to remove excess nutrients in the water around them) in a sieve, then deliver the worms to the bluegills at the bottom of the tank and use the sieve to scare off the other fish so the bluegills could eat uninterrupted. The bluegills learned SO fast and were not scared by the sieve because they knew what I was doing. Soon they would race to the front of the tank as soon as they saw me holding the sieve! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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