R.I.P, death of a red & black Ancistrus male, rivalty with L134 leads to death

I'm saddened to write this but I do not want to write about only the positive sides and successes of fishkeeping.

My alpha male, calico red & black Bristlenose pleco was killed yesterday. The photo was taken when the fish was young but in it's adult form it was a very impressive fish.

This fish was approximately 4 years old, in it's prime and should have had many more years, it has supplied me with a constant stream of quality fry.

I foolishly decided to house the fish temporarily with my Peckoltia  compta / L134 group to give it a break from breeding. I knew there could be trouble between the males but did not expect it to lead to it's death. There were more than six empty caves in the tank but this was not enough. The carcass bore clear signs of fighting with another pleco, my suspicion points to the L134 alpha male.

This is something that could easily have been avoided and a decision I will regret. So a warning to anyone wanting to move several boisterous male loricariids into the same tank, monitor them carefully and obviously provide plenty of space and caves!

Quick tank updates,

Things are moving along quite well and I just wanted to share some smaller updates of what's going on in the fish tanks.

The 125 litre corner tank above has changed quite a bit (don't mind the algae), the breeding pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus "nigeria red" had to move to a separate tank. The pair was moved as they were getting to aggressive during spawning to let me keep community fish in this tank.

One Red Tiger Lotus, Nymphaea zenkeri which had outgrown one of my smaller tanks has been added and I think it really makes the difference.

12 Ember Tetra, Hyphessobrycon amandae moved in and they really seem to enjoy this environment and are constantly schooling. The colour of this fish also matches that of the Red Lotus plant very well.

I have been trying to spawn the Ember tetras for the last few weeks but have had no success so far.

A group of five L129, Hypancistrus debilittera have moved into the tank and they have already spawned in there which is great.

The pair of Nigerian red have moved to a separate tank and they seem to enjoy their new home, they are now guarding their second batch of fry.

Finally my group of Corydoras concolor are getting on well, they are growing like mad and have started to excibit their trademark hi-fins!

That's all for now,

Happy fish-keeping!

DIY Aquarium Rack

The fish tank rack above was built by myself and my mate Bart from Rainbow Aquatics, to whom I'm very thankful for the help. Without his knowledge, lend of tools and time invested it would not have happened.

A project like this can seem quite daunting the first time you undertake it. Although time consuming it was easier to construct than I would have thought and in the end it was well worth the time spent.
I will try to highlight parts of the design in this post.

The aquarium rack above is designed to support six 72 litre; 60x40x30 tanks but the same design can easily be adopted to hold a different amount of tanks at various sizes. The exact dimensions are not that important as a design for an aquarium rack varies so much depending on space available, size of tanks etc.

I hope to present a more detailed sketch of how a rack like this is constructed but at the moment my notes are a chaotic mess and it has to wait.

The key to this design is the way the joints are fitted together, below you will see some examples from my rack:

Note how the joint of the beams distribute the weight of the tanks across the rack, this structure is capable of carrying very heavy loads.

Each beam was cut by hand with a saw and each cut was leveled using an electric router, the beams were also sanded to create a smooth finish.

I choose to cover up the sides and top of the rack. This creates an insulating effect and also looks quite nice. My intent is to add a piece of styrofoam at the rear as insulation.

The openings for each tank space were also covered with a thin sheet of plywood attached to the rack with small hinges:

The rack was also wired to that each tank space has access to a four socket connection:

As a finish the rack was painted with a wood stain:

It is of importance to mark each joint when the tank is dismantled the first time as wood is changeable enough and none of the beams are exactly the same. It could easily turn into a nightmare to put it back together again unless this is done.

I also opted to install a led light strip running throughout the rack, it does not supply allot of light but it is ideal for breeding fish as it does allow you to see the fish while not disturb them too much:

I would recommend any fishkeeper with several tanks to invest the time to build something like this themselves, It has made my life much easier.

Andreas

See Rene Bannerskjolds improved version here