With sand, gravel or bare tanks?

[wirajendi]

Hi zebra046,

Thanks for your advice and pictures!!

As of now, I'm keeping the fish mainly for breeding purposes, later if I have more zebs maybe I'll invest some money for tanks complete with decorations.

Conclusion:

1. people prefers bb tank if it's only for breeding purposes

2. there is no correlation between substrate and productivity.

Am I right?

Thank's for the suggestion


Robin Wirajendi

[wirajendi]

I have a 6.5 feet x 2.2 x 1.6 tank, would it be to big for 10 zebras?

What would be the ideal number for such tanks?

[McEve]

Conclusion:

1. people prefers bb tank if it's only for breeding purposes

2. there is no correlation between substrate and productivity.

Some people prefer BB tanks for breeding. I have three breeding groups in three tanks, all with sand and quite heavily planted.

[zebra046]

wirajendi wrote:

Conclusion:

1. people prefers bb tank if it's only for breeding purposes

2. there is no correlation between substrate and productivity.

I just prefer a BB tank, when you have multiple tanks and less time to devote to all of them this is a safe solution and I can easily check on them if there is any abnormality, and no stuck fish. but I do have a breeding pair in a 60 gallon planted display tank with cardinals and apistos.

this is an old photo of the male in the display tank who just comes out to eat.


Good luck

[McEve]

I'm convinced. Having been the strongest advocate for sand as substrate, I yield

After having tried a tank with, well not BB, but with tile floor, I can definately already see the benefits, and are in the process of converting all my tanks to tile/slate floor. I will keep a handful of sand in there, just to let them show off a bit with the sand spraying. But part from that, no more sand substrate for me.

I thought I had the sand under control, swarming with Malaysian Trumpet snails, but a few days ago I found two little ones sitting dead upon a darker spot in the sand, the babies choose the wrong resting place, one where an anearobic pocket had formed. They simply suffocated. I could smell rotting eggs when I syphoned the sand out.

The slate bottomed tank proves so easy to keep clean I can't believe it. And the fish seem to thrive with it too.

So, still not 100% for BB, for estethic reasons But tile/slate floor - 100% in favour.

[lrry93]

I am sold on the slate bottom as well as you guys have already figured out!

[Andyt.]

Now I have no idea what to do with the 100lbs of sand I purchased with the intent of setting up a zebra breedery...

Hmmm. Guess I'll not be buying kitty litter for a while. Hope the cat doesn't mind.

[McEve]

I am sold on the slate bottom as well as you guys have already figured out!

And you're the one that introduced the idea - Thanks! Great idea!

I've had tiles as background for quite a while, but it never occured to me to put it on the bottom as well... Don't know why I never thought of it..

[wirajendi]

very interesting info McEve!! I have to try the slate/tile set up and remove all the sand substrate.

Do you have picture with the slate/tile set up?

[McEve]

here's a couple





And one can be seen here:

webcam

[wirajendi]

Thank you for the pictures McEve! It's really awesome. Please help me with one more question, How do you attach the ceramic tile to the aquarium?

[McEve]

With Silicone

[nesolb]

I tried a similar set up with old roofing tiles but it didn't quite turn out how I wanted so I ended up with a BB tank.

You're tank looks great though McEve.

[wirajendi]

My friend kept baby zebras with gravel bottom tanks. For the first 1 months everything was going ok. In the middle of the second month the problem started to come up, he lost about 15 fries within 2 weeks.

At that time, he thought the problem would be insuffiecient hiding place for the baby zebs, because baby zebs kept piling on top of each other. My friend put some more hiding place for them but baby zebs keep on dying.

Now he remove all the gravel substrate and the condition are a lot better. He said the problem is not about hiding places but decomposed left over food that stuck between the gravel.

He said, best way to raise the baby zebs is bare bottom tanks but for breeding purpose gravel bottom is better.

Any comments?