MAN these Albino Cory cats(courtesy of Schambers) are BUSY little beasties!  They were stirring up the sand so bad it looked like a sandstorm in that tank.  So I put down several handfuls of gravel(natural stone color) over the sand.  Took them one night(roommate said she watched them working in tandem, starting and stopping in unison, as if they were in communication about it) to move all the gravel to one section of the tank.

Less than a week later you can't find a piece of gravel in that tank if you were getting paid for it.  Seriously- all sand, no gravel.  They buried the small slate pieces too.

Pros: *they're fun to watch

           * they are obviously happy little fishes, busily going about the business of      
              sifting every inch of that sand on an hourly basis.

Cons: * you can't see my wild Endlers(courtesy of MsOsborne) worth a dang because the little busybodies have the sand stirred up all the time!

I've got some bigger stones I could put in there to limit the sand-sifting and hopefully in turn have some water clarity in that tank.  But then are my happy little goofballs going to be bored and less happy?

Decisions, decisions.

i have 4 albinos and 2 browns and they stir up the water too and it gets clouldy too

Odd. When I had them they would dig in the sand but never really stirred it up bad.

You guys must have yummy substrates!

I've never had any that stirred up the sand like that either.  When I had those cories, they were in a gravel only tank.

Burks said :

Odd. When I had them they would dig in the sand but never really stirred it up bad.

You guys must have yummy substrates!

You guys that have the sand, is it aquarium sand? 

This is a 10g w/topsoil/playsand substrate.  Maybe I need a bigger HOB(I can use that acronymn now that I know what it means!)?  I have a Whisper that's rated for a 10g, and I have two filter "bags" in it(putting the second one in was the only way I got any visibility).

Maybe if I put in the filter I used for my 29h?  Or maybe if I just keep doing water changes until all they run out of stuff to get suspended in the water?

I hate to break up their party, but I'd love tobe able to see the plants and the colors in the endlers!(well, there's only one male so far, but the girls are all preggers)

Mary, add some more sand.  If there's a particular region they like to graze, put gravel on top of the soil and then replace the sand. 

Is it getting move backward with the current?  Put a deflecting rock at the tail end of the area they like to graze. 

If you need rocks and gravel stop on over  :) 

Todd

farmertodd said :

Mary, add some more sand.  If there's a particular region they like to graze, put gravel on top of the soil and then replace the sand. 

Is it getting move backward with the current?  Put a deflecting rock at the tail end of the area they like to graze. 

If you need rocks and gravel stop on over  :) 

Todd

MORE sand???? AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!  that'sALL they need!   I'm so afraid of this!  I'd covered 75% of the bottom with regular gravel(over top of the sand) and the little $@#*$ buried every single pebble of it under the sand. 

They graze over the entire bottom.  I don't have current in this tank other than what is coming from the HOB and the airstone I have in the corner(covered with slate pieces).

If you want to put current in that tank, I'd be glad to donate a powerhead and spray bar to the cause.  I think that will help to keep them in a certain area (either in the current or not).  As I said, I have rocks for the cause as well. 

I don't know if Susan told you, but I'm "Tankless in Toledo" right now  ;)

Major equipment sale to come after Mattchew makes a raid of what he find useful. 

Life... much... more... simple now.

Todd