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Originally Posted by MissMTS  Wow those are gorgeous fish! Escondidos get pretty big don't they? What size tank are you putting them in when they get larger? Do you have any pics of the meeki? |
It really depends on the fish and environment they are raised in. Say I were to have a male in his own tank with no one else.. he could likely grow to 12" but that is HUGE for an escondido. The largest ones GENERALLY max around 10". However, put a male in with a female and they pair up and the hormones slow down his growth rate substantially. he may only max around 8". Females generally max around 6-8" as well.
Right now my goal is to grow them out until I get a pair to form and give away the other 2 to either local friends or folks from MFK that have already asked to have them when i get ready to get rid of the ones I don't want.
I plan to only have 1 thor meeki when it's all said and done. Waiting for them to get bigger so I can see which one I like better visually and personality wise, though one is already showing a lot of promise. He flares at me every time I come to the tank to feed them. He's pretty awesome, though the other one is much more colorful than he is. I may keep the 'ballsy' one simply because he's a cooler guy
The GT is a female and won't max out much bigger than the female escondido, that being around 6-8". I got ehr for my wife primarily, but man has that fish grown on me. No one matches her personality though one of my faster growing male escondido's is starting tio come in to his own finally.
There are 8 botia striata loaches and they have fattened and grown considerably from when i first got them from the store.. when they were only 1.5" and some looked like they were going to die due to poor transportation conditions from asia to the US. They have really proven to be quite strong and everyone knows their role as far as the loach community is concerned. All the cichlids treat the loaches like lower class... that is to say, they accept them and even treat them 'fairly' but the loaches get seconds basically while the bigger fish get to eat first. I feed an ample amount though and as messy as GT's and escondido are when they eat, there is plenty of food floating around needless to say
The plecos are incredibly social as well. The king tiger and peppermint are out a fair bit while the clown and spotted medusa usually stay hidden in the the large wood pile I have on the left side of the tank usually eating wood or algae that is growing ont he wood. Everyone else will come out at feeding time except those two guys. The peacock eels have made residence in the obscenely large and deep rock formation i've piled on the other side of the tank. I don't see them until later in the evening when I turn the tank light off and the room light on. they'll come out and swim all over the place and eat bloodworms out of my hand now. I haven't figured out how to take a decent pic of that yet though, lol. Soon though.
I think that covers most the fish in the tank. In teh end the tank will have 1-2 escondido, 1-2 GT (if I ever find a decent male to pair her with), 1 meeki, and the loaches and plecs and eels.
I's a very busy tank and some may consider it overstocked in the end, but personally I love the tank and all the fish are absolutely thriving and look beautiful. For those who are curious, I feed 4-5 times a day, small amounts often. it helps to keep the aggression down as well as helping them grow and look good
Filtration is an Eheim pro 2026 II(I think that's the model?) and an emp 400. the emp 400 is strictly mechanical filtration except for the biowheels I guess. The eheim is packed with biomedia and the emp 400 has 4 AC70/110 sponges in it that I clean with tap water once a week to rinse out excess plant matter and dirt particles that are filtered out of the water. I do 2 50% water changes each week, which is not only to make sure their water is pristine, but to encourage growth as well (along with the power feeding schedules I have them on)
I think that covers everything with them so far. if there are any other questions I didn't answer beforehand, please ask away. I'll be happy to leave an answer at some point. Comments are welcome too
I plan to take pics again in 2 months or so and the escondido should have made their full color transformation by then. They are just now starting to go from the gray body color to their pearly blue colors now... they're going to look stunning soon =D
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i know im greedy!! 
