Brissy now Mark. Sulawesi are popping out of the wood works.

Very nice Mark.

How many have you got?

I have 5 and they are doing really well.I am in the process of setting up another tank for them using Black Onyx and Bluestone.

 

2 hours ago, Mark49 said:

I have 5 and they are doing really well.I am in the process of setting up another tank for them using Black Onyx and Bluestone.

 

Are you trying to emulate it's natural biotope as much as possible?

A few twigs or branches and splashes of Pogo Helferi and lots of rocks. The type of rocks that will raise pH. 

 

I reckon Pogo and rocks really emulate their biotope.

 

Black Onyx for PH control and bluestone will simulate their natural enviroment.ATM I use aragonite and volcanic rock.

Great looking sulawesi. Its great to see more & more people keeping them. Hopefully soon they will be in my price range. Good luck breeding them Mark. 

Thanks keego.

Anyone know how well these can live with natives? Will natives stress under pH 8?

Depends on the native, but I would guess the likes of typus, longirostris, paratya ect. should handle a high pH OK. They seem to handle most water parameters without fuss.

Some people have kept cherries with sula. I think sulawesi look awesome by themselves hahaha. 
 

I have a bunch of DAS at pH 8 (due to LFS "Midnight" gravel) and they are fine and breeding.  They do at times show a lot of red colouration  that I've not seen in other tanks.

I might start to increase the pH in my tank. Bumping the temp up to 28 was interesting with my natives. Wasn't sure how they'd do, they certainly got more active. Many of my snails didn't survive though.

1 hour ago, NoGi said:

I might start to increase the pH in my tank. Bumping the temp up to 28

 

Here is what Werner Klotz had to say about the water parameters in the Sulawesi lakes when he did an exploration trip...

"These parameters seems to be no problem in this species. In the Towuti, Mantoano and Poso lakes you can find pH values between 7,4 and 8,2; the conductivity is at about 224 µS and the total hardness at about 6°DH. 
The water temperature is rather stable at about 26,5°C. Only in shallow water regions near the shore the temperature can rise to 29°C.  "

 

You guys with Sulawesi shrimps should start looking for 'Ottelia mesenterium', a species of plant endemic to the lakes.

Edited November 10, 201510 yr by jayc

Hmmmmm ok, might look at dropping a degree. I do know they went clear when it was too cold in my tank. My pH is just under 7 atm.

Looks like you might need to raise that pH as well.

But how do you raise pH to 8+ while keeping hardness to 6 ??

Use crushed coral as your substrate jayc.This will raise your ph to around 8 to 8.2.

 

My TDS is between 150 to 200.

Keep GH at around 8 and KH at around 4.

Water temp 28 to 29.

Or you can use inert substrate and use the salty shrimp sulawesi mineral (8,5).