What are you doing to your tank today?

[TClare]

To be honest I find my planted tanks much less work than the unplanted ones. As I don't use bright lights or CO2 trimming is infrequent, I tend to let them get fairly overgrown, except for the floating plants, which are easy to scoop out. I hardly ever add fertilizer these days. I very rarely have to clean the front glass and never try to clean or disturb the substrate.

The unplanted tanks get far more algae on the front glass which needs cleaning at least every week, and collect a lot more waste (fish waste and broken down leaf litter, wood etc.) on the substrate that the cichlids stir up as they dig, so I do try to remove some each week. Unless I do a major trimming session on the biggest planted tank, it takes me considerably longer to do the maintenance on the unplanted tanks.

Oops I posted the above in the wrong thread by mistake, I'll copy and paste it where its meant be...

 

[Fishfur]

Went on a longish drive into the city ( Toronto et al is ‘the city’ even though my home city shares a border with it & is #6 in size in the country) to pick up some plants.

Fontinalis antipyretica is a gorgeous moss I have long sought so that made it worth the time & aggro of driving in the city traffic. Also traded some of my Pearlgrass for a nice big bag ‘o Ludwigia.

Since by that time I was only a few blocks from the sister store to my most patronized LFS, naturally, I stuck my head in there.

Got two dozen ghost shrimp - a few are berried though they may not hang into their eggs - only time will tell. But at .99 each they were a bargain. Here’s hoping for lots of little ghost shrimp to come. Petsmart has them but they want close to $4 each and theirs are no better than the ones I got for 99 cents.

They had some nice Dario dario and I fear I gave in to temptation. Too bad I can’t put him with the little Tiger dario. It will be a longer than usual acclimation because the store had the Darios in straight RO.

Also got a few apparently healthy and young Ivory mystery snails so I can take another stab at getting the little beasties to make babies. I feel guilty that my efforts to date to participate in a crowd sourced project to decode the colour genetics of mystery snails have failed to yield results.

So here’s hoping this lot do better than their predecessors.

So now I’m acclimating snails, a pile ‘o shrimp & a tiny red fish - I expect it will take awhile.

 

[AsShrimpleAsThat]

I am at a West Virginia Hampton inn and it is awesome but there is this giant fish tank that is like 75 gallons and apparently the tank is 14 years old, it is beautiful, there is a 14year old blue tang and a clownfish with a really cool color pattern and lots of coral and its just beautiful

 

[Wendybrass]

Nice snails, but I have never tried to keep them as my water is so soft. I have ramshorns, but their shells go white, and although they breed successfully I don't think they live very long.

This is my exact issue. I also have a Betta that has quite an appetite for ramshorns. Makes for easy population control

 

[Lucifer]

At the start of the year so 4 weeks ago, i had the opportunity to move this 4ft tank from the shed into the living room so of course I took it. It meant completely emptying the tank and starting again from scratch.

I used most of what I had plus added a bit of driftwood.

The most successful plant in the old setup was dwarf sag, but once planted again, the entire batch melted so everything you see here is new growth. I know why though as the entire batch was connected by runners and I cut them all up into individual plants before planting again.

Also had problems with diatom algae, covering the tank basically for the first 2-3 weeks. Slowly going but not there yet.

Its just a dirted tank capped with sand. I used the old substrate and just added a thin layer of new sand to cover the top as was a bit messy.

The plant I wanted to try for a long time - Hygrophila Pinnatifida is the main new addition. I'm trying it as an epiphyte. Coming from vastly different water, it also melted somewhat but is starting to grow new leaves so will see.

Curiously in the present setup, nothing red shows up. I pull a red plant out of another tank and it reverts to green. Even the ludwigia, which has a red underside reverts to all green.

I will solve that issue but not quite as easy and may take a bit of experimenting.

Anyways for 4 weeks in I'm happy enough.

Oh, its inhabitants are I think 16 rummy nose, 1 angel, a couple of bristlenose and a few corys.

https://www.aquaristiconline.com.au...9QtxClBjeUvMLb8GMsxqC5n4FlnjMKQrKu4f6VeR-x3bj​

 

[Fishfur]

At the start of the year so 4 weeks ago, i had the opportunity to move this 4ft tank from the shed into the living room so of course I took it. It meant completely emptying the tank and starting again from scratch.

I used most of what I had plus added a bit of driftwood.

The most successful plant in the old setup was dwarf sag, but once planted again, the entire batch melted so everything you see here is new growth. I know why though as the entire batch was connected by runners and I cut them all up into individual plants before planting again.

Also had problems with diatom algae, covering the tank basically for the first 2-3 weeks. Slowly going but not there yet.

Its just a dirted tank capped with sand. I used the old substrate and just added a thin layer of new sand to cover the top as was a bit messy.

The plant I wanted to try for a long time - Hygrophila Pinnatifida is the main new addition. I'm trying it as an epiphyte. Coming from vastly different water, it also melted somewhat but is starting to grow new leaves so will see.

Curiously in the present setup, nothing red shows up. I pull a red plant out of another tank and it reverts to green. Even the ludwigia, which has a red underside reverts to all green.

I will solve that issue but not quite as easy and may take a bit of experimenting.

Anyways for 4 weeks in I'm happy enough.

Oh, its inhabitants are I think 16 rummy nose, 1 angel, a couple of bristlenose and a few corys.

Hygrophila Pinnatifida​

That looks amazing for just a month’s growth. Beautiful!

 

[Wendybrass]

At the start of the year so 4 weeks ago, i had the opportunity to move this 4ft tank from the shed into the living room so of course I took it. It meant completely emptying the tank and starting again from scratch.

I used most of what I had plus added a bit of driftwood.

The most successful plant in the old setup was dwarf sag, but once planted again, the entire batch melted so everything you see here is new growth. I know why though as the entire batch was connected by runners and I cut them all up into individual plants before planting again.

Also had problems with diatom algae, covering the tank basically for the first 2-3 weeks. Slowly going but not there yet.

Its just a dirted tank capped with sand. I used the old substrate and just added a thin layer of new sand to cover the top as was a bit messy.

The plant I wanted to try for a long time - Hygrophila Pinnatifida is the main new addition. I'm trying it as an epiphyte. Coming from vastly different water, it also melted somewhat but is starting to grow new leaves so will see.

Curiously in the present setup, nothing red shows up. I pull a red plant out of another tank and it reverts to green. Even the ludwigia, which has a red underside reverts to all green.

I will solve that issue but not quite as easy and may take a bit of experimenting.

Anyways for 4 weeks in I'm happy enough.

Oh, its inhabitants are I think 16 rummy nose, 1 angel, a couple of bristlenose and a few corys.

Hygrophila Pinnatifida​

Looks amazing!!!

 

[tinylostwine]

I did water change today - nothing that exciting but here is one of the aquariums:
may 2023

today front:

back

sign of life

--
one of the parents taken a while ago:

 

[Lucifer]

I did water change today - nothing that exciting but here is one of the aquariums:
may 2023
View attachment 915020
today front:
View attachment 915021
back
View attachment 915022
sign of life
View attachment 915023
--
one of the parents taken a while ago:
View attachment 915024

Nice, gotta love the natural look. Val is such a great plant too, never too much of it!

 

[tinylostwine]

Nice, gotta love the natural look. Val is such a great plant too, never too much of it!

Those are nana vals; can't you tell how small they are !

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Scraped algae from the kitchen Betta tank. Prepping my collection bag to head over to the vernal pond to collect daphnia etc... when the wind dies down.
Fine large net, observation container and two collection containers in case there's other stuff to collect like moss, plants etc... too early for tadpoles, next moon It's still moon of the windy time. Next moon is when frog croaks

 

[Blk69]

Added this male Guppy today in my tank. Have 3 females so he should be happy.

 

[tinylostwine]

Added this male Guppy today in my tank. Have 3 females so he should be happy.

He might but sometime the females object and will bully a new guppy....

 

[Fishfur]

I spent awhile sorting through all the bits of this ‘n that plant which I’ve been tossing into the tank with the Chilis & the D.dario - since I haven’t tried to scape it yet, I figured the more plant material the better if only for cover for the fish.

I intend to make a little emersed feature at one end - but the piece of wood I wanted to use was A) - waterlogged & thus an iffy candidate for sawing a hunk off without running into unpleasant complications like binding or kickback and B) so awkwardly shaped that none of my saws was going to get the job done anyway, once I let it dry out some. It’s azalea root and sawing it by hand is not something I can do - it’s got a couple of small pebbles embedded that it’s grown around too - more complications for sawing.

I figured my best shot was to use the Dremel with care, but then I discovered it in the sink, soaked, where Wriggle, a delightful little chocolate fluffball that I adore, had pushed it. Whether she did it accidentally or intentionally I will never know for sure, though it likely wasn’t intentional- but it is ruined. I’ve no clue if it’s salvageable - no doubt it will cost me money just to find out if it can be repaired.

So I ended up ordering a mandrel that I can use in a power drill & a couple of 3” saw blades that should fit the mandrel - though whether they do fit remains to be seen. One does not want a 3” saw blade whirling in a drill chuck if there’s a wobble!

The mandrel & blades arrived late tonight so maybe I can trim the hunk of wood tomorrow and put the feature together, or at least make a start on it.

Meantime, I found a couple of oddities in the assorted plants.

I think, but am not at all sure, that a couple of stems that are showing some new growth might be Bacopa myriophylliodes.

I noticed that there were new growths at all the nodes on two stems that had been floating around for some length of time completely bare - not a leaf or even a bump on them to say they were going to stay alive.

The new growth might be new leaves - might be new branches maybe. I can’t tell because what’s there is so short and I really need new specs. Hopefully get those this month.,

I have tried numerous times to grow cuttings of B.myriophylloides and every time so far they have failed to transition.

So it would be pretty great if a couple of stems are going to be successful this time - but it will be awhile before there is enough new growth to ID the species.


And there’s also a an inch long bit of stem with several tiny new shoots on it but I have no idea what species it is either. I need to keep better notes on this sort of thing .

Assuming the shoots keep growing, I expect it will become clear what plant it is but for now it’s a very tiny mystery.

In the pic, that’s a sprig of pearlgrass to the right & to the left is a tiny remnant of a Lilaeopsis braziliensis - gives an idea just how small the mystery plant in the circle is at the moment.


The

 

[Blk69]

He might but sometime the females object and will bully a new guppy....

So far everyone is getting alone. For the first day the male guppy just hung out under my floating Spangels. This morning he is swiming with the females checking things out. Tank is a 75G with some small plants and a large piece of plastic drift wood so many places to hide if anyone is behaving badly.

 

[bgarthe]

Well, I just finished up my replacements for the old “silk” plants that were falling apart. I spent a long while trying to find realistic plastic plants and tried a few for a couple of weeks. These new ones were the best I could find. I even ordered extras to put in my 65g tank that had silk and rather too plasticky looking leaved faux plants. I’ll do up a pic of it tomorrow.

Now I have to decide whether to put a shoal of neon green Rasboras (M. kobutai) I’m getting soon in with the 50+ cardinals or leave the 75g as a Cardinal only tank. I’ll have a month to decide while they’re in QT. Now I have to hope they arrive ok from AquaticArts. I’ve been wanting this nano fish (kobutai) for quite a while and they’ve been tough to come by from my favorite suppliers/sellers.

 

[Fishfur]

Just spent an hour pulling out plants the scuds have cleaned up - the scud tanks may not be the most attractive (though they’re not ghastly) but pretty or not, they’re worth it because scuds eat algae like a bush hog mows down tall grass & do a superlative job - without harming the plants - they clearly much prefer the algae to the leaves. The ramshorn & bladder snails that share the scud’s housing make a contribution to the effort as well.

I can only use snails to clean up moss - scuds just can’t resist eating the moss the instant that the algae supply dwindles.

There are some other wee beasties along with them - I’ve seen a few very small leeches and if only I’d been prepared to catch them I’d have fed them to the betta.

I’ve seen one planaria, along with plenty of snail egg clutches. There was a pennywort leaf with no less than five ramshorn clutches on its backside - the snails seem to strongly prefer the back of the leaves of H.leucocephela as spawning sites.

I found a fair sized Windelov Java fern was finally algae free after about six weeks with the scuds while they worked on it (and whatever else caught their attention).

[The only downside to scuds’ algae cleaning services is that they just will not work to order! Too bad I can’t use AI or some other sort of tech to get them to be more methodical . Then again, they do work for free so I can’t really complain too much. But robot scuds would be cool!]

I think the Windelov fern will look great in the little jar tank once I find the right bit of stone or wood to glue it to. It’s grown a surprising amount while being cleaned so it’ll make a nice focal piece.

 

[A201]

I couldn't resist going back to the LFS and buying nine more Platinum
Tiger Barbs. The shoal is up to 20.

On line, the Platinums can sell for over $8.00 a piece. I picked them up for $2.99. Of course they are all babies. I'm always looking for a bargain. Lol.

 

[Norm]

Today? Lousy weather outside, so I decided to clean glass, replace HOB filters, and fired up my above ground swimming pool filter (pleated cartridge) to polish things off. I have a lot of water movement in my 75 tank with HOB, canister, and other filter; this "pool" filter just served to scrub the water of micro particles. I run it for about 4 hours a couple of times a year. The rainbows love playing the strong stream! LOL!

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Passing the big test so far Pump and water feature are off and have a small bubbler going. Would be cool if one of the goldfish did a swim by mid snow storm. That'd be a happy face next to an A+ lol

Goldfish requesting swim by of bubbler

"Negative Gold Swimmer, the pattern is cold"

 

[bgarthe]

Ok, after a good soaking and spraying off with hot water, just put in the new replacement faux plants for the older “silk” ones in the 65g tank. The fish in tank are Espei Rasboras, Green neon Tetras, Ember Tetras, Dwarf Gold Barbs, a few Pristela Tetras, and the bottom crew of Peppered Corys. They seem to like the new scape.

 

[newjungletank]

I got the risers for my other aquarium coop light printed and installed. I also got the plant holders for my tanks printed and "planted" three different varieties of prayer plants in the top of the tanks.


One of my a. borelli has laid eggs and is guarding them.


We'll see if it works out. It appears some may have been eaten since I took the picture.

 

[BlockHead1981]

Both pairs of my blue rams had babies in the same tank days apart. Does anyone know how to post a video on here?

 

[tinylostwine]

Both pairs of my blue rams had babies in the same tank days apart. Does anyone know how to post a video on here?

You put your video on another site such as youtube and then post a link to it.

 

[Fishfur]

I got the risers for my other aquarium coop light printed and installed. I also got the plant holders for my tanks printed and "planted" three different varieties of prayer plants in the top of the tanks.
View attachment 915273

One of my a. borelli has laid eggs and is guarding them.
View attachment 915274

We'll see if it works out. It appears some may have been eaten since I took the picture.

Boy I wish I could print risers - it would be sooooo handy!!

Both pairs of my blue rams had babies in the same tank days apart. Does anyone know how to post a video on here?

Publish it on YouTube & then you can post that here.

 

[newjungletank]

Both pairs of my blue rams had babies in the same tank days apart. Does anyone know how to post a video on here?

Sometimes, I use my phone to turn a short video into an animated gif and post it here. You can only get a few seconds and quality takes a hit.

Boy I wish I could print risers - it would be sooooo handy!!


Publish it on YouTube & then you can post that here.

There are all kinds of designs out there for fluval lights on sites like thingiverse. You can also find them printed on etsy. That's how I got my first set.

 

[Fishfur]

Sometimes, I use my phone to turn a short video into an animated gif and post it here. You can only get a few seconds and quality takes a hit.


There are all kinds of designs out there for fluval lights on sites like thingiverse. You can also find them printed on etsy. That's how I got my first set.

The problem is getting access to the 3D printer .

 

[BPSabelhaus]

The problem is getting access to the 3D printer .

The problem is stopping finding things to do once you get access lol My city is adding one to the new public maker shop they're opening. So maybe check? Can't hurt.

 

[Fishfur]

The problem is stopping finding things to do once you get access lol My city is adding one to the new public maker shop they're opening. So maybe check? Can't hurt.

I should have a look around - never thought of a public access printer. I live in the most densely populated area in Canada - we ought to have something like that!

 

[newjungletank]

The problem is stopping finding things to do once you get access lol My city is adding one to the new public maker shop they're opening. So maybe check? Can't hurt.

We have a nice library close by and they have a 3D printer that's available for use. I never looked into how you can access it though.

One issue is that all brands and filaments are different. What may print fine on one may be a disaster on another. I had to redesign my risers about 5 times. After the first couple that didn't fit, I started just printing the two ends to save filament. I would test one end for fit into the light and the other for fit onto the tank rim.

However, if you can find a design on thingiverse that's already been proven to work, you're probably safe. Fishfur what type of light do you have?

 

[BPSabelhaus]

We have a nice library close by and they have a 3D printer that's available for use. I never looked into how you can access it though.

One issue is that all brands and filaments are different. What may print fine on one may be a disaster on another. I had to redesign my risers about 5 times. After the first couple that didn't fit, I started just printing the two ends to save filament. I would test one end for fit into the light and the other for fit onto the tank rim.

However, if you can find a design on thingiverse that's already been proven to work, you're probably safe. Fishfur what type of light do you have?

OMG yes. It's so hard to find the spool hole diameter. Outer diameter that pretty much doesn't matter they have readily. Inner hole to actually put the spool on? Good luck lol. So many Amazon returns when I first got it.

 

[Fishfur]

However, if you can find a design on thingiverse that's already been proven to work, you're probably safe. Fishfur what type of light do you have?

I got it at the LFS tent sale, mainly because the price was too good to pass up & I wanted one for the long low tank.

I never noticed until I snapped this pic that it’s 8000K, so no freaking wonder it’s caused a massive algae outbreak!!!

The brackets it comes with have it just proud of the rim.

It needs to be at least a foot above the water if not even higher. Might just relocate the thing & use it for what it’s already proven it can do so well, grow an algae farm!

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Thingiverse, printables etc... are great. But a little note on those. Even if it's 5 star rated, check the remixes. People update, make minor fitment changes etc ... As printers, filaments, etc... change. They will have notes on the changes made. There are several prints I did that were well rated, but I made a few changes for better strength, fit to printer size, even just to actually print lol Things like tubes often need supports added or to be reoriented to print etc....

Not all things need / have been updated, but it's a good idea to check before you get 3/4 through a print and it comes off the plate lol

A lot of people recommend purple Elmer's glue sticks for bed adhesion, but hair spray works much better and is so much easier to clean off plus you can't over apply which you can easily do with the glue. Tubes print surprisingly fast too.

 

[Wendybrass]

My sweet boy's scales are growing over his eyes (pic is an earlier one if him) so he's going back into the 5g that he started off in. Just easier to feed him. The pic is the hardscape just done (sorry for the glare). I can't get out for plants just yet (I live on a steep drive which is quite icy right now) so I trimmed my 32g. It appears the only thing I can grow successfully is hygrophila polysperma. Hrumph. I am going to add some anubias petit nana and crypts. And I took a pretty sad looking java fern from my other tank. I used a sand/soil mix but capped it with small gravel instead of sand cause that's what I had on hand. Doesn't look like it's working (pic of cloudy sad tank. I really dislike the light as well)

In my 32g my male guppies are in constant gang wars. The orange cobras vs the blue and silvers. All of them have ripped and battered fins. It's ridiculous. So once Sherbert's new digs are ready I will separate the gangs.

That's it. Just an average Tuesday.

 

[Fishfur]

Thingiverse, printables etc... are great. But a little note on those. Even if it's 5 star rated, check the remixes. People update, make minor fitment changes etc ... As printers, filaments, etc... change. They will have notes on the changes made. There are several prints I did that were well rated, but I made a few changes for better strength, fit to printer size, even just to actually print lol Things like tubes often need supports added or to be reoriented to print etc....

Not all things need / have been updated, but it's a good idea to check before you get 3/4 through a print and it comes off the plate lol

A lot of people recommend purple Elmer's glue sticks for bed adhesion, but hair spray works much better and is so much easier to clean off plus you can't over apply which you can easily do with the glue. Tubes print surprisingly fast too.

There’s some neat stuff on Thingiverse - a place I never knew existed ‘til now.

I especially liked a sign that said “Unattended children will be sold to the circus”. Too cute.

Finding a riser design for the light I have could be quite challenging.

 

[newjungletank]

There’s some neat stuff on Thingiverse - a place I never knew existed ‘til now.

I especially liked a sign that said “Unattended children will be sold to the circus”. Too cute.

Finding a riser design for the light I have could be quite challenging.

Take a look at tinkercad, it's online and free. That's what I used to design the risers for my light. You can watch a YouTube tutorial and be making decent 3d designs pretty quickly. I also have a free onshape account. Onshape is way more serious and there appears to be a learning curve, but you can make very complex designs with it. I haven't devoted much time to that yet.

I'd be happy to try and design risers for you, but I'd need to see your light up close and have very precise measurements. It's very hard to do without having hands on.

 

[Fishfur]

Take a look at tinkercad, it's online and free. That's what I used to design the risers for my light. You can watch a YouTube tutorial and be making decent 3d designs pretty quickly. I also have a free onshape account. Onshape is way more serious and there appears to be a learning curve, but you can make very complex designs with it. I haven't devoted much time to that yet.

I'd be happy to try and design risers for you, but I'd need to see your light up close and have very precise measurements. It's very hard to do without having hands on.

That’s a very generous offer - I appreciate it.

I can imagine that it would be tough without having access to the actual light - but I could take very careful photographs & measurements if you think that could work?

 

[newjungletank]

That’s a very generous offer - I appreciate it.

I can imagine that it would be tough without having access to the actual light - but I could take very careful photographs & measurements if you think that could work?

Send me what you have and I'll look. Also, I'd need to know what the rim of the aquarium looks like and how wide it is.

 

[Fishfur]

Send me what you have and I'll look. Also, I'd need to know what the rim of the aquarium looks like and how wide it is.

I’ll take pics & stuff tomorrow. I think the rim is 6mm - rimless tank. I’ll double check that too. Thank you so much!

 

[bgarthe]

Ok….. just got the green neon Rasboras acclimated into the QT very carefully. 3 were DOA and 3 looked ultra abdominally concave and swam with the dreaded “wobble”, but the rest seem pretty good. Fingers crossed. None of them seemed to succumb to, or be hurt from, the 40 min. acclimation. Pics will follow after they’ve recovered and colored up. They are quite the green…..one is really colored up already and this shoal should really compliment the tank of Cardinal tetras next month.

 

[Fishfur]

Ok….. just got the green neon Rasboras acclimated into the QT very carefully. 3 were DOA and 3 looked ultra abdominally concave and swam with the dreaded “wobble”, but the rest seem pretty good. Fingers crossed. None of them seemed to succumb to, or be hurt from, the 40 min. acclimation. Pics will follow after they’ve recovered and colored up. They are quite the green…..one is really colored up already and this shoal should really compliment the tank of Cardinal tetras next month.

You might find some are a very attractive shade of gold. They are mostly green but the gold ones occur naturally.

 

[A201]

I've never kept Rasporas. They are rarely seen in my LFS. It's probably due to the hard water and elevated PH. I'm looking forward to the pics.

BTW, I'm currently acclimating three more Platinum Tiger Barbs as well as four standard ones.

 

[tinylostwine]

I actually like several species of rasbora - i currently have focus on 3 species:
kubotai rasbora - have two schools of 20 in 2 different blackwater aquariums
emeraled eye rasbora - again 2 schools in two different blackwater aquariums
-
The last one isn't as common but is called
red line rasbora (Trigonopoma pauciperforatum); these are a larger fish - a bit longer than a cardinal tetra but not particularly wide girth. again i'm keeping these in a blackwater aquarium.

Nearly all my aquariums have gone blackwater 'cept for the 600 and 500 and a legacy 120.
--
The problem i run into with all three species if they like a lot of swimming room which means they need larger aquariums. The kubotai is the smallest of the three but still it loves to swim.
-
For 29s and smaller i go with nannostomus marilynae; these guys are really quite nice if you want to step away from rasbora though again i keep mine in blackwater aquariums.

 

[Fishfur]

The last one isn't as common but is called
red line rasbora (Trigonopoma pauciperforatum); these are a larger fish - a bit longer than a cardinal tetra but not particularly wide girth. again i'm keeping these in a blackwater aquarium.

I’d never heard of these. They look quite nice - Is imagine a large group of them would look terrific.

 

[tinylostwine]

Took a picture of my aquarium while working on the discus tank:


Now you *might* notice that there are no discus in this aquarium. That is true but it is in the same room as my discus aquarium. This was the last aquarium i setup and such it is fairly new - setup in the closing days of Sept 2024. It took a while to stabalize but the algae and cyano have stopped growing and the plants are showing decent growth. One purpose of this aquarium was to raise some crypts that prefer blackwater. You can't really see them in the larger picture but crypt willis and crypt yujii are showing some growth and s. repens has some new leaves though i think i might need to up the light a little. The stocking is emerald eye rasbora, n. marilynae and a. sp ladisalo. The female is in the middle - the male mostly stays low in cover 'cept when i feed them. Just like a guy to hide while the lady keeps an eye on things.

This is the c. willis:


c. yujii (sorry phone refused to focus):


There are a few more crypts i want but i can't find locally so will probably order them from Indonnesia soon.

The problem is that while they are 'nice' they really want soft acidic water making them a turn off for general sales channel.

They include crypt fusca, cordata var grabowskii (very large plant), crypt erwinii (if they have it) and a few others.

Really blackwater is quite wondeful and highly recommended.

For monday I am upgrading my 29 a. sp winkelfleck aquarium to a ~90 (48x24x18) which will be 'fun'. This is the male a. sp winkelfleck:



I might try adding a. d37 indria with them since both species are relatively passive but that depends on my finding them and seeing how things work out. Otherwise it will be just a colony of winkelfleck and a large number of pangio sheffordii and a few dithers. Right now i have 2 females 15 'frys' some close to an inch and some sterbai which are now large enough to be moved to the geo aquarium so they will be getting kicked out (poor cory but the winkefleck will be happy to see them leave).

 

[bgarthe]

Well…..hard though these fish are to take pics of, here are the kubotai rasboras (green neon rasboras) currently in QT. If all goes according to plan, they’ll go into the 75g Cardinal tetra tank next month.

 

[Fishfur]

Took a picture of my aquarium while working on the discus tank:
View attachment 915389

Now you *might* notice that there are no discus in this aquarium. That is true but it is in the same room as my discus aquarium. This was the last aquarium i setup and such it is fairly new - setup in the closing days of Sept 2024. It took a while to stabalize but the algae and cyano have stopped growing and the plants are showing decent growth. One purpose of this aquarium was to raise some crypts that prefer blackwater. You can't really see them in the larger picture but crypt willis and crypt yujii are showing some growth and s. repens has some new leaves though i think i might need to up the light a little. The stocking is emerald eye rasbora, n. marilynae and a. sp ladisalo. The female is in the middle - the male mostly stays low in cover 'cept when i feed them. Just like a guy to hide while the lady keeps an eye on things.

This is the c. willis:
View attachment 915390

c. yujii (sorry phone refused to focus):
View attachment 915391

There are a few more crypts i want but i can't find locally so will probably order them from Indonnesia soon.

The problem is that while they are 'nice' they really want soft acidic water making them a turn off for general sales channel.

They include crypt fusca, cordata var grabowskii (very large plant), crypt erwinii (if they have it) and a few others.

Really blackwater is quite wondeful and highly recommended.

For monday I am upgrading my 29 a. sp winkelfleck aquarium to a ~90 (48x24x18) which will be 'fun'. This is the male a. sp winkelfleck:

View attachment 915392

I might try adding a. d37 indria with them since both species are relatively passive but that depends on my finding them and seeing how things work out. Otherwise it will be just a colony of winkelfleck and a large number of pangio sheffordii and a few dithers. Right now i have 2 females 15 'frys' some close to an inch and some sterbai which are now large enough to be moved to the geo aquarium so they will be getting kicked out (poor cory but the winkefleck will be happy to see them leave).

I didn’t think C.willisii was a blackwater species. It’s a natural hybrid (occurs in the wild) of C.parva & either C.beckettii or C.walkeri and being native to Sri Lanka, is good in hard water.

It’ll grow in blackwater but seems willing to grow in almost any water conditions. but light levels can make it look dramatically different - like a completely different plant. It’s synonymous with C.lucens too.

 

[tinylostwine]

I didn’t think C.willisii was a blackwater species. It’s a natural hybrid (occurs in the wild) of C.parva & either C.beckettii or C.walkeri and being native to Sri Lanka, is good in hard water.

It’ll grow in blackwater but seems willing to grow in almost any water conditions. but light levels can make it look dramatically different - like a completely different plant. It’s synonymous with C.lucens too.

I wasn't stating that it was an explicit blackwater plant but rather the ones I will order from Indonesia mostly are; according to the book i have it is found in the same area of crypt parva which is ec 36 gh/kh 0.7 but the ph is 6.6 - around clear water parameters with a bit more buffering.

 

[A201]

I've bought more fish in the past several weeks than I have in the last three years.

The count is up to: 1- Fancy Goldfish, 12 - Rosy Barbs, 23 - Platinum Tiger Barbs. 4 - standard Tiger Barbs and as of today, 7 - Giant Danios.

The Giant Danios aren't so giant. They are just babies. I transferred my Chocolate Cichlid into her new semi-private wet pet tank, and put the Giant Danios in with her.

I don't like keeping fish in a solo situation. Although huge, the Chocolate doesn't typically eat tankmates. She's very docile. There's no way she could catch the Danios anyway.

I'd like to buy a few more YoYo Loaches then I'll hang the no vacancy sign.

Here's a pic of the new setup. The rocks are much bigger than they appear. The Danios are nearly impossible to photograph. They are too small and quick.

 

[KingOscar]

Well…..hard though these fish are to take pics of, here are the kubotai rasboras (green neon rasboras) currently in QT. If all goes according to plan, they’ll go into the 75g Cardinal tetra tank next month.
View attachment 915401View attachment 915402View attachment 915403View attachment 915404View attachment 915405

Almost look like Glo fish!