What are you doing to your tank today?

[coralbandit]

I first saw the blue eyed congos just last year when re stocking my tank.
They are beautiful but pricey [ $50 ].
I have paid that much for fish before [ my gold roselines that look horrible still just recently ] but just wasn't feeling it when I saw them. Kind of feel like I made a mistake.
My LFS only had 3 I think.

 

[A201]

I think most of us have made regrettable high dollar fish purchases.

Clown Trigger fish $60
Achilles Tang $70
German Cobalt Discus $70

Many varied species between $25 - $50.

Just to name a few.

 

[bgarthe]

I guess I got a deal as each Blue-Eyed Congo was $36 plus SH and Ins. Back in my Discus days, some Discus were 10x the cost of my BE Congos

 

[A201]

If you enjoy keeping the new guys, the price was worth it.

The Blue Eyed Congos are unique.

 

[coralbandit]

I had $300 marine fish but that was when breeding and I could trade to the LFS. They were also almost always top shelf fish. I bet clown triggers are 3-400 now and achilles are $600+now. Glad I lived it up when they were affordable~!

 

[A201]

I bought the Marine fish back in 1987. The German Discus in 1989.
A lot has changed since then.

 

[bgarthe]

I got the fish I have SO desired, acclimated them, and now they’re getting accustomed to the tank. These fish are the Gold Congo Tetras or Blue Eyed Congo Tetras or Lampeyed Congo Tetras…..Phenacogrammus aurantiaca. . I got 9 and hope they make it. My pics will come later, but I got permission from the supplier (Predatory Fins out of NY) to post pics from their site. The bottom tank has the regular Congo Tets and the top has these. Eventually I may add a few Congos to the Golds. Fingers crossed. Or…..I may add more Golds. Got to get them settled and happy

Predatory Fins took time to answer my questions and Rod even sent me a vid of their stock tank. They looked pretty good to me.

Sorry….I errored in the spelling of the scientific name of this fish. It should be
Phenacogrammus aurantiacus.

 

[AuroraDawn]

If I can motivate myself, I have 7 tanks I am cycling with no animals in there yet that could use a water change for various reasons. 3 of them the gravel had a lot more silica than I realized, despite rinsing it. The other 4, the substrate I used seemed to absorb the minerals in the water changing what is my water's normal chemistry.

I need to do water tests too for all my tanks and a small desk top one that needs cleaning....

 

[Blacksheep1]

I have had such a low stocking for a long time , the tank has been running so peacefully I’ve been hesitant to add anything new. I spotted these guys a few weeks ago at my lfs and was tempted. I talked myself out of it.

I went back yesterday and the same batch was still there, looking healthy and I caved. They were very stressed even with a decent acclimation but today the colour is coming back and they are eating. Still glass surfing on occasion so I hope they settle more

 

[Sewerrat]

Lost most of my fish but all the wife's recovered. Went to the local shop and bought a what they had for cooler water fish. Ended up with glo danios, cherry barbs, and a chinese algae eater.

 

[bgarthe]

Got a few more pics last night. Today I went out and bought an AquaSky 3.0 LED light by Fluval so I can really adjust the light to a nice low light with spectrum control which brings out their colors. Got one for each Congo tank This fish hobby is SO much fun…..even after having done it for 60 years.

 

[A201]

They look great. Let me know how the new AquaSky light works out.

I have a very old AquaSky that probably could use updating.

 

[bgarthe]

So far, I’m really impressed. Love the phone control. I don’t get into all the gimmicks, but am serious about adjusting light to best present fish. I had a ZooMed for a while and it was good, but had limitations. The AquaSky light 3.0 can do the Red Blue Green White levels anywhere from 0 to 100% in any combination one wishes. It has the usual Auto mode, timer, and all. I set the lighting and plug it into my digital timer. I do like the fact that when a timer kicks on, your previous settings go on. They aren’t cheap, but worth it to me. Right now at Petco, you can save decent $ money if you pay for it online and pick it up at the store. My two lights were $51 dollars off/less bc I paid online and picked them up. Reviews are really good too. I must have watched a ton of vid reviews. I am becoming a Fluval/Seachem/Finnex guy . Yes…I’ll post up how they do in the long run too.

 

[Gnop1950]

Got a few more pics last night. Today I went out and bought an AquaSky 3.0 LED light by Fluval so I can really adjust the light to a nice low light with spectrum control which brings out their colors. Got one for each Congo tank This fish hobby is SO much fun…..even after having done it for 60 years.

Beautiful, I love my Congo Tetras. Once they are full-grown and color up, the males are stunning. 60 Years, dang, you must be as old or older than I am

 

[bgarthe]

I love my Congo Tets too and think they are my favorite (P. interruptus) even though the Gold Blue-Eyed ones are cool. Mine are still young but growing out nicely. The rainbow colors are nice, but that white fringe on the fin edges put these fish over the top imho. Post pics plz…..love looking at fish pics.

 

[Gnop1950]

I love my Congo Tets too and think they are my favorite (P. interruptus) even though the Gold Blue-Eyed ones are cool. Mine are still young but growing out nicely. The rainbow colors are nice, but that white fringe on the fin edges put these fish over the top imho. Post pics plz…..love looking at fish pics.

Congos, Angels and Rummynose in my 90-Gallon tank. My first YouTube video. I'll figure out how to remove the voice-over

 

[Blacksheep1]

Well , I’ve started something after not buying any fish for a long time
Now I did suggest to the lady that one of these loaches were a black and not a khuli .. she told me no we keep them separate and it’s just a small one so you can’t see its markings .
Now I actually don’t mind all too much luckily but it’s irritating being dismissed .
Anyway won’t see these again for a while !!

 

[mulletmcnasty]

Congos, Angels and Rummynose in my 90-Gallon tank. My first YouTube video. I'll figure out how to remove the voice-over

If you have windows, just add it to clipchamp and remove the audio. I hope this helps

 

[Gnop1950]

If you have windows, just add it to clipchamp and remove the audio. I hope this helps

I'm a glutton for punishment, so I downloaded DaVinci Resolve and have started learning to use it. I do have Windows, but primarily for a few games. I use Windows, Linux, and macOS, so I prefer cross-platform programs whenever possible.

 

[tinylostwine]

My wild caugth discus were kind of expensive at around $60 each:


but these little tetra were pretty darn expensive:


as were these pencil fishes:


Oh well now if i can stay up night and sing them a lullaby so they will breed.

 

[coralbandit]

My wild caugth discus were kind of expensive at around $60 each: but these little tetra were pretty darn expensive:

Nice pencil fish. And $60 for real wild caught I believe is a deal. Good looking fish also.

 

[bgarthe]

$60 for that discus was indeed a grrreat deal.

 

[Angelfish1977]

Well today like many other days I added some more water. My tank Has a tendency to have water evaporate a lot.

 

[mistfox]

Going to get started on building my 10 gallon's stand and hopefully get the tank started by end of day or this weekend.

 

[bigpetemc]

We are removing the 2 small internals today and replacing them with a large external (the established media from the 2 internals will be moved across).

Also we picked up a small tank full of tacky ornaments (pictured) which my toddler children wanted. So will be a QT tank or maybe for a pair of Kribs.

 

[bgarthe]

Ah…….gotta remember those toddler/little kid years.. My little ones tried to name every fish….especially the koi. What is remarkable is that they actually kept track of names given and remembered which was who. They’re both in their thirties now and still can recall names and particular fish all these years later. Go figure……

 

[tinylostwine]

Well - i just got done feeding the discus - to ensure they get a proper feeding i hand feed each one - though sometime these little rascals sneak in and grab something that isn't intended for them:


These are an unknown species of geo that were sold as geo cf winemilleri because they have 5 vertical stripes instead of 4 but the colouring is a bit different on them as we see in the red splotches. They are naughty little kids who love to grab things intended for others....

 

[mulletmcnasty]

Well I know what I'm not doing, that's wasting any more money on buying emersed moss. Why? Because it fails for me 100% of the time when added to my tank

 

[A201]

My propane delivery man came out to the house today. To my surprise he is a fellow fish nerd.

I showed him my tanks & he showed me a pic of his 240g African Cichlid tank. It was exceptional.

I invited him to join Fishlore. Hopefully he will.

I gave him a couple of chunky pieces of honeycomb limestone & he fixed my water heater. Lol

 

[tinylostwine]

Working on getting a 10 setup for a pair of Enigmatochromis lucanusi. They should be in something larger and eventually they will get the 40b when the current occupants grow too old to swim:

 

[mulletmcnasty]

Nothing at all, I'm chasing stability just now. Having said that it's because I've converted to a shrimp only keeper.
It's really like withdrawal symptoms from "what will I do today" "what changes will I make"
I'm trying to sit on my hands while not having my thumb where it shouldn't be.

 

[Fishfur]

Fixing up my rimless 10G long for some pretty orange medaka - not Youkihi, but still a nice orange. I’ll probably put the purple harlequins in with them.

Also finally managed to score some Ghost shrimp. Been wanting them for some time but there were none to be had.

The shop was very quiet so the staffer was willing to pick out as many berried females as she could and avoid those with horsehair worms - quite a few had those miserable things. They’re fairly young for the most part - none appear to have attained full adult size so hopefully I’ll get lots of shrimpy love happening.

Starting with 15, we’ll see how it goes but I would like to obtain a reliable breeding colony if possible.

And I finally found more ivory mystery snails - not wildly expensive and all fairly young - one might be 6 mos but the rest are more like 3-4 months old.

Just have to hope I have females and hopefully more of them than I do males.

They’re just settling so they are pale as pale can be. Pics to follow once they get comfortable and colour up.

Some new plants too - I am too tired to shoot pics tonight but I will. I got a stunning water lily - not the usual sort. It’s a different species than the ‘tiger lotus’ - it’s Nymphaea micrantha Gefleckt. It’s so gorgeous.

And by some strange quirk of fate on my last stop, I got a tiny wee baby of the same species for free because the guy at that store is someone I used to chat with all the time at a different store before he quit.

It was nice chatting with him and he said in appreciation for being able to talk plants with someone who had a clue for a change, he gave me the wee lily. It even has a bulb though it’s barely the size of a baby sweet pea. Its leaves are no bigger than my fingernails.

Its much larger relative came from a hobbyist with roots but no bulb and 3 leaves that got really beaten up by the trip home sloshing in their plastic container. One leaf was destroyed and the other two look sad, so I hope it does ok. Just now it’s nothing like as pretty as it will be.

 

[Fishfur]

Snails & fish all appear to be doing well - shrimp nowhere to be seen but hopefully also in good shape.

A pic of the one water lily I got - looking pretty beaten up but the leaf patterns are just beautiful.

Also got some very healthy Hygrorhiza aristata. The portions they were selling were very generous - over a foot long.



Nymphaea micrantha Gefleckt.



Asian Watergrass - Hygrorhiza aristata- when it’s in great shape like this it’s my favourite floating plant.

The texture, gleam & overall appearance of its leaf surfaces reminds me of silk bengaline, which won’t mean anything unless maybe you sew, but it’s a stunning fabric that’s very hard to find.

 

[bgarthe]

Well……it was going to happen sooner or later. Today and last night I moved my 10g to a spot underneath my 65g and moved my 20g long and 5g to the bottom rack on my other 55g iron stand. Why???? Of course I had to make room for my third 33g long….the new Sepora I bought last month. Not yet sure exactly what will go in, but having it ready to go will be nice.
I may try for some Red Congo Tetras….not sure.

 

[bgarthe]

Here it is being gradually set up. I’ll probably toss in some CoryCats and a few Congo Tets just to get the biology (bb) going.

 

[ZebrasInMyKitchen]

Here it is being gradually set up. I’ll probably toss in some CoryCats and a few Congo Tets just to get the biology (bb) going.
View attachment 928221

Wow! bgarthe, that is gorgeous!

Oh, the system merged my posts. This next section is supposed to be a separate post about what I did in my tank today:

I watched my new Zebra Danios (three females and a fourth that might be a female), and added some plants to their quarantine tank.

I fed the baby Zebra Danios fry. Actually, I’m going to feed it (him? her? I have no idea) again in about 20 minutes.

I changed a bit of water from my Angelfish tank, and contemplated whether or not my two juvenile Angelfish would like more friends. It is just the two of them in a 55 gallon. I also laughed when my Angelfish did their little happy dance when I walked by their tank. Such fun, friendly little fellows!

I bought and washed off some Chinese Evergreen. I’m not sure which tank it will go in… maybe all three tanks. Who knew Walmart carried Chinese Evergreen?

I spent a while deciding that, once the quarantine is over, the quarantine tank will because the main tank for all of the adult Zebra Danios. The original tank can become a grow-out tank for their fry and a quarantine tank.

And that meant that I got to imagine what the current quarantine tank could look like. There are so many options! Bright marbles and dinosaurs and maybe aliens? A Shadesmar look from the Stormlight book series, with black marbles and gray gravel galore? Who’s to say that there isn’t a spren that looks like a Danio? Tiny charming villages, with tiny cottage bubblers? Houseplants growing out of the top of the tank?

And I held my dog up to the Angelfish tank and watched her be amazed by my Angelfish. I don’t know why I haven’t done that before now.

 

[Gnop1950]

Did my once-a-month 10% water change on my 90-Gallon community tank and tested all the tanks. Now I'm trying to figure out whether Henry, my Betta, has just scared, eaten, or killed the couple of shrimp in his tank. There are a couple of bladder snails still roaming around.

 

[bgarthe]

Yes, if you post something on a thread you recently posted, they will merge. If someone interrupts the stream so that you end up not doing two in a row, then it will post separately.

 

[tinylostwine]

There was a time when this little guy was around 2 to 3 inches long but after a couple of years and if you include the filament which adds a bit of length it is now exceeding a foot:

 

[newjungletank]

Since I last visited the site, I've made some changes to stuff. I've had two overflow 10 gallon tanks in the basement for a while to house A. Borelli Opal and grow them out a bit and for quarantine purposes. The borelli tank has thrived with up to 10 or 12 juvenile/adults in it. The other just always has had issues. I set up both tanks exactly the same with substrate, aquasoil, plants, filtration, etc. The quarantine tank has always been kind of a "death" tank. I bought three baby bristlenose several months ago and they all died. I chalked it up to maybe just bad fish from the store. I did massive water changes and put some young borelli in there and they did a lot better. However, over time, I lost the males, but the females were fine.

A couple of weeks ago, I moved the remaining females and one tiny male I had never seen before into the other tank, then I pulled out some males and two of the females and traded them in at the fish store for credit. (I shouldn't have traded any females as I've been getting maybe 10% female/ 90% female in the fry). Anyway, I brought home these guys...


They didn't make a week. One was toast in 3 days and I thought maybe just a week fish. Then another one went, so I moved the remaining one to the other tank, but it was too late. So I decide that tank is done. I completed removed everything and cleaned the tank back to factory. The only thing that may go back in from that tank is some plants that are hanging out in empty water tanks now.

My overflow borelli tank currently has 3 females and two males. I noticed some eggs early last week and notices all 3 females have been hiding under rocks or driftwood. Today, here's what I got...



This is more fry per fish than I've ever seen from these borelli. There are still two good sized males in this tank. I can't catch them out without literally removing everything and that is going to stress the females and scatter the fry everywhere. So now, the question is how long to let them go before siphoning out a bunch of fry to go in a breeder box. I'm sure I'm going to lose some to predation the longer I wait. What do you guys think? I have some fresh BBS that will be ready to start feeding tonight.

 

[coralbandit]

I've seen discus eat 15 day old fry for their new to make it and seen the older fry eat the youngest without parental intervention.
I love to watch parents raise fry but would not have had all the fry to be breeding if I did not separate them quickly.
The male and number of pairs are likely going to cause problems IME.

 

[newjungletank]

I've seen discus eat 15 day old fry for their new to make it and seen the older fry eat the youngest without parental intervention.
I love to watch parents raise fry but would not have had all the fry to be breeding if I did not separate them quickly.
The male and number of pairs are likely going to cause problems IME.

I agree with your assessment 100%. I siphoned out a bunch tonight. I was only able to get fry from two of three mothers. I suddenly couldn't find #3. I got them into a breeder connected to the tank. I added some roots from another tank with biofilm on them. I also added some BBS. They didn't seem enthused, just chilling on the bottom. Here's one side of the breeder.

I'll try some more BBS tomorrow and if they aren't going after them yet, I have some fry powder food.

 

[AuroraDawn]

I have a marble female who laid eggs about a day and a half ago in a 35 gallon cube, left in with the eggs to fan them and protect them from the tiny pleco, that is probably still in there, that I cannot find. I got the sae out; boy was that a pain. Most of the eggs are not white so I think they are fertile.... if so, first time for me and this angelfish too. I, of course, was not expecting to have fertilized eggs so I do not have a baby tank set up. If they hatch I could lower the water level some and take out the plants and the female. ugh. Excited and nervous all at the same time... you'd think I was the one expecting! LOL Pic shows the eggs which are clear in person except for a few bright ones, of which you can see at least one there.

 

[newjungletank]

I agree with your assessment 100%. I siphoned out a bunch tonight. I was only able to get fry from two of three mothers. I suddenly couldn't find #3. I got them into a breeder connected to the tank. I added some roots from another tank with biofilm on them. I also added some BBS. They didn't seem enthused, just chilling on the bottom. Here's one side of the breeder.
View attachment 928257
I'll try some more BBS tomorrow and if they aren't going after them yet, I have some fry powder food.

The fry started moving around when I added BBS tonight and I'm seeing some pink bellies, so hopefully, they're on it. I'm using the San Fransisco strain of BBS that are a little smaller.

 

[Molasses]

Here it is being gradually set up. I’ll probably toss in some CoryCats and a few Congo Tets just to get the biology (bb) going.
View attachment 928221

This is the first of your tanks I've ever seen, bgarthe! This is beautiful... the trunks are an underrated look. Like an underwater forest!

 

[bgarthe]

These to me sort of represent the backwaters of where the fish live when water floods into the actual forest during the rainy season. I am glad I got the fake logs when I did.

 

[Molasses]

These to me sort of represent the backwaters of where the fish live when water floods into the actual forest during the rainy season. I am glad I got the fake logs when I did.

You did a fantastic job! Where did you source the logs from?

 

[bgarthe]

Years ago from …. modernaquarium.com if memory serves me correctly.

 

[tinylostwine]

Setup a 10 for a pair of enigmatochromis lucanusi; technically they should be in a 20 long or 40b and if things work out i'll move them to the 40b in 6 to 12 months. You can see one in the very front of 2nd picture.

 

[bgarthe]

Well….I’m at it again…..starting up another 33g long with some Congo Tets, small Angel, and a few Corycats. This is another Prime every 48 hrs w alternating bb of Stabilty or FritzZyme7 daily. I’ll closely watch, like I did the last two times, the water parameters for any potential Ammonia issues. I figure it went perfectly last time with two 33g tanks, why not go for three?