flyingcow

Mine has arsenic in it, so unfortunately, it goes outside. I would love to set up a gray water system for toilet flushes, but that's a serious undertaking that requires actual skill.

I was at the LFS, and we did establish that she is a female Endler. I can't remember the color variant. Some sort of green.

Fry Guy! (or Girl!)

Very well! I think I had the flow on the filter set a little high for these guys. One of them would glass surf all day, and it looked like they were working against it. Once I turned it down, all 8 came out in front and took a nap. They all seem much happier now. Apologies for the very dirty glass. Need to do some touch up cleaning this afternoon. The Wee Fry Guy is still doing ok. I'm gonna go to the LFS to find some smaller food today. I introduced them frozen brine shrimp today. They have now been laying on top of it and nibbling for an hour. Food coma is clearly setting in! Yeah, I've been having problems with stems in general. But I now have a Ludwiga Repens in my other tank that doesn't seem to be dying, and in my quarantine tank, I have one Scarlet Temple stem and one Bacopa Caroliniana stem that are showing a teeny bit of new growth! So it seems like whatever deficiency was going on, I'm climbing out of the hole with good doses of fertilizer.

nah, they're down in the 36 gallon tank. The office tank is just the pygmys and the stowaway. What are these beautiful beasts?

6 of these little buddies came home last night! They have already been snorfling away! Sorry for the rough pictures. They're tough!

There were endlers in nearby tanks. There might have been a few there too. hmmm.... now I have ideas.... My wife is gonna kill me.

While I was at the LFS, I mistook it for a piece of aqua soil in the bag. That's probably how it slipped by. I didn't realize it was a fish until it was in the net!

After a good deep cleaning, my tank looked very empty. When I went to get 2 more Pygmys for my 10 gallon I may umm... have finished stocking this tank as well... Welcome Black Neons and Panda Corys! Big Buddy was very funny. Once they were all settled in, he swam up to the ball of Black Neons and just stared at them for a few seconds like, "What the...." Then he swam down to a Panda and stared at it even longer. Then he gave up and swam away. The Black Phantoms gathered together and stared at the Neons for about an hour before giving up. They were all very confused. Funnily, Big Buddy is interacting with the substrate A LOT more now that the Pandas are here. It was almost like he saw them and thought, "Wait, I can do that?" The Phantoms have taken up more residence lower in the water column near the plants. I gotta sort out my stem plant conundrum to get some plants up high for these guys. Picked up a Ludwiga Repens at the LFS to give it a shot. Wish me luck.

I'm 90% sure the the little fry is not a Cory. Hopefully I can get the little bugger fed and growing a bit. Any thoughts on what they are? The other two Pygmys assimilated immediately with the gaggle. They were all from the same store and same tank and very recently, so they were once part of the same group. Now they are back together! ...morning zoomies...

I wish I could say this is a product of the 25 years of studying photography, but in reality, aquariums are one of those places where even an inexpensive interchangeable lens camera will beat the snot out of even the best cell phone. Also, my pygmys are well behaved! I picked up two more pygmys today (amongst umm... maybe a "few" more fish for my 36 gallon). In the bag was something else squirming... a fry! Hopefully I can keep it fed, and maybe I got a third pygmy! ...or a stowaway of another sort... I'll get some pictures when the lights come on tomorrow AM.

The one thing to consider is that you want a BUNCH of these little buggers. They do swim quite a bit in all levels of the tank. While they are very happy in a 10 gallon, I'm not sure I'd go smaller simply because of how many I want together. They aren't super fast swimmers, so a well planted and well filtered 5.5 might work for 6...

THEY'RE SO FREAKING TINY!

So I grabbed the mat of java moss out of my 36 gallon and put it in this tank since it wasn't really doing anything down there. The Pygmys LOVE it! They just keep going back to swim around in it and nibble diatoms off of it.

I'll concur on early death being the least favorite. Since getting back into the hobby this summer, I've already lost one ram, and I felt like I failed the little guy. it was awful. My favorite part is definitely seeing my Pygmy Corys interact with their environment, my Black Phantoms interact with each other, and my remaining Ram interact with me. They are all so different! A close second has been seeing new leaves come out of crypts.

Well, my alarm notifications work! Dipped below 74 on a water change and my phone went nuts.

That's how I got my pink flamingo happy. I'll give it a go!

yeah, it's only stems. I've had them in gravel, sand, and bare bottom. Same result. I wish there was a way of measuring K. Equilibrium has potassium in it, as does all the fertilizers, but It's hard telling. The only evidence I have is one hole on one crypt leaf.

the hard part is, the ecosystem isn't failing. 80% of my plants are doing very well. That's where i'm struggling. One thing I didn't note at the beginning. This is remineralized RO water using Equilibrium, Alkaline Buffer, and Acid Buffer. So if there's a commonly available micro in most tap water that isn't Calcium or Magnesium, I might be missing it.

@JoeQ are there particular nutrients i should be looking at? Even with significant dosing of Easy Green, no dice. The algae has been an uphill battle, but it has been slowly receding with a combination of reduced light and significant cleaning. Just finished a deep clean today! I'm just surprised that the problems fall so squarely on stems. Unless it's just because they show it faster.

Ok, I'm tearing my hair out and running out of ideas. So far my track record of stem plants is as follows: Water Parameters: 36 gallon: Amonia: 0ppm, No2: 0ppm, NO3: 20ppm, GH: 7 degrees, KH: 4 degrees, pH: 7.5 10 Gallon: Ammonia: 0ppm, NO2: 0, NO3: 40ppm (water change happening today), GH: 7degrees, KH: 4 degrees, pH:7.5 5 Gallon Grow Out: Ammonia: 0, NO2: 0ppm, NO3: 40ppm, GH: 7 degrees, KH: 4 degrees, pH: 7.5 Stem Plant History: 1 Hygrophilia Corymbosa Compacta: floated in my quarantine / grow out tank while I cycled my 36 gallon. Melted to almost nothing while floating. Found four tiny pieces each with two leaves and a little bit of root and planted those tiny bits in my 36 gallon. They are happy as clams, and showing new, healthy growth 1 Water Wisteria: It was basically a bunch of clippings tied together. I planted some of the longer ones in the 36 gallon tank and floated the short ones in my 5 gallon. All floaters died. all planted ones rotted from the bottom up. One is now back floating in my quarantine tank and is only about an inch and a half long at this point. 2 scarlet temples: The first one, I planted immediately in my 36 gallon. All rotted from the bottom up and dead within two weeks. The second one, I left potted in my quarantine tank for a while. all but two leaves melted, but stems held. I planted a couple of the stems with leaves in my 10 gallon, and they started rotting from the bottom in under 24 hours. The rest are weighted in my quarantine tank and rotting from the bottom up. 1 Bacopa Caroliniana: Had 4 stems in the bunch with beautiful roots (A+ ACO). placed it in the 36 gallon tank in its pot with the plan of planting it in my 10 gallon once it was ready for plants (I do Ammonium Chloride cycling). Leaves immediately started melting, and stems rotted a few days later. I have one remaining stem that's about 2 inches long and has 4 or 5 leaves on it. It's weighted down in the quarantine tank now. Fertilization: The 36 is fertilized with either leaf zone or Easy Green depending on NO3 (recently it has been all Easy Green since the Pothos is kicking ass and taking names) The 10 gallon is a new tank, so I'm light on the fertilizer. It does have Fluval Stratum in mesh bags under a sand cap. the 5 gallon is liberally dosed with Easy Green since there are no fish in it. Healthy Plants Showing New Growth: Here's the plants that are also in these tanks showing new growth and generally doing well: Anubias Barteri Anubias Nana Petite Anubias Gold Coin Anubias Coffeefolia Java Fern (normal, narrow, and Windelov) Java Moss Crypt Wendtii Green Crypt Lucens Crypt Pink Flamingo (melted, but growing back!) Amazon Sword Dwarf Sagittaria Tiger Lotus Pictures Stem rot of Scarlet Temple in the 10 gallon Happy H. Corymbosa Compacta. The algae has been slowly alleviating. It's been a project Stem rot in the 5 gallon tank. ...help? ...please?

Yeah I was gonna do 3 more.

Got the temp transmitter up and running in this tank! Still with my ever so professional installation and enclosure. Smart plug for the heater arrives tomorrow. I think @TheSwissAquarist is right. This needs to be a species only tank. Time to plant the hell out of it. ...also time to turn the heater down a bit in it!

If I were to do it again, I'd do 3. My plan now is to do 5 or more in a larger tank someday.

It puts in as much sodium as it takes out calcium.