Robert K

Thanks @PineSong. I agree, it looks nice from a bit afar. But up close I can't help and notice these stem plants having bright shoots on the top but the leaves just below already turning dark/decaying. Also, especially since they are stem plants I should have to trim them regularly. However, they grow super slow. But like I said, what I really would like is for the plants to take up more nitrates. BUT, having said all that, maybe I'm expecting too much. After all, I don't dose co2.

Thank you @Guppysnail. The phosphate actually arrived yesterday so I have started dosing. We'll see if there's any noticeable change. 😃

I'm starting to suspect that I don't have enough phosphates in my tank. My dosing routine has been so-so for quite some time. I haven't been dosing super consistently and in general I've been underdosing. A month or two ago I checked my nitrates and they were at like 80+ ppm. I was a bit surprised since I do have a decent amount of plants. My first thought was that probably some other nutrient than nitrate was the limiting factor. So I ramped up my dosing schedule. So for the last two months or so I've been dosing regularly and a bit on the heavy side. The liquid fertilizer I use consists of micros and potassium. That should take care of it I thought, since phosphates and nitrates probably are abundant just from feeding. And the plants did perk up. New shoots and buds all around... but then nothing. It's like they want to and they push but they don't really take of. And when they do push out new shoots I see the older leaves kinda decay. So even though I've been dosing micros + potassium the plants don't take off and the nitrates stayed high. In my mind that leaves phosphate as the likely limiting factor. I cut down on feeding and increased water changes and now I'm at about 30 ppm nitrates. Then the other day I stumbled over this article by Tetra. Especially this paragraph: "In lakes and rivers the enrichment of the water with nutrients is termed ‘eutrophication’ and this can lead to heavy growth of algae or aquatic plants. These nutrients are mainly nitrate and phosphate, with phosphate being the limiting factor in freshwater environments. In other words it is the presence of phosphate that triggers the plant growth, and it is phosphate that most commonly runs out first." So I'm thinking that I may run low on phosphates. I don't have a test for phosphates and I'm not sure I can be bothered to get one but I have a phosphate fertilizer in the mail. Once I start dosing phosphate in addition to my micros + potassium, I expect the plants to take off and the nitrates to start dropping. I'm really curious to see if that will happen.

Works great for me. 😅 Two things I like with the Lego pieces: 1. they're rigid and firm (I tried old credit cards and such but I found them too flexible) 2. they have a pretty sharp edge, while still being "glass friendly ".

I use lego pieces (the thin and wide ones) as algae scrapers.

Yeah, I meant 3-4 in total. Like I said, i have a group of 5 opaline gouramis and they are great together. They hang out in a loose group, they interact with each other and the rest of the tank without any issues. Honey gouramis are generally easy to sex. The males are typically more colorful and they tend to get a dark throat/belly. Females tend to be more plain/pale.

I kept a male and a female honey gourami once in a 10-ish gallon tank and it didn't work out. The male chased and stressed her too much. You could try a pair in your tank but personally I'd prefer it to be more densely planted for that to give the female places to escape to. Another option could be to go for Cory's advice of "one or three or more". 🙂. Maybe a group of 3-4? I'm sure the tank size is fine for that. For example, I keep 5 opaline/blue gouramis in my 100 gallon community and there is no agression or any other issues at all, neither within the group or with other fish. BUT☝️ to avoid any potential stress (both to you and the fish) one single honey gourami as a centerpiece fish is perfectly fine.

I think this is pretty close to where I'm at. It seems to me that I get more nitrates out of the tank when vacuuming compared to equally big water changes without vac. Also, it seems that I can maintain my water hardness easier with vacuuming. So as long as my nitrates don't get too high or my hardness too low I don't mind keeping the detritus in the substrate. Good or bad? I think it depends.

@Biotope Biologist yeah, I expect it to grow a bit more, even though the actual growth rate seems to have slowed way down. Docile and lazy/slow is exactly my experience. 😅 the other fish actually outcompete it for food often when I feed with the lights on.

@Tlindsey I agree, any other bichir species would be too large to do anything like this. And to be honest, I'm a little surprised this has been working out like this. I knew it was a bit of a gamble to try this but like I said, there's no aggression from any of the fish. Personally, I think I may have been a bit lucky but I also think that senegals are more compatible with other fish than is commonly accepted or assumed on the internet. I mean, I read up before I got mine and pretty much everyone's advice was not to house them with anything smaller than a grown male Congo tetra or blue gourami. But, one important caveat is also that I have one single bichir that I introduced in a fairly established community. If it were 2 or 3 bichirs the outcome might very well have been different.

I think this might be of interest to some people, especially those who are thinking about getting a senegal bichir. I have this senegal bichir living in my 100g community tank and some of the fish are as small as serpae tetras. So far it's been working out. I have 4-5 of the (what I think are) serpae tetras left over from a bigger school. The bichir hasn't gone after a single one of them. It hasn't bothered any of the other fish either. The tetras were already in the tank when I got the bichir (which was quite small at the time) which may partly explain why it's been working out. I've had the bichir for over a year and a half now i think. I feed it Hikari sinking cichlid pellets. It usually goes for the mini size ones. It really struggles to gulp down the medium size ones. 😅 I'm not really sure how much bigger it's gonna get but I have to say I'm not worried about the tetras. Anyone else has any experience of keeping a senegal in a community type tank?

I looked up a 37g column tank and what I saw wasn't an extreme footprint to height ratio. I think you could do many different things. Well to begin with shrimp and snails wouldn't mind a tall tank. A betta or small gourami would work. I'm thinking a panda garra would explore/use the whole tank. Smaller catfish like a banjo catfish surely would work fine. Some small tetras or rasboras. Pea puffer tank! 😀

I think I would either put in the wafers after the lights are out or I would feed veggies, like spinach or kale.

@Xr4tiCrew I meant to quote your post but didn't manage to. 😅 No CO2. The tank is a Juwel Rio 450 and the lights are the ones it came with (more info here: https://www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/aquariums/rio-line-led/rio-450-led) I run the lights for eight hours per day. It's not perfect. I have some algae growing on some of the older leaves (that tough surface algae), but it doesn't bother me that much. For a while I was a bit inconsistent with my fert dosing, but recently I started dosing more consistently. What makes it look fairly lush is that I mostly use low light plants. As for the light, I actually think that it's a bit too bright for my taste. I wish I could dim it. This is the fertilizer I'm using.

What you have in mind sounds good already I think. As for tetras, maybe a school of serpae tetras? The splash of red would look nice. Sure, the shrimp are red but like you say, they will be munched on and will therefore likely not be prominent. As for centerpiece, I think I would go for a gourami instead of a betta. But a nice angel fish would also look great.

I'd say so. My fish had ich at some point and I could it see it spread from one day to the other. Meanwhile, the two spots your fish has could be just two scales it lost for some reason and which most likely grow back. Like I said, i wouldn't worry about this as long as it doesn't change. 🙂

You'll probably recognize ich when you see it. I wouldn't worry about this, but keep an eye on it.

Iirc the whole plot of the first Deuce Bigalow movie is caused by a broken aquarium. 😅

Maybe you could try a nitrate free fertilizer? Phosphates and nitrates should be easy to come by just by feeding I think. I'm using a fertilizer with micros + potassium and it works for me.

Consider some tomasi cichlids. Small and super peaceful. I'm sure you could fit like a handful in your tank.

Consider a blood parrot (or a few). I have one and it's a lot of fun. Fun behavior and stunning color. Also, I think a T- bar cichlid would work fine. I love mine. It's like a pocket sized flowerhorn, mine even has a nuchal hump! 😀 I also have two angels and they are fine. More elegant than exciting, but definitely not mindless. I also have two spotted raphael catfish which are super peaceful but I hardly ever see them. Btw, my tank is around 100 gallons. Edit: While I'm at it, maybe I should mention my entire stocking. 😅 Besides the above I have the following 3 Congo tetras 5 blue gouramis 1 geophagus tapajos 5 Tomasi cichlids 2-3 odessa barbs (remnants of a larger school) 1 silver flying fox Oh and 1 Senegal bichir to top it off 😅 The tank is planted. I've had this stocking for at least a year or two and never had any issues.

I went for one of the magfloat type scrapers and scratched the glass like the third time I used it (piece of sand got stuck under it). So one time I tested one of the kids' LEGO pieces, one of the flat ones. I don't think I'll ever use anything else. 😅

I myself became aware of how much waste they produce just recently and it turned me off of them. I think shrimp and snails might help break the poop down into smaller parts by picking at it, even if they don't eat it, so I think it might actually help. But like I said, catfish wise it's not gonna be a pleco for me.

Hi! I would feed the sinking pellets when the lights are off.