45 Gallon Tank in Son's Room

[Scrum Fish]

My 29 gallon tank has been rockin' along just fine for a while now and is about as fully stocked as it can get.  I've posted about it in another thread, but it was my re-introduction to fishkeeping.  I did everything wrong up front, didn't know enough about cycling, how to set up effective filters, the benefits of live plants, etc.  Just dumb.

I got better due in large part to the Aquarium Coop Youtube channel.

So, cut to my son's fifth birthday.  We took him on a little mini-vacation and at one point were talking about rearranging his bedroom.  One of the things we discussed was donating a lot of the toys he no longer plays with.  He reacted so favorably to that idea that I was impressed.  He had talked about wanting a tank in his room before, so my wife and I made a deal with him that once his room was rearranged we'd reward his generosity and get a tank for his room.  He'd get to pick out the fish (with my veto power, haha) and I'd get it set up and do the maintenance at first.  He always helps with tank maintenance, but over time I'll be handing this one over to him fully as he gets older.

Actually did things correctly and did a fishless cycle.  Got some plants from a local store and from Aquarium Coop.  Introduced a few snails, then finally, when it was time, started stocking fish.  We introduced them in stages, starting with some emerald corys.  Next up was a gang of kuhli loaches (my son's favorite fish).  A school of Endlers and Tiger Endlers followed that.  Next up were a few mystery snails and some amano shrimps.  Lastly were his centerpiece fish:  a powder blue dwarf gourami he named Gimli (after the flame dwarf in the living room tank), two female dwarfs named Glenda and Olivia, and an apistogramma agassizii who is named (and this, here, is why you let a five year old name things) Max "Bad Boy" Tiger Death.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scrum Fish]

I do have a request for advice about something, as well.  

One of the plants I have in that tank is hornwort.  I put in clippings from the hornwort in my living room tank, which has been growing like, well, a weed for a decently long time.  The first few sprigs I put in ended up shedding all their needles and I pulled them out and disposed of them.  This was during cycling, and I chalked it up to just the general water conditions and the fact that it was pretty hot in there for the bacteria's benefit.

After the cycle was done I added more clippings, which are faring better than their predecessors but have lately just not been looking as lush and green as the plant I cut them from.  The java ferns, water sprites, tripartita, lotuses, amazon sword, and anubias have all been growing or at least just maintaining as healthy looking plants.  Any ideas what commonly makes hornwort unhappy?

[Guppysnail]

On 8/18/2021 at 2:41 PM, Scrum Fish said:

what commonly makes hornwort unhappy?

Everything…seriously though @Torreyjust did an awesome thread on how to make hornwort happy. I can’t find it though.  I know one of the things was it needs calcium. I know from experience it does not like strong current. 
I just found it. It’s called…. name that plant. I’m still learning to link but can’t figure out how to link a thread yet. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Scrum Fish]

On 8/19/2021 at 8:16 PM, Guppysnail said:

Everything…seriously though @Torreyjust did an awesome thread on how to make hornwort happy. I can’t find it though.  I know one of the things was it needs calcium. I know from experience it does not like strong current. 
I just found it. It’s called…. name that plant. I’m still learning to link but can’t figure out how to link a thread yet. 

I had recently added some mineral stones to add some calcium for the benefit of the snails and shrimps. Seems to be helping the hornwort a bit!  It isn’t looking as sickly as it was and I can see some new growth. 
 

Fingers crossed!

Good news is that it is growing so fast in the 29 gallon that I’ll have an endless supply!  The living room tank is hornwort heaven. 

[CalmedByFish]

@Scrum Fish Forgive me if you've already thought this through and taken every precaution, but I can't not mention: It sounds incredibly dangerous to me to have a 45 gallon in a young child's room. I can visualize doing a 10 gallon safely, but even a 20 sounds sketchy to me. 

[CalmedByFish]

On 8/19/2021 at 8:58 PM, Scrum Fish said:

I had recently added some mineral stones to add some calcium for the benefit of the snails and shrimps. Seems to be helping the hornwort a bit!  It isn’t looking as sickly as it was and I can see some new growth. 

Interesting! I recently added Equilibrium to a tank that has hornwort that's not doing well. I did it for the critters, but maybe it'll help the hornwort! 

 

[Scrum Fish]

On 8/19/2021 at 9:00 PM, CalmedByFish said:

@Scrum Fish Forgive me if you've already thought this through and taken every precaution, but I can't not mention: It sounds incredibly dangerous to me to have a 45 gallon in a young child's room. I can visualize doing a 10 gallon safely, but even a 20 sounds sketchy to me. 

Oh, for sure, it could be a risk. However, he knows to be very careful around it and his room is just for sleeping and reading/watching movies. All the rambunctious stuff goes on elsewhere in the house or in the yard. 

[CalmedByFish]

On 8/19/2021 at 9:06 PM, Scrum Fish said:

Oh, for sure, it could be a risk. However, he knows to be very careful around it and his room is just for sleeping and reading/watching movies. All the rambunctious stuff goes on elsewhere in the house or in the yard. 

Whew! ❤️ 

[Scrum Fish]

On 8/19/2021 at 8:16 PM, Guppysnail said:

Everything…seriously though @Torreyjust did an awesome thread on how to make hornwort happy. I can’t find it though.  I know one of the things was it needs calcium. I know from experience it does not like strong current. 
I just found it. It’s called…. name that plant. I’m still learning to link but can’t figure out how to link a thread yet. 

A week later and I can already tell the hornwort is much happier!  The snails' shells are no longer translucent and some of the amanos have molted, so the calcium is getting where it needs to go!

Have a few more videos.  Fleshed out the endler/tiger endler school a bit and added some guppies.  There is now a big healthy gang of endlers and guppies dithering about!  Added a pair of dwarf African frogs, as well.  I had read that they can be very shy and mostly nocturnal, but so far these two have been pretty entertaining.
 

 

 

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

45 g is what I have as my display and I love it. What’s fun is plants that get big are great in it due to the height. My swords are gigantic and constantly throwing up babies. Planning on throwing in some jungle Val next to give it a different look. Have fun. I live my sons tanks as they are super whimsical and fun. 

[Scrum Fish]

We've got a sword in there and I can't wait for it to really take off!  The tiger lotuses really surprised me.  I have never had them before and don't have any in the living room tank.  They sorta just hung out near the bottom for a while and then "bam!" starting throwing shoots up to the surface!  Those things seemed to be growing several inches a day at one point and have now both put pads on the surface.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

It’s fun to keep thinking about what can reach the surface and contribute to the tank. May I also suggest Taiwan Lilly and Brazilian pennywort. I have the Taiwan Lilly and keep meaning to buy pennywort. I am going to grab some of the bigger version of bolbitis as well soon. Enjoy. 

[Scrum Fish]

I'll look into both of those, haven't tried either before.

[Guppysnail]

On 8/27/2021 at 10:25 PM, Scrum Fish said:

I'll look into both of those, haven't tried either before.

I second pennywort. I love it. It grows as fast as hornwort for me..but doesn’t make an unsightly mess when it throws a temper tantrum…doesn’t actually throw temper tantrums. It’s awesome 😁

[Scrum Fish]

A couple of short videos recently.  The first two are showing Max "Bad Boy" Tiger Death who is starting to color up a little bit.  The dorsal fin has gotten much taller and trails off toward his tail, too, which is looking cool.  Btw, I'm assuming he's a male, but this is the first apisto I've ever had.  He's very young, and I guess it's possible Max is a girl.  Either way, starting to come into his own a bit and it's fun to watch.  Didn't realize until now that you can heard toy monster trucks crashing in the background.  Maybe mute these, haha.  Mystery snail photobomb, too.
 

Here's some general feeding time shenanigans.  I really like the diversity of life in this tank.  Everything that needs a group has a sizable group, but there are so many different things coexisting and it looks cool to me.  Sound on for this one for a STARTLING REVELATION from my son regarding the mystery snails in there!

 

[Scrum Fish]

Can't believe I was ever having trouble with the hornwort in this tank!  It's huge and growing like mad now.  Have had to trim it several times!  I had a few other small carpeting plants that never really got going all that well, though.  Trying some dwarf hairgrass and it seems to be doing just fine, though.  The tiger lotus bulbs I bought from Aquarium Coop are doing very well.  One has several lily pads all the way up now!

 

I have added some Endler/guppy hybrids to the livebearer school and they fit in right away!  So cool to watch the explosion of color they make when they hang out near each other.  I also moved the albino corydoras from the living room tank into this one to make way for some striata loaches.  They have adjusted well and are scooting around in their shoal same as always.  They sometimes mix in with the emerald shoal, especially at feeding time.  I've started breaking the Repashy blocks into multiple pieces to spread things out a bit and often each cory shoal will send a member over to eat with the other.
 

Have discovered that EVERYONE in this tank likes Repashy Grub Pie.
 

General overview:
 

 

[amr427]

On 10/14/2021 at 4:12 PM, Scrum Fish said:

Can't believe I was ever having trouble with the hornwort in this tank!  It's huge and growing like mad now.  Have had to trim it several times!  I had a few other small carpeting plants that never really got going all that well, though.  Trying some dwarf hairgrass and it seems to be doing just fine, though.  The tiger lotus bulbs I bought from Aquarium Coop are doing very well.  One has several lily pads all the way up now!

 

I have added some Endler/guppy hybrids to the livebearer school and they fit in right away!  So cool to watch the explosion of color they make when they hang out near each other.  I also moved the albino corydoras from the living room tank into this one to make way for some striata loaches.  They have adjusted well and are scooting around in their shoal same as always.  They sometimes mix in with the emerald shoal, especially at feeding time.  I've started breaking the Repashy blocks into multiple pieces to spread things out a bit and often each cory shoal will send a member over to eat with the other.
 

Have discovered that EVERYONE in this tank likes Repashy Grub Pie.
 

General overview:
 

 

 

I love we also get to listen to Bluey in the background! 😂

 

[Scrum Fish]

Bluey is the BEST!

[Odd Duck]

@Scrum Fish Finally!  Someone that’s says they have emeralds that actually has emeralds!  I see so often that bronzes are misidentified as emeralds.  Nothing against bronzes, that’s how I got my bronzes, who I love.  To me, I can see at a glance now, when they’re emeralds vs bronzes.  I would still have gotten the bronzes under the same circumstances (semi-rescue) but probably wouldn’t have paid as much.  I got an OK price for bronzes, but it was a great price for emeralds.  😆 

Tank is looking good!

[Scrum Fish]

Thanks!  My LFS is pretty good about having lots of different corydoras and having them labelled correctly. 
 

I had never seen emeralds before and my son fell in love with them. In the store lighting they looked pitch black!  It wasn’t until I got them home that I could really see the green pop im the right angles. 

[Guppysnail]

Your ADF’s are amazing. I did not know they could be kept with such a menagerie of others critters. Do they help with guppy population control?

Edited October 14, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Scrum Fish]

They would, I'm certain, but the guppies are all dudes.  Haven't gotten into breeding them yet!  From what I've heard the ADF's would snipe at least some of the fry, though, for sure.

The ADFs are pretty cool!  I had read that they can be largely nocturnal and hide most of the day, but these two are out and visible and active any time I come by the tank.  Even when they go into their "zen pose" they do it out in the open.  My son had a tadpole that we raised into a bullfrog and kept in what is now the living room fish tank.  Son named him Felix Jim.  Ol' FJ sadly passed away earlier this year, which is what led us to fishkeeping, instead.  We converted that tank back into an aquarium and eventually got this one for his room.  Bullfrogs are native here and are all over my neighborhood, so we're just going to dig them a pond rather than try to keep another inside.  We never really intended on raising a frog in the first place but my mother surprised us with a tadpole (she swears we talked about it, haha) for what was supposed to be a leopard frog.  Nope, bullfrog!

My son and I were both pretty bummed out about losing FJ, so I said when we started the fish tank we'd have a frog.  Months and months went by and we just concentrated on the fish, snails, and shrimps and I figured he had just kinda forgotten about having frogs.  Then, one day we're in our LFS picking up an order and just milling around looking at the tanks and he saw the ADFs and that was that!  He named one Felix and the other Jim.

Edited October 15, 2021 by Scrum Fish