PineSong Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 (edited) My futile efforts to take good photos of my mutt guppy fry continue. Even though I removed half the aponogeton last week my tank is so planted it took me an hour to catch this many fish and the prettiest ones would not be caught. The photos don't show the pretty pastel body colors or the super bright tail swords some of these guys have. Meanwhile, all the moving around of the plants terrified everyone in the tank and also terrified me, because when I disturbed the leaves of my very overgrown sword what do you think I found? Dozens and dozens of platy fry. It looked like an ant farm. I already knew there were way too many fry in this tank, but I did not know the half of it. Two months from now it will look like a can of sardines in here. And all I got out of the whole episode is these blurry pictures. I'm now fantasizing about a plantless tank. Edited February 4, 2022 by PineSong 5 2 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 The photos may not do them justice but they still look beautiful. I empathize with your future sardine issue. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 I think the fish look stunning and so does the tank. What is the large plant to the left? Is that the aponogeton? What size is the tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 I found that lighting them from the side helps bring out the colors. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torrey Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 The tails and colors are gorgeous! The wonderful thing about plants can easily be misconstrued as a problem... the fry survival rate. Luckily, plants grow in direct proportion to fish waste, so more fry => more fish waste => more plants => I am still at nonexistent nitrates Obviously, your aponogeton got the memo, and informed your sword to get with the program. 😉 I wouldn't mind if you lived closer so I could see the difference between your photos and the real thing. I mean, if I was closer, I would be willing to take one for the team, and foster some fish for you. 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted February 4, 2022 Author Share Posted February 4, 2022 On 2/3/2022 at 8:48 PM, Jennifer V said: I think the fish look stunning and so does the tank. What is the large plant to the left? Is that the aponogeton? What size is the tank? Oh, thank you! Yes, the large ruffly noodle looking plant on the left is the aponogeton ulvaceous. It's been beautifully out of control for a while but I had to cut it back because I could not see enough into the tank to even make sure everyone was alive. The tank is a 20g long. On 2/4/2022 at 12:01 AM, Torrey said: The tails and colors are gorgeous! The wonderful thing about plants can easily be misconstrued as a problem... the fry survival rate. Luckily, plants grow in direct proportion to fish waste, so more fry => more fish waste => more plants => I am still at nonexistent nitrates Obviously, your aponogeton got the memo, and informed your sword to get with the program. 😉 I wouldn't mind if you lived closer so I could see the difference between your photos and the real thing. I mean, if I was closer, I would be willing to take one for the team, and foster some fish for you. 😁 Thank you for seeing their beauty 🙂 Many of these guys are rainbow colored on their bodies, like sherbert, I'm going to try @Patrick_G's lighting tip next time. LOL about fostering some of these guys--I don't know how I can part with any but will have to. I am trying to get a coworker to take some so I can visit them in his office. Here's a still from a video I made this morning; these are not the dozens of tiny platy fry discovered in the sword plant--these are the ones I already knew about! 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 How did you trim you aponogeton. Did you cut to mimic the point it has or straight across? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted February 4, 2022 Author Share Posted February 4, 2022 @Guppysnail, I cut the leaves off at the base of the plant, so they are still just as long but there are only half as many of them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 On 2/3/2022 at 6:42 PM, PineSong said: . It looked like an ant farm. Totally picturing platy babies boiling out and scurrying for the nearest plants to hide again! 😆 Don’t wonder why I haven’t played with livebearers in decades. And your fish are beautiful! And tank! 😆 But I can’t stop chuckling about the ant farm visual! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torrey Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 On 2/4/2022 at 4:56 AM, PineSong said: It's been beautifully out of control for a while but I had to cut it back because I could not see enough into the tank to even make sure everyone was alive Wait, we are supposed to make sure we can see into the tank?!? My Walstad is currently straight out of Dune: an amorphous greenish blob that is rapidly punctured by an uncountable number of neon bright spots whenever I feed the tank. I'm now testing daily, to ensure the plants don't die back due to lack of nitrates. I'm dosing with EasyGreen every other day... It's going to be rescaped soon, lol 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted February 4, 2022 Author Share Posted February 4, 2022 On 2/4/2022 at 1:54 PM, Torrey said: Wait, we are supposed to make sure we can see into the tank?!? My two fry grow out tanks were like that--two tanks of plants and fluffy green algae with occasional fry and shrimp sightings. But my two 20g community tanks have just tipped recently from "I can count every fish every morning" while drinking my coffee numbers to "I can't even try" numbers and I'm not used to it. There is a lot that needs done to the plants in both tanks and there are so many fry I'm afraid to do it. I need to replace my 10g with a 29 so I'll have room for all these "ants". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torrey Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 On 2/4/2022 at 2:39 PM, PineSong said: There is a lot that needs done to the plants in both tanks and there are so many fry I'm afraid to do it. I need to replace my 10g with a 29 so I'll have room for all these "ants". I relate. I had to thin out some of the floating plants, and chose to just relocate to the turtle pond as I could feel fry and amphopods moving in the root mass of the dwarf lettuce. I have gotten pretty good at using the scissors to move a stem plant around before I carefully trim. It was extremely anxiety inducing the first few times I pruned things back 😅 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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