Grace's Garden - A RTBS Planted Tank

[nabokovfan87]

A bit of a story this time.

This tank originally housed 3 male swordtails.  I have 2 that are "breeders" and one that isn't.  One of the smaller males was the boss for a long time until things got a bit "hasty".  When I first setup the tank I only had 2 males.  One of the younger (and larger) fish in the female only tank developed into a male and then he was introduced into the female tank.  Ironically, because he was bigger, the smaller males were a bit confused.

Anyways.... a bit of aggressive behavior calming and I got the trio to make nice and develop into a nice group.  There was the occasional mating sparring, but it was almost never an issue.  After a long many months the larger male decided he was boss again and he would not stop.  I moved him into the secondary tank and then I moved in 4 females.  (So now we are up to 2 males, 4 females).  The issue after a few more months became that bickering and it was 1 male constantly going after one female or male vs. male for dominance.  There wasn't that third break to diffuse aggression and for whatever reason the leader male has his choice of female and she was the one they both kept attacking.

After a bit of sparring he developed some fin issues, turned into fin rot and eventually body rot.  Here is the "smaller male, breeder #2"



Here is what the other male now looks like after he lost his tail and was treated for the fin / tail issues.  He's been like this, stable, recovered for months.



You can see the difference in texture.  It could be a poor genes (cancerous) issue setting in, but it's difficult to know given the other circumstances.

So... the past 2 weeks I've tried to quell aggression again.  I pulled the boss male out of the tank so that the female and the male can have some time to recover.  I spent each morning doing a salt dip on the male and then added that salt dose into the 75G to slowly raise the salt level over time.  Given that setup the male didn't really see any different (good or bag) and it was moreso for the sake of "if there was" anything that I could do to help.

I checked on the tank today and the female appears to be getting worse day by day.  Yesterday it was a small tear, today she has 2 tears and she had a bit of redness.

I didn't have the space / area setup due to missing a wood board for the lower section of the stand.  I found some pieces to use and hopefully things work out so I can treat these two with salt / meds and let them have a break from the other male.

They are in their setup now, things are all configured and should be able to have this tank ready to go whenever I need to use it.

If things don't progress the way I'd like I may try to just use this for a female to lay fry.  Unfortunately I need to increase the numbers to get the group under control.  I have 3-4 pregnant females right now and it's just a hope / matter of time that things work out.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/29/2023 at 12:35 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

A bit of a story this time.

This tank originally housed 3 male swordtails.  I have 2 that are "breeders" and one that isn't.  One of the smaller males was the boss for a long time until things got a bit "hasty".  When I first setup the tank I only had 2 males.  One of the younger (and larger) fish in the female only tank developed into a male and then he was introduced into the female tank.  Ironically, because he was bigger, the smaller males were a bit confused.

Anyways.... a bit of aggressive behavior calming and I got the trio to make nice and develop into a nice group.  There was the occasional mating sparring, but it was almost never an issue.  After a long many months the larger male decided he was boss again and he would not stop.  I moved him into the secondary tank and then I moved in 4 females.  (So now we are up to 2 males, 4 females).  The issue after a few more months became that bickering and it was 1 male constantly going after one female or male vs. male for dominance.  There wasn't that third break to diffuse aggression and for whatever reason the leader male has his choice of female and she was the one they both kept attacking.

After a bit of sparring he developed some fin issues, turned into fin rot and eventually body rot.  Here is the "smaller male, breeder #2"



Here is what the other male now looks like after he lost his tail and was treated for the fin / tail issues.  He's been like this, stable, recovered for months.



You can see the difference in texture.  It could be a poor genes (cancerous) issue setting in, but it's difficult to know given the other circumstances.

So... the past 2 weeks I've tried to quell aggression again.  I pulled the boss male out of the tank so that the female and the male can have some time to recover.  I spent each morning doing a salt dip on the male and then added that salt dose into the 75G to slowly raise the salt level over time.  Given that setup the male didn't really see any different (good or bag) and it was moreso for the sake of "if there was" anything that I could do to help.

I checked on the tank today and the female appears to be getting worse day by day.  Yesterday it was a small tear, today she has 2 tears and she had a bit of redness.

I didn't have the space / area setup due to missing a wood board for the lower section of the stand.  I found some pieces to use and hopefully things work out so I can treat these two with salt / meds and let them have a break from the other male.

They are in their setup now, things are all configured and should be able to have this tank ready to go whenever I need to use it.

If things don't progress the way I'd like I may try to just use this for a female to lay fry.  Unfortunately I need to increase the numbers to get the group under control.  I have 3-4 pregnant females right now and it's just a hope / matter of time that things work out.

First, super cute fish. I usually see the red swordtails around here. What variety are these? Their green scales on yours look sparkly like emeralds.

Have you tried line of sight breaks (tall plants/forest)? If you don’t have the plants for this you can go to plastic or silk just to get things under control. You can also cut leafy pieces of pothos vine and fully submerge them. They really change the atmosphere and create obstacles in the tank. 

Have you considered a tank divider (in a smaller tank, not the Grace tank)?

Is there food competition also?

Try some catappa tea or leaves to help them out.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/29/2023 at 4:42 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

First, super cute fish. I usually see the red swordtails around here. What variety are these? Their green scales on yours look sparkly like emeralds.

Berlin black swordtails / "black" swordtails.  It's actually just this unique smaller swordtail. I've seen similar colors in lyretail fish as well as from Goliad farms. I wish/hope they get some in to create there line again. They have one article with one photo and a brief description of the fish in question, but beyond that it's just a sword from Europe that has some availability here in the states.

On 7/29/2023 at 4:42 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Have you tried line of sight breaks (tall plants/forest)? If you don’t have the plants for this you can go to plastic or silk just to get things under control. You can also cut leafy pieces of pothos vine and fully submerge them. They really change the atmosphere and create obstacles in the tank. 

*An attempt was made*

I can throw in some mops and stuff but it has just been a process to figure out what these fish need. I've since added better cover and a bit more things in the tank.  My hope is that it's just enough to get a handful more fry or that I can use the breeder boxes or spare tank with a lot of Sußwasseetang in it as a fry tank. They can even go in with the shrimp now, but it's just a waiting game. Last time I had the swords it was automatic and there was nothing in the tank, this time it's a bit more fickle.

On 7/29/2023 at 4:42 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Have you considered a tank divider (in a smaller tank, not the Grace tank)?

I haven't. Ultimately I have 4 buckets and a bunch of water holding things. I would rather just use separate containers and handle it that way as opposed to the individual breaks. I can run 3 sword groups and hope that one pops some fry (well... hope that two do)  and maybe that's the play here.  I just need to see some life! (Progress) in the sense of my own feeding and care for the fish. If water parameters are causing issues or nutrition is causing some issues that's on me and I need to improve in that care aspect.

On 7/29/2023 at 4:42 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Is there food competition also?

Try some catappa tea or leaves to help them out.

I definitely feed very often and very heavy. For them I'll feed flake, but they eat off the bottom and go to town on everything the corydoras go for. Swordtails / live-bearers can just be big ol' fishy pigs and these ones are smaller piglets.  The one time I had the female ready to drop overnight in the shrimp tank, I'm sure she spent all night eating baby shrimp in droves. At least 10-30 of them.

I think you might be on to something with the blackwater to give some cover.

I'll have to get my hands on some alder cones. The goal was to have plenty by ordering 100+ for the shrimp, but we all saw how well that went. 😂

Tea time. I'm happy with that method too.

[JChristophersAdventures]

@nabokovfan87 I will definitely be interested in seeing how all of that goes. I don't even have a fish room yet, but eventually I am wanting to do some breeding and swordtails are certainly on the list... when I last kept fish (in the world of live-bearers) guppies were out, sail-fin mollies and swordtails were in (there were no endlers that I can recall... at least not in our area of the country). Obviously, that was a long time ago, but swordtails remain my favorite live-bearer.

I had a beautiful pair of chocolate sailfin mollies (the male was solid milk chocolate colored throughout, the female looked like a typical silver and black speckled sailfin, but instead of black/silver she was chocolate/silver speckled). They were both very large... roughly 4 inches each. Loved those fish. They don't seem to be around much any more.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/29/2023 at 11:35 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I think you might be on to something with the blackwater to give some cover.

I'll have to get my hands on some alder cones. The goal was to have plenty by ordering 100+ for the shrimp, but we all saw how well that went. 😂

Tea time. I'm happy with that method too

I wouldn’t count on alder cones creating that many tannins. Try the rooibos tea. It has health benefits just like the catappa tea does but gives a more obvious blackwater effect that may provide comfort to the swordtails.

Get Sera alder cones (for the shrimps). They are a very nice size.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/29/2023 at 9:44 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Get Sera alder cones (for the shrimps). They are a very nice size.

Yeah, for sure.  That is the plan!

On 7/29/2023 at 8:52 AM, JChristophersAdventures said:

Obviously, that was a long time ago, but swordtails remain my favorite live-bearer.

Mine too. 🙂  I would love to have some from Greg Sage one day.  I got these as a rehome project from a member here and I absolutely cherish them.  Green is my favorite color, they aren't big at all, and it's just a beautiful and interesting fish.  The ones I have are maybe just over 2 inches, females a bit bigger.
 

On 7/29/2023 at 8:52 AM, JChristophersAdventures said:

I had a beautiful pair of chocolate sailfin mollies (the male was solid milk chocolate colored throughout, the female looked like a typical silver and black speckled sailfin, but instead of black/silver she was chocolate/silver speckled). They were both very large... roughly 4 inches each. Loved those fish. They don't seem to be around much any more.

Interesting.  I would imagine they are around.  There's a few places you can look and hopefully get a name for the specific variant.

[nabokovfan87]

I did the maintenance on the affectionately called "side tank" which may or may not be the home for shrimp colony #2.   I checked on the swordtail in there and those two will likely end up in treatment after the current two are done.  I did notice KH was a little low, GH was a little low as well in the side tank.  Details below....



I added enough KH buffer to get the KH up to the other tanks.  This is likely just a result of not changing enough water in cadence with the other tanks due to much less bioload.  I added enough GH buffer to get it up by about 2 degrees and I'll check things later in the week to verify where I'm at.  (I swear I will!)

I am hoping to see the fish recover and I am hoping increased maintenance (better water quality and feeding) helps these fish to perk up and do a bit better.  I am planning to get some better foods to try and vary up the protein a little bit.  I feed omnivore heavy, but the foods I have opted to try this time around were very similar in terms of recipe.  Recently I've learned I need to mix things up (different brands, different recipes) to encourage a more rounder nutrition base.  Having 2-3 foods might be fine, but there's a bit more to it than that, it appears.  I do also have a lot of foods I plan to avoid in future and I'm not sure which will remain.  There are things I need to weigh and consider, but for now the base is "quality" food which does have some good algae included in the recipe.  The reason this is slightly relevant is to encourage the corydoras breeding and due to what could be dropsy on one of the swordtails with poorer genetics.  If it is indeed this issue, than it's something where I need to ensure I am doing all I can for the nutrition of the fish.

After I got done cleaning the tanks and the house I was reading an article about Valorie Taylor.  I am going to have to watch her documentary again pretty soon.  I am spending the night finishing up my coffee and watching a few free shark documentaries on youtube that I haven't seen before.  One of them was from the 90's and just absolutely depressing to see how certain things all began.  I see the impact of those choices made decades ago and how it's impacted everything since.  Such destruction and misunderstanding of the species.  (fun fact sharks help coral reefs with algae battles.... that tidbit is about 15 minutes in on the linked video)

....anyways.  Tomorrow is the 75G and it's the big clean out.  I'll likely add in the new stems, moneywort, but I may have to give them just a little bit more time to grow out. 

[nabokovfan87]

Storm on Saturday - Sunday.  We'll see what happens.  My sheer hope is to see spawning activity.  Today they were hiding pretty hard.  I moved the adults to the 29G and there's ~17 fry in the big tank.

If they don't spawn off this... it isn't cause of storms and I'm back to GH/KH interactions. 

[nabokovfan87]

It's been a whirlwind of 24 hours or so for this tank.

I was watching the fish, feeding things, and just checking on everything when I noticed some algae issues on the Hygrophila Pinnatifida.  I tossed that in a container to go ahead and run an RR treatment on that plant. I also found two stems of staurogyne repens to treat as well.

I was a day late doing the water changes, but ensuing storm kind of dictated that. I started draining the tank and that led to seeing a ton of BBA on the filter box. I grabbed the hydrogen peroxide and treated that using a new method I found from kaveman aquatics where you literally brush it on. I'll keep an eye on the area and see how it works out. If it's a good technique, that's very useful. There is also a small amount on the smaller piece of wood and so I pulled that to see what I could do.  I ended up rescaping the tank a little bit and then continued to work on the water changes and cleaning out the sponges.

One small flood later due to being too focused on a leaf I needed to get out, I cleaned that up and tried to fix the CO2 system a little bit. I moved the diffuser so that there is some relief on the BBA that is growing on the spraybar. I've been trying to clean that as well, but it hasn't been going well. The exact location where the CO2 hits the suction cups seems to be where the BBA is taking hold.  In the end, I know I need to get better plant growth and it's something where I wish I could just toss in $150-$200 worth of plants.

I may need to go back to the old method of spraybar where I have it pointed directly at the diffuser itself, but that has its own issues. As always there are things to consider and try to resolve.  I need to keep in mind, push myself a bit, to stay ahead and focused on removing algae. It's very easy to feel frustrated by this and to let it just runamuck.  I dropped the light a little closer to the tank and then proceeded to cut the power of the light by ~15%.  Previously, which has caused the algae to start up again, I had increased it by 10%.  Simply put, the light is a little closer, cut by 5% and we'll see how the plants grow.

I replanted, propagated out the hygro this morning and things look better. I have it spread throughout the scale and that should look pretty spectacular if and when it does end up growing fully for me. I really adore that plant and I'm looking forward to seeing it thrive and overtake everything.

Shoot. I think I cleaned the prefilters only and still need to go clean the HoB media.  Time to get that done!

Edit: I took some photos of the different algae methods mentioned above.

I also have new growth on the pennywort. It's slow growing, but it's getting there. Thanks again @mountaintoppufferkeeper!

And last but not least, I'm going to have to recommend that brush technique. This is the first time I've ever seen peroxide do anything for me.

 

Update #2:  I went ahead and tried to mess with the CO2 diffuser.  I am just not happy with it.  I may need to swap it out.  Essentially, spraybar is pushed so far off the glass due to how the suction cups work and that results in the CO2 getting behind it instead of being pushed all around the aquarium.  It was currently mounted as a small L shape with the pump off to the side and the bar the length of the sidewall.  I added a small extension, pushed the filter to stick to the back wall and then modified to be a "corner install" where the bar is pointing directly towards the diffuser from the back of the tank and then all the way across the surface of the tank with the sidewall piece.

I have a canister I need to mess with that will eventually take its place (and then in-line CO2), but for right now I am hoping this is enough to push back the BBA and get things back to being balanced.

Edited August 23, 2023 by nabokovfan87
added photos

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The purple of this so-called black beard algae is actually quite nice. Reminds me of a purple passion plant. I like my ignoring method for my BBA. It’s really just on a few of the hornwort that is floating at the top.

You can give the RR plants to the neos after they come out of the seltzer, and the neos will pick off any residual dead algae.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/22/2023 at 5:26 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

You can give the RR plants to the neos after they come out of the seltzer, and the neos will pick off any residual dead algae.

Yeah. So far the culls/amanos in there are just straight up ignoring it. I'm hoping I wake up tomorrow and there's a lot of progress. There's otos in there as well.

The new layout and everything probably has everyone trying to get used to everything.

I was cleaning the HoB and let all the junk run in the tank from the bottom as it was running. I went ahead and netted all of that out afterwards. It may or may not be the worms going nuts again on me. I can't tell, but that's what it looks like. So did it that way because they might as well be fish food if that's what it is.

I'm really hoping the hygro starts growing again with the diffuser and lighting adjustments. It was doing so well. I think I was at 3 stems and now I have 6-7.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/22/2023 at 9:31 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

So far the culls/amanos in there are just straight up ignoring it

After the RR?

Mine had a hard time with hair algae (the kind that embeds into leaves and is kind of like the fuzzy side of Velcro). They couldn’t eat it as is, but they could eat it after the RR and they brought the plant back to pristine condition.

Eating the stuff after RR:

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

One of my main projects is always to be able to figure out the best care for my black corydoras and to trigger them to spawn on a somewhat straightforward way. 

We got the supermoon, we have the water change, we have the GH/KH drop, and we have the storm that came through.  Put that into a random grab bag of which one will work to trigger a spawn...... nada.  Just nothing.

One of my other thoughts after seeing them spawn previously was using some old airline as a spawning mop.  Well, I finally made one and it's comical, but if it works, it works.  I have never had success with spawning mops.  My old mops are in the 75G as a means to give some floating plant cover for the swords.  I will have ~2 of these airline tube mops with the adults for now and we'll see if/what they use. 




I also added a pile of IAL/Catappa leaves to try to see if these ones just prefer the hide of blackwater as well as the hidden surface of leaf litter.  There are a lot of corydoras that do use this, but we will see!  They have been hiding underneath the susswassertang.  This tank doesn't have as much cover as the normal 75G does, but... they have a bit more cover now.




I also have some leaf/seaweed holders which I will stick to the glass and give them a bit of a vertical surface of tubing/leaves!  Thanks again to @AllFishNoBrakes for the supplies for this one.  It is very much appreciated!!!

[Guppysnail]

Doubling up on foods for a week or two before storms usually does the trick for all my corydora. Especially live foods though I know you are adverse to worms maybe bloodworms and live bbs? 
 

🤔 Grace’s journal and no Grace? 😧 I want to live the RTBS experience vicariously through you please 🙏 🤣

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/29/2023 at 10:15 AM, Guppysnail said:

🤔 Grace’s journal and no Grace? 😧 I want to live the RTBS experience vicariously through you please 🙏 🤣

Oh there's more to come! The lights weren't on yet.  🙂  She's been a bit happy with her new setup.
 

On 8/29/2023 at 10:15 AM, Guppysnail said:

Especially live foods though I know you are adverse to worms maybe bloodworms and live bbs? 

I am definitely not adverse to feeding worms, I just wish they would eat them! I fed all the bloodworms I have (they are omega one, which is a bit big even with 4 corydoras and I do have mysis and brine shrimp I am using with them now in addition to my other standard rotation of foods.  I was feeding frozen in the morning, repashy at night, krill flake mid-day trying to condition them.  I am going to get something like freeze dried copepods and mix that into some repashy.  My plan is to also try the spawn and grow variety.  I will be trying some higher meat based protein foods as well.  They've been "conditioned" with the repashy I have (bottom scratcher, community blend, and soilent green) and some pretty heavy krill based feedings.  Ultimately there was some up-downs, but not really that trigger that indicated to them it was time to lay.  We'll see how it goes. 

[Guppysnail]

Freeze dried tubifex work great. I smooshed them to the glass at the substrate. 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/29/2023 at 10:36 AM, Guppysnail said:

Freeze dried tubifex work great. I smooshed them to the glass at the substrate. 

They are definitely on the list as well.  I'm also planning on getting one of these guys too. 🙂

 

[nabokovfan87]

Previously I mentioned a bit of a re-do on the tank.  I am still figuring a bit of the locations of things out, but for now this is where it stands.  The "rock tower" is very out of place.  I might have an idea on fixing that, but I really don't know.  The shape and structure of that piece will seemingly always make it feel out of place.  Superglue and moss have been removed as completely as I can.  there's a bit left on the wood. I am happy to report it's not difficult to remove, no serious damage that won't repair over time, and it's very easily removed from rocks.

This is the newer layout on the wood and it serves a few purposes.



The wood and plants are getting their BBA on and it's become a bit of an issue again.  I've spent time cleaning the glass, removing chunks of it from random bits of gravel and scrubbing the harder surfaces.  I also have that brush technique for the plastics in the background.  Needless to say, between peroxide and RR, it seems to always be a mandatory step to have more than one treatment for the BBA.  Often it returns as quickly as it changed colors.



A week later we have a lot of leaves floating and you can see the BBA is just "back to normal" in some aspect.



It's very difficult to feel good about this battle when we know what should be working, isn't. 

Alright, so onto good things!  The final treat from @AllFishNoBrakes was specifically for little Ms. Grace.  She originates (in spirit at least) from a fast flowing kelp forest with some lofi and little friends to keep her entertained.  She has her cove and her plants and she just generally likes to guard them.



Sometimes she will peek out....



But most of the time (when I'm the one behind the camera and not further back) she tends to just nudge her community friends away and tell them to go take the food ball out of her lawn.



As you can see, she will often dart back away as quickly as she lunges out to "do a lap" and set her territory.  She does have multiple areas to occupy, but the goal now is that the wood is pressed up against the back glass and she has rock on one side.  She isn't as disturbed from the doorway, less chance of injury, and ultimately the whole game here is to get the plants to GROW for once and then she will have a ton of cover.

After a while of de-snailing, RR, and a bit of  trying to figure out how many plants we have in hand, I went ahead and added in some new additions for the little one.



Of note, you'll also see the modified spraybar setup on the right.  I no longer have a suction cup holding up the prefilter and pump, but it is properly attached to the wall now.  The rear bar is pointed downward to churn the CO2 while the sidebar is still mounted towards the length of the tank to churn the water.  I can slot in a stronger pump (or canister) and things will improve nicely on this setup.

And of course... they wanted to be in the way because they think it means food, lol.



The tank does have a bit of blackwater broth added for the time being.  It won't be long term, but it was just a nice way to utilize that and provide a bit of contrast and benefits to the water for the fish in here.  We can call it another test for the corydoras, but I don't think anyone remaining in this tank is mature enough for breeding yet.

That's the look and feel though.  I hope the potential is there and seeing it in person, it's purely potential in some respect.  One step forward, 3 steps back, 2 steps forward again.

We'll get there.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/29/2023 at 4:29 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

she tends to just nudge her community friends away and tell them to go take the food ball out of her lawn.

Then what does she eat?

On 8/29/2023 at 4:29 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

have a bit of blackwater broth

This broth. Is it tasty?

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/29/2023 at 1:43 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Then what does she eat?

She's a grazer.  I think I have a video but she's got the same mouth as something like a panda garra.  She will swoop around like a jet and then helicopter hover around trying to gnaw on the glass or rocks or plants.  It's hard to know who is tossing the plants up when you have a sharkminnow in there and the corydoras going to town!

Here's a very funny adorable video of a young one. 🙂

For the sake of cuteness overload....
 

 

On 8/29/2023 at 1:43 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

his broth. Is it tasty?

I was doing some reading on that yesterday and the whole use of something like rooibos tea.  It was definitely earthy.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I hope the Swords do you well! Can’t wait to see them all grown in 

[nabokovfan87]

@Guppysnail well it's been a fun one! 😂 You said you wanted to know what it was like to have a RTBS, here we go.

I went to bed last night, nothing crazy and it wasn't ridiculously late.  It was quiet, I get the puppers in bed and she lays down.  I move things around and take off the glasses.  Laying there I hear what sounds like a blue whale splashing at the surface of the tank.  It was so clear that I thought I left the lid open.  No.  I turn the dim light on for the blue so I can see what is going on and grab my glasses.  Another big splash. 

She is cruising around, nothing too crazy.   I try to count all the fish, everyone is there.  I turn off the lights and try again.  SPLASH!

Alright lady.  What on earth is going on.  I turn on the pink/red light so I see her tail glow.  I watch her and she is sitting against the glass literally tumbling and doing circles.  I don't know how to describe it.  She will normally grazy, very nocturnal, but she was on the front glass and was doing 4-6" wide circles.  Just spinning like a kid playing on a grassy hill.  Such a goofball.

I watch things for a bit, try to see what is going on and she's just cruising around playing and having fun.  I think one of the corydoras may have been doing up downs with her and she was trying to keep up. 🙂

I turn the lights off and go back to sleep. BIG SPLASH.  😂

....

I woke up, checked everything out and just watched her this morning.  It was like a little standoff and quite hillarious.  The corydoras were on the right side of the log, she was in her usual hide on the left.  They would send one in to try to get away from the light and then she would swim out trying to brush them back and out of her area.  This went on for an hour or so. 





They started bugging around for food and so I went ahead and gave them some brine shrimp today.  I checked the pump, it had just seemed a little slow to me.  I wanted to make sure everything was ok.  There was a LOT of plant debris on the outside of the pump.  I cleaned all that off, got things back together and then messed around with the big weird rock.  IF I had a bunch of soil, the plan would be to stack rocks on top of it to make it look like a boulder.  For now, I moved a small rock to help Grace have move cover, she's covered on 3 sides now from me as well as the big plant in there.

I cleaned the prefilter and stuff, trying to just give the HoB a chance to clear up the water a bit.  I don't know why, but the tank just looks filthy to me.  I didn't do a deep siphon and seeing the swords and their big chunky waste is always so weird.  Why do they poop so much! Lol.

I just worked a bit on the tank.  Tried to improve things.  I had to plant one of the swords a little deeper.  She moved it.  I am not sure how deep I can plant those ones, but I believe I cannot plunge them too deep.  The crown on the plant has to be at the surface level?

So.... that was one of many fun little weird things that sharkminnows do.

[Guppysnail]

Oh my that sounds crazy fun. You need a night vision camera to video her antics!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/30/2023 at 7:10 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The crown on the plant has to be at the surface level?

This is true for crypts but swords get planted just like a garden plant with the roots totally covered. Just ensure the leaves are above the substrate.

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/30/2023 at 4:39 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

This is true for crypts but swords get planted just like a garden plant with the roots totally covered. Just ensure the leaves are above the substrate.

Awesome.  That helps.  I can make sure it's through to the soil layer as well and get all those nutrients. Next time I'm in the tank I'll be sure to check on all of them.

On 8/30/2023 at 4:16 PM, Guppysnail said:

You need a night vision camera to video her antics!

She it literally a giant kid sometimes.  Such a goof.