beastie Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 First feeding after adding new fish, I chose frozen cyclops as it is small enough to guarantee to fall on the ground. I saw several noodles and I also saw how corydoras have no mercy, when they are driving somewhere, they will bulldoze through anything in their path. Including noodles 🙂 Few of them still live in the leaves on the surface, a lot of them ofcourse hide under the wood, I saw one in the small sort of tunnel made by the bark, exactly as planned. So far so good. I stopped hunting for the finless gourami, and once I did so, it stopped stressing, the male stopped targeting it and it is ok cohabiting with the others, hanging out with them, with the female, they all get occasionally chased by the male, no special treatment. There is no redness to indicate fin rot, there is no white fuzz to indicate fungus, just mechanical damage but it looks clean and I hope it will get better in this tank anyway. Keeping an eye on it. But the biggest surprise for me are the otocinclus. Since adding the bark, several of the jackfruit and mangrove leaves, the otos are in heaven, munching on stuff. I always had some leaves in the tank, oak, beech, alder cones, lotus pod, but these leaves seem to be the very best. I havent seen as many otos at once in a while. I have around 7 I think, hard to count ofcourse. The snail in the other tank is doing good, I assume it is pagodula, I will do more reading on the wood requirement, but tbh, myabe I should buy some mangrove wood, the sewellia, panda garras and now the snail will for sure appreciate it anyways. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 7 Author Share Posted February 7 Maintenance on the cube tank and clown killifish tank. I got confirmation the darios are in the shop, I will come pick them up saturday. Now the cube tank looks dreadful. The new and stable hornwort I put in is also melting, the egeria was uprooted and the new crypts are ugly. I wonder what now. I can count 10 least rasboras but only six pygmy corydoras. Do I add more cories? Do I add sparkling gourami? Do I give it time? Choices... I want to for sure add some wood, maybe a willow, if I find it. I know it will develop a slime, but I should be able to manage it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 The saturday stupid mistake cost me. Because it continued. fishing out another dead kuhli loach I found out my filter was almost not working, the sponge on the intake was too far up, the whole flow was diminished almost 90%. To this day I lost 6 kuhli loaches. I also have ich in the main tank I believe. Three of the fat rummynose look like they have bloat and they all seem to develop ich. Lovely. Nothing on the pearls, sterbai, embers or bolivian rams. For now. I did slight temp increase and one way lower dose of epsom salt, 5 spoonfulls in the tank. Will see, will do another water change tomorrow and will keep so every other day. Loving this. Havent made such a stupid mistake in years. Ah well. I guess this is payback for the complaints about this tank I also lost one indostomus. No idea why, I did remove the shrimp and fed a bit less, so perhaps it was hunger, but I also have had them for nearly a year. Could have been age? all others look good, I did a 5 liter water change today anyway, since there was fungus on the body already when I found it. I sold 10 of my largest rabbit snail babies. I took all the other out, including all the decor, did a 50% water change, counted the snails and returned them back. I have two adults, 3 1cm large babies and 10 or so 0,5cm babies. So i had 25 snails until recently. The sponge filter is inadequate, the mess in the substrate is dreadfull, I am surprised the luminatus are still alive. I also scrubbed the breeding box for now, I do not have the headspace and I put plants in, as I expected that is what you are supposed to do, and there were snails and mess so will try later on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 At least the otos are still doing ok 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 The time has come, the darrio hysgion has arrived!! They are smaller than the clown killifish female AND than the cherry shrimp. Wild. They are all over the tank, hiding too. I fed a smidge of microworms, preparing bbs for tomorrow Meanwhile the big tank with ich is declining. I turned off filter, dosed malachite green as I cant buy anything else here and will do a water change tomorrow 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 Oh I also teporarily moved a male/female combo of clown killifish to the indostomus tank, idea was to have them breed here and have the babies here, they should be safe as indostomus mainly hunt on the ground. Except since saying that I see them watching the surface too. Will see, the fish look great in the tank My new brotia snail is also very handsome, I need to feed something today 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 First feeding of the dario, they are feisty, but the clown killifish are quicker eaters so far. They look tiny bit like piranha with the mouths. I can for sure say I saw four, but who knows if the same four or not. One is really red, but at this point is is so early to tell. They ofcourse hang around places where you cant photograph. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 Basil experiment update: original plant I got from the supermarket: basil in the tank I need to work on the container, as it doesnt support the plant standing up and is annoying to work with. I saw some on temu, that would be ideal but I do not want to support this shop, so need to check elsewhere cause this would just be ideal. So far, so good with my basil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 On 2/12/2024 at 6:04 AM, beastie said: Basil experiment update: original plant I got from the supermarket: basil in the tank I need to work on the container, as it doesnt support the plant standing up and is annoying to work with. I saw some on temu, that would be ideal but I do not want to support this shop, so need to check elsewhere cause this would just be ideal. So far, so good with my basil I buy this exact holder from companies on Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Thank you, I will check. Someone here also will start making these on 3d printer I assume. Today was water change day, I will be gone in the next three days, so I moved the clown killifish from the indostomus tank back, cleaned the tank with dario, who are doing fine. I feed heavily, to substitute the next three/four days. I can mostly only see four, but then again, they are very good at blending. They are not shy though, I assume thanks to the clown killifish. I got rid of the ich in the main tank by four baths of malachite green mix and three water changes. Last one was done today morning, will do water change in the afternoon. I always turned off the filter for an hour to marinate the fish. Good thing, I didnt lose any fish when started the treatment. I lost three or four rummynose before starting the treatment, I removed the bamboo shrimp not to risk them, but need to move them back, they are having hard time finding food in the pygmy cube. One of the rummynose still looks like she may have dropsy, but is ok. I fed few time live bbs and frozen daphnia and hikari first bites so they have the strength to fight off the ich. Seems is ok. No loss of plants, seems filtration bacteria survived it too. Asian tank got cucumber, seems appreciated, by shrimp at least 🙂 Rabbit tank has the new sponge marinating in, looks riddiculous. I added carrots and handful of other leaves and I collected some eggs I put in a cup. I had a long talk with a local breeder that does gertrudae, she shared her approach, am trying. The eggs will take two weeks to a month, so I should be patient, no water changes, no aeration, no nothing. Small cup of water. That is it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Also soaking wood in a tank results in hilarious aquascape setups. Behold the standing wood I am also noticing the newest sword which has been there like three months is full on dying. I will try another root tab 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 On 2/15/2024 at 7:48 AM, beastie said: Also soaking wood in a tank results in hilarious aquascape setups. Behold the standing wood Yes it does. I resorted to a spool of plant weights and still have it standing erecting 🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 I caught a strange indostomus behavior, maybe mating but usually the male is supposed to entice the female into his tube, this was not the case ofcourse my glass is not washed, there was not ideal light and the video is shaky,... but the behavior happend at that time, so couldnt be picky 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 That is some serious courting behavior. It looks identical to what my Laetacara curviceps do. That behavior continues for roughly 3 days and the curviceps girl never goes near the spot they actually spawn. The girl does not go near and actually avoids the spawning site until she is ready to deposit eggs. I know totally different fish but watching your video I felt like I was watching my fish. I hope you get babies. I follow your journey with these fish because I adore them. If ever the opportunity presents for me to get them from a trusted source I plan on jumping on it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 On 2/19/2024 at 2:44 PM, Guppysnail said: That is some serious courting behavior. It looks identical to what my Laetacara curviceps do. That behavior continues for roughly 3 days and the curviceps girl never goes near the spot they actually spawn. The girl does not go near and actually avoids the spawning site until she is ready to deposit eggs. I know totally different fish but watching your video I felt like I was watching my fish. I hope you get babies. I follow your journey with these fish because I adore them. If ever the opportunity presents for me to get them from a trusted source I plan on jumping on it! Thank you, that sounds promising! I so want babies, I need to make sure my paramecium culture is actually working, I am not sure, I need to take out my microscope I guess 😞 I am doing maintenance on the big tank, and want to sum up my ich experience. It surprised me. Not only that I got it, that was my fault, but the results too. I treated four times with a malachite green solution with a 40% water replace the next day (btw 250 drops, a lovely delivery method). I would turn off the filter for an hour when dosing, to let the fish marinate in the solution before turning it on again. I have no idea if I killed my cycle and bacteria, since I do not test my water, but I believe I didnt, since you know, the whole tank didnt die off. But neither did the plants. Or the sensitive fish. Sure I lost some fish, but most of those were the kuhli loaches I brought the ich on. But I also purchased three new pearl gouramis, and not only did they not get sick, the one with the torn fin has a complete fin and looks fine now. So a new fish stressed from transport and new environment didnt get the ich, which is stress related, and was ok enough to heal and grow a fin? I didnt lose a single hatchetfish, species known for them being prone to ich. They all had spots, but it didnt really affect them, nor their apetite, behavior and they didnt die off. I didnt lose a single corydoras, of which I was afraid, due to their medicine intolerance. I also didnt lose any more kuhli loaches, I lost all before I started treatment. I see around 3 or 4 around in the tank. I removed the bamboo shrimp and returned them after the last water change in the treatment cycle. I wouldnt have done it so soon but I was leaving for 3 days and the temp tank they were in were not the best for them, so I moved them. And they are fine. Last time I did an esha 2000 treatment I lost two of my bamboo shrimp most of my hornwort in the tank, which resulted in more deaths. This time, no plant melt. No nothing. Surprising I would say. I also had the "good fortune" to watch, as the amano released the larvae ( I have four or five large amano shrimp for few years now and three of them regularly carry ) and it created a massive feeding frenzy. At least it doesnt go to waste, knowing the larvae wont develop in fresh water, but it was a thing to see. In my search for the kuhli loaches after lights out, I also saw a thing I havent considered. Pearl gouramis sleep on the floor. I would assume a surface dweller, specifically long finned one, would sleep near the surface. But they were all on the ground. This might make the nights unfortunatelly cramped, with nighttime corydoras search for food, sleeping bolivian rams, some rummynose also sleep on the ground, and the pearls? A bit too full it seems. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 Today dario update - will have to try to take some pictures at night, to avoid the glare on the tanks. I fed a mix of live bbs and few frozen bloodworms, was not bad, they did eat the worms as they were falling down, saw one eat one that was lying on the ground too. I think I will have to remove one of the darios. I will first rescape a bit more, I already moved one of the stones with the java fern to the middle part. I have lush green in the left side, a mass of green on the right but the middle is sort of opened. The fish chose the territories as right front, right back, right back center and one fish has the whole left side. But the fifth one is being chased away from basically anywhere There is one massively red fish I cant take a picture of, since it hangs near the filter and in the back 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 I replaced the sponge in the luminatus/rabbit tank, and tried to hide it with an anubias. Not sure how it works. I also left the old sponge in, for now. Some egeria, some cryptocoryne, pennywort, frogbit. Will see I keep collecting eggs and removing the ones with fungus. For next time pictures I need to remove the whie box in front of the tank, the glare is always visible 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 One of the darios is stripped instead of solid color, not sure if stress. It is also very much chased away. Wonder what is going on there 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted March 1 Author Share Posted March 1 Darios are almost three weeks in and displaying chasing and dominance. I really dont know when/how will I decide which one to separate They also do not stay on the bottom almost at all. I thought they were a bottom dwelling fish Those two are for sure males. The rest, no idea... On other tanks, I found a pygmy coryodras stuck behind a filter sponge. I freed it, expecting it to be dead, was not but is swimming funilly. I put it in a net on the surface to have it easier time breathing, but I expect it will die. Either it was hurt by the very soft sponge, or the reason it got stuck was it is already not ok. I did a water change wednesday though 😞 If it dies, I have like 5 cories left. I will either buy another 10, but it is an expensive excersise like that, or get an aspidoras, or... nothing? Am sad 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 Big tank, new pics, bubbles!!! check out my pearl gouramis, they assisted today in maintenance nibbling on my hand. Male is on the other side of the tank, this is just a female and the three juveniles 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 I am not happy. Another pygmy lost in a same manner like the last one. Wedged between the filter sponge, in one of the creases, and the glass. Are the fish stupid? I have four now, I will not do any changes. The cube tank will go through a change. Once I figure out some stuff in life, I will either dismantle completely and move the rasboras to the indostomus tank, or I will check the cabinets it stands on and buy a shallow 80cm long for other experiments. I may use some time in between to breed another batch of white clouds. I had other two minnow losses. I talked with someone on another forum, and the fish seem to be presenting with genetic deformity of the swim bladder, they all have the same issue, same timeframe, die few days later. Only the gold whiteclouds are affected, not the normal colored ones, not any other fish. I do a cold water change, but sewellia or panda garra shouldbe more affected if the water temperature were too different and they are awesome, well colored, but the gold minnows keep dying. I lost 7 or so since I got them. I bread like 8 babies, but the adults are dropping. I was told if I cross the gold with normal colored, they will be stronger I also had an argument with my dog to spit out the minnow (normal colored) that jumped out of the tank ( i fed live bbs, mosquitoe larva, they were breeding and it got intense 🙂 ) and I returned it to the tank and I cant even tell which one was it!!! they are all looking ok no bruises no torn fins. So apparently jumping out of the tank and being poked with the dog is normal I am glad for the cube tank ,it showed me important experience. Pygmies are harder than I expected, more static, not as cute as the videos make them to be. On the other hand least rasbora, awesome colors, not shy, feeds well, pleasant surprise! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 Took a picture of the cube tank. Willow wood (baked), leaves, crypts are settling in 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 Maintenance day. I also decided to make a cube box into a breeding box for the clown killifish. I put an airstone, a java moss clump and just a male for now ,for two days lets say, and then I will add a female. And will see. will do some water changes I also tried to de-algae the clownkillifish/dario tank, checked for fry, none, fed cut frozen blooworms and live microworms. The darios look good, but I only see four. Three on the left side, surface, hornwort, botom. One for sure on the right side, male, above the sponge filter. Fifth is a random hidden, under filter or somewhere on the right side, they will sometimes chase each other with the other male. Overall the darios are cute, but slow, and so far not overly interresting. I believe it will come I keep seeing my kuhli loaches, three on the bottom, two on top in the leaves. they are not hidden, they are fun. I need more!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted March 11 Author Share Posted March 11 So, I added a sponge to the "breeding box", added some salvinia, added the clown killifish female. I go to check my moss bucket for infusoria method, I used a moss that I had sitting in a box that I took outside of some tank, filled it with squeezed sponge, topped off with water. Last week I opened it, added fresh water as it seemed to be low level water for this experiment. I am going through my notes, I started the bucket on the 20th of february, I do not remember which tank I took the moss out of , I think it was the pseudomugil tank, maybe I cut it from the asian tank, unsure. It is important to the rest of my story though I go check my bucket, and lo behold, a fry is there, swimming. In that closed bucket full of nothing but moss and squeezed sponge water, no air stone, no water changes, no oxygen exchange (maybe through the surface as the bucket is only half filled?). The surface has a slight oily film on it, there are snails hitchhiked from the moss. So here I am trying to breed fish, and having an unknown fry (though based on the blue color of the eye a pseudomugil, I dont remember if white clouds have blue eye at this stage). It is super small, maybe one mm, maybe two. I sprinkled a tiny bit of first bite and decided on a course of action The clown killifish went back to their home, the fry was caught moved carefully to the box, I also added few scoops of the "infusoria culture" and now will see. Meanwhile I have an acrylic mop in the luminatus tank and every day, no eggs... Wish me luck, I will have to figure out how to change water in this tank, if it is too much water, to buy a plastic tube to put the airline in the sponge through, as now I just have an airline jammed in a sponge, and an broken airpump that gives just a tiny tiny bit of flow. I dont know if the bacteria can take that. I also added a dried piece of catapa leaf, though it will take few days to soak I guess. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beastie Posted March 11 Author Share Posted March 11 Poor fry btw I keep lifting the lid and looking at it now. Wasnt it better off in the bucket 😄 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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