Beastie's journal

[beastie]

Updated tank pictures and the darios

[beastie]

Big maintenance day, I kept putting it off.

Two largest tanks, both got a severe trim. There is so much light and space it is crazy now 🙂

Front

Back

[beastie]

As a result of my drop of interest in the hobby, I decided to do some changes. I will downgrade one tank at some point, for sure get the plants out of it, get a new tank to replace the cube tank I am most unhappy with, shuffle my fish around, try to gift some and redo layout in my largest tank.

I went a bit from "nothing" to "too much", as I am now considering how to properly approach this, but I need a chain reaction to happen for all to work out. I need to replace a filter in my Asian tank (JKA-IP200 with a large sponge) with an eheim 2213 that has been sitting in my cabinets for years now (bought it second hand at amazing deal, never used it), so I can take the JKA and move it to a new tank. This is step one.

Given I will be replacing some hoses and buying/splitting filter media with my existing canister filter 2217 on my largest tank, I will have to play around in there. The long term plan is to remove all my corydoras from this tank, and to do so I will most likely tear it down to catch them, and therefore I will use this opportunity to replace substrate, remove some plants, plant new plants, redo the scape. Not sure about the end result yet.

I also need to tear down the cube tank, move the fish in order to move the new tank on the cabinets, that also need to be fortified. Which means I need to redo a tank to which some or most of the fish will go to, even temporarily. To redo that tank I need to sell or move my rabbits snail, figure out a scape, build it, or at least part of it, plant it and move the existing fish and the fish from other tanks there.

Sounds a bit like too much work, need to figure out precisely how to do it. Luckily  have some ikea containers and I think I can for some time just stick some fish in other tanks and redo them all later. Will see. 

 

Anyways, I took this as an opportunity to do a much needed cleanup of my aquarium cabinets, that are deep and filled with stuff collected over the years.

I found this, no clue what is it, I got it as part of a bundle of stuff I bought second hand. I am trying to sell it off, I think it has to do with CO2

I also have the empty canister, some hoses, some filter media, some sponges and all weird hose connections I need to figure out or replace or measure

One would be surprised what all is in ones cabinets

 

Let the fun begin

[beastie]

So I was impulsive again, we were talking with my boyfriend about the new tank, how he needs to strengthen the cabinet, and he said to do so I need to take down the cube tank.

So I moved the pair of clown killifish from the 25l to their tank, caught all the boraras form the cube, counted them (9 remaining, bought 12), moved them to the 25liter.

I also started looking at the 54liter, considering dumping the pygmy corydoras (counted, 2 remaining, so sad, also bought 12,...) and the darios that I am offering to sell, no takers so far. So I tore down the 54liter ,removed all the luminatus, the snails, counted them (14 tylomelania babies plus one large one and 6 empty shells of babies, happens with them a lot), moved the largest rabbit and the faunus ater to the breeding box where luminatus fry is, moved luminatus, dario and pygmy corydoras to an ikea box, with moss from the cube tank, moved all the plants to buckets and other boxes. I did a quick scape, nothing special, no special substrate, I used sand and combined it from this and the cube tank, I planted all the small crypts, put in the hornwort, for now, plucked in some monosselenium, in the background, I took scissors to the rotala I have growing in my large tank, placed some wood and stones, no scape, just...dump and now am waiting for all the massive mess and mulm to settle and temp to equalize before I return the fish in, for the night

Crazy huh. Two hours, instead of working, so much mess everywhere, snails in a small box ( needs to sell them quick) and I will for sure be remaking it again at some point, but not right now 🙂 

 

[beastie]

Needs more plants, sure, but not half bad

 

the least rasboras get lost but hey, a bit of color

[beastie]

I didnt want to chuck a bucket full of anubias, so I put it in my asian tank, for fish to play in and garras to nibble the algae.

Maybe not forever, but why not for now

Finally the rasboras are visible too in my smallest tank, after months of not seeing them in the cube

 

 

Edited June 16 by beastie

[beastie]

I fed live mosquito larvae and live bbs to one set of the darios, was rewarded with a really bright colored dominant male 

[beastie]

Yesterday, I plugged in my 2213 eheim to my asian tank, and used half the media from my 2217 from my largest tank, and both. The 2213 is limited and running alongside the other filter in the tank, to occulate. I did not want to buy the original eheim hosing bends and so, cause expensive for no good reason, so for now, it is as is. I suspect the media on the intake hose is too dense and wont work long run, but will see

 

I also spent an hour gluing small java ferns and bucephalandras to various rocks, (and my fingers) and returned them to various tanks. Some back to asian, some to the large one, just ploped in, waiting for remodel, some went to the smaller tanks

[beastie]

I forgot to add, boyfriend spent hours yesterday sturdying up my two cabinets. They are old ikea cabinet (dressers, the malm series) and I used to have a 54 liter tank on one of them for years, then we moved, bought a second hand one, had the 54l on that, moved it to the table and then had the 60l cube on both of them, in the middle to help the weight spread.

I decided to tear down the cube, which I did, and bought a new desk on top, and he decided to sturdy it up, put a piece of the desk in the middle, a piece of wood in the back and a pice in the bottom in the middle and drill it all together. Lets hope it will hold, since the new tank will be a 98liter which will be around 130 kg I would say.

The cabinets are now not next to the wall and there is space behind, as after moving the cabinets away, the wall was moldy, which is a big problem in this house, especially walls to the outside. This should help now.

Ofcourse I took a picture after I put stuff on it, typical

The box is full of leftover fishtank stuff from doing the filter, hoses, and willow branches and whatnot...:)))

So, I can order the new tank ! 🙂

I also restarted one of my jars, that was just algae and naias, now it is dirt, sand, rotala cuttings, some java ferns

The one next to it is a 2 year old moss and mulm

[beastie]

Well my jar is full of hair algae, but eh 🙂 I had to cut down all the leaves of my big crypt before leaving for a week long hike, as they all were melting to sludge. I just cut them off with scirssors at like 6 am before catching a train 🙂 the plant will go out and the tank will be redone anyway. Looks...eh. The plants in the cups waiting to be planted, one was eaten by my lastadult rabbit snail that I moved here for the duration of my absence, given 4 liter box with a fry wouldnt be the best place for it. I will most likely take it out though...

Today I think I discovered a brotia baby snail. Unless I am mistaken, the picture is of a sucky quality. It is weird though, the brotia is alone in the tank and was added in february. Nor is there wood there nor do I feed it well.

I will give it some cucumber though 🙂

What do you think

[beastie]

So I went from this:

to this

and including my most favorite photobomber

[beastie]

Ooh, I think this shows the baby snail is indeed brotia

The adult

The baby

[beastie]

So there are two baby brotia snails there actually. At least two. Fun 🙂 Will go put a leaf in

 

My new tank (intended for my sterbai group) arrived yesterday. I had the sand prewashed, but ofcourse it was too little sand, so had to wash more and even so, after putting it in the tank, all I got was muck 🙂 I wonder if this sand is too muddy but maybe the corydoras will enjoy it. Sand from other tanks went to the bottom, with some malaysian trumpet snails and some worms that must have been put in when I kept the substrate outside for few weeks. No matter ,the coryodras will enjoy eating them. I also apparently moved two shrimplets on the filter sponge from the other tank and I cant catch them now. If they survive the cycle, I will catch them once they are bigger, as I dont think shrimp would go well in this tank.

For now, no background, no stones ( have to find some), no household plants (waiting for the holders to come), no leaves, will add them after the weekend. I was pleasantly surprised, in the evening, how well I could see in the tank, with one window being draped off. Must be the no background thing. In the morning, the sun hit it 🙂 might make an algae problem, but I have at least one clithon to move there

Yesterday:

Today:

[beastie]

So, before the weekend, after feeding heavily with bbs and microworms, I moved a clithon and the pseudomugil fry to the main tank. Clithon will clean the glass, also no need for it to be in the box, and the fry is now almost as large as the other fish in the tank, lager than any of the parents mouths anyways

Few quick glare filled pictures, but hey, colors 🙂 

[beastie]

It has been 6 days. No ammonia or No2 readings, which is a bit confusing. The willow is covered in fuzz. I did a water change, added rocks I found in a river I was at over the weekend, to help submerge the branches and I added my house plants.

One peace lily that has not been doing well for a while (had some bugs) and one syngonium, which is a child plant of one of my other much larger one. Had it for years, I have it hanging from the ceiling, I water it too little, it will love the water :))  Both the planters are bit too deep, so I did the trick with the wooden spikes and lifted them up. I think my cousin will have to print me few more of these :)) 

 

I still have no idea how I will handle lid with this tank but that is future problem I guess 🙂

I decided to do the big change the weekend 17-18.8 instead of the 3-4.8, to give the tank more time to cycle (almost 6 weeks, even though the filter is cycled), and because I will go for vacation the weekend after and I dont think it would let me rest well knowing I have a new tank and some changes done and am not there to monitor it. 

 

[beastie]

Since i was at it, I decided to take a look at my other plants and what could I use. I discovered I have some philodendron, too bad I have one of the larger variants, the leaves are larger than my hand. None the less, cut off 3 nodes, cut off leaves, let it dry a bit and plopped it in the background. Initially I thought I would get it rooted elsewhere, but realized I dont have anything large enough and cant leave it outside, as it hates the direct sun. The three nodes are 40cm long

I need to buy new suction cups and will leave it in those. None of the 6 ones I have at home do the thing in their name - suction....

I also have this, I assume some pothos variant. A branch of it snapped off when I was tying it to the rack, so I put it in my plant jar, which is now completely green ( must be from me disturbing the substrate last time I was replanting it).

So I put it in the jar to help with the green water.

[beastie]

BTW the plant jar is even more green pea soup, but also, has a starting colony of cyclops! yay !! beats the look, cause free food and also, so cute 🙂 

[beastie]

Tank update, no pictures

I keep feeding the large large amount of mosquito larvae cause I need to get rid of them. I am watching hatchetfish hunt on the surface, even kuhliloaches hunt and eat mosquito larvae that are carried to the bottom. It is incredible.

The rummynose might explode from overeating though and I had to get rid of a bucket of duckweed/salvinia cause the mosquitos are hiding in it, the fish dont care and boyfriend will kill me if they hatch inside.

On a sad/ironic side, I keep losing sterbais. Ever since I put up the new tank intended for them I keep finding dead setrbais because fate I guess. They are over 3 years old and given they had some issues, they are not best suited for long lifespans I guess with me. I will kow the real number once I catch them out, but I think I have 4. No other fish has issues in the tank.

[beastie]

I found a "lid" for the new tank, and by lid I mean what used to be a sliding cover glass on a cabinet. I fonder if the gaps are too large for corydoras. Especially in winter when I will be opening the window to the left of the tank

[beastie]

Look at my lovely plant jar!

It is, on its own, filling with cyclops and ostracods but wowza

 

[beastie]

A smaller shuffle day. One dario in the clown killifish tank had some slight fungus on the fin, might be stress, it is the weakest of the three males. I caught it (it swam to my net on its own, such a good boy), 15 min bath in methylene blue solution, and then to my empty ikea box at my work table it went.

This prompted me to also catch the other (maybe pair) Dario and move them to the 25l. That was pain. I had to take a lot of the stuff out, so I did a 50% water change while at it. Luminatus are stressed. Pygmies are two (as in a pair, but also stressed:) ) so once I get a good source, will buy more.

I have zero idea about the least rasbora. They look good with the darios, though they spend most of their time in the lower part of the tank, not upper as one would expect. Might be the planting. If the darios would breed, the rasboras would be a problem. But if I were to remove them, where would they go. I will keep thinking on it. Also how would I catch them is a good question :)) 

Might do pictures later at night

[beastie]

Third week has passed on my new tank, I had to completely drain it the other week, cause the water leaked through the potted plant holder and wet the mat that I needed to dry out. Water tension is incredible I guess. I was not so impressed. I put the potted plant in the holder in a way that this wont happen again I hope, but I will also have to take a look at the suctions cups or other solutions.

The plants are now sprouting roots, so that is a good sign. The fuzz is almost all gone from the wood, the guppies and my remaining rabbit snail ate it all. I have also very nice looking bladder snails and pond snails, such pretty shells. I know they are pests, but they can be pretty too. 

I did another ammonia NO2 reading and it is still the same, so I guess I will buy a new ammonia test 🙂 

[beastie]

Micropredator tank (dario, indostomus, micro rasboras) and a dario from the other tank

[beastie]

And new pictures of my asian one.

I had to clean the hoses again. I think I have to buy different ones cause I cant clean them every few weeks

PS the orange thing is a carrot and wood wa sadded for the brotia babies. There are three and growing. I need to change the intake filter guard though. Too fine mesh

[beastie]

I must have the most productive rabbit snail or something. Today, in the big tank, I saw a baby rabbit. I was confused, because the adult rabbit snail spent like a week in this big tank in between boxes and now the new tank but she managed to produce a baby. This is a second baby, one I missed when giivng all the others away. I wanted to keep only the adult snail and no longer keep the rabbits, but I have one adult and two baby ones. Ah well

I moved all the corydoras to the new tank already. It was sort of an accident, I thought maybe I will move  the big paleatus, as the tank is colder than the main and she was looking weird, and I caught her easily. I also netted one sterbai easily, so I said ok, will move the group. Several bottle trap attempts, I kept catching the pearl gourami, in the smallest bottle possible, they had to squeeeze in to fit, and it was on the bottom!!! why?!!!

 

Anyways I caught two sterbais with the bottle trap, and then spent three days hunting the remaining one. I also caught wih the bottle trap an ember, I thought great, will catch the others like this. Nope. Not with a net, not with a trap. But I caught several kuhli loaches and otocicnlus, the b-rams ofcourse and the pearls. Anywho, the new tank has its inhabitants and they look stunning and seem so super happy

I also decided against moving the rummynose, seeing the sterbais calm now and eating slowly, the embers alone will do

 

Edited August 4 by beastie