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beastie

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Because I will do a water change later today, I fed bloodworms, some algae wafers (for the otocinclus, but they are not the one who get to eat it). I also found a dead white cloud minnow on the glass support beam under the lid, was there for some time apparently, I nearly hurled. Sometimes the hobby is not so fun.

 

Managed to get a nice picture of my amano, and I tried to use a sieve to separate smaller bloodworms for pygmy corydoras, and ended up with a sieve full of bloodworms, so I just dumped it in the tank for the garras to clean. No idea how other people do it, I guess the pygmies will just get to eat the rotifers and the bbs and the rest with the rasboras

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  • 2 weeks later...

Maintenace, did two tanks two days ago, did the rest of the tanks today. Gravel vac at both asian and big tanks, no issues anywhere.

I have to offer my rabbit snails for sale, I think I counted 20 snails in my 54 liter tank! Madness. And I cant even put them in other tanks, too cold, too bolivian ram, too planted and wouldnt be able to gravel vac! 

 

I must say I am still unsure about my big tank. The embers/rummynose numbers are low and the fish is ok but not o great, the pearl gouramis are so far meh, I wish we have had honey gouramis available instead, because the pearls are just standing around. For once my b-rams are not guarding so they hang out in their foursome all over the tank, which is fun. The plants are not doing that well, I need new fertilizer and to buy that damn rotala. Sterbais are a big let down, they were one of the fish I was most excited when planning, mainly because of the videos of the large schools of just fed corydoras, but overall they just...sit around. And are not even growing as expected or breeding, which should have happened. Maybe I hyped them up too much in my head. Maybe the cherry barbs would be what the tank needs, but I am afraid I a buying more and more without deterining the  root cause....

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Tried to take picture of the least rasboras but they move too much for a quality picture

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They are awesome, but I barely see 7 of them. I only see 3-5 pygmies too. Ah well hope they are just hiding

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On 1/2/2024 at 8:10 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Nice! You can see the Bolivians sparring and I really like the forest of Aponogetons on the surface. 

I think the key to that plant is to really not want it to propagate or grow longer leaves. Works like a charm for me!:)

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Major water change day yesterday. I was too lazy and did over 50% WC on my pseudomugil tank and did it with cold water, for future they DO NOT like that, almost lost a male, was dazed, swimming on its back and dark. I will do it slower like I do it always, not just dump it in cause I am a lazy person... poor fish.

Other than that, I fed grammarus as I have them in the freezer and I do not know what I was thinking, none of the fish I have has such a big mouth... hence water changes 🙂 I have been contemplating adding a spark of movement to my indostomus tank, since they are less active than ever (I suspect it is the temperature drop, but they are also really satisfied and dont have to hunt too much) but there is nothing that could go to a heaterless, basically filter less, no lid 25 liter. Too bad there arent any super small bettas, I would even put a lid in for one 🙂

Picture dump

Cube tank

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Do the pygmy corydoras look ok?

 

Indostomus emptiness

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Water change day. Due to this I overfed the big tank with bloodworms in order to have corydoras eat their fill, otherwise the tetras will get to them, and this way I can easily get rid of the excess. All tanks are doing ok, I am awaiting new air pump and new plants to come. 

The frogbit on the clown killifish tank is massive! wide and massive. Fun

 

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Finally I got the rotala rotundifolia for which I have high hopes to thrive in my low nutrients not so bright tank. Most of the tank plants are sort of hanging in there but not thriving. I also ordered some fertilizers. Anyways, I had to order the rotala from an eshop, as none of the physical locations had such a simple plant and noone offered their excess plants. Shame but I was waiting for a month now so decided to take the plunge and also get a new airfilter, to replace in the indostomus tank as I got the impression it is broken.

I put it in the big tank, once I finished, every fish was checking it out. I am accepting bets on how long do the plants remain rooted in the substrate before someone pulls them out. So far they survived the night

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I have to do big filter maintenance this weekend, on the hoses specifically, they are full of yuck. It is a shame, cause that is dreadful work, pulling them from the cabinet, unscrewing the filter...ah well, fun saturday ahead. 

 

I also bought Ceratopteris siliquosa but I am unsure into which tank to put it. Maybe to both indostomus and to the rabbit tank. I am afraid the rabbits will eat it, but will see I guess. Play time today

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Second night, two stems floating, replanted.

I split the ceratopteris and overnight the rabbits ate half of it and uprooted the rest...hmm. The other half went to the indostomus tank where I replaced the air pump with a new one which has better flow. I still didnt decide to remove the sponge from the tank, I am just too afraid 🙂 Also if I just leave the airstone in, it looks ugly. Not sure yet, have to watch the sticks closely

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Oki, filter and hose cleanup done, always a hassle.

I replaced the output ramp, as I took it out with the diminished flow and now it is back. The plants that I planted are all good, the flow is now increased, there is new leaf litter so now it is jst missing some new fish. Managed to take a picture with the pearl gouramis present! what a novelty

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I took pictures of the rotala and it seems it is doing good, no more replanting needed, seems like it is even growing!

On the other hand, stargrass is dying. I mean...a weed basically and I cant keep it alive...nice. I guess I will take it out and replant the rotala once it starts doing better and needs maintenance. But for real

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So, big changes in the Pseudomugil/Tylomelania tank

The tank is a mess and I have too many snails and noone wants them. Sad. I will have to do something about that. First of a larger sponge filter I guess.

I found one dead pseudomugil today, maybe overfeeding, maybe cold water shock, maybe who knows. I did another water change and put some boiling water to the bucket to equalize temperatures quicker. I also washed the sponge filter. I ordere new botanicals and this tank got two leaves of jackfruit and mangroove or what is it called. 3 washed alder cones too. Given rabbits keep eating all my plants, including the rotala, the limnobium is not working at all, frogbit is again slowly dying (and has to be on the surface anyway), I decided to experiment with aquaponics. Welcome to the basil experiment!

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I also took out the dying java moss and put in my newly made spawning mop with a cork. took me a week to buy 100% acrylic yarn. Didnt know where to buy yarn at all 🙂 Pseudomugil are loving the yarn in a "what is it". The leaves need to saturated and fall down

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About the other botanicals, two MOKHA pods and two CARINIANA pods will go to the killifish tank that will soon get the new dario hysgion ( I hope). The FUNTUMIA ELASTICA piece is too large so will go to the big tank, where maybe the soon to be purchased kuhli loaches will love it.

Regarding the kuhlies, I decided to cut a piece of the anubias that is growing upwards and tie it down in a sort of lying down position onto a cave that I will put in the section of wood to create a hideout for them. I will also dump some of the jackfruit and other leaves in, for them to hide. I almost ran out of oak, need to collect some

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If all goes as planned, I will go to the fish fair sunday, bring some kuhli loaches and pearl gouramis, and next weekend the store that is an hour away should have my darios and some new rummynose tetras to increase the school

Spoke too soon! The leaves do not need to saturate, they need to be eaten!!! Sorry about the glare, the tank cant be photographed during the day

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Killifish tank water change done, botanicals added, the pod closed after being boiled and I accidentally broke it in half when opening it. The tunnels need to soak more, same as the leaf. Shrimp like it anyways, although the wont like the darios

 

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On 2/1/2024 at 2:00 PM, Guppysnail said:

I’m excited to learn about the breeding behaviors of your new Dario. I miss my lone guy and am quite sad I was unable to get a mate for him to see their courtship. 

I am a bit nervous to be honest, I also do not have it confirmed they will arrive yet, maybe next Wednesday they will confirm. My initial plan is to put all 5 (since i want one male two females) to this tank, observe them, hope to identify the extra males, catch them (using some of your ninjaskill that I also do not have 🙂 ) and then see how they fare. I am also worried about the darios killing the clown killifish, the shrimp, each other. Everyone says they are just SOOO aggressive and I just hope they are not 

But I am also excited

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My lone boy was in with Heterandria formosa and neocaridina.  He never even bothered newborns as far as I could tell.  Often in species that eat predominantly live food I’ve found the females are the more aggressive predators though.  As far as adult least killi he paid zero attention to them and even my Scarlet badis did not go after panda Cory fry to large to fit in their mouth. 
Aggression I think would be very conspecific 

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I am loving the spawning mop, the egg collection is just so damn easy!! Why didnt I do that sooner. Collected three eggs in the morning. Too bad I chose hornwort from the cube tank for the egg place, it is melting. But I did a cleanup now before putting the eggs in. Hopefully will work like that. Two weeks for hatching.

 

I need to get the feeding tube, the rummynose are such freaking gluttons, I sprinkle dried, I feed in many places, but they will not let much food drop to the bottom for the corydoras. And the females are just so damn FAT. I guess that is what I get for also being fat... fat fish, fat me. Luckily the dogs are not fat :))

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Found out the CARINIANA  pods are more common known as Savu pods and they are awesome.

I also need more of the Canoinhas Pod  as they close when in wtaer and create a small not fully closed tunnel. I put one in my large tank, saw several otocinclus drifting inside it. I need more and I bet the kuhli will love them

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I am posting a lot, so I will only do an update on the cube and do the update on the big tank on sunday once I get from the fair.

The cube has hornwort that is melting, so I pulled it all out, java fern is also melting and shedding leaves. I put in the egeria from the other tank that was chewed by the snails, doesnt look great, returned some hornwort that looks healthy, put in a jackfruit leaf and I might buy a cryptocoryne of some sorts. Low light and no sunlight hitting the tank

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I can count 9-10 rasboras, but only like 6 or so corydoras, who were btw super happy about my messing around 🙂 such joy

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Sunday, fish fair. Not a good day for me though, I made some newbie mistakes. I guess I was bound to.

I have a mild cold so I am using it as an excuse. I bought 12 kuhli loaches for hte big tank and 4 pearl gourami, also for the big tank. No quarantine, they do that at the vendors and I do not have the place for that now. I however didnt notice that I lost a rummynose tetra. Maybe the fat is also a problem. Who knows not like I can treat it. That was mistake number one. Number two was releasing the pearls in the tank and only AFTER noticing one of them have a bent feeler and missing tail fin. I would love to move it and nurture it, alas catching it is no longer an option. Three of the pearls are on the left side hanging with the much larger female, the fourth tailless is stuck in the plants on the right side, which is the male territory, and he will viciously chase it away and without the tail, it is at a disadvantage. Poor fish. The male will chase even the female and the three newbies, but they are way better at evading. I know pearls are one of the mildest gouramis, but they appear more aggressive than my bolivian rams. But just to each other

Kuhli loaches after release were awesome and everywhere, now, the few hours later, not so much. Ah well. I will give them a month before judging them. They hang out in the foliage on top even. Strange. However one, the largest, was not that great. I caught it and placed in a box hanging in the tank to keep temp and added java moss. Either he will make the night or not. Typical kuhli stress death it seems. poor noodle.

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I also brought a snail, put it in the asian tank after some research. It is either brotia pagodula or armata. I cant say which. Sold as pagodula, but that is always the case. The asian tank should be ideal, lower temp, high oxygenation, loads of stones to graze on. Or get stuck in. Will see. I wonder if they need wood since there is obviously none.

 

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I also bought some plants but am in no mood to plant them. Watching the busy big tank. Despite the mistakes, it is fun! The new pearls interact with the female quite cutely. The bolivian rams at first thought the kuhli loaches were a snack, but they zoomed right away and the b-rams since didnt really bother them. 

Edited by beastie
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