Beastie's journal

[beastie]

I am closer to remaking my big tank, maybe next week, maybe weekend.

I am already half prepared, the aquaclay has been soaking since june, I washed the sand I had, I presoaked the wood (still didnt sink) 

I ordered first part of plants in june, they are sitting in the tank in their container. I did another batch of order, as I was not as satisfied with the size of the plants and the numbers. Boy what I got is a jungle!

All the swords are 50cm high it seems. This time around,  I have a plan of root tabs, rusted bolts and new substrate for the swords, as in the past, due to the crypt and under fertilizing, they all died.

 

It is getting me excited, I hope the tank turns out good looking. I didnt really figure out what the change will be, since I will keep most of the things inside the tank, so just a reshuffling I guess. But hey, new pretty plants!

[beastie]

I am loving the behavior of the sterbais, they are all active, snooping around

The behemoth corydoras, the lone paleatus female, is digging through the substrate, also so far enjoying the tank

[beastie]

All survived my short vacation so now I have a conondrum. There will be a fish fair saturday I plan to go to. My goal is to buy pygmy corydoras to add to my luminatus tank, maybe buy the red lizard catfish or something if they have it.

I am affraid I will be tempted to buy some corydoras. They look absolutely adorable in the new tank, and I almost want them again. But it is a 5 year commitment if they are doing well, and I got burnt so many times before, lost 16 sterbais over the years, still not sure why in most cases. I am also unsure how the lid will work going forward towards colder times.

If I were to get more, should I get the paleatus or the sterbai. Sigh. I will move the rest of the embers once I get to the tank and will consider the hatchetfish too.

 

[beastie]

New photos, new leaves added, plants are doing ok, new leaves, flowering too!

Saturday will be fish fair, will look for an algae eating snail, I have one clithon but the glass is covering itself quite quickly. I have I thin 7 otocinclus in the other tank, I wonder if I should separate them and pt few here. Will contemplate

[Whitecloud09]

Looks good. Decided to jump in and follow your journey @beastie. Like your tanks.

[beastie]

Uf, such a long day!

Yesterday I took home the willow branches that I had had submerged outside to clean and prepare. Oh My!!! Such a bad smell. Rotting bark I assume which I scrubbed, but the combination smelled like manure and vomit. Not nice. I scrubbed and let submerged in clean water with a little cleaner that is water soluble, and scrubbed in the morning. I used one that didnt smell that bad but I will be returning the other one to the tub outside cause... not nice

Today was a slow day at work, so instead I decided to remake the big tank and also count all the fish in there. I am not yet finished, 7 hours later. Prepared buckets for plants, for fish, for shrimp. I started with hatchetfish (5), who are easy to catch and moved them to my new tank. They look good in there. Next the bamboo shrimp (2), also to the new tank as they would not enjoy a box with no flow but they are enjoying the new tank. I may leave them there, they have places to sit and a flow, will see. Amanos (4) and snail to a box with the lone guppy

One of the harder ones were the pearl gouramis (5), they would straight up jump out of the net. Bolivian rams (4) were easy, ember tetras (5) also, otocinclus (5) were so hard to catch !!!  I had to let 80% of the water out, all the wood, all the planted plants,... to catch the freaking rummynose tetras (7) and kuhli loaches (4) who were easily the hardest...

I spent next hour or two trying to suck the sand with the hose, which kept getting filled and stuck and that caused water to spray everywhe, I had to run back and forth. In the end I took the sand out with a dustpan to buckets and just sucked out the rest (still, 5 restarts of the hose at least). Ugh

The dual substrates that I know will eventually mix and end up looking horrible, but now are sort of fun. The wood pile that acts like a separator between the substrates. The ceramic cave (and will add a ceramic planter and maybe a tunnel, if I get the loricaria). After that, the red clay substrate got root tabs, rusted nails and all the sword plants. The lotus plants and all the sprouts are super fragile, I think I broke half the leaves. I still dont like the rotala, I planted it and have plants to cut it and make it bushy, but it looks...uneven and weird. Will see. I used a stone to weigh down bolbilitis fern and I still have two java ferns that are outside and I am waiting for the water to clear out to pick their position.

It has been filling up for hours now, ofcourse so much mess from the sand (even though I washed it all few weeks back, for hours! and the clay substrate was washed and submerged month ago at least so it would be easy to work with), fine layer of dust, broken leaves, a mess. I wish for a skimmer which I dont have, so I just let out part of the tank trying to get the hose on the surface (had to restart two time as it lost suction) and I will let it sit down before starting the filter and deciding what to do next

I think I will find another air filter and put it in the bucket with b-rams/gourami to run and leave them in overnight, but  I will see how the tank looks. All the otocinclus went into my long term standing ikea box with moss which has a lot of diatom algae, so they should be ok. they also got the kuhlies in there, poor stressed noodles.

The rummynose are sitting in their own box on my dining table.

For now it all looks like a freaking mess, the house is a mess, everything is wet, everything has sand on it, six buckets from sand and of sand are outisde. I spent another hour or more trying to fish out my mts snails from the substrate to move to the new one, to help manage the sand, and I dont have many. I dont understand people saying their tank is overran with them where after three years, I have barely 30 (of size I found, I must have missed some tiny babies).

Also, weirdly, found TWO MORE tylomelania rabbit babies in the big tank. So I sold/gave away like 25 to terminate my population, kept the adult one and somehow have 4 babies.

[beastie]

big tank redoing is 95% done. Another water change today to clean the surface and try to get rid of the duckweed, that I reintroduced with the frogbit and doubt I will ever get rid of.

i returned the rummynose, gourami and bolivian rams during the day once temp stabilized. It was pain, but the rummynose colored back up within 15 minutes, so was not as bad. Regarding the otos and amanos and nerite, I am not sure now, I think I will put the nerites to the new tank with diatom for now, and keep the otos and kuhlis in the box for few more days. it has a filter, moss, plants and I added jackfruit leave. I worry the tank is too clean now, I scrubbed all the glass, the wood was washed, there is no leaf litter and I am unsure how will the plants handle the replanting. I would move the kuhlis, but they are in the same box as otos and not possible to catch now. I also just now realized I have zero pest snails except the handful of MTS. Will have to scour my jars.

Will see

 

I was at the fish fair today. Bought 5 paleatus corydoras, babies really, they are like 1/7th the size of my large female. No quarantine, straight into the new tank.

The tank is now finished, a bit overstocked really

4 sterbai corydoras, 6 paleatus corydoras, 5 ember tetras (btw all females), 5 marthae hatchetfish. 2 bamboo shrimp, but 5 tylomelania snails

I also bought 10 pygmy corydoras, to give them another try, n the luminatus tank and 4 red lizzard whiptails (loricaria) and they are super cute and very small

Due to instability of the new tank, the loricaria are in my box which again has moss, frogbit, diatom algae, jackfruit leaf for them and I will feed them and keep an eye on them, before I add them to the big tank, where they will end up. They are 4-5,5 cm small only and the big tank has a cave, wood structure and I will add the teracota pot, it should be enough hiding places for them. My boyfriend calls them helicopters (he has funny names for all my fish as he doesnt do latin and doesnt remember the czech names

 

Now, to drink coffee, watch my fish and clean the whole damn house 🙂 Water everywhere, sand still everywhere, I had to clean the asian tank filter, again, as the output was diminshed, again, and managed to tug on the tube on the filter itself tearing it out, so water EVERYWHERE and when I was restarting the filter, one of the minnows climbed into it, so I had to dismantle again. Such a long day, now I need some days of just enjoying the fish :))) 

BTW I suspect it is the sponge on the intake of the asian tank tha treduces the flow, but I have nothing to replace it with, neither did the fair, nor the store where I was after for the pots....

[beastie]

Just realized how funny it is that my newest tank has, except the today added paleatus and the tylomelania babies, all fish that I have had for 3 years, even the bamboo shrimp, and they are my oldest inhabitants at this moment i think 🙂 

[beastie]

Ok java ferns in the planters are in, otos and kuhlis are also back, was a bit stressful for me and for them. Yesterday I boiled a lot of leaves and added to the tank for them to have something to eat and hide in and I fed them repashy in the box

Now I need to check out the loricaria, who are still a bit passive, also were fed repashy, and will see from there

I took a picture of my tank with luminatus, boy the algae is so visible like this. But with the new pygmies I cant exactly wash it

I keep seeing group of the pygmy corydoras wiggling all over the glass. they were active after adding in the previous tank too, I was so joyous. Now I am more reserved, but they are damn cute 

[beastie]

Oh one last of the newest tank, with sun hitting the leaf just right

[beastie]

I weighed down the palm "nut" I brought last week, intended for the lizard whiptails that will go in this tank. Well apparently kuhli loaches like it

It has a slime coat and since it was floating on the surface, I put stones in, still not stable much, but apparently so much fun

[beastie]

Most fish, including some pearl gouramis spend time in and under the nut. Crazy 🙂 

I bought 10 more kuhli loaches and in their quarantine I put an upside down coconut and they do hid under it and appreciate it very much, so a good choice

I also bought few larger lotus pods and something else that I need to boil and add to various tanks. I kept eyeing the bettas, they had some gorgeous kois, mustards colored ones, so many. I know I cant have it, but oh so nice!!

[beastie]

I made a video, the tank never looks as good on the pictures/videos as it does in person. Anyways initially during the remake I wanted to get rid of the rummynose but had no takers. Now looking at the tank, it feels like the silver theme that I have going, the rummynose, pearls, bolivian rams, is kind of working and maybe I need to buy more rummynose or look into other silver tetra

The kuhli loaches make a nice contrast and the red lizzard whiptails will be hidden in the red wood pile anyway

Thoughts?

 

[beastie]

Due to temp drop in my quarantine box to 21°C I had to move the whiptails to the main tank a bit earlier. Since yesterday, after temp equalizing, they are hovering around the release spot, hanging on leaves and wood and looking like nice xmas ornaments

Such a fun fish

The fuzz on the palm 'nut' was happily eaten by all the otos, as predicted. Everyone is always around the hut, pearls go inside to look, kuhlis live there, otos are all on it. Interesting how such a small thing brings such a joy. I also added lotus pod

 

[beastie]

I am going to be losing some luminatus soon, two males, maybe three are thin. I increased feeding to two feedings a day, one is microworms/bbs/frozen cyclops, the other is dry food but I think I am fighting a losing battle with their age

I have had them for a year and 2 months and bought them at the age where you could recognize male from female, so I assume 6 months, maybe a bit less. I am sad as I dont have as many babies as I expected to have to ensure the colony survival. I have no idea how the pygmies are doing, apart from water change I dont see them much, I see maybe 2-3, during a water change I saw 8 chasing each other, but never 12

[beastie]

Having a quarantine set up to not stress the fish has some definite drawbacks. I had the ikea box, moss, hideout caves,.. for the kuhli loaches so they would not get ich like last time. Instead one of them died, unknown to me, amonia spike and chain event and all of them are dead within 2 days... despite massive water changes and small salt treatment.

Live and learn I guess, I know 10 liters is not much, but it should have been doable. But a bittersweet thing, I lost 60% when I didnt quarantine the last batch, and 100% when I quarantined this one .... 

[beastie]

Loricaria pictures, otocinclus and a photobomb

[Woowala]

On 9/2/2024 at 7:24 AM, beastie said:

I am going to be losing some luminatus soon, two males, maybe three are thin. I increased feeding to two feedings a day, one is microworms/bbs/frozen cyclops, the other is dry food but I think I am fighting a losing battle with their age

I have had them for a year and 2 months and bought them at the age where you could recognize male from female, so I assume 6 months, maybe a bit less. I am sad as I dont have as many babies as I expected to have to ensure the colony survival. I have no idea how the pygmies are doing, apart from water change I dont see them much, I see maybe 2-3, during a water change I saw 8 chasing each other, but never 12

Throw a mop in there. You never know, they might still be spawning. Easy enough to find out anyway.

[beastie]

On 9/6/2024 at 12:01 PM, Woowala said:

Throw a mop in there. You never know, they might still be spawning. Easy enough to find out anyway.

I did, but I also have lot of plants in there, especially hornwort. I cut some last week and put it in a box, just in case

[beastie]

Temp drops in here, we went from 33C to 15C, expected 12C on saturday. The pygmy corydoras/luminatus tank dropped to 22C and maybe lower over night, while the luminatus could handle it, the pygmies would not be super happy, so until I turn on the heaters in the house, I added a small heater and am planning to keep it at 23C.

Gravel vac on this tank brought out all the pygmy corydoras t nose around the substrate and I think I countd around 11, so it seems like they are all alive. Was such a pleasure to see them for once, I am so sad they dont enjoy venturing out more. And they did even swim as a group!!

Lost the first luminatus, the skinny one. Rest seem ok. Too bad this tank does not photograph due to glare from windows

[beastie]

I went from few frogbit plants in the big tank to completely covered surface in a span of a month. Ah well. Where is my shovel.

 

[beastie]

Some loses through my vacation but mostly in my senior members of the tank. The house plants are letting their roots nice and long, so that is fun 🙂 

I am thinking about adding some fish to this but not sure what would work.

 

The tiny paleatus btw fit in the holes of the planter on the left side and swim in and out. I wonder what will happen once they grow up 🙂 

[beastie]

I was sitting here, watching the tank and suddenly got an idea! And as I always tend to do, I weighed it, decided it was a good idea and immediately executed it.

My self imposed restrictions on a possible new fish to add to my roots tank (low temp, flow, lid with gaps, small volume) made me realize I already have the perfect fish for this tank, at home! My White cloud mountain minnows dont jump, love the flow and are also in an unheated tank. Problem solved.

They are not only lovely looking, have interresting behaviour, but they will also swim into your net when trying to catch them (or plants, or clean debris, or start a filter, or swim in your hand,...) So within few minutes I collected 15 gold variant white clouds and moved them to this tank. I left the normal colored ones in the original (only 10 pieces)

They look marvelous here

 

And ofcrouse, now my Asian tank is mostly empty (10 wcmm, 7 panda garra, 3 dario hysginon and like 100 shrimp that the darios are trying to eat). I was going to add a school anyway, and now, I decided to add a heater, keep the tank stable at 24°C which will give me way more options than the unheated one before and it doesnt have as many restrictions (has a tight fitting lid, many plants now, some flow)

Yay, let the fun begin! ofcourse suggestions are appreciated

I will add a picture of the asian tank after dark, as the glare makes photos impossible

[beastie]

Just some pictures from yesterday. The Asian tank would look so much better if I scrubbed the glass too.