Guppysnail Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 On 1/2/2024 at 11:34 AM, anewbie said: I presume is two males I’m guessing male and female showing off to each other for possible courting.Telling sex in the d is about the dorsal spots. I don’t remember the entire explanation but girls have more pronounced black and white. Left is girl right is boy my girl my boy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 s. repens seems to grow well under the right condition: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 My blackwater aquarium - ph around 5.3/ec 26: - Behind them i'm growing aquatic plants emerrsed: 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 Cryptocoryne Pontederiifolia Red Lips grown emersed: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 One wet cowboy: 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 About 6 weeks ago i picked up 6 of these (wc): This one i'm 90% sure is the female as she has less colouring. Unfortunately the male(s) pictures did not turn out well as they are blurry so I'll try again next week. They are not quite breeding age; unfortunately unlike the Keyhole these guys never sit still making picture taking more difficult. They are in the 180 (72x30x18) with the keyhole. That tank gotta be over populated with something like 15 cherry barb; 7 keyholes 6 l.a. and tons of pygmy, orange laser and cats - not to mention the 15 kubotai rasbora. Oh well - when the keyoles and these folks pair off i'll move some of the others downstairs (maybe). This is an interesting picture: What we see here is a carolina bacopa. Never been a fan of this plant but never quite willing to toss it. Anyway what we are seeing is the transition from a high-tech aquarium to a low tech aquarium. It has taken about 6 months but it is finally sprouting some healthy leaves (very bottom) as the old piece is slowly eaten. The key point is the amount of time the plant has taken to transition. Folks tend to forget that plants move faster than rocks but just barely. This is some rotala blood red purchased about 4 months ago; I suspect the seller grew it in a high-tech environment (co2 injection); and it is generally a plant that does much better with co2 but again we see after many months it is sending up new sprouts adjusted to the new enviornment. I suspect it would be more colourful if i floated it near the lights (and frequently i do) but i wanted to see how it did planted. Again this is after 4 months - it is growing and not melting but the speed is comparable to a fast stone walking home. [sorry for the lousy photo - phone just refused to focus on the forground plant] This tangle of mess is another pia; what we see is a huge mess of crowded crypts. I swore when i moved my crypts would stop being crowded and they would have lots of room - after all i was moving 50% of the plants from my 40B to a brand new 180 with 4x the space. Alas the more space i give them they more crowded they get. I really need some birth control for them. Oh well at least they are nice looking plants. My last pia for this week: What we see here and it is very very hard to see is a very badly behaving Krobia xinguensis. I've not had these before and i swear this set i purchased (5 fishes) are over weight - anyway i told them this was a holding tank and no hanky panky allowed but alas they just couldn't restrain themselves and a pair has bred and now have about 30 free swimming frys. Alas i'm not hatching bbs so unsure if they will get very far - i might toss in some gold pearl but usually it takes some live food.They are pretty decent parents but when i went behind the aquarium to get a good picture of the parents/fry the parents went crazy so i guess no decent picture of them - or the frys. This was taken from the front (it is a 120 so 4ft wide and 2 feet front to back). Hum. maybe i should hatch some bbs but not really setup for it right now. Anyway that aquarium has 6 pleco (1 l204; 2 l397; 3 snowballs) 5 krobia (the big male did not breed) and 14 angelfishes (it had a few cardinals but after the krobia ate 1/2 of them 2 hours after introduction i removed the others). They are like all mouth. The only other fish i have as bad as them are the l. thayeri - unlike the d and a these guys are again all mouth - just suck in anything that come near them - very much like the krobia. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 Much to my amazement since i'm not feeding them i still have krobia frys and they seem quite a bit larger. No clue what they are eating but i havent' lost any fingers. However the purpose for this post is every now and then is see this; the very first time i saw it i panicked - i mean one of my festy died or something. I believe what is going on is they are 'fish' for insects and stay perfectly still (no fin movement) and occasionally turnover. The angels of course have no clue what is going on but they will swim over and 'poke' at them while they are in this state (i wonder if they do this in the wild since they two species co-exist in the wild); if you look at the bottom you can see one of my head standers (Anostomus ternetzi). Btw the pictures of the fishes in this aquarium (esp from my desk) will never be great because the glass is so thick (it is a 10x4). Not sure what to do about that aspect. In the background you can see a l. theyari (those guys are similar to the krobia in behavior - general monsters - I think i favor the l.a. and l.d. Probably l.d. wins out overall. The l.a are nicer looking but they are also very aggressive eaters (none of these fish have shown general aggression); the l.d are much more reclusive. The 4 i have tend to hang out together and mostly get along - they stick by the blue rams which are also a quieter fish. The krobia and l. theyari are the most aggressive eaters i have - if you wait 30 seconds they act like they haven't had a decent meal in weeks and will eat anything that touch the water aggressively. Still mad at the krobia for eating my cardinals 2 hours after putting them in the tank. Later i'll try to get a good picture of my discus aquarium - i'm waiting to see if they eat the cardinals. From my reading it is 50/50 much like angles sometimes it works and sometimes it doens't but the discus are definitely more reclusive and the slightest change will send them to a corner. The tetras cant' decide what to do with them. When I first moved them into the 180 (72x24x24); the tetra and rams stayed on one side of the tank and the discus on another. When i had workers over today the discus retreated to the bottom right corner and refused to come out and the tetra retook the entire tank but when the workers left the discus came back out and the aquarium got split in half again. The cardinals are definitely leary of the discus as are the rams. Oh well time will tell. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 On 1/28/2024 at 3:35 PM, anewbie said: This one i'm 90% sure is the female as she has less colouring. The anal and pelvic fins of the males will be noticeably longer and pointier. Both males and females color up and down based on mood/ stress. Both will show brilliant color at times. My females do tend to get a deeper blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 On 2/2/2024 at 7:58 PM, Guppysnail said: The anal and pelvic fins of the males will be noticeably longer and pointier. Both males and females color up and down based on mood/ stress. Both will show brilliant color at times. My females do tend to get a deeper blue. I've not noticed that in my l.a; i've had them before. The primary difference i noticed is the male is much larger and have a hump in the head. The one i said is a female never colours up at all. In fact among my l.a., i've never noticed much change in colouring 'cept when breeding unlike some of the other fishes i have which are very moody. My discus will frequently go from dark brown to very light orange depending on their moves (as well as raise and lower stripes); the festum - you can tell right away when they are angry - the fins raise and the stripes get very dark. There is one in particular that is always moody when has very dark aggressive posture - the first time i thought he was guarding an area (breeding?) but i never identified a female that was interested in him. Domestic angels of course i see very little change depending on mood- wild angels the stripes are a dead giveaway on mood. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 One of my large L172a (i have 2 large ones 1 medium one and 1 small one). The others have caves in areas which are hard to photograph due to glass thickness - one is very cute hang out at the top of a notch in driftwood during feeding time - (s)he eats the food that falls into the notch as it floats from front to back; this one took a sponge (why i don't know - it initially dug a huge cave under a rock - but maybe someone else chased him out. Btw i have a yoyo that does the same thing - i'll get his photograph one of these days - in his/her case it is an itsybitsy piece of driftwood next to the side: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 Added a group of these yesterday but the others didn't like this fellow; poor fellow all alone: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 I have a piece of drift wood next to the glass; can't remember if i put it there or the fishes pushed it there; but either way this little guy (and it is always this one) hides behind it next to the glass several times a day 7 days a week; basically he'll have a rough day of playing and then when it is time for a nap he'll go there and rest. Guess no one can see him on the other side 😉 Alas i disturbed him when i took the picture so he moved a bit to the front - normally he lies flat so his top is below the edge of the drift-wood. This was sold as a yoyo several years ago but it is much lighter than the other 3 - either a different catch location or perhaps one of the many similar species. I'm pretty sure it is a he as the females as adults tend to be a bit wider girth; i have at least one large bossy female. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 On 2/18/2024 at 5:12 AM, anewbie said: I have a piece of drift wood next to the glass; can't remember if i put it there or the fishes pushed it there; but either way this little guy (and it is always this one) hides behind it next to the glass several times a day 7 days a week; basically he'll have a rough day of playing and then when it is time for a nap he'll go there and rest. Guess no one can see him on the other side 😉 Alas i disturbed him when i took the picture so he moved a bit to the front - normally he lies flat so his top is below the edge of the drift-wood. This was sold as a yoyo several years ago but it is much lighter than the other 3 - either a different catch location or perhaps one of the many similar species. I'm pretty sure it is a he as the females as adults tend to be a bit wider girth; i have at least one large bossy female. Hell no! That is a CAPTCHA fish and you should write the code on it to see what it is. 4YROYGS 😝🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 Well one of my sweet little ladies found an excellent use for a shell: (and yes there are eggs in there) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 (edited) This is an updated picture from my bed room aquarium: Population includes 16 cherry barb- 2 years ago i purchased 8 from aquahuna and they were all males; then about 6 months ago i purchased 8 more and they were 7 females nad 1 male so i guess that kind of balance things out. A few young guppies that i failed to catch when i moved (most ended up in the basement); a bunch of pygmy cory (15? 20? 25?); a bunch of orange laser cory (15? 20?); 7 keyholes 6 l. araguaiae; some random pleco (i think 2 blue phantom and 3 or 4 Wabenmuster). I had a bunch of kubtai rasbora - my favorite rasbora but over the past 6 months they vanished - many were 3 or 4 years old - i hate to think the keyholes have been snacking on them but can't imagine they all died. However a lot of my pygmy cory are quite small - oh well who knows. I'll probaby buy some more and put them in a more friendly aquarium as they are such a lovely fish. I do consider this 180 over stocked and will trim down the keyholes and l.a. when they form pairs. Here are some closer up: Getting a fair amount of bba and i think i need to add more of something - probably phosphate. This is the only aquarium i regularly put in fertilizer every week but it seems to not be enough (i use thrive liquid and root tabs). - This little fellow has really suffered. This is an opacus sword plant; in the previous aquarium before i moved anerobic pocket developed and killed a lot of its roots; i checked 2 months ago and some decent roots have regrown and it put out two very tiny small leaves. This is the same plant in another aquarium which is growing quite well - that one gets a lot less fertilizer and the water is a lot softer but similar temp - slightly warmer: Maybe it prefers the warm ultra soft water 😉 - Horrible picture but only new plant i've added the past 3 months; it was sold as a sunset wenditti; and it does have slightly more colour but in recent years i tend to favor green and green greco over these other variants of wenditti. This is on the right side of the aquarium and it is blood red rotala; not super red in this low tech aquarium but the tops and two left most stems are all new growth; you can see how hte lower growth didn't really adapt from hi-tech to low tech environment but the plant is growing well considering it is lo-tech (no co2). It has been there since sept so it has taken it 5 solid months to send up two new sprouts. Now if it was in @Mmiller2001 aquarium it would be a strong lovely red so there is some advantages of adding co2. And totally unrelated this is a green wavy (werid name) buce grown emersed. Growing quite fast - only been there a couple of months I think: Edited March 3 by anewbie 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Try lowering temperature and see what happens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 On 3/3/2024 at 6:04 PM, Mmiller2001 said: Try lowering temperature and see what happens! Lower to do what? This one is 76 the other one is 78. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 On 3/3/2024 at 5:05 PM, anewbie said: Lower to do what? This one is 76 the other one is 78. If the fish can take it, drop temperature to 70 or 68. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 On 3/3/2024 at 6:07 PM, Mmiller2001 said: If the fish can take it, drop temperature to 70 or 68. It won't go that low due to room temp but what do you expect to happen; which plant will it help ? For the fishes in that aquarium i should keep it at least 74; but if there is a specific plant it might help i could move it to another water box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 It will help all the plants. There’s some amazing journals recently with a few guys using low temperature to grow CO2 required plants without CO2. Amazing stuff really, drop to 74 and see what happens. I dropped my tank to 74 recently. Wish I could go lower and may just see what happens if I go to 72. Cautiously though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 (edited) This is my newest mistake: I purchased these 7 fishes (you can't see all 7 clearly) as one species. However, when i look at them closely i believe even in these poor pictures there are at least 3 different species. Look at the right side of the 2nd picture you see a fish with no mark on the gill plate. That is species 1. The fish next to it seems to have 7 bars and a mark on the gill plate that is species 2. And if you look at the top fish it has a striped tail but the one below it has a dotted tail (both have marks on the gill plate). Edited March 6 by anewbie 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasaltemelosguy Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Beautiful fish. I have a jurupari, a mirabilis and a brasiliensis and I may pick up some tapajos. The mirabilis is the most aggressive fish I've ever owned but he's in a tank full of giants which keeps him under control. Perhaps you may see yours in one of these charts: Geophagus - List of fishes - Fishipedia (fishi-pedia.com) Fish Identification (fishbase.se) 26 Geophagus species ideas | cichlids, aquarium fish, south american cichlids (pinterest.com) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 On 3/6/2024 at 6:44 PM, dasaltemelosguy said: Beautiful fish. I have a jurupari, a mirabilis and a brasiliensis and I may pick up some tapajos. The mirabilis is the most aggressive fish I've ever owned but he's in a tank full of giants which keeps him under control. Perhaps you may see yours in one of these charts: Geophagus - List of fishes - Fishipedia (fishi-pedia.com) Fish Identification (fishbase.se) 26 Geophagus species ideas | cichlids, aquarium fish, south american cichlids (pinterest.com) I've been using this paper: https://www.gbif.org/species/119600283 I believe if the stress marks are reliable there are at least 3 species in the bag of 7 fishes. I personally would prefer a single species. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 On 3/6/2024 at 6:44 PM, dasaltemelosguy said: Beautiful fish. I have a jurupari, a mirabilis and a brasiliensis and I may pick up some tapajos. The mirabilis is the most aggressive fish I've ever owned but he's in a tank full of giants which keeps him under control. Perhaps you may see yours in one of these charts: Geophagus - List of fishes - Fishipedia (fishi-pedia.com) Fish Identification (fishbase.se) 26 Geophagus species ideas | cichlids, aquarium fish, south american cichlids (pinterest.com) We identified them as 4 g. dicrozoster and 3 g. abailos. So mix batches - but definitely wasn't what they were sold as. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 A couple of updated pictures posted elsewhere just adding them here for time lapse: First the discus aquarium after adding a black background: And a couple from the 4ftx30 inch blackwater: The picture below is side to side where you can actually see the full dimensions - from the glass to opposite side is 48 inches and from front to back is 30 inches; so nominally 90 to 100 gallons or think 4 29 glued together. Population is a bunch of hatchet fishes, some emerald eye rasbora, a few pencil fishes left and 5 to 8 apisto (8 were put in but i don't actually know all 8 are doing well though i did see 4 yesterday - normally i see at most 2). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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