cmo1922 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 I've kept planted aquariums for a while now but have over the past few years caught the MTS bug and recently tried my hand at casual breeding. The hobby has proved great for stress relief for me and is teaching me a lot about patience! Here are my 3 tanks (soon to be 3.5 as I will be moving my cory babies to their own grow out soon). 10 gallon: set up for about 1.5 years; stocked with breeding populations of neocardina and ramshorn snails; 1 mystery snail; 1 oto catfish; 6 pygmy corydoras; 9 emerald dwarf rasboras (7 adults and 2 juveniles). The rasboras produce a lot of fry but I've only gotten 2 to the age where I'm pretty confident they will make it to adulthood. 20 gallon long: set up since July 2023 (a replacement for my 40 gallon breeder which tragically sprung a leak); stocked with breeding populations of neocardina and ramshorn snails; 2 nerite snails; 1 mystery snail; 2 amano shrimp; 8 ember tetra; 5 adult peppered corydoras; 2 honey gourami. The peppered corydoras have started breeding, I believe spurred by lower tank temps this winter. I now have a mesh breeder box in the tank where I have hatched about 10 of 20 eggs I collected in there. The fry are now 2 weeks old and I plan to move them to a 5 gallon grow out until I decide what to do with them! 29 gallon: set up in early November 2023 and stocked in early December. The tank is my undergravel filter plus plants experiment, which seems to be going very well. Stocked with neocardina (which are rapidly being eaten!); 4 amano shrimp; 1 clown pleco; 7 variatus platys; and 3 male (yes, 3 male) cockatoo Apistogramma. This tank has been a little challenging. The breeder sent me 3 males, instead of a male and 2 females as requested. I am told by breeder that the 3 males should be ok as long as I have plenty of hiding spots and that I never add a female. So far there has been some flaring and chasing but no real fighting or injuries. I am monitoring closely as I think these guys are not yet fully grown adults, and I suspect the aggression could increase. The other difficulty with this tank is the prolonged ich outbreak which I think I have finally turned the tide on. Been treating for 2 weeks with Ich X (at 69-72 F...) and have finally seen lesions subside on most fish. I am fairly committed to running my tanks without heaters, as I have had bad experiences with them in the past, so I am ok with slow and steady treatment as long as everyone is doing well. 4 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 I am really interested if anyone has experience keeping male cockatoo Apistogramma together, as I am in this 29 gal. Here are pics of 2 of 3 them, in case anyone has an idea of age. I realize I have only had them for 1 month, so my experience so far may not be indicative of what's to come... Also thanks to the forum regarding advice on mystery snails 🙂 I now realize they are such short lived guys, so I'm trying to give them the best life possible. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 After a few weeks of hiding, my clown pleco is finally starting to come out a little. Looks like he/she, and one of the apistogramma, are the final ich harborers left in the tank (at least that I can see grossly). Both have a few spots left on their fins. I don't think the pleco likes the ich x treatments at all! It will wiggle it's little ventral fins back and forth for a couple hours after putting treatment in the water. Hopefully only a few more days of treatment needed! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoofyGarra Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 On 1/16/2024 at 6:33 PM, cmo1922 said: After a few weeks of hiding, my clown pleco is finally starting to come out a little. Looks like he/she, and one of the apistogramma, are the final ich harborers left in the tank (at least that I can see grossly). Both have a few spots left on their fins. I don't think the pleco likes the ich x treatments at all! It will wiggle it's little ventral fins back and forth for a couple hours after putting treatment in the water. Hopefully only a few more days of treatment needed! beautiful clown pleco 😍! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted January 17 Author Share Posted January 17 Thanks GoofyGarra! This is my first clown pleco, and I think they are adorable 🥰 Got a good photo of a wee juvenile emerald dwarf rasboras in the 10 gallon a few days ago. The adults are gorgeous, but they are so skittish and dart into hiding as soon as I approach the tank. But the 2 babies are always front and center, waiting for me to feed them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted January 19 Author Share Posted January 19 (edited) I've always liked the idea of undergravel filters, due to the huge surface area for biological filtration, their supposed ability to make water very clear, their low maintenance, and their cheapness/energy efficiency. I also had one in my tank as a kid, so I find them retro/nostalgic. So I wanted to set one up in my newest tank. I did some online research, and read that you can't have an UGF and keep aquarium plants that need to be rooted in substrate, as the plants won't do well. I could not understand this logic and read some contrary opinions as well, so I decided to try an UGF out and do a little experiment. My 29 gallon experiment with the undergravel filter + plants involves putting some "root feeders" directly into the substrate above the plate and in some terra cotta pots sitting in the substrates. It seems to show, at least 2.5 months in, that the UGF doesn't seem to have a negative effect on plant growth (so far). I have 1 sword in a pot, and one in the substrate covering the UGF. Same for 2 crypt wendtii flamingo. The substrate for both conditions is an equal mix of seachem fluorite and fluvial stratum, with seachem root tabs. I also do what would probably be considered lean water column fertilization, once daily. Light is 46 watt fluval 3.0 at 75% for all colors but blue (blue at 3%) for about 8 hrs a day. The only difference I really can see is more vibrant pink (maybe?) from the flamingo in the pot. Perhaps because it is closer to the light? I do still have some emersed growth on both swords I need to trim off, so ignore that! Would love to hear about other experiences with plants in a tank with UGF! Edited January 20 by cmo1922 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoofyGarra Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 On 1/19/2024 at 6:57 PM, cmo1922 said: That platy is amazing! 😍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin22raven Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) hey, i'm running a low tech tank 55 gal using root tabs and fulval 3.0 with excel ...my current light settings are 20% red 0 blue 50% cold white lights 50% pure white and 50% warrm lights are these good setting. i had it a little higher but i notice brown algae on mt plants leaves .. i dose excel ever other day so 3 times a weeks and 1 in all fert ever 2weeks 21/2 pumps .. what might help me ? i'm new to using this light coming from finnex 24/7 planted plus.. Edited January 24 by kevin22raven 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 Hi Kevin, which wattage light do you have? How long has the tank been set up? For excel tanks, you usually can go a little higher with the light, than a tank without excel. My 10 gallon is excel based. However in my opinion excel should be dosed daily to be an effective carbon source, otherwise you are having days without carbon which could theoretically lead to issues with plant health and thus algae issues. I recommend the dose on the bottle, daily. For ferts, I would dose what is recommended on the bottle for the all in one, with the water change. 2.5 pumps every 2 weeks for 55 gal seems like not much to me so your plants could be deficient in macro or micro nutrients. From your pictures they do look a bit pale so I would suspect they are deficient in something (nitrogen, iron) which can cause algae to grow on them. I'm not familiar with the dimensions of your particular 55 gallon, but it looks like a longer/shorter tank. The light levels are going to be higher than with a tall tank. So you may have to lower the light settings a bit even with the excel. Also, if your tank is new you would want to start at lower settings and gradually work your way up to a higher setting. For example on this 29 gallon tank, all the settings except blue were at 50%. After about a month I bumped to 60% and now I'm at 75% 2.5 months post set up. I may drop mine down to 65 or 70 though because I am getting a little more green spot on the glass than I would like. Also if your tank is new, the brown algae/gunk maybe normal. I've never seen in my tanks that brown algae is due to too much light. I've had it in very low light tanks and it was because my tank was new/establishing - it seems to be a normal process as your tank ecosystem establishes itself. What I do find is if I plant really heavy from the start and use an established biofilter, I pretty much skip the brown algae phase... Finally, I'm not sure how true this is, but I learned that blue light can cause algae, so I always keep it at the lowest setting, 2-3%. I highly recommend checking out Bentley Pascoe 's YouTube channel, specifically the lighting videos - I basically follow his instructions exactly for this light. I also have this light on my 20 gallon long (32 watt version). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 Been busy with the tanks. Ich in the 29 gallon is finally gone!!! Last treatment was today. And the cory babies are getting bigger! They are 1.5-2 weeks post hatching right now (I had 2 batches of eggs laid), and I think I now have about 7 babies or so (I know I lost 2). This is my first batch of eggs I have successfully hatched myself (I don't count my rasboras!). I was going to move them into their little grow out tank this past weekend, but unfortunately I'm now using it as a hospital tank for one of the adult females (their mama???) 😞 over the weekend, I saw that she had a bit of red around her mouth, seemed to have some swim bladder issues, and had a oddly-shaped and somewhat distended, pink abdomen. Stranger still, when I removed her from her home tank, she was holding a very dark brown/black egg between her pelvic fins and appeared to have a prolapse from her vent. Not really sure what is going on with her, but she got dewormed, and is getting some aquarium salt and doxycycline and seems to be doing better....the prolapse and her swim bladder issues appear to have resolved and I started feeding her small amounts of frozen worms. Hopefully she makes it...no one else seems ill in the tank so far... Here is a pic of my set up for the babies. I have the mesh breeder box in their parents' tank, equiped with a tiny sponge filter, some dried leaves, and some floating plants. Shrimp and snails have inevitably crawled in and are cleaning up extra food (I did intentionally add a few shrimp when I added eggs, to help keep them clean). I've been feeding them crushed hikari micro pellets and algae wafers, 2 or 3 times a day. It seems to be going well...? I may just keep them in here for another week or so and then just let them free in the tank...bad idea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 The cory mamma is doing so much better. No buoyancy issues, prolapse resolved, belly no longer distended and her mouth is no longer red. She is eating really well too. I don't know what was going on with her, but I will move her back to her home tank Saturday after she has completed her course of antibiotics. I ended ich x Monday in the 29 gallon and so far so good. Here are 2 of the apisto boys. I can never get a good pic of all 3 because they are so busy! They seem to have established a pecking order and as long as the 2 less dominant apistos give the biggest/flashiest one room, everything is very peaceful so far...I think the platies are really helpful as dithers as they seem to be a good distraction for the apistogramma - similar size and coloration, but always busy and butting in! Alpha is on the right and beta on the left. The subordinate one thinks he is a platy and was off to the side swimming with them. I'm turning the light down in the 29 gallon as I'm getting a bit of green spot on the glass as you can see. And I'm getting some melt from some crypts I transferred from my other tank around a month or so ago. The tank has probably had some stability issues and has been lacking in sufficient ferts from all the water changes associated with the long ich treatment I just did, so hopefully things will improve over the next few weeks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted February 1 Author Share Posted February 1 A few updates. I was again going to move the cory fry to their little grow out tank, which served as a hospital tank for the mamma cory last week. Well I hadn't seen the sentinel shrimp I put in, which I was using to tell me if conditions were good or bad in there. Either she is dead, hiding, or made her escape, all of which means conditions are probably not the best to add babies to it. Did a test and ammonia was 0.25 ppm and no nitrates. The seasoned sponge filter in there must have taken a hit from the doxycycline treatment last week. Anyways, I'm treating the tank with stability for a few days and will reevaluate at the end of the week! As for the cory babies, I'm feeding them twice a day, either crushed algae wafers or crushed pellets or flakes. I still have 8 of them which is what I had at the end of last week! They seem to be doing fine in the little mesh breeder. I guess it is really not too much of a rush to get them into their new tank then... The sick Cory mama from last week is doing great back in the 20 gal. She spawned a couple hours after she got back in with her family. I'm really surprised she made it as she was looking so bad. My honey gourami in this tank are pretty shy but I got a good picture of one this morning. He was waiting for breakfast. He has a cute freckle on his back just below his dorsal fin🥰 The 20 gallon long is my favorite! Vals are starting to take over the side, and things are looking wild in there (which is how I like it)! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 And we have platy fry in the 29! Though I don't know how long they will last, as the apistogramma are trying to hunt every one of them down. Man those guys are good hunters... In other developments in the 29, the large sword in the middle of the tank is rotting from the base. This is the sword that is right on top of he UGF. I've never had a sword die in my tanks, so I can only assume this is from the UGF - either something about the water flow/nutrients, or the fact that the sword is huge and can't get a root system growing well. The sword in the pot seems just fine as well as other plants in the pots and the smaller plants growing directly on top of the plate. Here is the base of the sword that is rotting. Here is the sword in the pot which appears to be thriving. Here is the whole tank. That sword is pretty important to the look of the tank so I am going to attempt to save it by putting it in a pot there. There is new leaf growth from the center and the roots look decent from what I can tell, so we will see how it goes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 Hello! Not many updates. I have not seen any platy fry since they were born Saturday, so it's official, cockatoo Apistos are great platy fry eaters in case anyone wants good fry control! Speaking of the apistogramma, they are looking GOOD! I think it is their steady diet of shrimp, ramshorns, and fry. I love this variety. It is a back cross of the triple red onto wild type (bred by Imperial Tropicals). They all have the top part of their caudal fin and the tips of the rays of their dorsal fins a very vibrant orange, but their body color is more of that of wild type and has some blue iridescence around the face and eyes (which is apparently a wild type trait). Very pretty and natural! I continue to see no real fighting between the 3 males. In fact, I don't want to jinx myself, but they seem to be chasing less since I first added them. When aggression is seen, I see a little posturing and a brief chase but that is it. On a couple of occasions I have seen a split in the caudal fins (I'm assuming from the posturing), but by the next day or so the split has healed. I like the look of the 29 better now that I have moved the struggling sword in the middle to the pot. I think I'm just going to focus on root tabs in the pots and let the rest of the UGF just do it's thing, no root tabs. We will see how that goes. In response to some green spot algae on the glass and staghorn algae on the struggling sword leaves and some of the val leaves, I turned the light down further to 50% but extended the photoperiod (1 hr ramp up, 7 hours at 50%, 1.5 hours ramp down) per an episode I watched on Bentley Pascoes channel. I also added some floating hornwort. I'll keep the light like this for a few weeks and think about possibly ramping back up to 65-75% once the plants grow in a little more. As for other tanks, I chickened out moving the baby cories from the mesh breeder in the 20 gallon to the 5 gallon. I'm still getting faint ammonia reading in there so I don't think it is completely cycled. I keep telling myself I need to move the so they don't contribute to excess bioload in that tank, but they are so small! I doubt they could have much impact but as this is my first time rearing fry I have no idea! Thanks for reading! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 Well, I noticed a bunch of foamy bubbles on the surface of the mesh breeder box today, and an oily scum on top of the water. I did a fry count and only 6 remain, and they all still look pretty small, so I made the decision to move them to the 5 gallon today. I assume that mesh has just gotten clogged with junk and did not allow good water circulation. I'll remember that for next time and move fry out of there sooner. Luckily the 5 gallon tested negative for ammonia this weekend, so I am hoping it is cycled. Additionally I had added some leaf litter which appears to have good biofilm growing. So I hope the environment is good for them. Before putting them in, I removed half the water from their new tank and replaced with water from their parents' tank. Then I put the breeder box in and let them all swim out. Some shrimp and snails joined them. They all seem to be doing ok so far. Unfortunately I go out of town at the end of the week for 5 days, and my sitter will only be feed once a day and will not changing water. I'm just going to do a water change mid week and right before I leave and see how things pan out...I hope my first shot at breeding does not fail miserably! Here are some pics of the set up which is my 1/2 tank! I plan to keep this going for fry and as a potential quarantine space. It is powered by sunlight and just has a sponge filter. And pics of baby cories which are always cute. Not the best quality and they have great camouflage! Thanks for reading! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 Got back from vacation a few days ago. All tanks doing well, except I unfortunately lost some baby cories and shrimp in the new 5 gallon. I think the sitter overfed as I found a lot of food around the tank with bacteria/mold growing on it. Ammonia and nitrites were both zero though. Did a good cleaning and big water change and everything seems ok since then. Only 3 baby cories left I think 🥺 I have another very pregnant platy! This time, I will try to save a few of her babies and put them in the 5 gallon to see how they do. The apistogramma will eat them otherwise. I see them hanging around the top more, looking like the want to hunt. I suspect they have learned when the platies give birth, the babies hang at the top! Will post some photos of the tanks soon, the 29 gallon is growing in very well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 The tanks are chugging along. I switched from every other week to weekly water changes and tried to keep up a little better with my pruning in response to some staghorn algae, and things seem to be improving in the 2 affected tanks. Also the baby Cory tank is doing just ok, I only have 2 left but these 2 seem to be almost certain to make it to adulthood. They are about 3/4 cm long and are always foraging around in the sand. I'm unsure exactly why I lost most of them - lots of variables as the tank wasn't fully cycled when I had to add them, I had about a week of a pet sitter who overfed a ton, and I may have had some pesticide contamination of one of the rocks in the tank (it was stored in the garage and may have gotten sprayed-unfortunately I have had issues with this before and I don't seem to learn my lesson). Anyways, once they grow a little more, I'll add them to the 20 gallon with their family. Temps are starting to increase in the house so I'm hoping I'll see some more emerald dwarf rasbora babies in the 10 gallon! The tank is unheated and sits at about 69-71 in the winter, and about 74 other times of the year. Here are photos of the tanks after their water changes. I'm really happy with all of them! As usual they are looking wild! Thanks for reading! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xXInkedPhoenixX Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 The tanks look fantastic! One tip I have for pet sitters. I portion out food in small containers or snack ziplock bags and label them. They get put near or taped to the tanks they belong to. This definitely cuts down on the possibility of overfeeding. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 Also I inadvertently started a "jararium" ...found this guy in a jar I have some pothos growing in, a few weeks ago, and he is still going strong. I tried to catch him (admittedly to feed to the apistogramma) and he was too fast! So this is his long term home I guess 🤷 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macdaddy36 Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 On 3/2/2024 at 11:02 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said: The tanks look fantastic! One tip I have for pet sitters. I portion out food in small containers or snack ziplock bags and label them. They get put near or taped to the tanks they belong to. This definitely cuts down on the possibility of overfeeding. I use pill containers like this: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 9 Author Share Posted March 9 A few updates! Temps in the house are increasing, so my tanks are all around 76 F. As I result, I'm seeing the fish a little more active in the 20 and 10 gal. In the 10, which houses emerald dwarf rasboras and pygmy cories, I've seen a couple rasbora fry. So hopefully that will continue now that it's a little warmer! The 29 is doing ok. I had one platy that perhaps had a break out of epistylis. I treated the tank for one week with doxycycline feed and ich-x. Everyone seems ok, but the platies are flashing. I'm hoping it's due to the ich-x and will resolve once treatment ends. This tank has been some work for sure! Finally, the 2 baby cories that managed to survive in the 5 gallon are now about the size of pygmy cories, so I moved them to the 20 gal with their family! Cue the cute baby Cory pics ❤️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 Platies have stopped flashing like they were last week. I'm assuming the flashing was mostly due to the ich x. We will see how everyone does over the next few weeks after treatment. The fish with what I thought was epistylis still looks pretty much the same, but is completely fine otherwise. I'm wondering if it's a benign virus? Who knows! Anyways, apistos are vicious hunters. I've noticed mine hang out towards the top of my tank more than you would expect, and I wondered why...while working from home today I observed a feeding frenzy as they took down most of the platy fry right as they popped out of mom. Poor little guys. I guess that explains why I don't see many fry in there! I managed to save 3 newborns and put them in my 20 gal for safe keeping. Will take pics of baby platies soon. I'm glad I saved some because they are the cutest, derpiest fry I've seen! 💓 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 Well, lots of updates! In the 29 gallon, unfortunately I started noticing more aggression among the apistogramma. The dominant male was chasing the subordinate males, and it was getting more persistent. As my stocking is pretty much max in my other tanks, and I want to maintain my shrimp populations, I decided to re-home the 2 subordinate males to my LFS. Hopefully they do ok there and they find a good home. I feel guilty about it, but I would have felt worse if they were killed. Also in the 29, I was still seeing some occasional flashing in several platies, not as bad as when the ich x was in the tank, but still enough to get me worried. I did decide to do a praziquantal dose and will do a couple more over the next few weeks. The platy that had what I thought was epistylis still looks exactly the same but seems just fine, she is very active, eating, etc. Strange! No one else ever developed any lesions like hers. In the 20 gal, the 2 Cory juvies are loving life, and the 3 platy babies are staying safe in the hornwort. Gouramis don't seem to care about them which is great! Once they are big enough to not make a snack for the apisto, I'll put them back in the 29. 10 gallon is boring as usual...knock on wood! I feel like I'm asking for it to spring a leak! And introducing...Kristoff (named by my daughter!) the lemon blue eyed bristlenose pleco...I could not resist! I got him as a replacement for the 2 apisto males I just had to remove. He/she is in quarantine and will go in the 29 in a few weeks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmo1922 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 Sadly, Kristoff the bristlenose only made it a few days... A few days after bringing him home, I found him swimming erratically and laying on his back. In hindsight, he was pretty thin, didn't eat anything, and was pretty inactive. It is unfortunate as I thought bristlenose were pretty hardy! I would love to find another small pleco for the 29 gallon... probably a second clown would be most appropriate, and for what ever reason those are really common at my PetSmart. So maybe I'll pick up one of those eventually. Just need to let the quarantine tank sit for awhile in case that pleco had something infectious going on. My clown pleco doesn't seem as shy as what I was expecting so I wouldn't mind another! Chubs the apisto is looking fancy this morning after some worms. And the baby platies are filling their little tummies and growing well! Thanks for reading ☺️ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladette Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 Your tanks are amazing! Definitely goals! Thanks for sharing them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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