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Hi there, fresh hobbyist in these waters


Othnus
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Hi there, community!

I'm a newbie in aquarium keeping. Did quite a bit of research before starting, and can say Cory had a big impact on my decision in finally taking part in this hobby. I love nature and specially water nature. I'm from Lithuania so we don't have that many different fish and they are not as flashy - since we have all 4 seasons of the year and our winters tend to be quite chilly. 

Me and my wife found a second hand aquarium of 240 liters, with some plants and few left over fishes, since the original owners knew they are going to sell the aquarium so they stopped caring for it as much. Aquarium had everything it needs to be in operation. The trip and setting up was and interesting jurney that took almost all of my satuday, but was very worth it! Sadly one of the tetras (there were 3 originally) did not survive, but 4 plecos, 2 tetras, 2 siamise algea eaters and 2 amano shrimps had survived this jurney and a overnight wait in a heated bucket with plants and aeration. I've planted the aquarium, got a few more plants, few more driftwoods and this is how it looks a month in, with addition of 20 danios, 20 green neon tetras, 20 panda corries, 5 kuhlies, 3 more amano shrimps and recently got 2 puffers.

So far had few interesting almost mishaps, but nothing that good searching could not solve.

It seems my danios are getting plump and readying themselves for breeding, so I'm on a fence what should I do. Don't have that much space, but would love to try to breed them if the universe is giving me this new challenge.

I would love to start growing brine shrimp hatchlings to feed my fish, since I wish them the best. But I'm located in EU and can't get any products from aquarium co-op. So maybe some of europeans could lend me any tips on shrimp eggs that worked for you, maybe you have some hatchery recommendations too?

This hobby needs a huge warning sign, getting really addicted to fishies!

 

Best wishes,

Vilius.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey all, 

Thought I would do an update on my aquarium journey. This is how it looks at the moment.DSC06777.JPG.54f0528fcb1393b2af52eb5c87986f20.JPG

Since the first time I've posted, firstly I got few stumps of moss and fixed it on the driftwood, It grew fast and completely covered all the wood work. Looking into trimming the moss and glueing it in a pattern on the wood. Probably going to try to do my own home made moss balls. Have an indea to make some floating ones and tying them down to some objects with fishing line so they would float midway in the aquarium. Looks good in my mind.

Had some extreme time one day checking ono the aquarium in the morning and seeing how all of the fish are gasping. Rushed to get stronger air pump and two air stones. I have it working during day time and turning off during night. Seems to work for me.

Got rid of one of the plants, since it grew enormous and it acted like a net for food I've been putting in. So it cloged it self with fish food, which was wasted and poluted the aquarium. It got this brownish colour until you take it out and wash it in a bucket to get it to look green again. That's why I made a decision to get rid of it. It made the aquarium way more lifgted. And It directed me into decision to have one half of the aquarium focusing on moss and the other one on plants.

Noticed some problems with some plants. Some plants are getting holes in it, even tho I'm using general fertilizer. From what I've researched it seems my plants are missing Mn in the water. Planning on getting and applying it in my routine.

Got few plants from the LFS and I think it had some snails or snail egs on it. Noticed them blooming in the aquarium and starting to cover mosses all around. But wasn't worried that much, since they have their use and was planning on getting some freshwater pea puffers. Which I did.

 

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These guys got rid of the snails like in few weeks. Snails were very small, even full grown. The snail you see in the picture is of different species. These guys are amazing. They already recognise you and come to greet you when you aproach the aquarium. They are very environment focused, exploring and looking at every leaf or stump of moss in order to find their prey. When I've introduced them to the aquarium, they had a rought time. Danios kept checking on them and chased them around a bit. By being so yellow did not help. Danios kept taking their food, since puffers had to observe the food and then start chowing, while Danios gun down and ask questions later. Finally puffers learned that and are faster eaters now. From the speed of eating I've noticed their favorite food are bloodworms. I alternate between frozen blood worms, artemia and freshwater turtle food. 

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Danios and green neon tetras doing great. I love how you can interact with them. They keep pinching my hair while I do aquarium cleaning.

The biggest surprise I've got was like two weeks after I bought this pipe pyramid that I covered in moss and plants and put it in the awuarium for my beloved kuhli loaches. But I've noticed one of the biggest plecos I had (there were 4, of which one was larger than the other 3) kept being iside of these pipes without going out at all. At first I worried it was stuck, so I poked it few times and after making sure it can easly get out I left it at there. But oh well what a surprise was bewing. One thay I've noticed new fish in my aquarium! At first I was surpised thought to my self I got some invasive fish from LFS like the snails, but by looking closer I saw they were baby plecos! So far I've seen 7 of them at the same time, of which one is ablino. All of my plecos are plain plecos! I'm so happy, After this happening, I've checked on how are plecos bred and saw how many steps it takes.

Now I wonder how many are there, since as you can see there's plenty of space to hide.

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So that's the story so far. I'll update later on the Pleco growth and the issues I'm having with some fish bacteria/parasite issues.

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