Sparklers, Honeys and a Cherry on Top

[Alesha]

New fish arrived today. The Honey Gourami and the Sparkling Gourami made the trip from Washington State to Florida with no problem at all. Unfortunately, the Cherry Barbs were not as successful. Only one arrived alive. He's in the QT with the Honeys. We're hoping like crazy that he makes it!

The Sparklers are in their own tank but will be quarantined as well. There is a weird film on that tank as it's cycling, so apologies for the dark pics. 

To say we're excited is an understatement. So thrilled with our purchases! And Aqua Huna had refunded our money as well as part of the shipping costs within an hour of my emailing them about the Cherry Barbs. Impeccable customer service!

I'll be updating with better pics as I get them and stories too, I'm sure. 😁 

Alesha

Edited December 3, 2020 by Alesha
typo

[FrozenFins]

I have been looking for honey gourami, I totally forgot about aquahuna. lol.

[Alesha]

Just now, James Black said:

I have been looking for honey gourami, I totally forgot about aquahuna. lol.

I highly recommend them. And their Honeys are gorgeous!

[Fonske]

Looks like you've got almost all the sweeties of the hobby. The honeys are delightful! I wonder if there are other sweet-named fishes besides melon discus.. Best luck to your cherry.

[IanB]

@Alesha I got Honeys from Aquahuna relatively recently too and they have been amazing! Tons of personality, look great, very peaceful, and came healthy. They are always in all parts of the aquarium, too!

[Alesha]

Just now, IanB

@Alesha I got Honeys from Aquahuna relatively recently too and they have been amazing! Tons of personality, look great, very peaceful, and came healthy. They are always in all parts of the aquarium, too!

@IanB your setup is gorgeous! I'm really looking forward to keeping these beautiful fish.

[classicshooter]

I love the sparkling gourami's, I just added eight of them to one of my tanks. The blue eyes are amazing to watch. 

[Alesha]

Oh, I know! Those eyes!!! And they are so inquisitive. That surprised me! They come to greet me every time I sit in front of the tank. So friendly. I'm really looking forward to working with them. 

[Hobbit]

Awww I love honeys! Those look gorgeous!

[JettsPapa]

I haven't kept honeys, but I recently got some sparkling gouramis in my 20 long.  It amuses me the way they often seem to examine their food before deciding whether or not they want to try it.  A kubotai rasbora will frequently swoop in and steal it before they make up their minds.

[Alesha]

Sooo...I think I'm growing green water in my quarantine tanks!

We did 1 week of meds trio, a 30% water change & tomorrow, we do the 2nd round of meds

But look at the water in these tanks:

How do you know if it's a "good" green algae bloom?

Alesha
P.S. The fish are all doing great!

[Daniel]

I think all green is good. I don't know of any bad green.

[Andy's Fish Den]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

I think all green is good. I don't know of any bad green.

I'm with @Danielon this

[shkote]

I recently had an issue with green water in the same tank. Unfortunately, had to break out the old UV sterilizer. As much as my fish were enjoying it, it was a bit too unsightly for a work display tank that other people had to look at.  They sure did a lot of dancing around in it though!

[Alesha]

4 hours ago, Lynze said:

I recently had an issue with green water in the same tank. Unfortunately, had to break out the old UV sterilizer. As much as my fish were enjoying it, it was a bit too unsightly for a work display tank that other people had to look at.  They sure did a lot of dancing around in it though!

Well, that's interesting, @Lynze! I've never had this tank go green on me before, so it makes me wonder what I did differently this time. I think I'll probably do a water change in both tanks before we add new meds. I just feel the need to SEE the fish when I'm dosing with meds! I want to make sure they are all doing well during the process.  Well, that...and...I also dropped in 4 blue shrimp into the Sparklers tank and I've not seen them since I let them out of the net! 😲 I really do need to know how they're doing too.

[Alesha]

If I wanted to start a green water tank, and I had a 10 gallon just sitting around, and I added the water from the water changes to that tank, what's the best way to keep it green?

Can I grow tiny things in that water on purpose to feed to my fish? I'm being deliberately vague because I've never paid attention to the names of tiny little creatures that are grown for the purpose of feeding. I really didn't want to go there. But when you have lovely green water, is that a good starting place? Or is the green water the end goal?

I will go do my research too, I promise! Just thought I'd throw out a few questions to know exactly what to research.

[H.K.Luterman]

Man, you just reminded me I really would like to keep sparkling gourami some day. :3

[Alesha]

7 minutes ago, H.K.Luterman said:

Man, you just reminded me I really would like to keep sparkling gourami some day. :3

They are cute little things! They all come to greet me when I sit by the tank...so polite and hospitable. And they're growing, too...I feel so proud! 😄

[Andy's Fish Den]

14 hours ago, Alesha said:

If I wanted to start a green water tank, and I had a 10 gallon just sitting around, and I added the water from the water changes to that tank, what's the best way to keep it green?

Can I grow tiny things in that water on purpose to feed to my fish? I'm being deliberately vague because I've never paid attention to the names of tiny little creatures that are grown for the purpose of feeding. I really didn't want to go there. But when you have lovely green water, is that a good starting place? Or is the green water the end goal?

I will go do my research too, I promise! Just thought I'd throw out a few questions to know exactly what to research.

If you put some of that water in a tank, add some liquid fertilizers and plenty of light it will stay green. As for the little creatures, you're probably referring to daphnia. They feed on the green water, and then you can net them out and feed to your fishes.

[Daniel]

15 hours ago, Alesha said:

If I wanted to start a green water tank, and I had a 10 gallon just sitting around, and I added the water from the water changes to that tank, what's the best way to keep it green?

Can I grow tiny things in that water on purpose to feed to my fish? I'm being deliberately vague because I've never paid attention to the names of tiny little creatures that are grown for the purpose of feeding. I really didn't want to go there. But when you have lovely green water, is that a good starting place? Or is the green water the end goal?

I will go do my research too, I promise! Just thought I'd throw out a few questions to know exactly what to research.

The green water is the food for the tiny things that your fish feed upon. The green water is like green grass in a pasture in that it only needs strong light and fertilizer to grow. What makes the green water green is free floating single celled algae.

The tiny things that eat green water are typically Daphnia, cyclops and rotifers with Daphnia the being largest and the rotifers being so small they are nearly invisible. A large baby fish like guppy fry could eat small Daphnia, but tiny babies like sparkling gourami fry can only manage to eat rotifers.

Without the green water, I couldn't grow rotifers. And without the rotifers It would have been hard to grow baby sparking gouramis. Here is a baby sparkling gourami living in a green water aquarium and eating a rotifer.

 

[Alesha]

We added the Honeys to the 55-gallon this evening. They are a lovely addition.

[H.K.Luterman]

I demand a full tank shot. 🙂

[Alesha]

Wellllll...since you insist, @H.K.Luterman:

You should be able to see all 6 in this shot, along with the million-and-one snails, guppies, SAEs and pygmy chain loaches. There are also a few White Clouds, but good luck finding those...they are still small.

OH! And as an added bonus, a close up of my Ruffle Sword Flower:

[H.K.Luterman]

Super cool tank! Wow, I've never seen a sword flower before!

[Alesha]

I was going to do an update on my Ruffle Sword Flower today, so I went to get a picture and it wasn't there!

I went searching for it and found it peeking out of the top!!!

That's around 6 inches of growth since Wednesday afternoon. Pretty impressive! Can't wait for it to blossom!!!