29 Gallon Endlers

[Dawn T]

The photo shows looks right now. With the exception of my having already removed the chunk of mopani that was in the left side of the tank, this is how it has looked for years now, with the exception of the plants coming out of the back and the duckweed, pogostemon, and monte carlo you can see in the middle area. Definitely time for a change. The pogostemon will be moved to a different spot, of course, don't want that right there in the middle. A lot of the crypts will come out. For now, I'll drop those into the QT I just set up.

I'm waiting for the dragon stone I ordered, and I'll be ready to go to town on redoing this tank. New plants arrived from AC yesterday, and my new substrates are on hand. Just need the stone. I'm excited to redo this tank. I plan to part of the existing substrate in there as a base, as well as there being no change in the filter media, so it won't have to cycle from scratch.

[Taco Playz]

Looks beautiful can't wait to see when you put the dragon stone in there.

[OceanTruth]

That is quite the jungle! Good luck with the rescape. Hope it turns out great!

[Dawn T]

On 2/17/2021 at 5:37 PM, OceanTruth said:

That is quite the jungle! Good luck with the rescape. Hope it turns out great!

Yeah, those crypts went wild. And that's how they look after being thinned! LOL

My dragon stone is due to arrive next week. I thought it was THIS week, but alas... So waiting on pins and needles for it to arrive.

[Dawn T]

Got the rescape done! Totally pulled everything out of there and overhauled the tank. I have a BUNCH of Crypts set aside that I can use elsewhere (not sure where yet), but I managed to did put a few back in the tank. Those things had even growth through the plastic cave decoration I had in there (visible in the right side of the image in the OP).

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how it turned out, and look forward to seeing how it looks as plants grow and fill in. Though I kept the filter and media intact (didn't clean either) and included some of the old, well-aged substrate (also not cleaned) underneath the new gravel and rocks, I'm letting the tank cycle to be sure it's ready before adding any inhabitants other than a few bladder snails I tossed in there.

Hardscape includes:
20# of dragon stone
Carib Sea Super Naturals gravel - Peace River
Carib Sea Super Naturals sand - Sunset Gold
Manzanita driftwood branches
lava rocks in media bags (under substrate in back to add height)

Submerged plants:
Cryptocoryne wendtii "green" (kept from original setup)
Monte Carlo
Pogostemon stellatus "octopus"
Bacopa caroliniana
Water sprite
Ammania gracilis
Anubias nana
Java fern

Floating plants:
Duckweed
Red root floaters

Emergent plants (coming up out of the back):
Peace lily
Creeping charlie
Wandering Jew
Devil's ivy
Arrowhead vine
English ivy
Fottonia (red)
Dumbcane (small Dieffenbachia variety)

Was so TOTALLY worth annoying my lower back, butt, and thighs to squat in the backyard for an hour cleaning the dragon stone. 😉

At this point, I'm pretty sure I know what I want to put in there, but we'll see if I change my mind by the time I can order fish online. If I stick to my current plant, the inhabitants will be cherry shrimp, nerite snails, pygmy cories, cherry barbs, and Endlers. I decided, since I'll be ordering fish online for delivery, I'm going to get things I've wanted for years but haven't been able to get locally. No more settling for the local slim pickings.

One photo shows the view from one end of the tank, so you can see all the stem plants currently pretty well hidden behind the rocks.

[Colu]

Really nice scrap like the branches coming from the top

[Dawn T]

I've been feeding this tank fish food every couple of days (and getting teased A LOT by my hubby about my "invisible fish"), and the water parameters have remained stable and healthy. Starting off with well established substrate under the new and a well-seasoned filter sure helps with cycling!

Added 7 cherry shrimp and 2 zebra nerite snails to this tank yesterday.

Here's the tank as it looked yesterday as I acclimated the new additions:

That bright spot in the middle is a wad of duckweed that had gotten hung up on the driftwood below the HOB output. As you can see, I let some finer algae get established on the glass so the nerites would have something yummy to eat. I did clean the front glass this morning, but I left the rest.

Incidentally, the wide jar sitting on top of the tank and visible in the above photo is what I used to acclimate the shrimp. I tested their water before I started the acclimation process to see how different the parameters in the bag were from mine and extended the acclimation process to accommodate a rather large difference in pH, GH, and KH. The jar made that really easy.

Here are the nerites settling into their new home:

And a few photos of the shrimp. One while they were still in the bag.

This first one is of them in the jar. I gave them some duckweed from the tank, and they were ON IT. (The phone does weird things with photos when I zoom in, so not the best quality image.)

And in their new environment.

They're so cool to watch. 🙂

Edited March 11, 2021 by Dawn T

[Dawn T]

The cherry shrimp and nerites are doing well. No signs of breeding activity yet for the shrimp, but I'm keeping an eye on it. Later this week, I'm expecting a fish order. Part of that order is more shrimp (I'm hooked!) as well as a school of pygmy cories and some Endler's livebearers (2 trios).

I removed the water sprite, which was doing HORRIBLY and looked hideous (algae loved that plant, though my other plants aren't having that problem, except some of the Monte Carlo). In its place, I planted some Hygrophila siamensis 53B. The Pogostemon stellatus octopus are showing the most growth at this point. They're looking great. The Ammania gracilis appears to have finally taken hold, and I'm finally seeing growth there. The Monte Carlo? Meh. It's not losing ground, but so far hasn't gained any. The shrimp love picking at it the bits of algae on it though.

Once plants have filled in more, I'm thinking about adding a honey gourami as a centerpiece fish. I'm waffling on that, though. I've heard and read mixed reviews about their compatibility with cherry shrimp. I had originally been thinking about cherry barbs for this tank, but I'm not sure I want to go that route for the same reason as I'm waffling on the honey gourami. Any thoughts on that?

The water parameters continue to remain stable in this tank. I'm adding Easy Green every week or two and feeding the shrimp a small amount about 3 times a week.

[Dawn T]

The Endler's livebearers arrived today. I ordered six and received a few extra. 😁 One of the females dropped babies in transit. Everyone arrived alive and active. I got them acclimated and put into the tank. Decided not to quarantine them since they were going into a fish-less tank. I'll try to get photos tonight after they've settled in and the room is dark enough for tank photography to be easier.

Cories and shrimp are supposed to be here Saturday, according to package tracking. I'm hoping they'll show up a day or two sooner like my last order of plants did, but we'll see.

I also received the betta for my new 5g tank (shown in another thread) and the Gambusia mosquito fish for my other 29g (well-established tank with a few other fish already present, so the new guys went in quarantine).

[Gumbo99]

I love the look of this tank. Are the branches mounted to the lid somehow? Sorry if you already explained it and I missed it.

[Dawn T]

No, they're just sticking up in there. I ended up shifting one of them to one side, as it was blocking access too much to the prefilter on my HOB. That's part of the reason I didn't mount them in place. I wanted to make sure I could move them in case I needed access to some area they might be blocking. Good thing, too! Getting to that prefilter would've been a nightmare if they'd been unmoveable. LOL

[Fishdude]

This is lovely! Oh how I love to watch cherry shrimp, my kids think it's funny that I call them "buddies" and they do it too. I actually had some breeding activity happen - what's your water temp in that tank?

[Dawn T]

Water temp stays right around 73-74 degrees F. It's unheated, but we keep our house at a minimum of 70 degrees at night. This tank doesn't fluctuate all that much. It tends to be around 73 first thing in the morning and go up to around 74 by late afternoon.

[lefty o]

tank looks really good.

[Dawn T]

The male Endler's started with fin rot, so I moved them to the quarantine tank, which was already being medicated with the right meds, due to dealing with an issue with Gambusia that were already in there. Both improved quickly, became more active and got their appetites back. They'll be staying in there until I'm ready to remove everyone from quarantine.

I received more shrimp AND the cories I was expecting. One of the 6 cories vanished overnight, and I haven't seen him since, despite looking everywhere for him. The other 5 are doing well, though. Overnight, all the shrimp vanished (both established and new), and I'm like what the heck?!? Finally found them hiding in various places around the tank, going about their business. Breathe.

The 4 Endler girls are doing great. I haven't seen any sign of the babies I put in there with them, but there are a lot of hiding places they could be staying in, due to the dragon stone and plants, so I'm just watching and waiting to see if they reappear. They might've been eaten, so not holding my breath while I wait.

I'm having to dose the tank at least twice a week with Easy Green to keep nutrient levels up. The fish load is SO low right now that the plants keep the nitrates at 0 without the EG. Hair algae decided to take up residence, which is annoying, but I'm not worrying too much about it. I just swirl and remove it with my pinseers when I'm doing any plant maintenance or glass cleaning. Though I'm tempted to add more fish, I know Endler's are like guppies, and I'll end up a thousand in there before I know it if I'm not careful. LOL So Easy Green and I are buds on dealing with that tank right now. 😁

[Dawn T]

Woohoo! Mysteriously vanishing cory #6 reappeared with his schoolmates this morning! I thought for sure he was a goner, since I've only seen the school alternate between 4 and 5 individuals since I added them to the tank about 3 weeks ago. But all 6 are present and accounted for!

Also, seeing more shrimp molts, and the girls are so big! Love watching them. Most are cherries, but there are a few oddballs in there, since I got a mixed color batch last time to include. So every now and then, one of those different colored ones put in an appearance, which is cool.

[Fishdude]

7 minutes ago, Dawn T said:

Woohoo! Mysteriously vanishing cory #6 reappeared with his schoolmates this morning! I thought for sure he was a goner, since I've only seen the school alternate between 4 and 5 individuals since I added them to the tank about 3 weeks ago. But all 6 are present and accounted for!

Also, seeing more shrimp molts, and the girls are so big! Love watching them. Most are cherries, but there are a few oddballs in there, since I got a mixed color batch last time to include. So every now and then, one of those different colored ones put in an appearance, which is cool.

Glad to hear about the reappearance of the cory, they're good at hiding when they don't want to be found. Are they getting enough food down there at the bottom?

[Dawn T]

Yep. I "overfeed" the tank to make sure, so plenty reaches the bottom for them, as well as the shrimp. I also drop in pellets for bottom feeders a couple of times a week. Since ammonia and nitrites stay at zero, and I can't get the nitrates to even hit and stay at 10 without Easy Green help, I'm not too worried at this point about overdoing the food in the tank.

[Dawn T]

This tank is continuing to do great! I haven't had to do any water changes in a couple of months (and that one was accidental, due to a stupid I did with the HOB filter that ended up overflowing - OOPS!). Every Saturday, I do testing (with AC test strips - LOVE THEM!), do top offs with dechlorinated tap water, and do any other maintenance that's needed - like trimming plants and filter maintenance.

The Pogostemon stellatus "octopus" has really settled in beautifully. I trim it every couple of weeks.

The Hygrophila siamensis 53B has FINALLY gotten established and growing well now.

The Ammania gracilis has been REALLY slow to get established but is holding its own, so I'm just being patient and trying to keep the Pogostemon from shading it too much.

There are both cherry shrimp (multiple colors) as well as Amano shrimp in the tank, plus I added more Endler males (scarlet). I dose the tank with Bacter AE once a week and drop shrimp food of one sort or another in the tank at least every other day.

I recently added a pair of golden blue-eyed long-finned bushynose plecostomus to the tank. BIG name for a little fish. LOL The two are easy to tell apart, since one is solid golden while the other has a couple of black spots on him. The pleco pic below is from when they were still in quarantine.

Pgymy corydoras herd (he he) is active and doing well.

All of the inhabitants of this tank are small, and it's an adventure to sit and watch all the various activity and try to spot individual varieties of fish, or even individual fish.

Latest pics are below. 🙂

[Colu]

Beautiful tank plants have really filled out

[Dawn T]

Realized it's been a while since I did an update regarding this tank, too. This tank has been my problem child the last few months, which is entirely my fault. Hubby and I got the vid back in August, so for about 2 weeks, the only attention any of my tanks got was food. No testing. No trimming. No water changes. Feeding was hit or miss, though I managed to get to it most days. Then because of brain fog, I think I ended up feeding sometimes more than once a day, since I wasn't sure if I'd actually fed them yet or not. Then I wasn't able to get back to it after I recovered from illness because I was preparing for a craft fair, which took place in September. I was really crunching during that time to get projects done, so tank neglect continued.

My other tanks came through without issue, but this one suffered a nitrate spike. Unfortunately, I lost a few male Endler's (females coasted without issues) and some cherry shrimp through that. I couldn't find most of the bodies, which I know only made the spike worse. Planted tanks... LOL By the time I tested, nitrates were at 100. Not wanting to shock the remaining shrimp, I did a 20% water change, though it probably needed 50%. I've done 10-20% weekly since then, depending on nitrate levels (25, 10%; 50, 20%). Today, for the first time in WEEKS, I didn't have to do a water change. Nitrates were between 10 and 25, so I'm left it alone. Will test again next week to make sure it's finally stabilizing.

I haven't had any more Endler male losses, which I'm happy about. I can't be sure about the shrimp. I HAVE been finding shrimplets throughout most of this, so that's a positive. Interestingly, the shrimp losses appear to have been the brightly colored ones - reds, orange, blues. The yellows and red rilli, as well as some pretty little mutts, have fared very well. They're apparently tougher than the others were. Here's one of the mutts I've ended up with. I love the color and texture they have to them. There's nothing in the photo to help with scale, but this girl is HUGE. I almost mistook her for one of the Amanos when I first spotted her, but my Amanos were all accounted for and even bigger than her. Since I know they can't reproduce in freshwater, I realized... cherry mutt! 😋

BTW, anyone besides me notice that Endler females are rather pugnacious? They're kinda jerks. LOL The Endler males are rough enough on each other at times, nipping at each other's fins, but those females? Yikes! I haven't had any Endler fry survive so far, and I'm pretty sure it's because those girls are eating them. I thought this tank was planted densely enough for some to survive. So far, nada.

The cories are doing well. I can't tell if I lost any of them during the nitrate battle, since I seldom see them schooling together or congregating where I can get an accurate head count. I see them scattered throughout the tank doing their thing, though, and I make sure I drop enough food to the bottom that they get fed, along with the shrimp and plecos. I've found that they LOVE the Hygrophila siamensis. It's not at all unusual to see them scattered across the leaves, resting on them. Like they're having a conference.

The plecos are doing great. Always active and about, much like the Amano and neocardina shrimp. I've been feeding the plecos and the shrimp every other day. I dropped a floating betta log in the tank to get it out of the way in another smaller setup, thinking the shrimp would like it. Guess who else decided to use it?

Below is a shot of the tank overall today. The Pogostemon stellatus "octopus" is crazy! Of course. Would anyone have any doubt about that? I truly love the Hygrophila, though. I've decided I want more of that in there. As I can propagate more, I want to replace some of the Pogo with it.

Oh, regarding Crypts... Do you see the Java Fern in the foreground to left of center? Immediately to the right of it, that's a Crypt that has suddenly popped up. That's from a shoot from that bunch in the right-hand back corner.

Also, you can't see it at all, but there's still Ammania holding its own in the center background. The Pogo keeps it shaded too much. I trim it regularly to try to let light back there, but... Pogo.

Duckweed? None left. All the water changes I've done the past few months to rebalance the nitrate levels has gotten rid of what was in there. No algae bloom, so the tank's fine without the shading it provided. Even the Java moss coming out of shrimp cave in the left foreground corner doesn't have algae growing on it. It's not growing or spreading as I expected, which is fine with me. The shrimp do love picking at it, though.

[Dawn T]

Since I shared it on another thread a bit ago, I wanted to post this here as well. Mind you, this photo is less than 2 weeks after the one immediately above. Check out the Crypt wendtii in the right hand side. Compare it to the photo I posted on March 11th! Who says Crypts grow slowly? I need to thin those out, as well as trim the Pogostemon. I think I'm going to move the Java Fern that's in the front of the tank, too. It's attached to a piece of lava rock, so I can just pick it up and easily and move it. I think I'll move it to the far right where it'll be shaded more by the Crypts.

[BKypreos]

Looks damn good. I love the crypts. Which variety is that?

[Dawn T]

Crypt wendtii, both 'green' and 'bronze'. One of them has also snuck WAY over and has popped out between the rocks behind that Java fern in the foreground. I need to corral that guy when I trim things this weekend.

[Dawn T]

I shared about some of this in another thread but wanted to make sure it got added here, with more information. This tank went through the most extensive work today of any of my tanks.

It looks like I finally have this tank rebalanced and working as it should since the August/September mess I discussed in previous posts. Everything is testing out perfectly, including nitrates at 10! I've been dosing the tank daily with 1 squirt of Easy Green. Don't want to do too much until I know it's totally stable. The Hygro has been getting holes in it, so I need to get the potassium level up. I dose right at that end of the tank each day to give it a head start on the other plants on snatching up the nutrients I'm adding. October 16th (7 weeks ago) was the last water change, and nitrates have gone down since then, so color me happy! I continue to do weekly top-offs with dechlorinated tap water to keep KH and GH UP.

3 major tasks accomplished this week though.

One, I added a light for the emergent plants. They've really been struggling from the get-go, since that part of the room doesn't get much ambient light. Poor things are so scraggly and pathetic. Here's how they looked when I added the light. I took photos so I can track improvement (hoping they're not too far gone).

In the last photo above, you can the see the pots the plants are in - the pots the wandering Jew and creeping Charlie are in are readily visible in that photo. Those pots work well for the plants, but they only thing that's held them in place all the time is the back of the tank and the cover glass. That was a total brain fart on my part, but I've put off doing it better as I wasn't sure how to accomplish that. Which brings me to big task #2:

This past week or so, I stumbled across videos on YouTube by Plant Life Project. Andrew's big on using houseplants in aquariums, and he has a bunch of videos that helped me figure out my options. I ended up getting kitchen drawer organizers from my local Walmart that had slits down each side, used my soldering iron to poke holes throughout the bottom of each one, spray-painted them black (a few days ago - to give paint time to cure), and added coated wire that hangs over the back of the tank to secure each one. This morning, I got those plants resituated. I can actually get the cover glass off or moved without fully dropping the pots in the tank. They stay put!

It doesn't look much different from the front, unless someone looks closely at the upper inside back of the tank (visible in the photo below), but it sure will make a huge difference in cleaning the cover glass when it's needed (which it did today - BADLY - got that done, too).

Three, the submerged plants are trimmed! The Pogostemon got a major haircut. I also thinned some of it out to make room for cuttings of the Hygrophila siamensis 53B, which I'm trying to propagate. Plus I thinned out the Crypts in the right hand back corner (not that you'd know from looking at it - those things were THICK). I decided to leave the lone Crypt in the center foreground. It doesn't appear to be growing any taller. As long as it stays short, I decided to leave it there. Especially since I finally moved the Java Fern that had been in that spot but not doing well. Too much light there, I think. I moved it to an area protected by dragonstone and shadowed by the larger Crypts. We'll see how it does there. REALLY glad I attached that to a piece of lava rock that I can move around the tank at will.

The filter's internal sponges need to be squeezed out, but I figure I've done enough to disrupt this tank for today. The filter will wait a few days. The tank is still cloudy in the attached photo but definitely improved from the way it started this morning. The cloudiness should clear up in no time.