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Aquatoon

Another tank migration, this time from the Anubia walled shrimp tank into the main tank, I think it must of happened before the injection phase today because if it had gone in just before I spotted it would not be munching on the Fissidens but floating or half eaten having gone from a tank with a pH of 7.5 to one at 5.1 and from negligible co2 to 20-30ppm.

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I'm quite surprised it wasn't gobbled up by the fish, taking no chances though so quickly caught it and relocated it to the adjacent shrimp tank. They're good at this, that's 3 out of 4 Crystal migrations that have been successful (have only ever found one down the sides of the tanks that didn't make it). To make it into the main tank it would have had to have flopped onto the shelf the tank sits on and crawl to the front edge and fall over onto the top of the Aquaray tile above the main tank and then crawl over that until it fell into the water. Had it crawled in the other direction it would of ended up down the back of the tank unless of course it slid down the wall and was able to do a direction change flip mid fall to end up in the tank.
 
Found a few more fatalities down the back of the main tank all dried up, including Geronimo, ah well it was good while it lasted. Done some shoring up around the walled tank to try and reduce the likelihood of it happening again. He'd been MIA for over a week, I was prompted yesterday to have a good look down the back after I spotted a Red Bolt walking across the lid of the lower shrimp tank, so another migration, I managed to get it into the destination water before he expired, he was unconscious when he hit the water and was immediately set upon by the other shrimp, I chased them away until I could be certain he wasn't dead, took about 30 seconds for it to come around enough to start twitching and another 30 to get off its back and onto shaky legs and then half a second to propel itself backwards to hide amongst the plants up the back, observed 24hrs later wandering about acting normally as if he'd always been there. I'll need to try move one of the other mature CRS males (Geronimos brothers) in this tank over to the other one so Moya can breed again, I'm also a bit worried that all her offspring with Geronimo are male as none have shown any breeding signs yet in either tank, the cherries aren't having this problem though.

Anyways, more Buces arrived!

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I'm not ready to put them in their own tank at the moment so I stuck them in the main tank along with the others so they can take advantage of the ferts and co2, it's getting very overgrown in there so not much space for them, so they're just stuck in a gap at the side where it's a little shady and in next to the Anubia on the Bogwood, they're just wedged in enough that the flow doesn't push them around.

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Since its getting so overgrown In there I've decided I'm going to tear this all down at some point soonish and stick it all in a new tank (as much as I can fit that is), I'm also getting sick of the bow front adding distortion when taking macro pics deeper in the tank, the rim looks a mess also and gets in the way when using flash, thinking of getting a Dennerle 30 Nano as it's nice enough (already have the 10) fits roughly the same footprint as the Aquastart320, if I were to put a bigger tank in its place I would lose the Crystal shrimp tank next to it (could just put them in the bigger tank), a Scapers tank wouldn't fit front to back, an ADA 45P would fit nicely but it's more than 4x the cost and unfortunately the other half vetoed that idea straight away when I mentioned it, ah well worth a try, I still need to sing for the 30 though!

:)
 
With all the migrations going on from the Anubia Walled a Tank I thought I'd give the substrate a bit of a clean out, and bang away at the filter wall from the back to knock the silt out and also change the water (needed after that lot), I removed some of the gravel and sucked out below the mesh bed it sits on, quite a lot of debris down their which caused quite a mess as it was being extracted, with that done I replaced the removed gravel with some Dennerle black sand. I was quite brutal with the clean out, I tried catching the shrimp before I did all this but they were having none of it and went and hid behind the Anubias. I even went as far as putting a glass feeding tray in there after the tidy up with a slice of carrot and some Ebi dama to coax them back out from the back but they were having none of that either and it wasn't until yesterday that I fed White Pellet directly onto the substrate did they all come crawling out.

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I captured one of the the adult male CRS from the other tank to breed with the adult CBS female in here, you can see Geronimos replacement at the back next to Moya (CBS female).

Here's a few close ups of some of the others.

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No idea what's happened to this ones beak, hope it wasn't me with the vigorous clean out!

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Here's where all the other CRS and CBS offspring went (when I can catch them and put them in there), anything other than a CRS or a CBS in here got here under its own steam (or near enough).

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Another similar pic below but better showing the Nymphoides Aquatica placed in this tank showing it is exploding in growth, there's two others in here rescued from each of the other tanks (one behind the Bogwood with small leaves from the injected tank, one with no leaves from the walled tank, it's in front of the the one with good growth, only see a leafless stem sticking out) both were devoured by shrimp, for some reason the damage on the bananas from being eaten by shrimp isn't as extensive in here as the other low tech (walled tank, the one in here got stripped to the bone) and the one in the injected EI tank which grew the small leaves but lost all but one banana. Shrimp in this tank don't mind eating out of a glass, go figure!

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:)
 
Don't recall if I've ever said how much FUN this journal is!

Poor Geronimo though!!!
(I recently moved the Python basket & found a chocolate gourami dessicant :oops:)
 
alto said:
Don't recall if I've ever said how much FUN this journal is!
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Thanks!

alto said:
Poor Geronimo though!!!
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I know I was quite gutted when I found him, a few weeks previously he'd been living down the back of the filter grazing with a few other offspring when he went missing the first time, I relocated him back into the main tank (offspring went in the other tank) where he stayed for a week and then disappeared again, left it for a week before I went investigating after Moya had moulted and he didn't reappear, couldn't see him down the back of the filter, it wasn't until after the tank clean that confitmed he wasn't hiding in the back filter again, that's when I found him down the back of the main tank.

Here he is with the other Pioneers that didn't make it, the Cherries climbed out the Main Tank (or chased out by fish).

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Moya climbed out the tank again today, that's the third time she's done this, headed in the direction of the filter box (which is now closed over with sponge), there's no gaps in that direction that shrimp can now fall through so they'd have to return to whence they came. Heres she's is climbing out, finding nowhere to go then turning back, she flicked into the water when she saw me come too close with the camera.

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If I were to anthropomorphise I would say she's pining for Geronimo and she goes looking for him every now and again. If I were to think of this logically it may be that she's is hungry (white pellet, novo prawn, Ebi Dama, Ebi Dama special and a slice of carrot have gone in recently, she only eat a little of the White pellet from what I saw, she still grazes elsewhere on the leaves) or there is something missing from her diet that I've not provided in great enough quantity, so to mitigate it being firstly a mineral loss I've stuck some Montmorilite stone and some cuttlefish bone in their as an extra. I tried a slice of kiwi fruit out in the other tank as something different to try, so far only the cherries in there seem to be stripping it down, the crystals are more interested in digging trenches in the Dennerle black sand substrate.

Amongst other things I've been working on, I have made a start on part of the backdrop for the new nano, I'm copying the face of a garden Buddha statue, a whole pack of black milliput got used up in the process, 2 if you count the pack that hardened not long after it reached the working consistency I wanted it to be and became brittle and broke apart when worked (used the pasta machine to get it into flat strips for laying on), second pack I didn't wait for it to condition after I mixed it thoroughly so I just got messy with it and rolled it in the pasta machine immediately (delaminated a bit) and then laid it on and smoothed it out best I could before it became unworkable, hopefully it doesn't delaminate when I go to sand it to give it a nice key to take some 24ct Gold Leaf!

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:)
 
You have some truly beautiful shrimp! You got pretty lucky there when you thought they were straight crs/cbs. I wouldn't mind some of your hybrids.....
 
ldcgroomer said:
You have some truly beautiful shrimp! You got pretty lucky there when you thought they were straight crs/cbs. I wouldn't mind some of your hybrids.....
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Thanks Lindy, yeah pretty lucky, though Geronimo climbing out was pretty bad luck, hopefully Moya breeds with one of his brothers that I put in there with her, although she's threatening to go the same way as Geronimo as she climbed out again last night, I've seen her do it three times now, who knows how many other times she's tried when I'm not looking, it might be because too many of her offspring are close to maturing and she's trying to get away from them, or is she looking for Geronimo, or just looking for a new source of food, I need to shore the tank sides up further so no climbing out can happen at all (see below vid). As to passing on some the Hybrids I may do at some point later on if she breeds again giving me more Hybrids with the new partner, that's if she stays long enough to breed with him.

Fingers crossed she doesn't follow Geronimo, she's trying her best though !



Heart stopper!!!

Rob Dahl said:
Love your micro photography X3NITH. What kind of camera setup do you have?
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Thanks Rob, I am using a Nikon D800E with a Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D lens most of the time using off camera flash, the video above though was shot using a Nikon1 V1 with a 10mm f/2.8 Pancake Lens.

:)
 
X3NiTH said:
sand it to give it a nice key to take some 24ct Gold Leaf!


:)
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Well, that could quite possibly be the most ornate decoration for a tank that I've heard of!


From Alex - Internet names may vary. Comment not fit for human consumption. Contains small parts.
 
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