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Bufo Bill's Boraras Cube

Bufo Bill

Bufo Bill

Member
Joined
5 Feb 2009
Messages
114
Location
Wolverhampton
Hi, this is my first journal here on UKAPS, feel free to let me know what you think.
Some specs:-
Fish R Fun 17L Cube tank (Open Top).
Lighting: AquaRay 400 nano tile with controller set @ Photoperiod 3:15pm to 10:15pm, 10% intensity, 100 minute ramp up and ramp down.
Filter: Boyu external, with spray bar outlet.
Heaters: 2 x 25Watt Fish R Fun heaters.
This is a no ferts low tech set up.
The idea is for a budget tank using existing equipment and bargain plants. It is a south east Asian pool style tank with bog wood made to look like tree root buttresses, with Christmas Tree Moss and Mini Java Fern attached to them with an Eco Complete substrate planted with Crypts of various types. There are also some Water lettuce babies and mini Salvinia, the latter two from UKAPS members.
The tank contains a shoal of 9 0.75inch Boraras naevus fish.
Water changes are weekly to fortnightly, weekly right now as I had great coverage of the substrate by crypts, but I let the surface plants grow to thickly and had a major Crypt melt situation before I realised what the problem was. Here is a pic.

exxo.jpg
Thanks for looking in.
 

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darren636 said:
You got the newly described red micros. nice. Lets see em!
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Ha ha, easier said than done! These guys are like streaks of lightning. Will get the macro on it tomorrow at feeding time. Thanks for reading.
 
These fish are nearly the same pattern colouring as B. Maculatus, except that they do not have the black bar on the anal fin.
Took me a week with a magnifying glass to work out what I had . . . My vision may never be right again!
The other main difference (visible to the naked eye, that is), is that these are about a quarter of an inch (6mm) shorter. The females have smaller black spots on the flank than the males in my estimation, and this is backed up on Fishbase.org.
 
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Hi this is a not to sharp picture of one of the males. He is normally brighter than this but I think the extra light needed for the shot was a bit freaky for him. Didn't stop them all pigging out on frozen Cyclops though!
m5qb.jpg
Note that the large spot on the flank is larger than the eye; this is an easy way of telling the sexes apart.
 

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Another Pic from yesterday's shoot. Sorry about the focusing light reflection mid way up the right hand bog wood.
 

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The heater is coming out for future pics. It is only there during cold snaps, as a bit of extra safety. The regular heater is positioned on the back wall, tucked away and is not nearly as visible.
Thanks for the advice Edvet, I really appreciate it.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. Faizal, the nice things you said mean even more to me having seen the wonderful standards you achieve with your own aquariums.
As a treat here are some more dodgy fish pics, as fuzzy as always I'm afraid!
6n5m.jpg
A little shoal of very little fish . . .
ixhe.jpg
Look at the Dominant male at the top left of the picture . . . he's very fuzzy in the pic but look at the red shining on the fins.
 

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😳:shy: Most humbled by your comment Bill . Quite perfectly embarassed to be totally honest,..i mean considering the giants that we have here on UKAPS ...Thank you for that most kind comment mate. Hoping to see this progress beautifully.
 
Passed a sad weekend; two of the males had to be moved into a friend's tank, as they were being picked on quite a bit. They were doing fine until the crypts melted, making it harder for them to get out of sight of the dominant male. Didn't want any deaths so now they live with ember tetras (I think that's what they are called) in my friends 24 inch tank.
 
Bufo Bill said:
Passed a sad weekend; two of the males had to be moved into a friend's tank, as they were being picked on quite a bit. They were doing fine until the crypts melted, making it harder for them to get out of sight of the dominant male. Didn't want any deaths so now they live with ember tetras (I think that's what they are called) in my friends 24 inch tank.
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So sorry to hear that mate.🙁 But you did the right thing. How is the tank coming along Bill? Hope it's ticking along nicely. No worries because as soon as the crypts recover from the melt,...you will be able to transfer them back into your tank,..God willing🙂. It's great that they have you watching over them like this. Good swift thinking mate 🙂.
 
Hi, thanks so much for the kind words. The tank is coming on slowly, I'm very keen to keep to the "no ferts routine". It's slow going, but it's better than all hell breaking loose, if you see what I mean.
 
as soon as my erythrmicron fry are out of my q tank , my chili's will be going in for some breeding. cant wait to try them in ro water
 
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After a few months watching this tank "progress", or not doing anything growth wise, as it it known elsewhere I am going to gently raise the light levels and keep my fingers crossed and eyes peeled for algae. The Mini Java Fern is doing well, but the water is very "tea-stained", so the mosses and crypts lower down aren't doing much at all. I was hoping to keep this tank very low maintenance, but I am changing water regularly, as I am worried about the waste building up. Hopefully the light increase will help me out with both problems.
All the best from Bill. 😀
 
Upped the lighting again today, things seem to be doing slightly better at the bottom of the tank . . . Suppose the bog wood is leaching tannins faster than I am removing them, hence the need for more light.
 
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