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Lights and Movement - Jewel Vision 180 from pre-set up :)

Sulking, because the plants are. Actually the anubia and the spirally thingies (something vesuvius - edited: Echinodorus augustifolia) look happy enough, the Amazon Swords are clearly sulking.
I know they do that when changing location and they WERE in transit a long time and some melting is expected and I need to be patient and all that but I want it all to be perfect NOW.
So there.

Also a lovely layer of fungus forming on the wood and tannins are leaking like teabags (Yes, I know, waterchanges, waterchanges, waterchanges. - ordered a Marina Aqua Vac Water Change Gravel Cleaner thing so carrying buckets will be a thing of the past after Tuesday. Good old Amazon lol.)

I'll laugh about it in a few weeks / months time but ...... not laughing right now.



 
There is light at the end of the tunnel.
The anubia are recovering, in fact they seem to be thriving! New leaves growing, "flowers" opening! The tiny ones are simply gorgeous. Anubias "Bonsai" or "Petite" - really darling little leaves and dense as heck.

The Amazon Swords are still looking sad but haven't gotten any sadder, Echinodorus augustifolia looking great. Very curly!
Wood getting covered in slime, normal. Moss looking good, and funny little (TINY) plants coming out of it. Just a tiny stem and two tiny tiny tiny round leaves. Leaving them for now to see what they're doing
Couple of little snails. Saw a white wormy thing (hydra, I think?) on the glass and zapped it out at WC.

Tannins in water barely visible now, overal clarity "better."

Routine:
  • Running at 28 C,
  • Juvel stock lights 5 hours a day, very low level coloured backlighting late evening, it goes well with wine ;)
  • 30% ish WC every couple of days,
  • daily 5 ml Flourish Excel and Flourish 4ml every second day.
Am I doing anything horribly wrong at this stage?

Pictures in a couple of days
 
Going in the right direction...

Water changes are a good thing ( who knew lol :p ) - and plants seem to be coping. Anubia thriving! Amazons recovering. Tannins going down.

pics a week ago and today for comparison.

Side view

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and front view

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The stupid vertical foot on the right will be re-purposed once the root on the left decides to stay down by itself so I can remove the slate and put it it where it needs to be.

Parameters are good, I think using partially cycled filter media resulted in an uneventful cycle / self-cycle.

So far, so good.
 
Went through a short ugly stage with the swords doing some melting (but growing super healthy new leaves) then algae. Added floating plants which slowed the algae right down.
It cycled super quickly (probably due to the used filter media I added) so I added the first fish a week ago. Made a mistake and added the ones I meant to add last, first. ( Pseudomugil furcatus x 11) - I lost 2 during the first 24 hours but one had what looked like a dislocated / broken lower jaw and one arrived deformed so maybe not entirely my fault. They were literally miniscule and they ARE delicate so I may be lucky I only lost two.
The others are thriving.

Also added two little otos, I know they want to be in groups but I am having horrid trouble finding healthy ones. Those two actually seem quite happy, they are eating well, not skittish, lively and look plump.
Today I took delivery of a shoal of threadfin rainbowfish (Iriatherina werneri)
Oh. My. GOD - how lovely are those fish? They settled right in and were starting to "display" almost immediately. The little ones (Pseudomugil furcatus) seem to feel really comfortable having them around (like bigger brothers and sisters, maybe) and they are all mingling super happily.

That's it for the minute. I want to see how it develops. Most problems I ever had with tanks were caused by greed ("Want that fish, want that fish now") or lack of patience.
Not going to do that this time.

Pictures soon ;)
 
Nice update :)

Shame about the furcata's - supplier really should refund AND replace - absolutely no excuse to ship out deformed or injured fish (unlikely to occur in bag)

They do like a crowd & gain confidence from other fish behaving naturally

How many in the thredafin shoal?
(just curiosity :))
 
alto said:
Nice update :)

How many in the threadafin shoal?
(just curiosity :))
Click to expand...

11 - I had ordered 7 and 3 otos but they had no healthy otos (story of my life at the moment but at least they were good enough to call and say upon closer inspection their otos were not in a fit condition to ship) so offered me 3 more threadfins instead (as I'd already paid) and in the end there were 11 in the bags :)

They make quite a display which is why I think this may be enough now. Either for good or at least for now.

I guess I could / should have complained about the 2 furcata but frankly I could not be bothered... This is Italy. Everything gets more complicated when you don't speak the lingo fluently ;)

Instead I just changed suppliers.

I'd really much rather buy my fish from a trusted local shop but having looked at the ones in the area I'd rather not. VERY expensive (which I could live with because I understand their overheads) with very limited choice and not very knowledgable staff of the "Yes, that plec will be great in your 23 liter Edge and why not have some clown loaches to go with it?" sort...

Edited to add: OK, so AqAdvisor reckons I am just over 50% of my stocking limit based on adult size... Maybe I can go back to the original plan of adding a group of Pseudomugil sp. red neon - they are only tiny...

Not straight away, want to see how it all goes with what is in there now, but they are such pretty things.
 
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Bad shot (I really need a proper camera again :snaphappy: )
As you can see the Amazons did do some melting and maybe I should remove those leaves but they seem happy enough apart from the brown spots.
The root on the left is finally staying down (HURRAH)
I think I may have added too much floating plants as the whole tank seem to be green as "all" the light is filtered through floaters plus they stick to everything. I wanted "some" cover, not a whole ceiling but to be honest the fish seem to adore it!

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Little oto cleaning up :happy:

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little otos again

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dateposted-public


Link to video :snaphappy:


 
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How I adore my rainbows :)
I spend ages watching them. The threadfins seem to have settled in so well, they are displaying and lively and seem happy.
What is surprising me is how the furcata have changed colour since the threadfins have moved in. They were pretty before, little shiny silvery fishies with blue eyes, but since their bigger friends arrived they have coloured up, their little chests are getting orange / red and the striking yellow edges are appearing on fins and tails.
Very happy so far! Not adding anything for the moment.
 
What is your floating plant?
- definitely keep it thinned out as it can easily shade your plants too much

It's generally recommended to remove damaged leaves as they tend to cost the plant more in energy to maintain, than what they deliver to nutrient stores - especially when these are old emerse culture leafs which tend to be inefficient energy providers under water anyway ... I'd gradually remove the older leafs
 
Dwarf rainbows are beautiful. I don't know why they are not so common considering how attractive and active they are.
I kept forktail rainbows and they get even prettier once they grow. They're actually not that small as adults. The males tend to constantly display to each other and they're very interesting to watch. The less colourful ones are the females but they have the same personalities and are quite beautiful in their own right. Once they become adults they rival the males. They're hardy and easy to keep. They just need space because they're territorial and chase each other around.
 
alto said:
What is your floating plant?
- definitely keep it thinned out as it can easily shade your plants too much
Click to expand...

just frogbit, probably way too much of it. It also clings to everything. Maybe not the smartest choice I ever made :banghead:

alto said:
It's generally recommended to remove damaged leaves as they tend to cost the plant more in energy to maintain, than what they deliver to nutrient stores - especially when these are old emerse culture leafs which tend to be inefficient energy providers under water anyway ... I'd gradually remove the older leafs
Click to expand...

Yes, you're probably right and when my trimming tools arrive, I'll start taking the damaged leaves out.

sciencefiction said:
Dwarf rainbows are beautiful. I don't know why they are not so common considering how attractive and active they are.
Click to expand...

Maybe with nano tanks becoming more popular they will, too (although observing them in mine I am not sure a nano would be the best environment for them.)
It could also be that in a shop they'll be very young (=pale) and in a very bare tank so won't catch the eye the way more immediately striking fish would.

alto said:
In case you missed this (awesome) site

Rainbowfish
Click to expand...

That is a great site!! Now I want some of these guys... Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis

P.cyanodorsalis.GS.jpg
 
P gertrudae

The smallest tank to be considered (Seriously Fish) would be 45cm x 30cm, (from reports) P gertrudae seems to do better in this as a species tank than in larger community tanks (where they often seem to just gradually disappear after several months)
They are such active little fish I'd want to put them in a 60cm x 30cm tank (at least) :)

Note that several of these smaller species can vary significantly in size depending on location variant
 
sciencefiction said:
I honestly can't imagine those fish in either 45X30 nor 60X30. Even my harlequin rasboras didn't do that well in that size tank and the dwarf rainbows grow about twice as long as an harlequin rasbora....

They do fine in community tanks with bottom feeders. Mine fed exclusively from the surface.
Click to expand...

To be perfectly honest, I don't actually think any fish are designed to permanently live in a nano tank. I could probably keep a llama alive in my bathroom. That does not mean bathrooms are a suitable environment for llamas.

alto said:
P gertrudae

The smallest tank to be considered (Seriously Fish) would be 45cm x 30cm, (from reports) P gertrudae seems to do better in this as a species tank than in larger community tanks (where they often seem to just gradually disappear after several months)
They are such active little fish I'd want to put them in a 60cm x 30cm tank (at least) :)

Note that several of these smaller species can vary significantly in size depending on location variant
Click to expand...

I can't help but wonder if sometimes those poor darlings are chucked in a tank as part of a "picture" for aquascaping purposes, without any real regards for their longterm needs and happiness.

Once I take on a living being I also assume responsibility. That is as true for the feral cats I decide to feed as for the fish I put in my tank...
 
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sciencefiction said:
Even my harlequin rasboras didn't do that well in that size tank and the dwarf rainbows grow about twice as long as an harlequin rasbora.
Click to expand...
P gertrudae 30 - 35mm SL (& more slender)
T heteromorpha 35 - 45mm SL (note SF minimum 60cm tank)

A friend does a lot of nano tanks & small fish (including the P gertrudae & similar sized rainbows) - I'm always surprised how well they look/behave (& these are definitely not "aquascape" tanks :D )

I use my 45P as a quarantine tank though I keep saying I'll keep fish in it one day ...
my latest Fish Disaster - tiny S selatanensis that I kept in this tank too long, as I kept losing another fish & they were too thin and ... and ...
Finally moved the last 4 to their intended home (60cm x 45cm x 55cm H) & they are seeming much better, despite the current & lots of distance needed to travel for food (& looking absurdly tiny)

Oddly I quarantined my juvenile S vaillanti in the same tank without issue ... (& S osphromenoides)
 
Petra R said:
I could probably keep a llama alive in my bathroom. That does not mean bathrooms are a suitable environment for llamas.
Click to expand...
but is your bathroom spacious enough for the llama to have decent quality of movement, cleanliness, air quality
I've watched field llamas that barely leave the gate area, instead they stand about waiting on the next (hay) meal, ignoring the grass that is beyond the invisible barrier :confused:

General recommendation is that adult size fish can swim at least 10 body lengths
- which is rather more decent than the stalls horse are kept in
I have a horse who hates being in a stall - he'd rather live outside in a field in any weather ..... except busy folk will complain to Animal Cruelty Prevention officers - who rarely have much equine experience, especially with feral horses ... so in a stall he goes in "bad" weather
A friend's horse loves his stall, he endures outside & displays great distress if left out too long
 
alto said:
P gertrudae 30 - 35mm SL (& more slender)
T heteromorpha 35 - 45mm SL (note SF minimum 60cm tank)
Click to expand...

I kept forktail rainbows. Seriously Fish lists them as 40-60mm. They're definitely at least 60mm when fully grown and not any smaller. They're "large" nano fish and as active as danios, constant chasing and displaying. Mine were in a 100G and they utilized it fully. I had male guppies also display to the male forktail rainbows :lol:
 
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