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Hi Chris. I believe I may have sold you some danios today! Tank looking great. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Almost all commercial plant growers grow their plants emersed. You'll probably only find the immersed growth buying from hobbyists or perhaps a seller who's kept it submerged for a few months. H. pinnatifada will lose all the leaves it comes with, but hopefully will have new submerged growth by...

Really nice dimensions on these. We've got the reef version running as a display in work. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

My kind of dimensions! How's the parlour palm doing? I had no luck keeping mine as a riparian.

Is all the vertical planting Hydrocleys? Looks awesome.

Awesome rockscape in those last pics. Just flood it and let it go green :p

Love the Eichornia azurea. I order it every fortnight at work but the supplier never has any in stock.

Lovely tripartita there matt, looks great.

Well that didn't take long! Just gorgeous. Planning any riparians?

Yay Al's back! Dimensions?

Looks great, I've pondered using lots of bogwood 'knees' like that before, nice to see someone doing it. Just watch out for algae early on, you've probably got three times as much light as I had on the Bucket (I had one Kessil higher up). Sent from my Xperia T using Tapatalk

I made it out of a large cardboard box and half a roll of duct tape. You find your entertainment where you can when stuck on a remote Scottish island in the depths of winter.

They just 'turn up'. Probably came in on some of the floaters or might have hitched a lift if you've been in the garden or whatever.

Almost certainly springtails Steve (Collembola spp.). They're just about the most numerous and widespread order of animals on earth (more so than insects), yet hardly anyone has ever heard of them. You get long termite-looking ones and little round blob-shaped ones. Harmless fish food :) Here's...

I'm not surprised there was difficulty with the delivery if they just addressed it to 'Brian' and put it on a boat :p

I'd sign up on Paro Project and ask Peter Finke. He'll probably just say bintan-like though :p

It's a factory! Brilliant job.

Lovely. Not sure I'd trim anything either!

I very much like your Hydrocleys Ed. And pretty much all your fish.

Yeah I've got half an inch of wood and grass based detritus in low flow areas in my tank, and not an atom of algae anywhere. I do only have 36w of LED light over 16 square feet however! Good old low-tech...

Brilliant job on the Paros. I never did manage to breed mine, it's an itch I still need to scratch. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Looks lovely Nuno. Are you using flash for your photographs or are the tank lights bright enough? Edit - flickr gave me my answer! I need more light over my tank - you're getting about 4 stops more light than me.

Not this year. Did you like my bilingual pun? I relayed it to Annelies and she just gave me a withering look.

Heh thanks I'll keep it in mind. No trips to the modderland planned for a little while though.

Yeah I'm after some Hydrocleys as well. I'm hoping some of the pond plant suppliers will have it come the spring.

That blue bag Aqua Soil is what Alastair used a while back (I forget which tank!). It had negligible effect on his water stats by all accounts. Should be fine but I'd always do a little test in a bucket or something before kitting out the tank to make sure. I've also used that soil but in...

Hi Gill. I respect that you've been keeping fish for a long time and like to do things differently sometimes, but this does sound like a recipe for disaster to me. Darrel has pointed out the issue with the apistos and the halfbeaks will also need way more room for a bit of a wrestle now and...

Dude. Sod the plants.

Yeah, updates please!

Lovely stuff Tim. The one on the right is cracking, great textures. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Sounds cracking. I'm also a fan of small fish that you never see :p

No mature media from other tanks available? It's very shiny! Smart.

These springtails sound pretty ace. Wonder if they'd be sustainable if I released some into my emersed wood and plants. What are they like to culture? Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Celestial Pearl Danio. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Heh yeah thats a typo. There's a few of them on the English PP pages.

Trapezoid tanks are possible then are they? I'm eyeing up a mildly trapezoid room divide as somewhere to put a new tank for a family member. Would look much better if it could completely fill the space rather than having wasted edge space on one side.

Oof sorry to hear about the damage Alastair. Beyond repair? On the plus side the new place looks like it's got plenty of room for a new monster! Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Phyllanthus fluitans (red rooted floater). Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Nice. If you're running an external filter then it's worth keeping the water that you empty out of it when cleaning and letting it settle in a bucket for a bit. I always found one or two tiny D. erythromicron fry in there when I kept them, I expect CPDs will be similar. You do have to really...

My kind of dimensions :) Looking forward to watching this one.

Splendid. Very pleased to hear those runty little rescues from the LFS are doing so well. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Lovely. Is that a submersed Eichhornia I spy?

I think Maidenhead sometimes have them, could try asking Fishkeeper Glasgow?

Hyalobagrus flavus I think, although Iain may need to correct me.

Lovely footage Iain. They must still be establishing dominance I reckon, that was much longer sparring than I ever saw with mine. Also those catfish are brilliant, another one for the wish list. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Nice Hydrocleys. That was going to be my choice of floater if I couldn't find any L. sedioides. Is this now low tech?

Mmmmmmmmmmmm bucephs!

Yeah I'd wondered that about the smallest one as well. Can loose hours staring at them trying to figure out what they're up to! Glad they're doing well for you, I really must get set up again soon.

Splendid. Do you reckon they're all the same species? I was slightly dubious about the larger female which seemed a bit deeper bodied and slightly more brownish but they were too young to tell really.

They look pretty much perfect. How did the four from me get on?

Very nice, the Biotodoma look great. Saw some C. spirulus in a shop the other day, very striking fish in the flesh. Are those Hemigrammus stictus in the background of the Bio pic, or something else? Edit - looks like Prionobrama, if I'd bothered to look before typing :p

Yeah sand and leaf litter with some highly structured woodwork for dwarf cichlids of some sort, grassy 'banks' and riparians. I'm just wondering if I'll really have enough space for a group of Biotodoma or if I should stick to dwarfs.

Nice. I'm seriously considering some B. wavrini for the new tank which would be a bit of a departure from my usual minifish stocking.

Did your Biotodoma arrive Ed?

Looking good Dan. Only one wet shouty moment on a setup day sounds like a win to me :p

Yeah sounds pretty normal to me Lindy. Mature males are very combative but never seem to inflict any damage.

I was lucky enough to stop in and see Alastair and this tank last week, while making an extremely exciting collection (more on which in the coming weeks). Idiotically I'd managed to pack my camera without a memory card, so no photos unfortunately. I know Al's had a few frustrations with crypt...

So somehow I managed to miss 90 percent of this journal, which was my loss! Lovely video Iain, that little nook on the right of the tank is a great touch. The denisoni and sidthimunki look great too.

Nice, glad they finally came in. Hopefully there's some other fish to have a look at and it's not all frogs still!

Yeah it's a lovely combo. The Phyllanthus seems to need quite high light to go red though, it's more green in my lower light tank.

Considerably smaller. P.f. leaves are ~15mm across. The two growing together in one of my nanos -

The answer to this is probably 'it depends'. If you're using newly purchased plants then they'll probably be going through an adjustment phase and may not be taking up a maximal amount of nutrients, so you'll largely be relying on your filter vs whatever the soil is leaching at the start. If...

Yeah I think you'll need to get them showing a lot more colour before there's any real chance at an ID, unless you can get much clearer pictures.

Nice one. Mine didn't come in. I think I'm cursed.

Ace! I absolutely love this tank. I see that weird red algae is still doing well.

I used 1ml per 50l of the oral solution (10%) to treat both hydra and planaria. If you've only got hydra then a lower dose (try half?) should be possible. Some discussion here - http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/hydra-removal.29790/#post-311990

I've used Panacur before with Paros, shrimp and snails. Plants, Fish and shrimp were definitely fine, might have lost a few snails, I can't remember. It really hits the hydra hard so you don't need a strong dose.

I've got the Micranthemum MC going in 3 tanks, all low tech - pretty steady growth in all 3, it's a great wee plant.

Come to think of it, a streaming HD webcam would probably keep me entertained for hours :)

More videos please!

It's only a matter of time before this becomes on-trend amongst IAPLC finalists.

Heh yeah I have seen stuff like that. I'm not sure I need to go to the trouble really in my small tanks - I'm doing water changes with 'pure' RO (read: not terribly pure from my LFS) and with a couple of handfuls of beech leaves and plenty of wood I expect my water values will settle out...

From parosphromenus project - "Either a good freshwater spring close to us, or clean rainwater may be used. Because of an impact from possible air pollutants one has to be careful, but after a longer rainy period, this should be not an issue. For those dependent on their tap water. one of...

I've got filters running as I had them anyway and I generally think a little water movement is a good thing. I've had paros attempt to breed in hard waters, but the eggs are never successful. If you don't have a heavy stocking then I wouldn't be afraid of lowering the tds.

Lots of paro keepers use pure RO or rain water with no mineralisation. Their blackwater habitats generally have pretty much zero KH and it seems to be important for egg development that KH remains low (whether directly or by creating a low germ load I'm not sure). With plenty of humic acids from...

Typos :) Should be 2.7cm I guess.

There is a potential issue with hybridisation, yes. It is very unclear how many of the different populations and forms constitute separate species, and this is compounded by the fact that many exporters don't provide collection or even reliable species information and may ship individuals from...

Yeah film canisters work well. Although I never bred them when I kept them before (water was too hard), they did frequently nest in the canisters. I get them for free form the camera shop around the corner.

Yeah I've always kept them in open tanks. They only come to the surface to collect air for their rudimentary bubble nests. The foam is just wedged in, no need for any attachments. Tank is 25l (perhaps slightly small for two adult pairs but will do for now). The plant is Poacaea sp 'purple...

Moss wall is a great idea for these guys I think, they're already spending a lot of time grazing on it and it's barely planted. They're definitely not dessneri, around which there is much confusion with importers. True dessneri have apparently only ever been imported to Europe a couple of...

Mainly micro worms, black worms, Daphnia and a few Hyallela and Asellus.

I think the fact you've got them breeding means you'll meet with nothing but interest and congratulations :)

If they are sumatranus then that's a good find. Parosphromenus Project :: Topic: P. sumatranus mixed with bintan(?) in Nederland (1/2) sumatranus I agree on them being hard to resist in a LFS - you just know they're 99% doomed if you don't pick them up.

The three of them are right next to my desk - going to be a terrible distraction when they're all done! There is huge confusion about a number of forms. A lot of the 'generic' imports you find in LFS tend to be from bintan-like species such as this which can be extremely difficult to tell...

Hi all, After spending a while breeding loaches and cyprinids in my nanos they'd all become pretty neglected and run down, so I am turning them over to Parosphromenus. The first tank is now up and running. It has a false back made from coarse foam which acts as a mattenfilter, substrate for...

Nice one. Give them a few days to settle in and they'll be looking much better. Mine had completely healed their fins and coloured up (as much as they have for their age) within about 4-5 days.

Ollie gave good advice about removing any reflections and shooting perpendicular to the glass - this will net you much sharper shots. The challenge then is finding enough light to provide you with a sufficiently fast shutter speed. Easy if you have an off-camera flash that you can set up above...

That looks immense Aron. Love the panoramic view.

Trimming is for the weak.

Flint if you're struggling to find any locally a few of us are hopefully getting a small shipment in sometime in March. Several species available, although minimum order for most of them is 10. If you think you might be interested just shout and I'll add you to the conversation.

C. helferi has done OK for me low tech, although in somewhat harder water.

Great tank. Love the simplicity but still has loads of impact, and obviously a great home for some very nice fish.

Alastair that is immense. I totally hadn't appreciated the sense of scale it must have in the flesh until seeing a video. Awesome.

Yeah, by the million I expect.

Not good. They must have been in pretty bad shape or bagged too densely as they normally ship pretty well by all accounts (breathe air and cope well with temperature drops).

That's three of us then Al (I've just turned one of my nanos back over to trying some Paro breeding again).

Now I'm jealous. I have probably some of the best F1 stock in the world available locally but no space for a tank for them :(

I would try and get them from someone with a known species or at least import location. So many of the species within a complex are effectively impossible to tell apart by eye and it's much more valuable from the point of view of maintaining a population within the hobby if we know what they...

Brilliant Lee. I'd strongly suggest limiting the stocking to just the gouramis, or perhaps gouramis and one of the smaller blackwater Boraras species in order to give any fry as good a chance as possible. Which species are you going to go for? Really looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Looking lovely Ian. Apologies if it's been covered earlier in the thread, but what species of Crypt is that front left?