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45L cory nano

The other amano climbed out too! I found it under my son’s toy car...Are they notorious climbers? I had disconnected the CO2, also done 3 water changes in the past 5 days. I tested the water just in case, NH4 is 0 and NO2 0,05 (but I don’t trust this test really, it is out of date and always gives the same result, also on tap water). TDS matches the tap and the temp is 26,5. Nothing alarming I’d say...

I’d like to keep the tank open but don’t want to find livestock on the floor...Do cories and otos jump?

Can't speak for Amano shrimp but Rednose Shrimp and NQ Algae Shrimp have done a lot of jumping onto my floor. Otocinclus have not dropped but will sometimes gulp air like a Corydoras. It isn't super common for Otoclincus to do this and in my experience if they keep doing it something could be wrong.
 
Thanks all, I think I will go for it but won’t buy any fish before the temps cool down a bit.

Cories make occassional mad dashes to the surface for oxygen and have been known to get it wrong but they don't normally end up on the floor. I have heard of otos jumping but I think its few and far between unless you run the water near the brim. So you should be ok with those two species but it's better if you have some surface cover to deter them a little as they could potentially leap.

With surface cover you mean floating or tall plants on the surface? I have limnobium and salvinia, but I’m not sure how well they’ll do in the winter light-wise. I hope the crypt crispatula will grow tall enough to create some surface cover as well. I’m thinking maybe a glass lid covering ~2/3 of the tank would work too (space for the hob and not blocking too much light).
 
The tank has finally gone low tech. The Bio-CO2 kept on bubbling for weeks and weeks, it had not even stopped fully yet when I disconnected it on Friday. The plants have been growing nicely, I am curious how the tank will do without CO2.

The first fish are in, picked up 6 otos yesterday. They have been really quiet the last 24 hours, but since the lights went off today they've been a little more active. They are slowly getting interest in the anubias leaves with brown algae and the piece of cucumber I dropped in. Some could gain some weight but otherwise they seem fine, hope they'll all make it. I am planning to add the snails later (they are still going strong in the bucket) so that the otos can feast on the diatoms first.

I have half a wine barrel outside to store used tank water before I use it in the garden, and so far it is also a nice source of live food and robust floating plants. I added a few bigger pieces of limnobium to the tank to give the otos some shelter, with the thick leaves these can take the flow of the HOB much better (if they'll get on with less light is another matter).

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The fish have been in for almost two weeks now and the horned nerites have finally moved in. Unfortunately I lost one oto after the first week so I'm down to 5. It is a colourful group of otos, all individuals really. Looking at them I think they are two different species (3 marbled brownish ones and 2 darker fish with a different tail pattern). One is the fattest oto I've ever seen, and another looks so thin and poorly I cannot imagine he'll pull through. For some reason the otos are hardly interested in the diatoms (it seems they are avoiding the middle of the tank, maybe they don't feel secure enough), and the less fussy eaters are the ones that look the healthiest. I have not decided yet when to go and get the cories, could also keep this an oto tank for a while.

Cryptocoryne crisipatula is growing well under the light. Hygrophila pinnatifida has changed colour since the tank went low tech, it is turning from green to yellowish-brownish green. I wonder if the colour is typical for pinna or is it deficient in something.

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It has been a while since I updated the journal. Unfortunately there was some tragedy with the otos, lost them except one which hasn't been well either :arghh:
While I've been dosing Paraguard for the last couple of weeks, the tank hasn't been fertilised, but the plants don't seem to mind. They've got loads of water changes in return. The longest few leaves of crypt crispatula have reached the surface. Pinna and the floaters are suffering a bit, but not too much, so they should be able to recover. I hope the oto will do too.

The horned nerites took the medication really well too. They had just started laying eggs before the first dose and kept on going for a while. They love uneven surfaces, such as the lava stone...eggs everywhere, but I'm OK with that. I'd rather get rid of the limpets, those are everywhere too.

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Another thing I need to get used to is the amount of mulm. The oto loves decaying leaf litter, and the small particles end up all over the bottom. I try hard not to remove all of it when doing a water change, it is just impossible to keep the soil spotless and I guess the mulm has its benefits too, as in this article.
 
It took some time but the last oto is better again. It still had small holes (a nutritional issue?) on its head after the medication, but these are all gone now. The oto seemed to be doing fine on its own, but I felt sorry for it and gave it a friend from my other tank, a big oto I bought back in 2017. I wasn't meaning to at first since the group in my other tank is small too (I think 2-3 left now), but just one alone...I thought of moving them all but they are hiding all the time, I was lucky to catch this one. I had the idea this older healthy oto could help the newer one to heal, and maybe teach her how to eat more kinds of foods. I can't tell but maybe it's working :)

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I was way too optimistic about the pinna recovering, well it didn't! It died, all of it...I guess that was to be expected. I'm thinking about adding bucephalandra needle leaf on the wood, but haven't ordered any yet. I have also removed most of the salvinia since it wasn't doing well, but it's OK in other tanks so not completely gone.

Anubias is thriving on the other hand, and pushing a flower.

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The anubias flower has opened, and there are two more buds on the way. I don't know what trigged it, but I did turn the temperature half a degree up a couple of weeks ago (to 23C). I've had anubias (nana) flowering before, but as far as I can remember it was always in the summer.

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Now the oto is better I took the plunge and finally went and got the pygmies. I knew they'd be cute but I didn't expect them to be this much fun! They are all over the place, literally everywhere, playing with each other and sometimes picking an oto to follow as if they were Gru and the minions. I got 12 of them from a store I hadn't visited before, I wish I had found it before. You can check their website for availability and they also keep a list of new arrivals for the last four weeks, I like the transparency. The lady told me the pygmies often come in rather thin, but she'd had these for about 4 weeks already so they should be sturdy enough by now. I have not kept cories before so I hope she was right, to me they look good. They also had otos actively munching on big pieces of lettuce, I was happy to see them eating so took 3 of those as well.

I found out they all love Repashy Soilent Green. Is this good food for pygmies or should they get more meaty foods? I put in some smaller daphnia, but didn't see them eating them (but they did vanish eventually). I think they took microworms too, couldn't see it either but they did gather in the same place to browse.

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I would make sure you give the corys some meaty food as well

Thanks, I’m now a bit better in feeding them microworms, and they love them. Browsed around here and many people seem to like Vitalis catfish pellets, so ordered some.
 
Well this is how the tank looks today, although it's a bit strange photo, looking a lot more yellow than it is.

Apart from a tiny bit of algae the plants are doing well. I planted the crypt crispatula all the way at the back, but it only likes it straight below the lamp! I added some bucephalandra needle leaf last week, but there were just a few plantlets in the in vitro pot, didn't make much difference! The mosses need trimming, they are growing like weed, but so far only on the wood (they have their own wil really).

The pygmies have grown (I think their whiskers too) but they've become a lot more shy when the lights are on, maybe because the floating cover has more or less died off. Strangely the otos are not shy at all. Whereas in my bigger tank the otos are really picky, in this tank they seem to be interested in anything, they even go for microworms! I am not sure if they really eat them or is it the group dynamics, when the cories go browsing the otos think, "there must be food"?

I'd like to add some tangerine tiger shrimp, do they do well in tap water or do they need the special caridina care? How about climbing, hopefully not as bad as amanos?

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I think as your tank is mature with natural biofilm, that the shrimp should be fine. I've only known/read about them escaping more immature setups.

They also seem pretty adaptable to water chemistry and have had no problems in our local hard tap water, or in a tank that is much softer due to a high proportion of rain water.
 
Thanks mort, I think I’ll get a group in the spring when it’s safe to order online (we’re in a cold spell at the moment).
 
So I got the tigers :) No local seller seemed to have them on stock online, so I contacted one and he said he'd have just enough, so ordered 10. I wasn't sure what to expect, but got a very nice looking group of small but bright orange shrimp. I've had them for a week now and they have been hiding most of the time (I almost started to doubt about their existence) but today some felt more confident and I saw four of them out in the open.

I've also finally started to use rainwater, very slowly increased the amount of rain water each water change (now at 30%).

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