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Journal A nursery for my Carinotetraodon Travancoricus.

Keen to know if that perspex floater divider ever got made? Seems like a great idea!
Sadly not, covid restrictions meant I couldn't get to a laser cutter safely.

I'm a little more OK with floaters covering the tank now
 
Made the decision to remove the Rotala, it's not for this tank. Ordered: Cryptocoryne albida ("costata"), Cryptocoryne spiralis var. caudigera and Staurogyne sp. 'Bihar'.

Will remove/plant up when plants arrive. Two puffers are on order too, see what I get when they turn up, I guess.

Sadly, partner (a nurse) has been exposed to covid, so we're in isolation for a couple of weeks.
 
Still loving this tank. Hope the both of you come through isolation healthy.
 
Thanks @mort - it's a slow tank, but it's getting there. We're appearing Ok, we'll get tested at the weekend.
 
I figure it might be nice to show the current state of affairs. 



The main tank maintenance slipped; well it changed. I increased the light period to 6 hours, and increased the light strength by 10%. This was not a good idea, and in the 3 weeks since doing that, Rotala growth rocketed (yay!), but so did the algae and the mulm. BGA also reappeared. 



Much like @alto mentioned in a previous post, attacking the BGA in the substrate seems like the next plan on attack. I’d stopped dosing EasyCarbo as algae had pretty much gone - it’s back now though.



A photo:

5.5a.JPG





I plan to remove almost all the Rotala, but not from the central left. The filter will now be placed at the front right of the tank and not at back left to give the back plants an easier time. New plants should be with me Monday.





Rotata; in some parts looks exactly like I think it should:
rotala.JPG


Moving on, I’ve got my quarantine tank running with two of the weakest puffers I’ve ever seen. I’m fairly prepared for these tiny fish these days. Feeding some banana worms and adding a few snails to the tank saw them readily gulped up. I think they’ll be fine, I hope so anyway.

5.5b.JPG


I’ve already decided that if they’re both male, I’ll set up the cube and separate if required. One definite male, one unknown - and one might not be the same species. Markings do vary across fish, but one looks a little too different. 

The tank is heated to 23c and with a trickle of water turn over. Got a ball of moss in there and a handful of floaters - no light on this tank, and should only be up for about a week (while the significant other is locked away).

There were bugs in the moss, and the puffers are picking them off.


 Fragile little things.

Male
5.5n1.JPG


Unknown
5.5n2.JPG


...

Finally, we come to the snail jar. I like it. 

Got about 10 shrimp in there, unheated and a booming colony of snails. And a lot of other bugs too. Fanciest photo I’ve taken in a while:


5.5s1.JPG



I Will update again with new plants and puffers in a couple of weeks, which should be 6 months since tank setup then.

I’d really like to change the filter on the main tank for one with a bit more flow, and I’d love a spray bar too. But, very little point when this tank will be turning into a nano reef, and the next tank is a lot, lot bigger.
 
I'm leaning towards female too @MirandaB, she's fairly boisterous though - very easy to observe in Carinotetraodon Travancoricus now that the weakest are generally pushed about.
 
I find if you have a large enough group no one fish gets pushed about too much.
The youngsters are the worst lol when I decided the fry I'd raised were big enough to go in with the adults I was worrying about them being bullied but it was the other way round...absolute little hooligans :oops:
 
I think i'll try and get another female when lockdown ends - I think 4-5 fish in the aquarium will be happy enough. I'm adding more twigs, moss and plants next week. Kinda wishing I'd have bought the 60H instead now haha.

From my research, observations and no fry making it - I just think the tank isn't dense enough, or I need to separate out the fish to a breeding tank when I think they're close to doing their business. I may do that with these as the time comes.
 
Breeding in a separate tank is the best way to go,just a bare tank with big clumps of moss is all you need and remove the adults after you've seen spawning behaviour.
They will eat eggs and fry,I have one young female that spends virtually all her time in amongst the moss in the main tank waiting for a free meal :lol:
 
6 months have passed since this tank started, and having just signed a new lease on my home I can say this tanks will be running for another 9 - that’s exciting. And we got negative covid tests, so double positive.

Keeping up with the good news, the new puffers are showing some courtship, male Is displaying and chasing. Snails, blood worms, and grindal worms must have got them going. Still in quarantine though. I doubt that fry will survive a spawn while they’re in there, but I’ve added a small amount of vinegar eels daily just in case I miss it.

The female in the main tank is named Sharon, and Sharon is very easily spooked. She has been from the start, she was the last one left when I got her, the smallest puffer I’d ever seen, much much weaker than the new two. She gets frightened by a leaf swaying in the current. I’m concerned she’s going to go straight into glass and hurt herself. The male (Diddy) that was in the tank was a little bit of a stabilising force, but he’s not with us anymore. With this in mind, I’m going to cover the sides in black card. Not ideal, but concern grows the longer she’s on her own.

The new female will be added to the main tank later this week; which at that point will have had 2 weeks in isolation, much like myself. The male I think will get a couple of additional weeks on his own, he’s very small and a month of a good diet will do him wonders.


6months.jpg


New plants are in and they’re all melting. Melting is to be expected, Cryptocoryne albida ("costata") melted to nothing when I last added some (it's grown back fine) and Cryptocoryne spiralis var. caudigera is just a slow starter (for me). I don’t see any reason why this time round would be different. That Staurogyne sp. 'Bihar' is melting a touch, I have slightly high hopes for it. At some stage, I should write a list of all the species of plants in there, and those I've tried.

Detritus can be seen on plant leaves. Some of the roots from limnobium laevigatum are over 30cms long now.

I removed a little more plant mass than I’d have liked, and any leaves showing BBA I’ve removed. I’ve been Injecting Easy Carbo into substrate at around 2ml a day for over a week. I don’t know if it’s making a difference, doesn’t look like it. I will stop. Adding 2ml of TNC complete at every water change, so twice a week.

Finally. Added a couple more twigs and some woody bits and running the Eheim skim as a filter whilst the other two make used of the Liberty 75.

Overall happy, missing Diddy though.
 
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Here is that list of plants, past and present.

alive:
Cryptocoryne albida 'Brown'(doing good, producing runners)
Cryptocoryne usteriana(doing good, a bit too good. Old leaves struggle with BBA, new leaves are beautiful.)
Cryptocoryne Lutea Hobbit(slowly doing nothing, spread out new occasional leaves)
Cryptocoryne Lutea(very slow start, only now seeing new leaves, very green looking plant.
Cryptocoryne "Purpurea"(doing good, obvious runner slow starter)
Cryptocoryne albida ("costata")(melts, comes back, does not much, looks very similar to Spiralis)
Cryptocoryne spiralis var. caudigera(slow, root growth first, stable plant, no runners that I can see)
Limnobium laevigatum(weed, longer root so far: 41cm)
Lagenandra keralensi(not doing much, new leaves come, BBA takes them away.
Rotala rotundifolia(hit and miss)
Staurogyne sp. 'Bihar'(on trial)
Taxiphyllum barbieri(doing good++)
dead:
Hygrophila pinnatifida(held on, but dwindled away)
Pogostemon stellatus(nope)

Almost certainly too many plants in the tank now, if they all propagate and grow.
 
Short macro video of a vinegar eel culture I started a week or so ago:

 
7 months?

I guess flow, and the resulting detritus is my current nemesis, but the plants seems to be growing. Notable runners from Cryptocoryne albida ("costata”), and or Cryptocoryne spiralis var. caudigera - though they look almost identical at 5 inches in height - and Staurogyne sp. 'Bihar' is growing well in the back right, but when shaded they aren’t doing so well. Rotala is back from the dead, I cut it down to the gravel, but it doesn't die when I want it to.

Here's how we currently look:

7_overview.JPG


I had increased light intensity as Limnobium laevigatum cover was at around 90%. I’ve noticed that once a month with Limnobium laevigatum that I have to manually removed yellowing or deteriorating leaves and I guess every 8 weeks or so, I am removing all roots as detritus build up in them is immense. The detritus leads to an algae in the roots, perhaps increasing light intensity wasn't my best move. Looked like this:

algae.JPG


So I cut off all the roots, and I've reduced light intensity by 10%.

Fish are colouring up nicely:

Sharon:

sharon.JPG



Female a:

female.JPG


Male b:

male.JPG


I am still unsure on species of Female b. Judging by the plates in the Aqualog book on puffers, they could all be C. Travancoricus, their spots generally blur as they get a bit older.

Apologies for the specs in the images, far too many tiny particles in the water. And I still haven't gotten some card for the back.
 
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They all look like travancoricus to me,your male is unusually brightly coloured with a definite pattern which is lovely.
Both of mine are a more muddy colour :)
 
Ah the males only now come into maturity in my eyes, he's a pretty fish.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a slightly larger aquarium so I can have 5 of 'em. I've got a 60p in a loft, but I like the 45cm height...
 
I’ve been having thoughts.

Let me start with the good news, the puffers are spawning again. That’s where the good news ends, I think.

I’m pretty sure the shrimp In the tank are eating the eggs. I’m pretty sure the puffs are eating the eggs too. Yeah, they both are. Whilst all this is going on, it has become apparent puffs are quite messy. I feed in around 12-20 small snails a week (2-4mm), and I pipette some live bloodworms (a bag from the LFS does me about a month). This isn’t too much food, they eat the lot with barely any increase in stomach size. But the waste from this food is immense, the snail carcass rots, the bloodworm as waste are often just red faecal matter, and I guess that rots too.

This has, and does play havoc with the water quality. I’ve been doing 50% water changes twice a week since the start, and when I’ve missed one the tank noticeably deteriorates. I’d really like the tank to be able to thrive on one water change a week.

I am seriously considering filter options, I try to consider an external filter but I don’t think flow alone solves the issue, neither do I want to be cleaning out canister filters (almost bought an ADA superjet, though). So fro now, I'm exploring a sump. To get more flow in an even calm manner. I’m also, planning some parts to be fabricated to aid with this, in and out modular pipes:

Screenshot 2021-01-02 at 16.17.27.png


This will be in a dark grey PVC with 12mm diameter with 1mm walls. I can also get this in clear acrylic, which I think I will for prototyping. The in/out of pipes will connect to 16/12mm tubing.

The sump underneath is 3 stage, something like this:

untitled (2).png

It’s 40cm length, 25cm width and 30cm height. That image is about as good as we’ll get. I haven’t calculated the flow rate yet, but I will tonight. The inflow has a hole roughly at 7.8cm below surface level so that if there is a power cut the sump can hold the water.

If this sump doesn’t quite increase flow, at the very least I suspect my dissolved oxygen will be much higher and this is as much as aim for this as any.


And, here is how we currently look:

jan1st.png


My goodness, does this look a little messy. I haven't cleaned the glass, but it's looking OK. You can probably see a little algae bottom right, and on some twigs. I'm, running a small eheim filter (that skimmer without the hat) to increase flow as I make it a mission to keep it a bit cleaner, it's certainly helping.

I quite like the look at the moment.

I'll be pulling the tank out for the sump fit soon, and when I do I'll clean the back and add a frosted sheet that you would normally add on a window for privacy. Need to remove that cardboard.
 
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A bit of a dummy on my part, but a gravity fed syphon won't work. Flow will be immense, and inconsistent. Back to the drawing board.
 
Now running an airstone over night, and taken a stronger interest in my water params.

Screenshot 2021-01-08 at 09.15.26.png


I'm getting high NO3, which I think I will make an effort to remove now. For a long time I've been using the very expensive Aquarian Chlorine remover, but looks like I'll be using prime going forward. I've been collecting rain water all year, but it's a supplement and not a water source for this tank. I'm no chemist/biologist, but looks like water from the tap has enough in it to grow plants. Additionally, it looks like water in Cambridge is not chlorominated :) This means Aquarian Tap water conditioner is doing an OK job, but I feel I should tackle those nitrates.

I suspect my pH is a touch lower, as I add 25% RO or rainwarer to my water changes
 
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