A Rocky Road - New inhabitants

[J Butler]

Re: A Rocky Road

Well, I've been busy pestering Jim over at TGM today. They have certainly got customer service nailed over there, a very pleasent chat. Makes the world of difference talking with a shop owner that specialises in planted tanks for a change!

So, the final specimens that are going to be winging there way to me soon are:

Background:
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Ludwigia arcuata
Rotala wallichi
Rotala sp. green

Midground:
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica'
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green'
Hemianthus micranthemoides

Hardscape:
Microsorium pteropus 'Narrow Leaf'
Bolbitis Heudelotti
Christmas moss
Weeping moss

Foreground and soil/sand transition:
Eleocharis acicularis
Riccia fluitans
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'

Here's hoping they don't all wither and die under my ministrations

 

[Ady34]

Re: A Rocky Road

Hi Joe,
any progress reports, have your plants arrived yet or are you still waiting?
Ady.

 

[J Butler]

Re: A Rocky Road

Hi Joe,
any progress reports, have your plants arrived yet or are you still waiting?
Ady.

Sorry for the delay, Ady. Have only just seen your comment

No Major updates thus far, however the majority of my plant order arrived this morning so hopefully things will get moving pretty quickly from here on in (although not too quickly, quick usually = bad in our business), just counting down the hours at my desk now...

Unfortunatley TGM couldn't get the Bolbitis for today, so they're sending that out next week. Plus my 0.14mm fishing line is also en route, I'm hoping that will get here today so I can get all the moss sorted. Otherwise things may look like a building site for a few days yet

 

[Ady34]

Re: A Rocky Road

ahh... exciting times, i know that feeling of counting down the hours!
Looking forward to seeing this one planted.... like you said, dont rush it though.
Good luck.
Ady.

 

[hinch]

Re: A Rocky Road

pop down your local fishing store and get some fishing line its cheap enough.

if you get something like the chameleon line it looks brown on the spool but depending on the variant in water either goes completely invisible or the same colour as whatever its tied around without the reflections etc so its almost entirely transparent again. cheap line has reflections on it and is quite visible.

Something in the 2lb region should be small enough for you its about 3 quid a spool

 

[J Butler]

Re: A Rocky Road

Thanks for the info hinch, I just went for the cheap clear variety so it could well be visable.

On the back of your excellent information I googled local fishing shops and managed to find some 2lb chameleon line, will pop out and get some later hopefully, thanks for your help
(Should have checked with you guys sooner )

 

[hinch]

Re: A Rocky Road

only reason i know is as it was in my fishing box and I've spent hours (and a small fortune) finding the best line to go invisible in the water so as not to disturb the fish on bright days

 

[foxfish]

Re: A Rocky Road

Elasticated cotton from the tackle shop, in clear.

 

[J Butler]

Re: A Rocky Road

Well, I've been pretty slack with updates Water changes are keeping me busy, that said a long hosepipe attached to the FX5 makes it a doddle compared to the archaic bucket and siphon method I was used to... I digress.

As previously eluded to, the plants arrived early Friday 18th and planting commenced around 17:00. I underestimated the sheer amount of preparation involved at this point I think. Tying moss and Java fern to wood was extremely fiddly (mainly the former) and stem preparation on my part was severely lacking. In hindsight I think I rushed despite spending a fair amount of time. All valuable experience to store away in the resource bank though...

I eventually filled the tank on Saturday and hit some large annoyances. Despite a reasonable soaking and apparently being water logged, the wood decided to float. I got it down with some extra rock but it dislodged some plants. With the unanticipated buoyancy, the initial arrangement I had decided on did not stay completely as expected, I can live with that though. Also, with my excessive flow rates, the initial spraybar output was too much so I doubled the amount of holes and turned the FX5 output down by a fair amount. Flow seems to be good now, maybe slightly on the high side as I’m still waiting for plants to root but it gives me quite a bit of room to manouver when everything fills in (fingers crossed)



One pleasent off shoot of the spraybar is all the surface ripples it creates, after years of stagnant bordom, the activity up there makes for a pleasing contrast! I just need some point source lighting now to really see the difference, maybe next time



I've been struggling with the Myriophyllum Matogrossense unfortunately. It fell afoul of my novice status at the beginning I think, and the water flow may be too much for it. the bottom part of the stems and lower leaves suffered severe melting, much to my dismay:





The bugger's stringing me on though, as the growth that does remain is a lovely vibrant green, i'm currently living in hope that it's busy laying foundations for a second coming

Any tips greatfully recieved

 

[J Butler]

Re: A Rocky Road

Last Friday, the Bolbitis heudelotti arrived. I was lucky to get hold of some as Jim at TGM said that Tropica weren't expecting to have any available until 2012 Jim kindly broke down some that they had in their tanks and supplied two generous pots:



I removed all the wood and had a bit of a sort out on Saturday, here is how everything stands. It's a few days old but nothing major has been done since then:



I'm trying hard to leave the plants to settle although i do have an urge to potter. The Java fern and Bolbitis leaves are quite large but i'm waiting for some new shoots before I hack that back, so everything's looking a bit haphazard at the minute.

Apart from some melting, everything seems to be going relatively ok. Algae hasn't really reared it's ugly head although I am using an excessive amount of purigen, pretty much 2/3 of a litre with the other 1/3 ready to go into the rotation. I'm loving the water clarity to!

Here's some detail shots, things aren't too bad...

 

[Ady34]

Re: A Rocky Road

Hi Joe,
good to see you've got your planting done.
I like the planting scheme and can see your vision for when its all filled in with the peripheral stems framing the darker more subtle integral wooded areas with the bolbitis, ferns crypts etc, then the vibrant greens of the hairgrass, riccia and hemi c 'cuba' drawing the eye back into the pathway through the forest. Cool.
One thing ive learned is patience and the initial melting is frustrating, but stick with your maintenence routine, dosing etc and keep it regular and theyll come through!.... never as quickly as we'd like though
Hope its going ok.
Cheerio for now.
Ady.

 

[J Butler]

Re: A Rocky Road

Thanks for stopping by again Ady

Patience certainly is a virtue here, that's for sure. Despite possessing a small amount, i'm considering getting out the Mozart or reading aloud to my tank, apparently plants enjoy that kind of thing...

Everythings ticking along nicely still, i'm getting a fair amount of wood mould/fungus cropping up though, despite giving it a good scrub previously. Hopefully tonight (or more likely tomorrow) i'll get time to head into town and pester some LFS's in the hope of finding some Amano and cherry shrimps, possibly some Otocinclus if they're available. With any luck, the shrimp task force and I will be on the same wavelength and they'll also tend to the moss, got to love delegation.

I just hope they haven't heard of the word 'Union', I've heard they can cause a bit of a nuisance...

 

[J Butler]

Re: A Rocky Road

I appear to have inherited a hitchhiking friend from the delivery of Bolbitis. I did notice the little fella a while back on the glass.
He's grown a bit since then however, guessing my biofilm/mould infested wood is providing a tasty treat
Apologies in advance, zooming in on a critter without adequate light results in a less than perfect capture, especially on the ol' camera phone...



It's probably too early to tell, but does anyone have an idea as to its identity? He has a conical shell which seems to be translucent, but I suppose this could be because it's new. The shell has some black markings on, not solid, more like irregular course black netting.

 

[J Butler]

I did indeed make the journey to a couple of my LFS's and purchases were made! Unfortunately Otocinclus are proving somewhat elusive, I thought that might be the case.

I think I'm taking my brother over to Derby for a rugby game this weekend so will hopefully get to visit Wharf Aquatics which is only another 20 mins away. I've never been before but I'm pretty sure it's a fair bit larger than any aquatic shops I've visited, so maybe I'll uncover some of the elusive critters over there!

As for what I did get, 6 Amano shrimp are now meticulously picking over my aquarium as well as 12 or so Cherry shrimp (included the or so as the I got a few extra cherries at the shop and I have an inkling that some may have hatched also as i've spotted a few tiny shrimp, smaller than what I remember buying. Possibly the minds playing tricks though... )

In addition to the shrimp, some Corydoras Pygmaeus (although display said C. habrosus) are now flitting around all over the place, 6 in all. They were on the maybe pile as I have never kept corydoras before and quite liked the idea of the little dwarf varieties. When I saw them, thought why not, good decision me thinks as they're full of character!

Enough words...







And some of the shrimp, easier to capture than the speed demons above, camera phone limitations certainly starting to surface...









I did have a few more, but I think I've tied up you bandwidth enough for now, I'll just post two more...





It's the first time I've kept shrimp so there's nothing spectacular, just a rag tag collection of misfits I think I've seen one or two yellow\orange varieties plus some that don't seem to have any colouring at all, pretty sure they're all Neocaridina heteropoda of some description though.

 

[J Butler]

And just a quick aside, does anyone have any tips on food for dwarf corydoras?
I have some sinking wafers but they didn't seem very interested. I will hopefully get a selection of dry and frozen food soon (think i'm going to check out TA aquaculture as Darrel seems to like them), anyone had any luck with blanched vegetables?

As well as that, has anyone had much experience with cherry barbs and cherry shrimp in a well planted tank. I'm thinking about getting some barbs soon but have reservations. Will the shrimp never come out again, or will the adults be reasonably safe?

 

[Callum]

Have to say the last two pictures are amazing, as is your tank!
Keep up the good work.

 

[J Butler]

Have to say the last two pictures are amazing, as is your tank!
Keep up the good work.

Thanks Callum,

Spent far too long gazing into my tank over the weekend, got a few good pictures out of the considerable amount I took

Thanks for stopping by

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

And just a quick aside, does anyone have any tips on food for dwarf corydoras?

They like really small food items, I've found that although mine go mad when I feed Grindal worms, it is actually the Micro worms in with the Grindal Worms that they like. I've also been feeding a small amount of fry food in their tank and they are very nice and fat, so they are definitely eating, but I've never seen them eat any food that you can actually see. They also spend a lot of time on the inlet filter sponge, and I assume they are grazing from it.

In the short term I'd just crush up some flake very fine, if you are buying from TA Aquaculture, I'd get the earthworm flake and some of the Astax red crumb. You can crush up the bigger size if you don't want a lot of very small food.
You could try the spirulina flake/crumb as well.

"A World of Fish" on EBAY is another seller of good quality food, I got some flake and de-capsulated Brine Shrimp cysts, (along with some bio-cell moving bed filter media) from Derek and he kindly re-funded me some of the postage. Every thing came very well packaged & extremely promptly and I'd definitely recommend them.

PM if you want some Grindal/microworms, I've got plenty spare.

cheers Darrel

 

[J Butler]

Thanks Darrel,

I was hoping you would see this, was about to make another topic but you beat me to it

I'll make an order tonight and give all your suggestions a go, I may well take you up on the generous Grindal worm offer too, just need to read up on them a little more

I'll probably pester you in a PM soon...

 

[Gill]

My Dwarf/Pygmy Cories eat whatever the other fish get, and have never been fussy. I feed Hikari Brands Micro/Guppy/ and Spirulina.
Must say the tank looks amazing and great photos showcasing it.