John q
Member
Keep looking mate, I'm sure you'll find some more eventually.
I've had mine about 2yrs and initially purchased 4, of these 1 died within a couple of days, so can definitely relate to your experience.
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I've had mine about 2yrs and initially purchased 4, of these 1 died within a couple of days, so can definitely relate to your experience.
Nice, everything looking super healthy. That gold laser looks fit to burst, any luck in spawning them? I’ve had a big group of gold lasers for a few years but have never had anything from them even though the females are huge.
How the araguia getting on?
How the araguia getting on?
John q
Member
Cheers Connor.
Unfortunately these haven't spawned either.
In the other tank I get regular spawns from the albinos but the eggs get moped up by the other fish fairly rapidly.
They've definitely settled in, infact I'd say they pretty much own the tank, not in a boisterous way but they go where they want, when they want, certainly got attitude, probably the wild streak that's in them.
Feeding wise they'll eat anything that goes in the tank, either on the surface or substrate and anything in-between.
Neil at pier warned me not to feed them bloodworm because of their ravenous appetite and said it would result in bloating, he wasn't kidding.
Only problem I have now is having to limit the amount of blackworms I feed this tank.
So yeah they got their slippers on and feet well and truly under the table.
This was taken yesterday, will try and get a better shot of them over the weekend.
They’re really nice fish, probably my favourites out of the dwarf acaras. Good to see they’re doing well.
I don’t know how you restrain yourself in pier. I’d end up having to buy about twenty tanks as I’d want to buy Half of the shop!
I don’t know how you restrain yourself in pier. I’d end up having to buy about twenty tanks as I’d want to buy Half of the shop!
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John q
Member
Lol, its difficult.
Currently eyeing up a pair of Dicrossus maculatus but recon I'd need to set up another tank with a lower ph.
Do it! They’re stunning fish. As species tank where you can breed them would be great. They’re very gentle cichlids and can’t defend a spawn very well so a species tank would suit them.
John q
Member
Smile though your heart is aching, smile even though it's breaking...
No connection to this journal 😢 well maybe..
So we kick off the update with botanicals, a jug full of love.
Who's in the house.
Today's mix consists of Alder cones, Catappa leaves, Cariniana pods, Casuarina cones and Oak leaves.
For anybody that's remotely interested in how I prepare these botanicals.
Everything gets rinsed under the tap, then they are put in a jug, scalded with boiling water, microwaved for 30 seconds and then left for 48 hrs. At this point the contents of the jug gets added to the tank. Reason why I do this??? Floating leaves and gyres don't mix.
Today was water change day, what does everyone do before a water change 🤔 test the tap water tds.
All good, let's continue.
Time to thin out these plants.
Are you keeping up with the disjointed flow of the journal? Fantastic... fts.
Botanicals in the tank.
Random fish picture.
And finally to tie it altogether... Smiling Acaras.
Toodle pip.
No connection to this journal 😢 well maybe..
So we kick off the update with botanicals, a jug full of love.
Who's in the house.
Today's mix consists of Alder cones, Catappa leaves, Cariniana pods, Casuarina cones and Oak leaves.
For anybody that's remotely interested in how I prepare these botanicals.
Everything gets rinsed under the tap, then they are put in a jug, scalded with boiling water, microwaved for 30 seconds and then left for 48 hrs. At this point the contents of the jug gets added to the tank. Reason why I do this??? Floating leaves and gyres don't mix.
Today was water change day, what does everyone do before a water change 🤔 test the tap water tds.
All good, let's continue.
Time to thin out these plants.
Are you keeping up with the disjointed flow of the journal? Fantastic... fts.
Botanicals in the tank.
Random fish picture.
And finally to tie it altogether... Smiling Acaras.
Toodle pip.
MichaelJ
Member
Botanicals! Yay! 
Myrtle
Member
If you fancy a bit of a drive, MA at Basingstoke have a really good selection of unusual corys and they definitely had gold lasers in very recently.
hypnogogia
Member
Ta. I might pop own next time a go to visit my father, as it's on the way.
John q
Member
Not updated for a couple of weeks, so thought I'd better check in.
Both tanks continue to be thinned, or at least thinned the best I can. Removed a 10ltr bucket of vallisneria from this tank. Picture taken after a water change, hence lots of bubbles.
During the water change the shrimp came out to play and I was delighted to see 5 tangerine tigers swimming about, seems these shrimp don't mind soft water. Managed to snap a couple of them.
The araguia continue to flourish and have so far ignored the shrimp, fingers crossed it remains that way.
Taking photos of them isn't the easiest of operations because whenever I approach the tank they think its feeding time and go into hunting mode, which involves lots of fast jerky movements. Here's the best I've managed.
The last bit of news in this tank is a buce flowering.
The thinning of the second tank mainly revolved around removing a mass of Hydrocotyle which had formed a massive canopy on the surface of the tank, not only was this blocking a lot of the light on the right side of the tank, it was also stifling the flow. Most of it was taken out, just took a few cuttings and wedged them in the gravel far right.
Almost finished... Above I posted a pic of the buce flowering. In this tank not to be outdone one of the cryptocoryne decided to send out a spathe too.
Enjoy your week guys and gals.
Both tanks continue to be thinned, or at least thinned the best I can. Removed a 10ltr bucket of vallisneria from this tank. Picture taken after a water change, hence lots of bubbles.
During the water change the shrimp came out to play and I was delighted to see 5 tangerine tigers swimming about, seems these shrimp don't mind soft water. Managed to snap a couple of them.
The araguia continue to flourish and have so far ignored the shrimp, fingers crossed it remains that way.
Taking photos of them isn't the easiest of operations because whenever I approach the tank they think its feeding time and go into hunting mode, which involves lots of fast jerky movements. Here's the best I've managed.
The last bit of news in this tank is a buce flowering.
The thinning of the second tank mainly revolved around removing a mass of Hydrocotyle which had formed a massive canopy on the surface of the tank, not only was this blocking a lot of the light on the right side of the tank, it was also stifling the flow. Most of it was taken out, just took a few cuttings and wedged them in the gravel far right.
Almost finished... Above I posted a pic of the buce flowering. In this tank not to be outdone one of the cryptocoryne decided to send out a spathe too.
Enjoy your week guys and gals.
MichaelJ
Member
Geez @John q ! I envy you. Fun fact: after I sort of learned how to grow aquatic plants Valis - considered very easy - keeps bewildering me.... they are a major hit and miss for me now - I have some left in one tank but they are stale. Back in the old days with big Cichlid tanks they did fine until shredded to pieces by the fish - zero or hardly any ferts, hard tap water... go figure ... I sort of blame it on my very soft water, but then again, your experience is poking a big hole in that theory
I am rooting for your Tangerine's - they obviously didn't get the memo about Calcium, as they are not really supposed to be doing that great in soft water (3 GH as far as I remember? ... which may be okay after all), but I suppose they might be making up for it with food sources - or maybe just the devil-may-care attitude you often see with shrimps
Cheers,
Michael
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John q
Member
Thanks @MichaelJ if its makes you feel better I had some Vallisneria torta in the tank at one point and that failed miserably, so not going to start calling myself the vall whisper just yet. Lol.
The Vallisneria spiralis is verging on being a nuisance if I'm being honest, the faster I pull it out, the faster it grows, at least that's how it feels.
The shrimp don't get fed anything specific that contains calcium, I do feed the odd piece of courgette and sweet potato now and again to the fish and also add algae wafers in, so maybe the can scavenge enough out of that lot survive.
The Vallisneria spiralis is verging on being a nuisance if I'm being honest, the faster I pull it out, the faster it grows, at least that's how it feels.
The shrimp don't get fed anything specific that contains calcium, I do feed the odd piece of courgette and sweet potato now and again to the fish and also add algae wafers in, so maybe the can scavenge enough out of that lot survive.
hypnogogia
Member
That’s what happened to mine and I removed it all 2 years ago. Now I’ve put some V. Asiatica in (which doesn't grow as long) and hoping it will take.
Still loving your tanks. Lush plant growth and some beautiful fish.
John q
Member
“Linger'd labours come to nought.”
If there's one job that I definitely dislike and put off when it comes to tank maintenance it's thinning the Blyxa. Not sure why, maybe its because I love how it looks when it grows into a compact mound, or maybe I dislike the fact that I end up throwing half of it away. Either way when it gets tightly compacted it tends to lift itself from the substrate, this in turn blocks flow around the tank, the mass of Blyxa also is a magnet for bits of debris and uneaten food, so eventually, and reluctantly I occasionally thin it out.
This is how it looked before the thinning.
So basically the whole lot gets pulled from the tank. This is how it looked in the dish.
After a good sorting the best of the bunch get a good wash and have the stems and roots trimmed.
All done about 30 stems ready for re planting.
The casualties...
Once replanted we do a big water change.
And the final effect looks like this.
My poor Blyxa 😢 .. Will probably grow back into another mound in a couple of months and then I can procrasinate about thinning it again.
Compulsory fts.
Work commitments have meant I haven't had the time to take as many critter pictures has I'd like this week, but we have a few.
Finally to tie up the update is fertilizer dosing, I've realised I haven't messed with it since upping the dosing at Christmas, shame on me for not tinkering, lol. So here's the new numbers.
Front loaded at w/c day. Numbers calculated for incoming 130L.
No3 9.03
Po4 2.86
K 6.88
Ca 11
Mg 3.5
Micro's added daily and numbers p/w, calculated for full 240L volume.
Fe 0.171 from solufeed tec
Fe 0. 09 from Dtpa
Mn 0.118
N 0.4 from urea
Mg 0.58
Think that sums everything up 🤔
Thanks for reading.
If there's one job that I definitely dislike and put off when it comes to tank maintenance it's thinning the Blyxa. Not sure why, maybe its because I love how it looks when it grows into a compact mound, or maybe I dislike the fact that I end up throwing half of it away. Either way when it gets tightly compacted it tends to lift itself from the substrate, this in turn blocks flow around the tank, the mass of Blyxa also is a magnet for bits of debris and uneaten food, so eventually, and reluctantly I occasionally thin it out.
This is how it looked before the thinning.
So basically the whole lot gets pulled from the tank. This is how it looked in the dish.
After a good sorting the best of the bunch get a good wash and have the stems and roots trimmed.
All done about 30 stems ready for re planting.
The casualties...
Once replanted we do a big water change.
And the final effect looks like this.
My poor Blyxa 😢 .. Will probably grow back into another mound in a couple of months and then I can procrasinate about thinning it again.
Compulsory fts.
Work commitments have meant I haven't had the time to take as many critter pictures has I'd like this week, but we have a few.
Finally to tie up the update is fertilizer dosing, I've realised I haven't messed with it since upping the dosing at Christmas, shame on me for not tinkering, lol. So here's the new numbers.
Front loaded at w/c day. Numbers calculated for incoming 130L.
No3 9.03
Po4 2.86
K 6.88
Ca 11
Mg 3.5
Micro's added daily and numbers p/w, calculated for full 240L volume.
Fe 0.171 from solufeed tec
Fe 0. 09 from Dtpa
Mn 0.118
N 0.4 from urea
Mg 0.58
Think that sums everything up 🤔
Thanks for reading.
MichaelJ
Member
Hey, did you just sneak in low K to Mg ?
Without taking uptake into account, I see 7 times 0.58 Mg from Macros + the front loaded 3.5 Mg = 7.56 ppm of Mg/wk. vs. 6.88 ppm of K. (not exactly low, but still K<Mg).
I still think you should up your Ca a few ppm's (to 15ppm) for your tangerines. 😇
Tanks and fish looks great as always 👍
Cheers,
Michael
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John q
Member
Lol I add 3.5ppm mg at water change and an additional 0.58 p/w with the micro's, so total addition = 4.08 ppm Mg, don't think that numbers changed that much recently.
The K is reducing because I'm adding less No3 via potassium nitrate, so yes my K:Mg ratio is reducing, about 1.68:1 . Now I've narrowed the ratio I'm expecting the pedicellata that's currently on its death bed to suddenly spring into life 😀
I did up the Ca, a tad from last ferts shake up, it used to be 10, now upped to 11. For you and your obvious concern for the shrimp I'll up the ca to 12 at the next water change.
The K is reducing because I'm adding less No3 via potassium nitrate, so yes my K:Mg ratio is reducing, about 1.68:1 . Now I've narrowed the ratio I'm expecting the pedicellata that's currently on its death bed to suddenly spring into life 😀
I did up the Ca, a tad from last ferts shake up, it used to be 10, now upped to 11. For you and your obvious concern for the shrimp I'll up the ca to 12 at the next water change.
MichaelJ
Member
Sorry, yeah I mis-read your Micro dosing!
Oh sure it will
Yea! 😇
Cheers,
Michael
John q
Member
... is this shrimp berried?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
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You alright there John? You seem a little confused 😉
