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CooKieS

CooKieS

Member
Joined
19 Jan 2016
Messages
2,107
Location
France
Hi,

First blackwater try for me, tired of all these fancy but non natural looking aquascapes, so I made this.

Had a aquael shrimp set 30 for my birthday last year, so tank is 29x29x35cm.

Added a black back foil, because that’s what you want.

Throwed away the original led and went for a new Chihiros Tiny Z light spot.

Using a pat filter and a small heater that came with the set.

Hardscape is done with talawa wood , various gravel and sand, a little bit of soil in the back just to keep the parameters acidic since I’m using tap water. I use catappa leaves too.

First things first the hardscape itself:


98FE59BE-4759-4EAC-AE16-40160E64A794.jpeg


To be continued, cheers!


Edit: this journal is down: I had many issues with the livestock in the setup, probably due to overstock and too small filter+ lack of plants, I don’t think I’ll do another blackwater style again. Thanks.
 
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80FA9368-B5D1-437F-B91B-E4182FA4E187.jpeg

Day 1: I choose to add lotus and alder cones + catappa leaves in order to make the water ´Black’.
I added some pothos to the top of the talawa with the help of some Ada wood tight.
Let’s go! it definitely has an cool
Vibe in the evening, more calming than an aquascaped tank 🥃
 
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Hi, after some weeks of darkstart, I added microsorum petite, some nymphea (fake nymphea aka peltata and nymphea pygmea helvola) and limnobium laevigatum, the fishes all came from my freshly rescaped aquascaping tanks so it’s an bit of a strange mix but they seems to do well;

-7 hyphessobrycon amandae
-3 badis Tigris
-1 betta splendens half moon

I was afraid of the last one and the badis together but after a few days of showing off, the betta is now the boss.

Water is clear again since I didn’t add enough botanicals and I used some soil, so I add liquid humin + from Glasgarten after every waterchange.
 
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This is how it looks today, I removed the nymphea as I needed the pygmea for another tank and for some reason, the shrimps loved to eat the leaves of the nymphoides peltata…it looked a bit out of place in this tank anyway.

Livestock is still doing good, I have like 30 neocaridina downgraded mix from my other tank in there now, ofc the badis Tigris are taking care of the population while eating the shrimplets…

Maintenance is basically 20% waterchange every 10 days, adding one catappa leaves every 4-5 weeks , and cleaning the pat mini pad at every WC, very easy.

Cheers
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
How’s the Betta getting on? Never kept one but this looks like a nice way to do it.
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The betta loves it, he likes the gentle flow and usually spent most of his time near the surface sleeping in the pothos roots or looking for food leftovers or critters in the gravel :)

Sometimes he’s flaring against the male badis too , just for fun I guess!

He’s seems to be more confortable than in an aquascaping setup with strong flow
 
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Sounds great. They’re such beautiful fish but I’ve always felt a bit awkward about how they are kept in such small aquariums in the shop. Reminds me a bit of goldfish in plastic bags at the fair when we were kids. Your set up is the opposite of this and seems like a really good home for the fish.

If a good value 30l cube comes my way later this year, I may set up a black water betta home. Could probably sneak that one in without too many objections (maybe…)
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
Sounds great. They’re such beautiful fish but I’ve always felt a bit awkward about how they are kept in such small aquariums in the shop. Reminds me a bit of goldfish in plastic bags at the fair when we were kids. Your set up is the opposite of this and seems like a really good home for the fish.

If a good value 30l cube comes my way later this year, I may set up a black water betta home. Could probably sneak that one in without too many objections (maybe…)
Click to expand...
You’ll love it ; and your betta too, I think 30 liters is the minimal volume for this active and curious fish.

It makes me sad to see these in small aquascaped setup of less than 15 liters…
 
CooKieS said:
It makes me sad to see these in small aquascaped setup of less than 15 liters…
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When you think about it, regardless of size, we are all containing fish in a non-natural environment.
 
Bradders said:
When you think about it, regardless of size, we are all containing fish in a non-natural environment.
Click to expand...
It’s something I spent a lot of time thinking about when I first got into fish keeping many years ago. I used to get very stressed about the welfare of the animals I was keeping and took it very badly when the animals became unwell or died. Keeping a reef was enjoyable but also very stressful as the animals are susceptible to stress for very small changes in water parameters. I had to take a break for a while after the reef.

But (and this is purely anecdotal) the technology has got better, knowledge seems much better (when did you last see a goldfish in a bowl!) and the welfare of captive fish seems much higher in general. The aquatics trade isn’t going away any time soon but if I can give a home to fish with good husbandry and respect the animals then that’s got to be a good thing on balance?
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
It’s something I spent a lot of time thinking about when I first got into fish keeping many years ago. I used to get very stressed about the welfare of the animals I was keeping and took it very badly when the animals became unwell or died. Keeping a reef was enjoyable but also very stressful as the animals are susceptible to stress for very small changes in water parameters. I had to take a break for a while after the reef.
Click to expand...
Yep, I completely get that.
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
But (and this is purely anecdotal) the technology has got better, knowledge seems much better (when did you last see a goldfish in a bowl!) and the welfare of captive fish seems much higher in general. The aquatics trade isn’t going away any time soon but if I can give a home to fish with good husbandry and respect the animals then that’s got to be a good thing on balance?
Click to expand...
Agreed. No matter how small, a life is a life.

Personally, I have bounced this in my mind too. And I don't know that it's right, and I don't know that what I do Is right. But when the fish get in my aquarium they are given the same love as my dogs! Simply, it is what it is and whilst under my care they get treated very well.
 
Bradders said:
When you think about it, regardless of size, we are all containing fish in a non-natural environment.
Click to expand...

Of course, the thing is, trying to avoid to keep fishes when you don’t have the appropriate size of tank or not the good parameters is an good start already. :)
 
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