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Consistency Deficiency

@shangman I believe the snail is a species of Thiara. I discovered it mingled with other trumpet snails in one of my LFS, the staff had not noticed that some were different.
I believe to have read that only wild caught specimens have extensive spikes, while individuals kept in captivity for a few (snail)generations only have small bumps like mine do.
They are really lovely, dark brown shell and a dark almost black velvety "snoot" 🥰 Ill stop now before I embarass myself any further 🤓
 
@shangman I believe the snail is a species of Thiara. I discovered it mingled with other trumpet snails in one of my LFS, the staff had not noticed that some were different.
I believe to have read that only wild caught specimens have extensive spikes, while individuals kept in captivity for a few (snail)generations only have small bumps like mine do.
They are really lovely, dark brown shell and a dark almost black velvety "snoot" 🥰 Ill stop now before I embarass myself any further 🤓
Listen, you might not be able to wax lyrical about your rare aquatic snails in most places, but you certainly can here!! 😂 Carry on!

I'll keep an eye out for them. I love a nice snail, I have a few yellow rabbits from Steve Buce that are lovely, and I cherish all my MTS (basically nano rabbits) and other mini common snails too! Can't wait to try clithons next
 
The Nesaea looks amazing - love it! Fabulous golden burst of colour.

And lastly the pinnatifida. It has stopped rapidly shedding old leaves, which seems like a good thing.
It does seem more stable now, but still think it will take a while to see if the growth can outpace the decay of old leaves.
It looks pretty healthy in the photos - looks like there are plenty of roots, which has to be a good sign. I may start sending it fan mail. That should certainly help grow its ego.

It died in my lowtech tapwater
Welcome to the dead Pinnatifida club!
 
Its been a hot minute, ooof-

I came so very close to quitting aquatics.
My entire tank was posted for sale yesterday. Tank, tech, plants, fish, the whole shebang.
I thought I was making the right move but the feeling I got in my gut after posting it proved me wrong.
I took the ad down after ten minutes.

How did it get to this point you may wonder.

Well since my last contact in May there were a series of disasters, unfortunate things and traumatic events, one after the other.
Each took a good chunk out of my joy for the hobby, until the joy was totally gone.
I dont want to write about everything that happened.
I feel like not having to spend a lot of time writing about it all is a small gift I can give myself.

The surviving fish have been living in the new 250 liter tank since the events.
They have had an autofeeder running for food but no care or love. No water changes.
At some point the macros ran out. Then the micros. Eventually I just unplugged the doser.

Ive been terribly neglectful, and I am very ashamed about it.

The only thing I could manage was to check the TDS every once in a while.
It was rising at first, and then it dropped until it settled around 200.
At this point the plants had stripped the watercolumn of nutrients and only inedible stuff remained.
I think the lack of water changes would have been much harder on the fish had the plants not been there for them.

Some of the hungriest plants died back a fair bit, while other plants have been doing fine.
The pinnatifida disintegrated when the ferts ran out, maybe not surprising.
There has been a lot of hair algae. First coarse stuff and then later some much finer thread algae.

I will post a FTS once things have settled a bit.
For now I am doing small water changes to avoid shocking the fish.
They are definitely overdue for some fresh clean water.
 
Hey Hufsa, we've missed you! I'm a plus one to the sentiment that your presence in this forum has been entertaining and inspiring in equal measure. But any hobby has to be a pleasure, not a burden. You need to do what's best for you. It can be really easy for tank maintenance to get on top of you. Take on as much as you want and no more. There's no right or wrong here.
Cheers,
Simon
 
Its been a hot minute, ooof-

I came so very close to quitting aquatics.
My entire tank was posted for sale yesterday. Tank, tech, plants, fish, the whole shebang.
I thought I was making the right move but the feeling I got in my gut after posting it proved me wrong.
I took the ad down after ten minutes.

How did it get to this point you may wonder.

Well since my last contact in May there were a series of disasters, unfortunate things and traumatic events, one after the other.
Each took a good chunk out of my joy for the hobby, until the joy was totally gone.
I dont want to write about everything that happened.
I feel like not having to spend a lot of time writing about it all is a small gift I can give myself.

The surviving fish have been living in the new 250 liter tank since the events.
They have had an autofeeder running for food but no care or love. No water changes.
At some point the macros ran out. Then the micros. Eventually I just unplugged the doser.

Ive been terribly neglectful, and I am very ashamed about it.

The only thing I could manage was to check the TDS every once in a while.
It was rising at first, and then it dropped until it settled around 200.
At this point the plants had stripped the watercolumn of nutrients and only inedible stuff remained.
I think the lack of water changes would have been much harder on the fish had the plants not been there for them.

Some of the hungriest plants died back a fair bit, while other plants have been doing fine.
The pinnatifida disintegrated when the ferts ran out, maybe not surprising.
There has been a lot of hair algae. First coarse stuff and then later some much finer thread algae.

I will post a FTS once things have settled a bit.
For now I am doing small water changes to avoid shocking the fish.
They are definitely overdue for some fresh clean water.

Hang in there man - I don’t know what issues you’ve been through, but try and focus on the pleasure your setup gives you, or had given you in the past, and that will carry you through. Give yourself something new and different to focus on - maybe a breeding project or similar - as it can rekindle that love affair with your tank.
 
Today comes the FTS, as required by the Karmic Law of Null, section 5, paragraph 2a.

20211024_112257.jpg
The plants look pretty good for what they have been through.
Although, they have not been positioned like this for 5 months. This is after I did some tidying up in preparation for selling everything.

When the ferts ran out, the plants went into survival mode, and the hungriest plants took it hard.
Some species melted at the bottom, in what I am fairly convinced was a deliberate action by the plants to try to get to an area with better conditions.
I ended up with a large flotilla of plants in the middle of the tank, based around the thick stems of Nesaea crassicaulis and bound together with copious amounts of thread algae, the algae growing from the suffering plants.
Limnophila sessiliflora, Hygrophila polysperma Green, Ceratopteris thalictroides and the Blyxa japonica all melted at the bottom and ended up in the flotilla.
Ceratopteris thalictroides had some major real estate in the flotilla for a while, no doubt enjoying the proximity to the light and being able to float on the surface.
But after the Cera was banished back down to the sand, it did much poorer and the Nesaea claimed its place as the top dog.
I found this impressive and amusing, I would have guessed it would be outcompeted by the other species of plants which are categorised as much easier to grow.
The Nesaea is in horrible condition to be sure, stunted and hideous, absorbing its older leaves from the "everything deficiency".
But in comparison to it, the other species are barely present at all any more.

All the rhizome plants have done well, especially the Bolbitis. Hard times are no problem for this plant.
It is the most indestructible plant I have come across, and also my all time favorite ❤️
The java ferns have put on some decent mass, although they are now finally starting to show black spots and some general unhappiness.

Most of the rare plants have survived the ordeal, which I am very grateful for.
The Cryptocoryne striolata 'Tiger' has even put out some more leaves despite the conditions. They are not exactly big leaves but they are leaves. Baby steps :dummy:
Unfortunately one of the Buces, the Tontang, got knocked into a spot that was too dark by an upset fishstick. By the time I saw the remains of the plant, it was too late.
But the Bucephalandra Black Venti and Brownie Blue have grown pretty well all things considering.

20211024_141238.jpg
Another FTS, this one after I did a little rearranging and added two roots. It looks somewhat contrived at the moment, but this not a finalized layout.
I wanted to get a bit closer to the idea I have in my head, and to see a little bit what I had to work with and what plants would fit where.

Im attempting to take it slowly, just a bit at a time. Trying to nurse that tiny flame of fishkeeping joy back to life without triggering any burnout.

The tank has had two 30% water changes a few days apart, so the water quality should be in a better place now.
Next on my to-do list is to mix up some ferts to feed these hungry plants, but first I need to figure out what I was dosing before.
Since running on -nothing- went surprisingly ok, I want to try to keep the tank going quite lean.
Adding enough to keep away from the major plant issues but allowing the water change frequency to be stretched out a bit from the standard weekly.
Not 5 months for sure, but 2-3 months might be doable, provided the water quality stays nice.
I dont want to do wrong by my fish, but hitting the wall so hard you can barely look at the tank for 5 months isnt good fishkeeping either.
So its not an attempt to shirk my responsibilities, but maybe to make it a bit more feasible.
Ack, it all sounds like excuses in my head :what:
 
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Evening dinner greetings from a fishstick in camouflage colors and an oto.
The fishstick got covered after one of the vampire shrimp spun off in a fit, covering everyone nearby in sand.
Two fishsticks survived "the events", and they have both grown a lot. They are easily 12 cm long currently, not including their long tail filament.

I like their mustaches very much

20211024_182220.jpg
 
Evening dinner greetings from a fishstick in camouflage colors and an oto.
The fishstick got covered after one of the vampire shrimp spun off in a fit, covering everyone nearby in sand.
Two fishsticks survived "the events", and they have both grown a lot. They are easily 12 cm long currently, not including their long tail filament.

I like their mustaches very much

View attachment 175915

20211024_182220-jpg.jpg


That Oto’s beautiful!
 
I'm very glad you haven't quit completely :) Hoping you can learn a new way to stay in the hobby and keep it all in balance with life. Everyone goes through periods of needing to step back and change direction, it's so easy to go all-in obssessive with this hobby, burnout is a natural response when we exhaust ourselves!

The tank still looks beautiful, and the fish even more so. I really love your journal and everything you do. If you do tend the spark and help it grow I look forward to reading about it!
 
Got a new batch of fertilizer mixed up today, noting the values here to more easily keep track.

Macro weekly:
2 ppm NO3
0.1 ppm PO4
3.5 ppm K
0.25 ppm Mg

Micro weekly:
0.075 Fe DTPA
0.05 Fe EDTA
0.0111 Mn
0.00707 Zn
0.0064 B
0.00091 Mo
0.0014 Cu

I went for half the amount of macros I used around May, I reviewed my notebook and saw that I still had a decent weekly increase in TDS with the old amounts, so trying half to see what happens. I dont remember if 0.5 ppm Mg weekly fixed the deficiency I was seeing, most notable in my Hygrophila polysperma. This plant is proving to be a good canary in the mines, just as I had hoped. I halved the Mg along with the other macros but it may need to be tweaked further later on.

For the micros it seems like I was at a pretty good amount of iron around May, reviewing the latest picture of the Anubias coffeefolia from back then.
I was dosing approximately 0.05 ppm Fe DTPA and 0.1 ppm Fe EDTA + traces. I dont feel ready to make a custom trace mix right now, so I made another batch with the trace blend from APF UK. This means as usual that I get a bunch of Fe EDTA that I dont really want along with it.
I tweaked it a bit so I get a bit more of the more useful Fe DTPA and less of the EDTA and traces. Time will tell if this was a good move.

I didnt get the doser set up again today, so I dosed the tank manually. The doser needs to be cleaned, have some new tubes installed and I need to complete the acrylic pipe hooks I was planning to make for hanging over the edge of the tank. Instead of trying to source rare(ish) black airline that wont get gross, im opting for normal clear airline with black shrink tube on the outside to block the light. I dont know why I didnt think of this originally, the outside is not in contact with water so theres no reason why I cant use shrink tube.


Give yourself something ... to focus on - maybe a breeding project or similar
I gave this some thought Wookii and I think my "breeding" project might actually be to propagate the Cryptocoryne striolata 'Tiger'.
Of the "wild caught" plants, the buces are already growing fine and can technically have cuttings taken from them for further distribution in the hobby.
But the Tiger is not doing as well (starved, poor thing), and I would like to focus on growing it better along with taking care of the tank.
I read somewhere that it may be hard to get daughters / runners from this one and that it needs to be propagated by seeds, but im hoping this is wrong.
Either way it needs to put on a lot of weight before anything else.
So I will buy some juicy root tabs for it to feed on and make sure it gets a really good spot in the tank.
As ive mentioned before, I love to move things around, but im trying very hard not to do that to the Tiger.
Therefore I need to figure out how I want my layout to be, so that it can be positioned in a more permanent place as soon as possible.

How it looks as of today. Sorry about the terrible photo quality, the light was dimming down and my phone didnt feel like focusing properly it seems.
20211025_211133.jpg

I will be somewhat excitedly monitoring the TDS going forward, I hope im close to a balance where the plants' needs are reasonably met while avoiding large excess.
This seems like a neccessary thing for the water quality to stay good and the TDS low while going longer between water changes.
It will only be feasible for me to do it like this if I dont feel guilty about the conditions for the fish.

I remember that I wanted to write about something else too, but not what it was :oldman:
I bet I will remember shortly after submitting this post, as usual ;)
 
Snapped a few pictures this evening, they got a piece of mango for dinner which was greatly enjoyed by all otos, a lot of shrimp, and Sir Snootentoot.

20211028_180423.jpg

He ate a line of mango all up and down where his snoot could reach, with his big shell laying under the peel.
Somewhat unfortunately for him, his "exit area" is on his right side, so he got a face full of 💩 as he was eating. He didnt seem too bothered. Good on him.

20211028_180755.jpg

The otos ate so much mango they had to take a post meal nap, they were strewn all over the sand. We call it getting the "itis".

20211028_180938.jpg

One of the new bits of wood is hollow, I spotted this very preggers amano coming out of it, shame the camera wouldnt focus.
On the left you can see how big the Buce. Black Venti is getting.

20211028_180827.jpg

The so called Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock' grew so much in the 5 months neglect, it choked out its undergrowth and detached from the wood. Now its just floating around until I can figure out what to do with it. It didnt turn out exactly like I had hoped, it does look closely related to Spiky moss. I think I wrote previously about the moss from many years ago that the local hobbyists called Peacock moss. Well, I dug up some old photos and im now pretty sure it was a species of Vesicularia, very likely Christmas moss. Christmas moss was not common here back then, so it could explain the confusion.
Im not convinced this is any different from normal Spiky moss to be honest. The reputable website aquamoss.net has a comparison between peacock and spiky moss, grown under the same conditions. Mine looks most like the Spiky from that picture, but the best way to know for sure would be to buy Spiky moss and grow them side by side myself. I dont know if I can be bothered with that. This moss, whatever it is, will need attaching again somewhere, and I think it will look better and more densely branched if trimmed regularly. This should also prevent it from choking itself loose again.

20211028_181257.jpg

Nothing to see here, just a shrimp riding a fishstick.

20211028_181334.jpg

I was taking pictures of this oto when a surprising scene played out. There is a little Physa snail that appears to be injured, or has some sort of air bubble trapped inside it.
In the background some foreshadowing can be seen.

20211028_181340.jpg

The fishstick approaches, pushing through the crowd of cowboy shrimp, then suddenly wraps its mustached mouth around the snail and slurps it out of the shell :eek:

20211028_181954.jpg

I was so surprised I dropped my phone but all that was left was the shell.
Suddenly it explained why I was seeing a decent amount of empty snail shells around the tank.
I hadnt given it much thought but figured maybe the population was balancing itself out.
I didnt know Loricaria simillima eats small snails :hungry:

20211028_182004.jpg

The fishstick got fed up with my paparazzi business, swatted its tail whipping up a bunch of sand, and then settled for giving me the stink eye a little up the hill.
 
Glad to see you back to enjoying it a bit! When I had my big burnout with tanks some years ago, switching to all in one premixed ferts made a lot of difference too. Just the ease of not having to mix and measure but just 2 clicks and its there next day made maintenance less of a chore. Ferts always ran out just when I really didnt feel like making new meant the tank often went without ferts for a while meaning plants suffered. I dont know how bad your 'burnout' is but hope you recover!
 
switching to all in one premixed ferts made a lot of difference
Ah I think I would find this more aggravating to be honest 😂
Paying $$$ for branded water with a tiny bit of nutrients in it, its hard to swallow this now that I know how uneconomical it is.
I dont mind making ferts so much actually, I quite like the chemistry aspect of the hobby. My note taking is also improving every time, so my instructions for next time are becoming less like cryptic runes from a lost alien civilization and more something thats legible for mortals.

I dont know how bad your 'burnout' is but hope you recover!
Thank you, this goes to everyone who has commented with support also, it warms my heart and helps to hear im not the only one 🥰

The weekly water changes were a big source of stress, and when the fish are sick is also really difficult for me.
Theyre not like a dog, you can usually take a dog to the vet and they can fix em up even if its pretty bad, but with fish youre sat at home playing guess the disease with limited info and sometimes poor odds. Or when I do something to unbalance the tank and the fish suffer because of it, thats also very hard.


Setting the autodoser back up has turned into a bigger job than I wanted.
When I set up the 250 liter tank following 'the events', I pretty much just threw the doser into the cabinet, so its been sat on top of the Eheim 350 canister filter, making the Eheim even noisier than the darn thing already is.
Now that im using new tubing and fert containers and whatnot, I want to do it all properly.
So ive spent some time trying to figure out how I should mount the doser and where to put it inside the cabinet.
Im pretty sure I want to sell this tank and cabinet in a couple of years and get something custom, so im trying to limit the amount of yeehaw-engineering solutions I subject the cabinet to, in order to preserve some semblance resale value.
Once there were two external canister filters in the cabinet, it didnt have quite the tardisian amount of space that I had dreamed up in my mind.
The cabinet came with two shelving plates, which are currently sitting on a rug in the hallway, much to the annoyance of my SO.
I think I may be able to fit one of them in, although it will need a cut-out around the filter hoses.
I also want to mount some slim baskets on the door to keep fish food in, which means I will have to cut the plate even more to allow for that 🤔
I bet the plate is made out of cardboard and lies too, which means it will get very ugly once cut into.
Im not really going anywhere with this information, I just wanted to vent about these terrible first world problems im having 😁
 
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Progress is slow, but im telling myself im not really in a hurry, there is no deadline other than my own impatience.
My health condition sometimes means that things take a lot of time to be completed, which is something im still trying to learn to live with.
I have a (splendid, if I say so myself) plan for the tank in my mind, although making it look that way is in real life is the difficult part 😁
I have wanted to draw the layout on paper, but im afraid you will all laugh at my drawing skills, which will surely make a 5 year-olds drawings look like a masterpiece :facepalm:

Im so inspired by @shangman 's tanks, if I had 1/10th of her artistic ability I would be well and truly happy 😍
As ive said before, I really like her blending of different species of plants, as well as how effortless she makes her layouts look.
For some reason I always keep my plants in groups by default and I want to overcome this habit.
Ive gotten more ideas for aquascaping from her than I ever have from watching aquascapers on youtube.

I found some pretty cheap 1-2 grow pots in a petshop the other day, so Ive got some new plants loitering around as you might be able to spot in the picture. It would probably be smartest to wait to buy plants until I have the layout ready and space for them, but that would require patience and I dont really like that sort of thing.


For my layout I want a backbone of wood filling a lot of the tank to mount most of the epiphytes on. The wood doesnt have to be the prettiest, since it will be covered anyway, just roughly the right shapes. I have some old wood in my hardscape hoard that I think will work for the job.
I have to be a bit strategic with my placement of the Bolbitis, it is the largest growing plant in the tank, so I want to place it quite far back and low in the scape so it has room for its leaves. Its also fairly shade tolerant, so I can plant stems into it and also put other epiphytes slightly above it without affecting it too much. Below the epiphytes I will hopefully have some shady locations to put Buces and Anubias in.

Id also like some decorative pieces of wood in a triangular layout based at the left, with minimal planting, maybe just some mosses at select spots.
I would say Buces as well, but im not sure if I dare put them up too close to the light for algae reasons.
Ive got the "Peacock"/Spiky moss and susswassertang already, and bought Weeping moss and Christmas moss too for good measure.
Ideally I would want Mini Christmas moss instead of the standard, but im not sure if its even in the country.
I really want Fissidens fontanus too, but apparently there are supply issues so none of the shops have it. Im pretty persistent though so im sure I will aquire some eventually.

On the sand I want some rounded cobbles of various sizes, definitely a few larger ones. I just find the smooth round shapes pleasing, even though they are probably considered very boring from an aquascaping standpoint.
Between and around the stones I want a good mix of smaller plants with interesting shapes and textures.
Hydrocotyle tripartita, Hydrocotyle verticillata, Pogostemon helferi, Sagittaria subulata and Blyxa japonica are those I have in mind.
Im finally trying H. verticillata, although its classified as Advanced by Tropica.
Shangman is keeping it low tech in soft water, same as me, therefore I think I could have a decent chance to keep it alive.
They look like adorable little toadstools, and I think they add a lot of charm.

Pinnatifida is back (back again), and this -should- probably be my last attempt at this plant.
In the petstore I convinced myself that the previous one didnt get a good enough chance because the ferts ran out and it was possibly unwise to have it so close to the light.
On my way home I pondered where the line goes between perseverance, stubbornness and just plain inability to learn.
I figure I am somewhere in the latter part of that spectrum.
 
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