thanks Graeme, yeah thats what im hoping now that i have everything dialled in and growing well, i can just sit back and watch this tank fill out now, with my new rio 400 im aiming for a much more structured scape.
thanks antipofish, yeah ive been documenting my tank on youtube for a while now, all the way from my first ventures into the planted side of the hobby when i had simple pea gravel using low tech, to the current incarnation using pressurised co2, EI and more plant specific substrates.
as for the apistos, yeah i have no problems with them and my shrimps, i tend to stay away from the smaller types of shrimp such as rcs etc. and mainly keep amano's and a few other of the larger freshwater shrimps, unfortunately i had a minor disaster with my solenoid timer sticking on and the co2 level quickly reached a level overnight that killed all my filter feeding shrimp, devastated!
Even the pair of niger yellow pelvicachromis taeniatus that i have in this tank (female pictured in my avatar) never bother any of the shrimp. ive moved some of the apistos from this tank now and they have their own individual breeding tanks, only have my pair of viejita sp.II in with the taeniatus now.
my agassizi fire reds just had another batch of fry in their biotope tank the other day, double edged sword as i was literally minutes from starting to drain the tank to turn it from the sand wood and leaf litter setup into another planted setup with flourite sand, i noticed the female acting in a manner i recognised, and on closer inspection she had a swarm of free swimmers around her, happy about the fry, not so happy that ive gotta wait to rescape the tank.