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Sandy Nook . . .

Wookii said:
More than happy to send a cutting to anyone that wants it, now I know how rapidly it grows šŸ‘šŸ»
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I would love a cutting Wookii, that is if you have any left?
How actively are the Chocolate Gourami hunting the shrimp?
Every time I see these fish in the store I have to restrain myself from buying one as I thought they would happily eat an adult cherry shrimp?
Really love how the tank has evolved btw šŸ‘
 
Robbie X said:
I would love a cutting Wookii, that is if you have any left?
How actively are the Chocolate Gourami hunting the shrimp?
Every time I see these fish in the store I have to restrain myself from buying one as I thought they would happily eat an adult cherry shrimp?
Really love how the tank has evolved btw šŸ‘
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Thanks mate. Yeah, I can send you a cutting, no problem.

The Gourami donā€™t go near the adult or juvenile shrimp at all, as far as Iā€™ve seen. But they do spend their time grazing around the moss and plants, and occasionally pecking at it. I suspect theyā€™re feeding on any micro organisms they can find living in there like ostracods, baby scuds and the like it I have no doubt if they get chance at any baby/newly hatched shrimp, theyā€™ll eat them - itā€™s the whole mouth size rule.

I can definitely recommend you get some if you fancy them, but donā€™t get just one - theyā€™ve very gregarious, and Iā€™d consider 5/6 the minimum - if I had a bigger tank Iā€™d probably up that to 10-12. They do occasionally squabble though, and chase one another off, particularly at feeing times, so Iā€™d recommend a tank with plenty of space, and broken sight lines.

Iā€™d also recommend plenty of floating plant cover, Iā€™ve unfortunately had two jump now, both immediately after Iā€™d heavily thinned the floating plants out. Itā€™s part of the reason I got the Aeschynomene Fluitans as I can use it to for a nice natural barrier around the edges of the tank. I also thin the floaters out less heavily now, and just have to do it more frequently.
 
Wookii said:
Thanks mate. Yeah, I can send you a cutting, no problem.

The Gourami donā€™t go near the adult or juvenile shrimp at all, as far as Iā€™ve seen. But they do spend their time grazing around the moss and plants, and occasionally pecking at it. I suspect theyā€™re feeding on any micro organisms they can find living in there like ostracods, baby scuds and the like it I have no doubt if they get chance at any baby/newly hatched shrimp, theyā€™ll eat them - itā€™s the whole mouth size rule.

I can definitely recommend you get some if you fancy them, but donā€™t get just one - theyā€™ve very gregarious, and Iā€™d consider 5/6 the minimum - if I had a bigger tank Iā€™d probably up that to 10-12. They do occasionally squabble though, and chase one another off, particularly at feeing times, so Iā€™d recommend a tank with plenty of space, and broken sight lines.

Iā€™d also recommend plenty of floating plant cover, Iā€™ve unfortunately had two jump now, both immediately after Iā€™d heavily thinned the floating plants out. Itā€™s part of the reason I got the Aeschynomene Fluitans as I can use it to for a nice natural barrier around the edges of the tank. I also thin the floaters out less heavily now, and just have to do it more frequently.
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Many thanks mate.
I have just cut right back on my floating plants as the where complete cutting out the light on the left hand side and hindering the growth of all plants in that area.
Its not permanent though. As soon as this side of the tank matures Iā€™ll allow the surface plants to spread again as I really love them šŸ˜»
Ill hold of on these fish for now but Iā€™m going to add them to my fish list šŸ‘šŸ»
 
Wookii said:
More than happy to send a cutting to anyone that wants it, now I know how rapidly it grows šŸ‘šŸ»
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If or when you have cuttings, please can I have one. Happy to pay/swap for something. I've tried to get seeds for this a couple of times but they always seem to be out of stock.
 
ScareCrow said:
If or when you have cuttings, please can I have one. Happy to pay/swap for something. I've tried to get seeds for this a couple of times but they always seem to be out of stock.
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No worries mate, drop me PM.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,

Your floating plants are looking super healthy.

cheers Darrel
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Thanks Darrel. I suspect itā€™s because they slurp up the EI ferts like theyā€™re going out of fashion! I actually have to add more KNO3 than standard EI, as the growth rate of the floaters bottoms out the Nitrate.

I can tell because the red root floaters actually start to go red when nitrate limited (I always thought it was related to light exposure, but I can induce it in other tanks simply by stopping KNO3 dosing), so theyā€™re a good indicator.
 
shangman said:
How's this tank going? Love the chocolates, shrimps and plants !!
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Itā€™s turned into a bit of a jungle (well a lot of one!) I need to get around to taking some more photos - hopefully over the Christmas break.

The Chocolates are doing great, theyā€™ve plumped up a lot, and their colours are really striking. One fish even has a blue iridescence to its tail fin, which I didnā€™t expect - Iā€™ll try and get a picture of it when I get the camera out.
 
Wookii said:
Itā€™s turned into a bit of a jungle (well a lot of one!) I need to get around to taking some more photos - hopefully over the Christmas break.

The Chocolates are doing great, theyā€™ve plumped up a lot, and their colours are really striking. One fish even has a blue iridescence to its tail fin, which I didnā€™t expect - Iā€™ll try and get a picture of it when I get the camera out.
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Looking forward to those pics, love the sound of a jungle tank with healthy happy chocolates!
 
shangman said:
Looking forward to those pics, love the sound of a jungle tank with healthy happy chocolates!
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Sorry Rosie, never got around to taking those photos with having COVID over Christmas. The tank is a bit of a mess now, I had an auto doser issue, that resulted in a massive spontaneous melt of half of my crypts, everything else is overgrown, and what little space is available is being used as temporary housing for spare plants. The tank is just waiting for tear down now really for when we move house at the end of next month.

Despite that, the fish seem to be doing great - so much so that I had a little bit of a shock tonight.

I was looking in the tank, as you do, and I noticed a little ā€˜bugā€™ in amongst the floating plants. A tiny little thing, about 3mm long.

At first I couldnā€™t work out for the life of me what it was, being so tiny - my first thought was some sort of insect larvae - but it was clearly black and white banded.

Then I started wondering if some of the remaining Crystal Black Shrimp in the tank had finally bred, but this ā€˜bugā€™ was clearly swimming.

My eyesight must be on its way out - no longer the 2020 vision of old - so I caught it in a pipette, stuck it in a glass of tank water, and strapped the macro lens on my phone, and to my surprise, a perfect miniature . . .

3B462166-58F2-4E3E-A21F-8D99F5B4F5F9.jpeg


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My Chocolates appear to have had babies! Iā€™ve now caught two of them, and moved them into my shrimp tank which has lots of microscopic infusoria type bugs that they can hopefully feed on.



Fingers crossed they make it! Iā€™m on the hunt for more of them now!
 
I donā€™t know how many there are in there - I just spotted two more at the end of the tank, there could be a load more in the murky depths.

I tried to catch them with the sneaky pipette again, and unfortunately appeared to have the speed and dexterity of a sloth on sedatives, so they escaped into the jungle!

I hope theyā€™re almost at the size where theyā€™re verging on being too big to be eaten.
 
What is really funny now, in retrospect, is about two weeks ago one of the Chocolates had stopped eating.

I was quite worried it was on its way out, it even refused Grindal worms dropping right in front of it, one even fell right on its nose the poor thing.

Now I understand why - I should have re-read the Seriously Fish info:

Brooding females tend to take refuge in a quiet area of the and eat very little, if at all. The eggs are retained in the mouth for 7 ā€“ 20 days before 10-40 fully-formed, free swimming juveniles are released.
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