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Superfish Scaper 60 - Nature
- Thread starter BJK83
- Start date
BJK83
Member
Thanks! Great choice, I’ve really enjoyed my journey with the Scaper 60 so far, the information available on UKAPS has been so helpful. Will you be using the filter and light that comes as part of the set?
BJK83
Member
4 1/2 weeks in now and finally some livestock!
Thanks to @aec34 for kindly supplying me with some cherry shrimp.
I’ve also added 3 Nerite snails, I was a little hesitant given the egg laying but i’m hoping a a clean tank out ways the eggs!
Shrimp and snails have settled well today so next weekend I’ll hopefully be adding a school of green neons.
Overall I’m happy with the progress, a few plant species have been replaced others over the last couple of weeks due to melting etc but I guess it’s about finding what works. Algae has been quite kind to me but I have stuck to a strict water change and ferts schedule, doing it twice a week from here on.
Thanks to @aec34 for kindly supplying me with some cherry shrimp.
I’ve also added 3 Nerite snails, I was a little hesitant given the egg laying but i’m hoping a a clean tank out ways the eggs!
Shrimp and snails have settled well today so next weekend I’ll hopefully be adding a school of green neons.
Overall I’m happy with the progress, a few plant species have been replaced others over the last couple of weeks due to melting etc but I guess it’s about finding what works. Algae has been quite kind to me but I have stuck to a strict water change and ferts schedule, doing it twice a week from here on.
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BJK83
Member
The good - Shrimp and snails seem to be thriving, it’s amazing how quickly they’ve made algae disappear 🙌🏼
The not so good - I was giving the tank a little maintenance and noticed the glass inlet pipe wasn’t sitting straight so I went to dislodge the external sucker cup but the glass nipple snapped off with it causing the pipe to crack! I also received a nasty cut on my thumb so I had water and blood peeing out all over the place!
Managed to stem the water leak with some good old duct tape. Luckily I still had the original plastic pipes that came with my Oase filter to swap over temporarily but to make matters worse the glass lily pipe snapped in two when I tried dislodging the hose and one half fell in the tank!
Safe to say I’m done with glass pipes, so I’m now on the search for steel 🤯
The not so good - I was giving the tank a little maintenance and noticed the glass inlet pipe wasn’t sitting straight so I went to dislodge the external sucker cup but the glass nipple snapped off with it causing the pipe to crack! I also received a nasty cut on my thumb so I had water and blood peeing out all over the place!
Managed to stem the water leak with some good old duct tape. Luckily I still had the original plastic pipes that came with my Oase filter to swap over temporarily but to make matters worse the glass lily pipe snapped in two when I tried dislodging the hose and one half fell in the tank!
Safe to say I’m done with glass pipes, so I’m now on the search for steel 🤯
BJK83
Member
Fish day today, LFS has a new stock of Green Neons so pretty excited about picking these up and adding them to their new home. Stainless steel filter pipes also ordered!
BJK83
Member
So the fish went in yesterday. Slight change of fish choice though, we ended up buying 10 neon tetra rather than the green’s, they just looked so tiny, my daughter also preferred the colour of the neons. Given the tank isn’t all that established and the neons are a hardier bunch its probably the right decision anyway.
They’ve all settled really well except for one who just doesn’t look as healthy as the other nine, he’s hiding a lot and his tail fin has suffered from nipping, he does come out occasionally and is feeding so hopefully he’ll march on and strengthen up.
We may add another 5 or 6 neons at a later date. Shrimp and snails are continuing to do a grand job, tanks looking very clean!
They’ve all settled really well except for one who just doesn’t look as healthy as the other nine, he’s hiding a lot and his tail fin has suffered from nipping, he does come out occasionally and is feeding so hopefully he’ll march on and strengthen up.
We may add another 5 or 6 neons at a later date. Shrimp and snails are continuing to do a grand job, tanks looking very clean!
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BJK83
Member
New steel pipes arrived and I’m happier than I thought I’d be, not sure if they look better or worse than the glass but at least they won’t break and will be easy to clean.
Unfortunately the single tetra which wasn’t well when I collected him from the LFS didn’t survive, he lasted longer than I thought he would. The remaining 9 neons have settled really well, the shrimp and snails are continuing to do a fine job vs the algae!
Unfortunately the single tetra which wasn’t well when I collected him from the LFS didn’t survive, he lasted longer than I thought he would. The remaining 9 neons have settled really well, the shrimp and snails are continuing to do a fine job vs the algae!
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BJK83
Member
Just a little update - after losing the poorly tetra I decided to visit the LFS and buy 3 more, taking the total tally up to 12.
The LFS had a good stock in and I noticed some fantastic looking German rams, had a chat with the store guy and asked a few questions about the compatibility of him joining my existing tetra and RCS, his advice was that he would be fine but there’s a chance he would eat shrimp fry, which wouldn’t bother me too much so long as he wouldnt attack my existing shrimp. So I picked up a single tetra and the German ram. A day after adding the ram I noticed the shrimp were all hiding away which was unusual as they were always out in the open grazing away, so I started to do a daily count, unfortunately after a few days I could only count 5 out of the initial 11, and those five were consistently hiding away. I couldn’t see any evidence of dead shrimp but it was pretty obvious the aggressive ram was picking them off and terrorising the remaining! He had to GO.
Today I called the LFS and explained the situation, they were good about it and replaced the missing shrimp and refunded me the cost of the ram. Little disappointed in myself as I should have done my own research before accepting the shops advice.
So I’m now back to seeing happy shrimp and tetra 😁 I wouldn’t mind a centre piece fish
So if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Thanks
The LFS had a good stock in and I noticed some fantastic looking German rams, had a chat with the store guy and asked a few questions about the compatibility of him joining my existing tetra and RCS, his advice was that he would be fine but there’s a chance he would eat shrimp fry, which wouldn’t bother me too much so long as he wouldnt attack my existing shrimp. So I picked up a single tetra and the German ram. A day after adding the ram I noticed the shrimp were all hiding away which was unusual as they were always out in the open grazing away, so I started to do a daily count, unfortunately after a few days I could only count 5 out of the initial 11, and those five were consistently hiding away. I couldn’t see any evidence of dead shrimp but it was pretty obvious the aggressive ram was picking them off and terrorising the remaining! He had to GO.
Today I called the LFS and explained the situation, they were good about it and replaced the missing shrimp and refunded me the cost of the ram. Little disappointed in myself as I should have done my own research before accepting the shops advice.
So I’m now back to seeing happy shrimp and tetra 😁 I wouldn’t mind a centre piece fish
So if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Thanks
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Hi all,
cheers Darrel
I'm pretty sure there aren't any <"Dwarf Cichlids that are Shrimp safe">. I kept Dicrossus maculatus for a while and they didn't obviously eat the shrimps, but they still managed to remove them all in about six months, with Apistogramma cacatuoides it was <"about six minutes">.
cheers Darrel
BJK83
Member
So it turns out I may of lost only 1 shrimp after all! I can now see 15 all enjoying themselves out in the open, there may even be one hiding but that ram really did frighten the life out of them, I’m pleased he’s gone.
The tanks continuing to do really well, hardly any algae and happy inhabitants 👌
The tanks continuing to do really well, hardly any algae and happy inhabitants 👌
BJK83
Member
Tanks ticking along nicely. Decided against adding a centrepiece fish, most of the ones I like aren’t suitable for my setup for various reasons. I have however added two cloud minnows that have been rehoused from my daughters small tank after shutting it down, they’ve literally entered heaven after coming from that small tank!
The only thing I’m looking to add is some nice floating plants which I’ll hopefully get around to ordering soon 👌
The only thing I’m looking to add is some nice floating plants which I’ll hopefully get around to ordering soon 👌
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seedoubleyou
Member
Image one looks like a pencil tetra and red Barb to me, but might be wrong.
Courtneybst
Member
BJK83
Member
It’s on a dimmer/timer. Can’t remember the exact settings but it’s on for approximately 6-7 hours a day starting around 5% gradually up to 30% and then back down.
BJK83
Member
Not the clearest of pictures. Both were sold as being cloud minnows from a well know pet chain, maybe we were sold something else 😁 I’ll post some detailed photos up of each fish, be interesting to find out.
ScareCrow
Member
They look like a cherry barbs to me. Male ( the more red fish at the bottom in the first pic) and female (brown at the top). Nice fish and very underrated in my opinion.
BJK83
Member
Turns out they are cherry barbs.
A couple of years ago we bought a small “starter kit” tank for my daughter from a well known pet chain store. They recommended 6 cloud minnows for our non-heated tank, 4 of which sadly didn’t make it past a couple of weeks but these two adapted pretty well. I’m pretty sure the unlucky ones were cloud minnows. The fish were juveniles at the time so I imagine the barbs were housed with cloud minnows and ended up in the bag after being misidentified by the employee.
Thank you too those who’ve pointed this out because I’ve never gave their identification a second thought. They’ve settled really well with the neons and shrimp.
A couple of years ago we bought a small “starter kit” tank for my daughter from a well known pet chain store. They recommended 6 cloud minnows for our non-heated tank, 4 of which sadly didn’t make it past a couple of weeks but these two adapted pretty well. I’m pretty sure the unlucky ones were cloud minnows. The fish were juveniles at the time so I imagine the barbs were housed with cloud minnows and ended up in the bag after being misidentified by the employee.
Thank you too those who’ve pointed this out because I’ve never gave their identification a second thought. They’ve settled really well with the neons and shrimp.
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