Surrey Summer

[luckyjim]

An update with good and bad news on this project.

I'll get the bad news out of the way first: no sooner than I introduced the fish and my flatmate has handed in his notice. That means I'll probably have to move in just under 2 months - I don't know whether I will be able to break down and rebuilt the tank at that point, or if I'll have to abandon it.

The other bad news is that it appears the CO2 regulator has failed. My previous CO2 FE seemed to drain out quite quickly, but I assumed it was a mistake on my part when I fitted the inline atomiser (although how that would happen I don't know). Anyway, after the replacement FE I fitted on Friday dumped within 48 hours it appears to the the regulator itself. Hopefully C02art will replace it. I will have to just dose Easycarbo / Seachem Excel until then.

The good news is, the tank really appears to have taken off a bit. All of the plants are now doing well. The hairgrass I have had to cut back twice. The lesser spearwort is bolting upwards (I actually expected it to expand sideways a bit) and is showing signs of flowering already. The flowering rush continues to put out new shoots and grow upwards, although it is quite delicate and the leaves are easily snapped / bent. The water plantain does not seem to want to emerge from the water yet, but has put out loads of new leaves, and stalk runners. The water forget-me-not has established new shoots and leaves above the waterline, I am relieved at this as it is the one I thought might struggle. The "flying hedgehog" rushes are growing slowly but surely, although no sign of the stalks that hold the flowers yet.

I am seeing a little green algae, still largely on the front left and left glass; but nothing unmanageable. I just wipe it off every few days. I have also now put some hornwort in to help out. Unfortunately one of my two big ramshorns met a grisly end, as his body was sucked out of the shell and into the filter inlet. However, there is one left and the eggs they both laid are now hatching out. I also ordered half a dozen new snails online which should arrive shortly.

The sticklebacks have now gone in . I chose one angry looking male and two females. One of the females already appears to be carrying eggs. The other has simply disappeared overnight; looked everywhere but couldn't find her. The male is extremely aggressive; within 12 hours his breeding colours are vibrant and he defends his little sand patch like a mad thing. He has already started tearing out clumps of my carefully planted hairgrass to build his nest

Here are some picture updates:

New citizens of Surrey Summer:

Hopefully I can borrow a digital camera from some one at some point to take some decent pics.

Cheers,

Lucky Jim

 

[karla]

That is very nice, it is good to see something different. I am looking forward to seeing more tank lit shots.

 

[luckyjim]

Here you are karla, I'm afraid this really is warts and all. I came home from work this evening to find that "Big Red" had run amok, wrenching out loads of the hairgrass. He is making good progress on his nest though.

I've trimmed the hairgrass again but left the clippings in the tank, in the hope that he will use them instead of the planted stuff.

As for the females, I located one of them, buried into the thickest possible area of hairgrass (right hand side of the tank. I suspect the other is in there as well. I'm afraid Big Red is not the most gentle of lovers. In fact t is a little disturbing to see how much he bullies the ladies. One came out about half an hour ago and he harried her until she was flat agains the sand, then pecked at her tail until he got bored, and she made a break for it back to the thick hairgrass.

I suspect that a bigger tank is necessary. Or, one with two distinct deep water areas, so the mae can have a territory and the others can sit out of his line of sight. Maybe a mountain style layout? Having said that, sticklebacks are notorious for being aggresive so maybe it is inevitable that the dominant male will go out of his way to be nasty.

Anyway, here's a pic with lights on, the male is roaming around the hairgrass, one of the females is just visible hiding in the far right corner. Again the phone quality pic isn't great:

 

[Akwaskape]

Was talking to a friend whose got sticklebacks in a large pond, and every year he ends up with one male left.

Sustainable Aquaria