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Post by gabor129 on Apr 10, 2016 22:02:11 GMT -5
Got my new Philippine Java fern on some rocks, and the little guys might not let me move them over to the big tank when it's time! Nice that they seem to approve . Very noise! I am glad you decided to try live plants! You seem to have a natural "wet thumb"!
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Post by Xander on Apr 11, 2016 9:03:17 GMT -5
Haha, thanks. The plants I brought in earlier seem to be doing well - the original java ferns that I put on the driftwood are holding up well, though I did lose two leaves that turned black.
The staurogyne repens has new growth all over, and it shouldn't be long before I can trim it back and spread it out some more. Maybe a week or two. The loaches adore swimming through it, weaving between and under all the stems.
Of the six crypts I got out of the tissue sample, only one melted completely away. I won't disturb the roots in case new growth shows up. It's also the only one that the kuhlis managed to uproot since planting, and I wonder if that had something to do with it. One other one is taking off incredibly well, and the other four are holding up perfectly fine.
My wisteria has gone through a lot of melt. I've lost maybe half the leaves on them at this point. I won't worry about them, though, since I know that once they're established I'll have trouble getting them to slow down~
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Post by freshwater on Apr 11, 2016 14:08:26 GMT -5
Great job, your tank looks nicer every time I see a new pic.
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Post by guppyguy on Apr 12, 2016 10:23:21 GMT -5
Some plant with die or melt back more than others depending on what there previous water conditions were like. So I always feel it to be expect to some extent when buying new plants. The best part is 99% of the time the plants come back twice as nice. Once established they will grow and some plants can take as long as 6 weeks to get fully established in a tank. Try you best not to disturb your crypts once planted as they do not like change or being moved. In 3 to 6 months after setting up your planted tank it will be mature and filling in well. Great job and looking forward to future updates.
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Post by Xander on Jun 15, 2016 5:27:13 GMT -5
Just a quick video of one of the zebras trying to be one of the kuhl kids.
They're starting to come out of their shells already ~
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Post by stevee on Jun 15, 2016 7:41:08 GMT -5
Just a quick video of one of the zebras trying to be one of the kuhl kids. They're starting to come out of their shells already ~ I tink I tink I saw a puddy tat! I did I did see a puddy tat! LoL!! Nice video! Vary active
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jun 15, 2016 23:00:39 GMT -5
That is an active tank . They look very happy . Makes my corys look lathargic.
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Post by zenins on Jun 16, 2016 12:40:33 GMT -5
That is an active tank . They look very happy . Makes my corys look lathargic. The power of Loaches
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Post by Xander on Jul 1, 2016 16:58:56 GMT -5
An update on the zebra loaches for Zenin - they are still pretty nervous about me and any sudden movements from me, but the will now come out and about even if I'm nearby~
Here's a video from feeding time yesterday, and if you have the volume up loud enough you can hear the clicking noises that Zenin talked about at the meeting last month. It happens at the beginning of the video, but it's easier to hear around the 1 minute mark. It's the first time I've heard it in the three weeks I've had them!
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jul 1, 2016 17:19:25 GMT -5
That's awesome , First time I've heard the clicking that Zenin talked about . Very cool . Thanks for posting this video and of coarse your tank looks amazing .
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Post by zenins on Jul 2, 2016 17:58:13 GMT -5
When the larger Botias like Clowns or Yoyos are clicking, everyone in the room can clearly hear them Your tank looks awesome
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Post by Xander on Jul 2, 2016 19:48:53 GMT -5
I'll bet! My phone didn't pick up the sound as clearly as I was hearing it, but I could definitely hear it from the other side of the room.
Thank you, I'm incredibly proud of this tank! Won't be long before I can start getting the 75g scaped up nicely, too~
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Post by Xander on Aug 9, 2016 15:24:41 GMT -5
Some updates:
1) The Zebra loaches have moved on to the 75g, and they're getting along fantastically with the Rainbow Shark and the school of Tiger Barbs! I'd noticed a couple of my Kuhlis were getting colour loss in some of their saddles, and I'd wondered if the zebras were being too rough on them, so despite wanting to wait til I can replace the 75's tank, I figured it was a good time to just get them out of there. I feel like it was a very smart move. They were instantly happier with the larger footprint, and some buddies with similar aggression and activity factors.
2) I had gotten a new light (a single 18" T5, but it's better than my 10g's halogens which were the only light I had access to) as well as a timer for the 20g so that I could happily go on my vacation and be certain that the plants would receive light. I could also get the tank lit more steadily, and for longer, now that it could turn on whenever I'm at work! So I set it to two 4 hour periods separated by 4 hours, every day.
Before the new light and timer, my Hygrophila difformis basically completely failed to take (and never fully recovered); my crypts never died or melted, but also never showed any signs of growth; my Staurogyn repens was growing incredibly well, I very nearly had the area I wanted to carpet full and lush; and my Java fern leaves kept going black and falling off.
After the new light and timer, the Hygrophila which was in very poor shape from before just ceased to change, stayed exactly as it was; the Crypts started to grow! Slowly, but surely, they are getting new leaves and filling out, even if there's not much height; the Staurogyn repens started turning a lighter green and growth slowed; the java ferns' leaves have minimal black spotting, and are looking far healthier and greener after removing the dead leaves; and, what's this?? Algae has started to take a hold close to the light, forming up on my caves and on the leaves of my Staurogyn.
3) I had to leave for 2 weeks on a road trip out West (incredible trip - went South of Lake Superior to Regina SK, through Banff to Victoria BC, then did all the Northern tier states back. Farthest I'd ever gone before now is Cedar Point stateside, and never out of Ontario in Canada!). So, my tanks would go longer than usual with no water changes and pre-measured food for my sister to give each day. Two weeks go by, I come back to safe Nitrate levels in all tanks thankfully, but the Staurogyn and remaining Hygrophila were decimated by algae!! The whole tank looked like Cheeto dust exploded everywhere... Crypts and Java ferns and Java moss were all fine, though.
4) Bring in the cleanup crew! After moving the Zebras to their new home, I transferred the 11 adult wild-type cherry shrimp from the 2.5 into the 20g, and the algae (diatoms maybe?) disappeared almost overnight. Gone completely within a week. I also reintroduced my short-nosed shrimp, which I'd temporarily rehomed so that the zebra loaches would not hunt them down.
5) Today I pulled the remaining Hygrophila and shoved it into the 75 to see if anything comes of it (there were two tiny new growth stalks and two more mature but very bare stalks). I pulled the Staurogyn (the roots were very well established, but the stalks were mostly bare of leaves). I replaced the Hygrophila Difformis with tissue cultured Hygrophila Pinnatifida in the hopes it does better than the Difformis did. I also got a new tissue culture of Staurogyn to restart my carpet, as well as replanting the several stalks I figure have a good chance of reestablishing themselves. I've also tried to introduce some water lettuce, though my flow may just be too much for them. I couldn't get duckweed to grow in there... so we'll see.
Here's hoping things go better from this point on!
ALSO! As I was moving things around to work on my aquascape today, I found that several of those wild-type-looking cherry shrimp are now suddenly very, very dark blue! I'm not sure what happened there, but now I'm uncertain how the shrimplets will turn out! I figure I'll just sit back and let them do their thing from now on. No purpose, no selective breeding... Just simply letting them go.
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Post by Xander on Jan 12, 2017 22:05:15 GMT -5
Small update! Not much has gone on with this tank in the past several months. There have been a couple cherry barb losses, and a large amount of shrimplet gains, but all is healthy and stable! I recently did some holiday-neglect-repair-and-maintenance over the week, and the big change for this tank is simply the removal of the staurogyne repens. They were simply too much of an eyesore for me. I had no problem growing them under the old halogen hood I had from my old 10g tank, but switching to the fluorescent that's on there now just didn't seem to work for them. None of the lower leaves would stick around. They stayed leggy and leafless for a long time without any signs of growth, so I finally chose to get them out of there. Makes me feel better, too, to get the only South American plant out of my otherwise entirely Asian setup. I dug up my crypts, which had developed quite the pleasantly surprising system of roots, and I was able to divide the 4 plants into 9 and spread them out. Here are some recent pictures I took to share! The moss could use another trim: I want to point out how absolutely gorgeous I find female cherry barbs to be. It saddens me when I hear people only want the males, or when stores are only carrying a tank full of males, just because they're more brightly coloured and more desirable. While it's true that males are redder, and the ladies in store are often pale, it's been my experience that in a healthy tank, they colour up so brightly that if it wasn't for their tan bellies you wouldn't be able to tell them from the males at all! And in any event, the females have three colours on them, while the males only have two... Does that not technically make the females more colourful?? I could advocate for these girls all night! Here's a rare glimpse of one of my two shyer kuhlis: It is one of the kuhlis I got from Gabe almost a year ago, and there is another in the tank just like it (there were 3, but one tragically jumped tank!!). The exact species of pangio these guys belong to is a mystery to me, due to their pattern not really matching any of the ones I've seen described. It's possible they're even a hybrid. But one thing is for sure, they are much more reclusive then all the rest of the more traditionally banded kuhlis that I have! I've never been able to get such clear shots of either one before!
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jan 13, 2017 22:05:33 GMT -5
Tank looks great . Those are some healthy looking kuhlis you have .
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