Setting up a 2ft community tank

[Yanagi]

Thanks for the info Goody.

I have a exciting (to me!) update!

My Blue Rams.. bred!

The eggs are hard to see, but they're small (smaller than the substrate!) and clear. Hopefully you can see them, the camera wouldn't focus on the finer details and I guess it's hard to see if you don't know what you're looking for. 'Mama' Blue Rammy is looking very, very, skinny. Two of the Rams do and they didn't even have to lay eggs. I'll have to grab some live food and try to fatten them up. Everybody is getting along alright. Mr Dragon chases the Rams sometimes. The Rams seem to bite and ram at each other, but what can you do? I guess I'll sell the other two eventually.

Gouramis wouldn't come out until I put the stupid spray bar back on the filter to kill off the flow. Now they mix it up, swimming around the tank or hanging in the plants. Usually together.

Bad piccy of 'dad' Blue Ram coming in to check on the nest.. The mother proceeded to 'violently' chase him out.. I'm hoping that's normal, haha. He seems to be guarding the area further out around the uh, 'nest'. He is far more pink around the belly than she is.

I caught most of the guppies and dumped them on my dad, heh. Still some in there hiding in the plants.. They have to come out to eat some time! I thought I saw a baby earlier too, grrr. I didn't think any in there looked (heavily) pregnant.

I'm hoping to get the Cories and Otos in there soon. Still deciding on what I want in there. I think I'll go with Rasbora Maculata/Dwarf Rasbora because of their smaller size. Decisions, Decisions...

[delyall]

Awww~ Thats so awesome I hope they hatch for you

Arrrg.. guppies are eeeevil to catch, you think youve caught them all, then one pops out of nowhere :censor:

[Yanagi]

No eggies, they got eaten by someone at some point during the day. *grumbles*

I did get 4 Otos today though, heh. They are zooming around like they're on crack. When I first let them out the Blue Rams followed them around trying to figure out what on earth they were, it was hilarious. Even Mr Dragon aka Almighty Ruler of the Tank (he bosses the Rams around) looked puzzled when they all darted out!

Also got a small amount of HC... We'll see how that goes.

Up next I'm thinking I'll get the Habrosu, then the Pygmaeus.. Then I'll settle on whatever little fish catches my fancy at the time (when I have more spending money, hah).

[delyall]

Otos are awesome, Im thinking of getting some Ooooh Habrosus ftw! Im such a sucker for corys! :cheer:

[Yanagi]

Rammy says 'My tank is looking scabby, Food Lady. Get off your bum and do some maintence.'

Some plants got a trimming, some of the pink ambulia got pulled out and planted in another tank. It's look pretty lousy, probably planted them too closely and blocked out too much light. It's spread thinner now. A dying Sword Plant came out of another tank to recover in this one. First dose of ferts went in, just a bit of flourish comprehensive. I'm going to need some potassium I think. DIY co2 needs to go back in there as well.

No tank pics because it still looks all messy, maybe tomorrow. Just fishy pics for now.

Two Otos chilling out on the driftwood.

My Gouramis are being difficult. They only seem to eat what ever gets left behind on the driftwood or on plants which isn't much and won't eat either pellets or flake off of the surface. I think I'll try hatching some BBS, maybe they'll eat that.

I've been thinking about getting some sparkling gouramis too. Dunno yet.

[fishfin]

I'm really enjoying your journal. I still haven't made the time to start sharing mine with you guys. I do have the photos ready to go though!

So all of the ram eggs were eaten? That's a shame. They are neat looking fish. My other balloon mollie is about to give birth and I'm really hoping this batch of babies survive. I want to watch the babies grow up.

Can I ask how do you tell if a fish is skinny or underweight? Do you see their ribs/bones? I'm not sure what to look for! I highly doubt my tank has any skinny fish as they all seem to get their fair share of food, plus some!

Keep posting your updates, I'm really enjoying them.

Leonie :D

[Yanagi]

Yay for photos.

Yeah, all eaten unfortunately. They're still in breeding mode (despite being sick) anyway. Apparently it's quite normal for them to eat their eggs/fail at breeding the first few times around so I'm not worried. Get a breeder net / floating isolation tank and put the balloon mollie in it for when she gives birth, then you can remove her and grow the babies up a bit before letting them out with the other fish!

Nope, don't see their bones. At least not until they're very bad/close to dead I'd imagine. On the post about the blue ram eggs you can see the mother guarding the nest. She has a big dip between her pelvic fins and her anal fin. I also can't show it from the pics but she did look just too slender. I'll be feeding the tank with wormer medicated food to see if that helps, although they're all looking plumper by the day because I'm feeding quite frequently, a lot of live food too. I ran out of live blackworm yesterday, haha. My Dragon is even looking a little fat, though I like my fighters that way, especially when they're as long in the body as he is. Balances it out a bit more.

Oh, I also got my canister filter parts and it's going now. I've still got the internal in there at the moment but I literally just now had a 'DUH' moment and realized I could take the sponge out of the internal filter and just put it in the canister. No loss of good bacteria and I regain that corner and my tank looks nicer, plus a slower flow rate so my fishies will be happy about that. I think I'll go do that now... hehe

[Yanagi]

The pink ambulia HAS. TO. GO.

It's rotting all over the place. Never had this problem with standard 'green' ambulia.

I'm not sure what I will replace it with yet. I'm thinking I'll just go with a green stem plant though, no reds/pinks. Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions? I'd prefer a slower grower in that spot. At least slower than hygro. I'm trimming that at least once a week!

Just been browsing around ebay and classifieds and I'm thinking I'll go with a mix of Hydrotriche hottoniiflora and various Ludwigia to replace the pink ambulia. I'm not sure yet. Off I go to stare at my tank deep in thought..

[Yanagi]

Ohh maaaan, I just dropped and broke the most reliable camera we have. The one I've been using to take pics with. Eek. Now not only do I want to kick myself, my dad probably will kick me.

Er, well in other news, I believe the other blue rams have paired up now. I moved them into another tank to reduce stress and sell the others once I decide if they are actually a pair or not, haha. Anyone interested? What should I price a pair at?

I took tank pics even though it looks awful right now.

[tracey6565]

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate dropping of the camera Yan, you could always do what my kids would have and not say anything about dropping it... ... lol

I'm not sure why you say your tank looks awful at the moment, I think it looks great.

[gulp]

Pictures look great, and I love love love the 2nd pic of the ram, too cute!

Good excuse for a new camera... :D

[divy]

Looks great Yan

Have you thought about a carpeting plant at the front like HC,glosso or japanese hairgrass?

[Yanagi]

Haha, it's my dad's camera because the one I got several years ago mysterious stopped turning on and he pulled it apart (good with electronics he is) and even he couldn't figure out why. It's 9 years old, 2.1 megapixels and takes the best photos out of any camera I've ever had. Ugh! He's now pulled this one apart and is taking a look inside.

I think I'll save up and buy my own, that way if I drop it I don't have to admit it to anyone.

I say the tank looks awful because you can't see all the dead leaves floating around, and the bits of dead pink ambulia. There's also areas with sparse planting because I've had to pull some of the ambulia out to try and let more light in. I might leave a few healthy stems in once I decide on (and get!) the replacement plants, but the rest is going in the goldfish pond or garbage! Depends on whether or not the goldfish eat it.

Also with the tank looking nasty, I believe it's a potassium and magnesium deficiency causing holes and yellow leaves in my plants as well.

I LOVE my Blue Rams... ... shh, don't tell anyone, but I think they're quickly becoming my favourite fish! ... Any time I'm doing anything in the tank they're right up in my business, nosing around and actually watching very carefully what I'm doing. A few times I've gone to do something on the bottom and they've gotten upset at me being too close to one of their 'nests' (ditches in the gravel, quite annoying actually!) and outright rammed my hand and bitten me. It's hilarious. I wish I could get them to do it to unsuspecting victims. I just need to find an excuse to get someone to put their hand in the tank.

The 2nd pic is my favourite too, Gulp. He's just so adorable! Bigger pic here if you want a bit of a better look.

--- Edit

Oops, Divy posted while I was typing, haha.

I do have some HC in there (got it for free, BOOYAH!) it's just sort of on a test run at the moment because I don't have co2 running ATM (I ran out of sugar, LOL) and don't have what I would consider to be high lighting. It's the mess of stuff in front of the 'cave' driftwood. Extremely hard to plant! I just did what the guy told me and dumped gravel on it and left it to grow roots it's self. If it takes off, I'll probably end up buying more.

As for Japanese hairgrass and Glosso, I'm not sure where I'd find it? I haven't seen any for sale on my usual sites. Do you know anywhere? You can PM me if you like.

Edited August 14, 2010 by Yan

[Bettarazzi]

The pink ambulia might not be getting enough light. Will be interesting to see if you have enough light for the HC bearing in mind the light reaching the substrate where the HC grows will be less than what is available closer to the surface where the ambulia is.

Could you STOP posting pics of the rams? Every time I see them I want to setup a tank with rams. And I have barely enough time look after the few bettas that I have. Really like that head on shot.

[Yanagi]

*lol* Bettarazzi. My other two Rams are/will be for sale. Hint hint, nudge nudge. One male, one female. Undecided if they are actually a pair or not. Waiting to see if they start trying to breed.

The male has two very spunky looking black spots on his head above/between his eyes. Verrry cool looking.

Anywaaayyss, I'm thinking I planted the pink ambulia too close together though, and that's what has killed it off. The HC is getting a bit yellow on some leaves, but that could also be the magnesium/potassium deficiency. I am impatiently waiting for my fertilizer to come in the mail.

Due to the whole batch testing issue, I've been very much considering buying a pair or a group of wilds to do 'my part' to keep wilds in Australia. The only problem is the only ones I can seem to find that will tolerate the temps in this tank are already rather, I guess, plentiful than some of the other species. Imbellis, Smaragina, Mahachai, Bellica, Simorum. Possibly Pugnax and Foerschi. I'm not sure yet. Might have to make a new thread and see what sort of information pops up. I'm not even sure if any of these are actually suitable community tank fish.

I'd also like a pair of something or rather that would be suitable to live with shrimp as I'm not willing to give up my future shrimp tank idea, haha. I have to look for something quite small. Possibly Falx. Like I said, I'll start a new thread. :P

[divy]

Oh yeah i see the HC!

My tank is 2ft and i planted the HC strand by strand, it took me a full day to plant it all lol

what type of lighting do you have?

HC and glosso needs medium to high light otherwise it grows up and becomes stringy looking

but japanese hairgrass should do ok

is aquariumlife one of your usual sites? if not check it out if you like

[Yanagi]

I lurk over there but somehow feel like I'm not 'pro' enough to post. Plants for sale seem to go extremely quickly, I've never even had a chance to post/PM the seller before it's all gone.

Strand by strand, oh geez. I TRIED that.. it just kept floating up to the surface. Did you do it by hand or use tweezers? What sort of substrate do you have?

Erm, lighting.. I've never really looked closely, actually. I just went looking for probably about the 3rd time for info and only just found them on the Aqua One website. Maybe I just fail at google searches. http://www.aquaone.co.uk/lighting_pr_reflectors.php

Two T5 PL tubes, 18w. That would give me about 1.38wpg. Bulb I think says 7100k, I'd have to pull the light off the tank to be sure. I just realized I should probably replace the tubes. They're at least 3 years old (if you believe the previous owner).

[Yanagi]

Well, well, well!

Busy tank it is.

It just got 10 new residents!

6 x Ember tetra... I'm very glad I chose them. It was between them or Dwarf Rasbora (might end up getting some of these later anyway LOL). The Tetra are all hanging out together in a close bunch, schooling around which is exactly what I wanted. I just need them to colour back up now. They didn't enjoy the ride home and looked almost like ghost fish by the time they went in the tank.

4 x Pygmy Cories! I LOVE THEM. So do my Otos. They're hanging out together grazing and zipping around. They look remarkably similar, especially when they just quickly zoom on past. They were hiding in the plants until the Otos zoomed through and came out into the open and the Cories followed. Adorable! Can't wait to get my Habrosus as well.

I also have a bucket load (almost ) of plants coming in. Ricca, Peacock moss, 2 larger crypts to try and fill some midground space in and lots of small Blyxia. Still haven't decided on my background plants to replace the pink ambulia.. but I'm working on it.

I'm desperately missing my camera. :(

[laura77]

gouramis will eat your plants a bit but dont stress my plants usually recover from a nibble fairly easy...once the fish settle will take flake and nibble pellets

[fishfin]

Looks remarkable! Great job there and congrats on your new additions.

[Yanagi]

I haven't actually seen them eat any plants, but they pick at stuff off of them. They're only dwarves anyway so I don't think they'd eat very much.

They are starting to come out a lot more at feeding time which is definitely a good sign. I've been thinking about getting a coral blue dwarf gourami pair or neon blue dwarf pair as well. Not sure if it will bring the other Gouramis out more often or make them hide as the pairs I'm looking at are bigger than the pair I already have. Hmmm.

I'm also in the process of tying some moss onto the bit of driftwood that refused to sink (now sinks lol) and my Blyxia should arrive today.. Should have arrived earlier than this, but keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully it's not lost in the mail somewhere.

[fishfin]

I just mentioned on another post that I have been soaking/cooking pieces of driftwood in my slowcooker overnight. Wake up in the morning and the pieces are water logged and not leaching any tanons anymore. I have done this for 4 pieces now and it works perfectly! Saves so much time.

Leonie

[Yanagi]

These pieces wouldn't come close to fitting in the slow cooker we have. I actually like tannins anyway. :P

[Yanagi]

Blyxia arrived, WOOHOO! She threw in a couple bigger ones too and some corkscrew val as well.

All planted now. I'll tell you what, the Otos LOVE it when I bring in new plants. They spend the rest of the day all over the new plants grazing on whatever is on the leaves.

My Ember tetra are also bravely schooling in the open space.. and my Pgymies are schooling with them!! COOLEST CORY EVER! :P

Edited August 18, 2010 by Yan

[Yanagi]

Video was taken literally just before my Blyxia got here. Just showing off some of the fish and plants. Camera is not focused properly because, well, it's garbage. It was this or taking a billion photos and trying to focus the camera each time though.

Might want to mute the video before it starts... I figured out how to swap the audio out to something, uh, more appropriate (youtube is still working on that) but I don't know how to mute it completely.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Yan