# South American 400l



## Conort2

Hi everyone,

Was going to start a journal but to be fair I’m not the best with plants and also updating with decent posts so I’ll stick to just adding photos of the fish in my new set up and occasionally some of the set up as it matures.

Have just set up a 400l open top high tech aquarium. Fish species consist of soft water South American species whilst the plants are a combination of easy stuff like, crypts, swords anubias, microsorum etc. Definitely isn’t a biotope but the fish seem happy and comfortable already. Stocking currently consists of the following - 

cardinal tetra 
Coral red pencil fish 
Biotodoma wavrini 
Dicrossus filementosus 
hemigrammus rubrostriata
Corydoras duplicareus 
Corydoras sp gold laser
Poicelocharax weitzmeni
Apistogramma lineata

here’s a few terrible pictures of the apistogramma lineata to start with. Need to get some pictures of him flaring, his dorsal fin is amazing.

cheers


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## shangman

Absolutely gorgeous selection of fish 😍 Looking forward to seeing more of this one!


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## PARAGUAY

Great choice agree with shangman . Full tank photo would be nice🙂


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## Conort2

It’s currently a mess at the moment, lots of plants still floating until I decide what to do with them. One thing I do love about this tank is it catches a lot of natural light, no aquarium light can produce the same effect.


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## mort

I love natural sunlight on tanks and so do the fish.


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## Conort2

Some poor reflection free photos which gives you more of an idea what the stocking is like. Please bare in mind some of these fish are newly imported hence they’re still showing fin damage. This hopefully will be gone in a few weeks.

cheers


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## Conort2

Fish are settling in well however the scape needs some time spent on it, I need to decide what plants to keep rather than just leave them floating in the tank. The corydoras duplicareus have already started spawning which is a great sign. I’ve also had the female apistogramma lineata who is normally quite grey and fat turn bright yellow and slim overnight so fingers crossed she’s spawned! She keeps returning to a certain spot in the driftwood the only issue is she doesn’t seem to be too defensive of the area and is more than willing to leave there to feed so I’m not getting my hopes up. However this will be her first time so I’m sure she will learn. I have an aquarium in the cabinet which I need to get round to setting up which I will use as a spawning tank as these are extremely rare so would be good to get them circulating in the hobby, the males are also stunning. The one I have is developing more and more orange on him as he settles in, really is a special fish.

I’ve added some useless photos (as always!) showing the female in what I suspect is her spawning colour. As you can she she is really slim now, her spawning tube was also really pronounced yesterday so I’m hoping for the best.

hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend!

cheers, Conor


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## shangman

Conort2 said:


> Fish are settling in well however the scape needs some time spent on it, I need to decide what plants to keep rather than just leave them floating in the tank. The corydoras duplicareus have already started spawning which is a great sign. I’ve also had the female apistogramma lineata who is normally quite grey and fat turn bright yellow and slim overnight so fingers crossed she’s spawned! She keeps returning to a certain spot in the driftwood the only issue is she doesn’t seem to be too defensive of the area and is more than willing to leave there to feed so I’m not getting my hopes up. However this will be her first time so I’m sure she will learn. I have an aquarium in the cabinet which I need to get round to setting up which I will use as a spawning tank as these are extremely rare so would be good to get them circulating in the hobby, the males are also stunning. The one I have is developing more and more orange on him as he settles in, really is a special fish.
> 
> I’ve added some useless photos (as always!) showing the female in what I suspect is her spawning colour. As you can she she is really slim now, her spawning tube was also really pronounced yesterday so I’m hoping for the best.
> 
> hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend!
> 
> cheers, Conor


That female is gorg, love the single big black dot marking! Very bold and minimalist


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## Conort2

Not much to report, the fish are settling in well. The female apisto unfortunately has reverted back to her normal colouration and isn’t tending to the area she had stashed away in the driftwood so that spawn if there was one has definitely gone. Having algae issues at the moment but it’s expected with the still quite new set up and large fish load, this should slowly disappear as the tank matures. Well at least that has been my experience previously.

cheers


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## shangman

Conort2 said:


> Not much to report, the fish are settling in well. The female apisto unfortunately has reverted back to her normal colouration and isn’t tending to the area she had stashed away in the driftwood so that spawn if there was one has definitely gone. Having algae issues at the moment but it’s expected with the still quite new set up and large fish load, this should slowly disappear as the tank matures. Well at least that has been my experience previously.
> 
> cheers


Stunning fish as usual, particularly that male apisto, I would love to come and see it irl one day. I'm sure when our own inevitable heatwave arrives later this summer your female will become very interested again. 

Do you use RO in your tank, or rainwater? I'm curious about how you do it as I'm also in London and a good-sized softwater hightech tank is my dream, but also seems technically quite difficult/needs some proper plumbing.


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## Conort2

shangman said:


> Do you use RO in your tank, or rainwater?


Thankyou Shangman.

I use RO water now and mix in a little tap. I can make up enough water for a 25percent water change in around 4 hours so it’s not too bad. I used to use rainwater when I had the smaller tank and had great results with it but it’s just not feasible on a tank this size as I don’t have the space to store that amount of rainwater.

cheers


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## Conort2

Hope everyone is good? Nothing much to report, tank is starting to settle now. The algae is subsiding as the plants take a hold. Fish seem to be happy as I’ve had two spawns from two different dicrossus females. Unfortunately dicrossus are known for not being the most defensive of parents so the tetras are always waiting in the wings ready to grab a snack. One female has already lost her spawn and I don’t hold much hope for the other female.

 Also have a few new fish including these crazy looking pseudohemiodon sp peru. They’re settling in pretty well but still have a lot of growing to do yet. They spend most of the day buried in the sand but are happy to show themselves when food is available.

cheers

Conor


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## shangman

Oh man, dicrossus, these lovely shovel nosed catfish.... Your fish selection is just perfect! 

I love fish with  faces like that, if only horseface loaches didn't get so large. 

If those dicrossus manage to spawn this year I'll take some! Though in that tank I imagine they'll all be tasty treats first. My new spawn of apisto babies got eaten this week, though I'm not upset about it, it's so much work to do it properly.


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## shangman

Another cheeky question.... Where are you getting these lovely fish from? Just wondering as some I haven't seen some for sale before!


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## Conort2

shangman said:


> If those dicrossus manage to spawn this year I'll take some!


I’ll get them set up at some point in a spawning tank however there are a lot rarer fish in front of them in the queue lol. Will be the apistogramma lineata up first due to the fact of how rare they are, and they’re amazing looking! Need to pull my finger out and get them going as I’m pretty sure the female keeps spawning somewhere in the main tank.


shangman said:


> Another cheeky question.... Where are you getting these lovely fish from? Just wondering as some I haven't seen some for sale before!


I get quite a few fish from the fish barn down in Crawley now. The owners have a similar taste in fish to me and if you know when one of their South American shipments are coming in you can get some special fish. They’re great for rare South American  species. They’ll also try and get anything you ask for.

I also purchased some hyphessobrycon negodagua when I got the whiptails which I haven’t seen for sale in this country before. In fact looking online they’re not seen for sale anywhere!


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## shangman

Conort2 said:


> I’ll get them set up at some point in a spawning tank however there are a lot rarer fish in front of them in the queue lol. Will be the apistogramma lineata up first due to the fact of how rare they are, and they’re amazing looking! Need to pull my finger out and get them going as I’m pretty sure the female keeps spawning somewhere in the main tank.


Ooh fabulous, I am soooo down for taking a pair of these when you breed them, they are absolutely stunning, I love that everything bout them is a unique look - different colouring, different fins and different facial shape too which is very nice. I'm also looking at a pair of tefe blues from ADC atm, apistos are just TOO GOOD. I'm going to have set up my own little SA rainwater community!



Conort2 said:


> I get quite a few fish from the fish barn down in Crawley now. The owners have a similar taste in fish to me and if you know when one of their South American shipments are coming in you can get some special fish. They’re great for rare South American  species. They’ll also try and get anything you ask for.
> 
> I also purchased some hyphessobrycon negodagua when I got the whiptails which I haven’t seen for sale in this country before. In fact looking online they’re not seen for sale anywhere!


Ahh you go to the Fish Barn! I follow them on facebook, they definitely seem to have an beautiful selection of fish. I'll have to do a visit, though it'll be hard to to mass-buy with excitement. Some of their corydoras are INSANE.

Looking forward to seeing your fabulous rare tetras too, their spawning behaviour looks mad on a video I saw last night while researching them a bit. Is this your tank fully stocked now, or are you still after other rare beauties?


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## Conort2

shangman said:


> Ooh fabulous, I am soooo down for taking a pair of these when you breed them, they are absolutely stunning,


No worries, you’re top of the list when I get round to it.




shangman said:


> Is this your tank fully stocked now, or are you still after other rare beauties?



Pretty much, I’ve got some l183 ancistrus coming soon and then there are a few rare species of tetra I’ve got my eye on. However they may not ever show up in this country or it will at least be a while until they do so there is no rush.


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## Conort2

Not much to update on this really, tank is settling down now and algae is subsiding however I have a large amount of green hair algae on top of the blyxa on the left side which can be seen in the image below. The blyxa itself is healthy and growing well but I get quite a lot of direct sunlight there in the afternoon so that may be the issue. Anyone got any suggestions to get rid of it, ive reduced my lighting but if anything it seems to have got worse!

I’ve separated the two apistos to their own tank, Theyve had a couple of unsuccessful spawns, this may be down to them being new parents but I suspect it is due to their water conditions. I was mixing ro and tap but I believe even that was too hard for these as their from the Rio atabapo which is very much a black water river. They’re now on pure ro mixed with botanicals. Fingers crossed this will do the trick.

cheers


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## Conort2

👀👀👀


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## shangman

oooooooh 

can't WAIT to see photos of them in the tank!!


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## Conort2

shangman said:


> oooooooh
> 
> can't WAIT to see photos of them in the tank!!


Judging by their behaviour and their tank mates behaviour they’ll be going in their own dedicated set up. They’re far too slow and deliberate with their swimming to deal with the energetic hyphessobrycon and iguanodectes and the tetras seem to want to take the odd nibble.

Providing the female apistogramma isn’t guarding a spawn they’ll be going in the apisto spawning setup. The male is already back in the main aquarium as the female decided she’d had enough of his presence. I’m hoping this is because she has a spawn stashed away. The issue with these apistos isn’t getting them to spawn it’s more getting the eggs to last, certainly one of the more difficult cichlids I’ve encountered to breed. It is to be expected though as they’re from extremely acidic conditions.

Cheers


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## shangman

Conort2 said:


> Judging by their behaviour and their tank mates behaviour they’ll be going in their own dedicated set up. They’re far too slow and deliberate with their swimming to deal with the energetic hyphessobrycon and iguanodectes and the tetras seem to want to take the odd nibble.
> 
> Providing the female apistogramma isn’t guarding a spawn they’ll be going in the apisto spawning setup. The male is already back in the main aquarium as the female decided she’d had enough of his presence. I’m hoping this is because she has a spawn stashed away. The issue with these apistos isn’t getting them to spawn it’s more getting the eggs to last, certainly one of the more difficult cichlids I’ve encountered to breed. It is to be expected though as they’re from extremely acidic conditions.
> 
> Cheers


Nothing wrong with a new tank of it's needed! They're definitely gorgeous enough to justify it 😍 really interested to see what their behaviour is like in the apisto setup, I hope they can relax a little and that she isn't a little demon to them! If she's like a mother macmasteri with otos or kuhlis they only get a move along nudge. How low is the ph in that tank?


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## Conort2

shangman said:


> Nothing wrong with a new tank of it's needed! They're definitely gorgeous enough to justify it 😍 really interested to see what their behaviour is like in the apisto setup, I hope they can relax a little and that she isn't a little demon to them! If she's like a mother macmasteri with otos or kuhlis they only get a move along nudge. How low is the ph in that tank?


She was spawnless upon investigation so she is back in the main tank now. Both male and female seem happier already and are swimming around together. Maybe the breeding set up was just too small for them. 

All ammocryptocharax have been moved, was like finding needles in haystacks in a five foot tank full of plants, thankfully they’re extremely slow swimmers. They’re extremely hard to find even in the small set up as they’re so well camouflaged. Will have to get some more plants and more flow in there to replicate their natural habitat abit better.

Spot the fish in the last photo ha! 

Cheers


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## HarrietHippo

Stunning tank and amazing selection of fish - not often I have to google half of them  Great to have a local dealer who shares your interests too.

I had question on how you deal with cyano on the substrate where it is exposed to direct sun? Has always been a problem for me. I have a love/ hate with natural sunlight

Cheers


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## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> She was spawnless upon investigation so she is back in the main tank now. Both male and female seem happier already and are swimming around together. Maybe the breeding set up was just too small for them.
> 
> All ammocryptocharax have been moved, was like finding needles in haystacks in a five foot tank full of plants, thankfully they’re extremely slow swimmers. They’re extremely hard to find even in the small set up as they’re so well camouflaged. Will have to get some more plants and more flow in there to replicate their natural habitat abit better.
> 
> Spot the fish in the last photo ha!
> 
> Cheers



Good to see you managed to get some Conor - are you going to attempt breeding them now you have them a dedicated tank? Would love to see some more phots once you have the settled and coloured up.


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## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Good to see you managed to get some Conor - are you going to attempt breeding them now you have them a dedicated tank? Would love to see some more phots once you have the settled and coloured up.


It’s something I’ll certainly try, seems like I have four males and two females judging on body shape. However my first priority will be to keep these alive, they look so fragile and didn’t get off to the best start in the main tank. Plenty of live food and water changes should get them back on 
track. 



HarrietHippo said:


> had question on how you deal with cyano on the substrate where it is exposed to direct sun? Has always been a problem for me. I have a love/ hate with natural sunlight


I haven’t really, any slight cyno you see the substrate I just leave. Luckily all other algae is subsiding as the tank matures.

Cheers


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## Conort2

Just a little update in regards to the darter characins. They appear to have settled down now, they have started feeding on very small live daphnia. They are so slow and deliberate with their feeding and watch every food item for ages before they attack. Due to this feeding style I’d only recommend keeping them with dwarf shrimp or dwarf loricarids that don’t compete for food. I think nearly every other fish would put compete them for food. They’re even more specialised than I realised and I’m very lucky I had a spare tank as I don’t think these would’ve lasted long at all. 

Will hopefully get some pictures once they’ve settled in for a few more days.

Cheers


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## Conort2

Managed to get a few pictures. They have to be the most bizarre fish I’ve ever kept. They swim head up and almost drift along until they find something to eat. They then slowly move towards it. Remind me almost of seahorses. 

They can also change colour in an instant, unfortunately only one seems to be willing to try and change to green at the moment. The others look like little twigs lol.

Cheers


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## afroturf

Amazing fish the Ammocryptocharax i've always dreamt of keeping them after seeing some of Ivan Mikoljis photos of them in the wild. So was astonished to see some at my local Maidenhead aquatics yesterday, so had to pick them up. No kidding on reading how tricky they are to feed. Any tips on feeding? thinking grindal/microworms my be the way to go, I've had some success feeding live bbs and to a lesser extent frozen bloodworm. No idea how these survive in the wild in high flowing streams they take some much effort in spotting/hunting prey, defiantly worth the effort though, amazing fish!


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## Wookii

afroturf said:


> Amazing fish the Ammocryptocharax i've always dreamt of keeping them after seeing some of Ivan Mikoljis photos of them in the wild. So was astonished to see some at my local Maidenhead aquatics yesterday, so had to pick them up. No kidding on reading how tricky they are to feed. Any tips on feeding? thinking grindal/microworms my be the way to go, I've had some success feeding live bbs and to a lesser extent frozen bloodworm. No idea how these survive in the wild in high flowing streams they take some much effort in spotting/hunting prey, defiantly worth the effort though, amazing fish!



Just noticed your in Nottingham too - which MA? Trowell or Notcutts Wheatcroft? . . . Though I have been a little off-put but Conor's report on their difficulty and needing a species specific tank.


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## afroturf

Trowell @Wookii I got 6 out of the 8 they had, the others were quite thin and didn't look in great condition, but maybe worth a look if you were interested. Quite impressed with the fish selection at Trowell not been in ages as it a bit of a drive better than the closer Wheatcroft.


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## Wookii

afroturf said:


> Trowell @Wookii I got 6 out of the 8 they had, the others were quite thin and didn't look in great condition, but maybe worth a look if you were interested. Quite impressed with the fish selection at Trowell not been in ages as it a bit of a drive better than the closer Wheatcroft.



Yeah, they often do have a good selection in there, it’s my go-to LFS. You did well to spot them 👍🏻


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## Conort2

afroturf said:


> No idea how these survive in the wild in high flowing streams they take some much effort in spotting/hunting prey,


Me neither, they take forever to strike at daphnia with the filter turned off. I have no idea how they manage to catch anything in the wild, Every movement is so slow and cautious.


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## afroturf

Wookii said:


> Yeah, they often do have a good selection in there, it’s my go-to LFS. You did well to spot them 👍🏻



Yeah I used to live near Trowell and went regularly thought it was just ok, I've moved further away and was the first time I've been in ages very impressed, they did have some Characidium fasciatum too that I was tempted with and would be much easier to feed than the Ammocryptocharax



Conort2 said:


> Me neither, they take forever to strike at daphnia with the filter turned off. I have no idea how they manage to catch anything in the wild, Every movement is so slow and cautious.



Yeah realised that turning the filter off is part of the trick, a bit annoying but they gotta eat. Might get some worm cultures going again give a bit more of a mouthful than the few bbs each feeding, fortunate I can give them numerous feedings each day.


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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> Judging by their behaviour and their tank mates behaviour they’ll be going in their own dedicated set up. They’re far too slow and deliberate with their swimming to deal with the energetic hyphessobrycon and iguanodectes and the tetras seem to want to take the odd nibble.
> 
> Providing the female apistogramma isn’t guarding a spawn they’ll be going in the apisto spawning setup. The male is already back in the main aquarium as the female decided she’d had enough of his presence. I’m hoping this is because she has a spawn stashed away. The issue with these apistos isn’t getting them to spawn it’s more getting the eggs to last, certainly one of the more difficult cichlids I’ve encountered to breed. It is to be expected though as they’re from extremely acidic conditions.
> 
> Cheers


What ph tds are you spawning them? I know quite a few apisto require very low ph for the eggs to actually hatch; they will happily lay eggs in normal ph but they simply won't hatch until you lower the ph.


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## Conort2

anewbie said:


> What ph tds are you spawning them? I know quite a few apisto require very low ph for the eggs to actually hatch; they will happily lay eggs in normal ph but they simply won't hatch until you lower the ph.


Tds was around 20/30 in the end however they have now gone back in the main aquarium. The female took a serious disliking to the male and almost killed him. They now swim around like nothing has happened together in the main aquarium ha. 

Cheers


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## Conort2

Conort2 said:


> They now swim around like nothing has happened together in the main aquarium


Things have gone much better since and the female is now looking after fry. I have yet to see them but the area she is protecting has moved from where she initially was guarding and she still has her bright spawning colours so fingers crossed this time. Only issue is she will abandon them for food which is never great, however this only brief before she rushes back to the hiding place under some plants. I’m not getting my hopes up as there are a lot of fish in this tank but there are also quite a few hiding places so you never know.

Cheers


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## Conort2

The female definitely has fry and has a small group following her around now. Still not getting my hopes up as there are far too many predators in this tank but she is doing a good job so far. They’re still sticking quite close to her but as they grow they like to explore and may become snacks. I’ll be over the moon if even two or three survive.

Cheers


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## Conort2

Mum and dad (surprisingly) still doing a great job. You can just make out a few of the little ones in these pictures.

Cheers


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## Conort2

New fish are settling in well. Will hopefully get the corydoras spawning in the near future once they’re properly conditioned.

The tucano tetras are tiny! I knew they were a dwarf species but didn’t realise how small they’d actually be. Stunning little fish but hard to capture their beauty on camera. This is a breeding tank so ignore the algae!!!


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## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> New fish are settling in well. Will hopefully get the corydoras spawning in the near future once they’re properly conditioned.
> 
> The tucano tetras are tiny! I knew they were a dwarf species but didn’t realise how small they’d actually be. Stunning little fish but hard to capture their beauty on camera. This is a breeding tank so ignore the algae!!!



Nice! I’d like to have some Tucano’s too at some point. Are you hoping to breed them also?


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## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Are you hoping to breed them also?


May give it a go at some point, I’m guessing they’ll need super low tds water and darkness to hatch the eggs.


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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> New fish are settling in well. Will hopefully get the corydoras spawning in the near future once they’re properly conditioned.
> 
> The tucano tetras are tiny! I knew they were a dwarf species but didn’t realise how small they’d actually be. Stunning little fish but hard to capture their beauty on camera. This is a breeding tank so ignore the algae!!!


Aren't adult tocuano somewhere between neon and ember tetra ?


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## Angus

Lovely looking fish, healthy tank, love it. @Conort2


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## Wookii

anewbie said:


> Aren't adult tocuano somewhere between neon and ember tetra ?



A fair bit smaller than both by all accounts.


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## Conort2

I


anewbie said:


> Aren't adult tocuano somewhere between neon and ember tetra ?


I’ve not personally kept embers but I’ve seen quite a few in the flesh and I’d say the tucano are definitely smaller.


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## Conort2

Just thought I’d update the thread with some pictures. I didn’t realise how much some of the fish had grown but when you compare them to the photos at the beginning of this thread the difference is dramatic. The biotodoma are starting to fill out now and slowly getting that beautiful blue shimmer they develop. Within another six months they should look amazing. 

Please ignore the bba! I’m in the process of killing it all following on from me not noticing I’d ran out of co2 a while ago. Have also removed a lot of plants and opened the scape back up with should Improve flow a great deal.

Cheers


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## Angus

That's the beauty of a 400L tank... being able to have a community like that, well jealous but at the same time i'm just in admiration, everything looks well happy!


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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> I
> 
> I’ve not personally kept embers but I’ve seen quite a few in the flesh and I’d say the tucano are definitely smaller.


Ok. The site i saw selling them said they got to a bit over an inch - so maybe they are longer but more streamline or maybe that site was incorrect;

What is the fish in picture 3 that has blue/red and fork tail - right most center fish ?


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## dw1305

Hi all, 


Conort2 said:


> The biotodoma are starting to fill out now and slowly getting that beautiful blue shimmer they develop.


Fish are all looking in tip-top condition. Usually _Dicrossus filamentosus_ females only get red ventral fins when they are ready to spawn.

cheers Darrel


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## Conort2

anewbie said:


> What is the fish in picture 3 that has blue/red and fork tail - right most center fish ?


That’s a hemigrammus rubrostriatus if it’s the fish I think you’re mentioning. A new tetra which is starting to become more readily available. From the same area as cardinals and rummynoses.


dw1305 said:


> Fish are all looking in tip-top condition. Usually _Dicrossus filamentosus_ females only get red ventral fins when they are ready to spawn.


Thank you Darrel. They do spawn quite frequently however they are the most useless parents, and can’t defend a spawn once the eggs hatch. Not like the female apisto who appears to be hidden away with another spawn again. I’ll make sure to siphon the fry out this time if it get the chance.


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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> That’s a hemigrammus rubrostriatus if it’s the fish I think you’re mentioning. A new tetra which is starting to become more readily available. From the same area as cardinals and rummynoses.
> 
> Thank you Darrel. They do spawn quite frequently however they are the most useless parents, and can’t defend a spawn once the eggs hatch. Not like the female apisto who appears to be hidden away with another spawn again. I’ll make sure to siphon the fry out this time if it get the chance.


No it isn't the tetra; I think (after a bit of googling) it was the Dicrossus filamentosus which seems like a very lovely fish (at least in your aquarium). My understanding is they require a bit of special care and can be finicky which is why i have avoided them but if that is the correct name for the fish it is quite lovely.


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## Conort2

anewbie said:


> No it isn't the tetra; I think (after a bit of googling) it was the Dicrossus filamentosus which seems like a very lovely fish (at least in your aquarium). My understanding is they require a bit of special care and can be finicky which is why i have avoided them but if that is the correct name for the fish it is quite lovely.


Sorry, yes you’re correct. They’ve been pretty easy to be fair. The one thing they require is soft water with a low tds. Other than that they eat anything and are well behaved. About as good a community cichlid as you’ll get.

Cheers


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## Conort2

The female apistogramma lineata is protecting another spawn. Seems to be much larger this time. She’s doing a great job again but they will eventually get eaten if I don’t remove some. I’ll attempt to get them over the coming days with a turkey baster If I can.

I’ve added some terrible pictures, about the best I can get without infuriating mum.

Cheers


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## shangman

She's really beautiful and so is the male, definitely worth trying to catch a few to raise!!


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## anewbie

Might be worth putting them in a breeding tank. I wonder if you could capture her with the frys so she could continue caring for them.


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## Conort2

shangman said:


> She's really beautiful and so is the male, definitely worth trying to catch a few to raise!!





anewbie said:


> Might be worth putting them in a breeding tank. I wonder if you could capture her with the frys so she could continue caring for them.


It’s definitely my plan to get the fry out of there the issue is it’s a big tank with tonnes of hiding places so almost impossible to catch them.

I’d have no chance of catching her let alone alongside the fry. She’s a great mother but I’m pretty sure the stress of capture would also break the bond. However I only rescaped this tank a few days ago so she must’ve had the fry already. Normally this would cause the mother to abandon her fry but she has carried on fine. It was quite some disruption that I caused too. She really is an excellent parent. Now as for the dicrossus 😂 they too nice too scare anything off.


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## Conort2

Tried to get some photos of the characins in this tank, near on impossible as the things don’t stop moving! And a couple of the male apisto as he fancied showing of his dorsal which he rarely does.

Cheers


----------



## Steve Buce

Pencilfish look stunning


----------



## shangman

Those pencilfish are just... incredible!! How many to you keep? Can finally see why they're so pricy. Really all of these fish look so beautiful, colourful and healthy.

Also that apisto male 😍😍😍 They're on my list for the future definitely, great that they are happy to live with dicrossus too.


----------



## Conort2

shangman said:


> Those pencilfish are just... incredible!! How many to you keep? Can finally see why they're so pricy. Really all of these fish look so beautiful, colourful and healthy.


I’ve got a total of 7 in there. They’re much more well behaved now they’re in a larger tank, they still have disputes but the damage they inflict on each other is no where near as bad as before.

 They are definitely one of my favourites, they’re extremely curious and watch me as much as I watch them. The funny thing this is probably them at their worst. When they have territorial disputes they literally glow scarlet red all over.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

Some pictures of the new tucano tetras, settling in well.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

Think it’s fair to say he likes live blackworms.


----------



## Conort2

Happy new year everyone, hope you’re all good. Just a few rubbish pictures of the catfish that live in the tank. They’re not the easiest to take pictures of before they disappear into the shadows!


----------



## Conort2

Didn’t think I’d have any eggs this soon but already had a spawn from the corydoras tukano, the eggs appear unfertilised but it’s a start. I’ve been feeding them up with live black worms as they was still pretty skinny when I got them. I didn’t think they was in good enough condition yet to spawn but clearly I was wrong. I’ll keep up the heavy feedings now and water changes with cool RO water. This spawn was after a water change so didn’t take much of a trigger. Think I may have to go lower with the tds and add some alder cones if I want to get a viable spawn though.

Cheers


----------



## MichaelJ

Stan510 said:


> New Guinea and forget that..nothing from there is sold here.


Plenty of plants at APF originally from islands in Southeast Asia - perhaps not that many choices from New Guinea proper.


----------



## Conort2

Stan510 said:


> I haven't gone back over all the posts but if you want to make it super natural,you could replace the Crypts and Anubias with S.A. plants like dwarf sword or as I just learned the other day- Christmas moss is native to Brazil. Alternanthera for color,and a few South American lilies. Finding plants for them is plentiful. I tried to find plants for Rainbows of New Guinea and forget that..nothing from there is sold here.
> I know you know the plants..but maybe a nudge to make it even more authentic.


It was something I thought about however this is far from a biotope. There are fish from all over South America in here. At one point it was going to be an Orinoco biotope but I already had quite a few fish from Peru. 

There was a substantial amount of swords in here until recently but I took them out as they were being eaten by the ancistrus l183. One day I will do a proper biotope but I just can’t resist adding plants from different areas eventually.

Cheers


----------



## Djoko Sauza

I'm curious about your water parameters. Do you have any idea what your gh and kh levels are? 
And what is your fert dosing regime?

I'm interested in lowering my tds and it looks like you've struck a good balance.


----------



## Conort2

Djoko Sauza said:


> I'm curious about your water parameters. Do you have any idea what your gh and kh levels are?
> And what is your fert dosing regime?


Nothing is very exact. I aim roughly for a tds of around 60/70 when remineralising my RO water with equilibrium. I dose the tank with roughly a half to a third of ei levels. But it varies, I noticed my tds had started to creep up to nearly 200 recently so I undertook water changes with almost pure RO and reduced my dosing slightly. I try to keep my tds around the 120 mark now in the tank. The fish would probably prefer it lower but it’s a happy medium where the plants grow well and some of the fish still breed. Much lower and my crypts start dropping leaves and struggle to grow.

Cheers


----------



## AlecF

What level of TDS to people feel comfortable with? Mine keeps edging towards 270=300 and I'm confused what to do. I add a little bicarb of soda, and some cuttle fish, as my carbonates seem low, as well as low levels of APS ferts. But they persist in being a tad high. I do a lot of small water changes. It's possible it could be the rocks I use. Anyway, I should do a proper thread and sorry to intrude on this one, but I am always curious when I see TDS discussed. I don't want to use RO water.


----------



## Wookii

AlecF said:


> What level of TDS to people feel comfortable with? Mine keeps edging towards 270=300 and I'm confused what to do. I add a little bicarb of soda, and some cuttle fish, as my carbonates seem low, as well as low levels of APS ferts. But they persist in being a tad high. I do a lot of small water changes. It's possible it could be the rocks I use.



I can offer some suggestions, but . . 



AlecF said:


> Anyway, I should do a proper thread and sorry to intrude on this one, . . . .



. . . that is the best bet so as not to clog up Conor's journal.


----------



## KirstyF

AlecF said:


> What level of TDS to people feel comfortable with? Mine keeps edging towards 270=300 and I'm confused what to do. I add a little bicarb of soda, and some cuttle fish, as my carbonates seem low, as well as low levels of APS ferts. But they persist in being a tad high. I do a lot of small water changes. It's possible it could be the rocks I use. Anyway, I should do a proper thread and sorry to intrude on this one, but I am always curious when I see TDS discussed. I don't want to use RO water.



I for one, would be interested in that thread. I’m currently doing lots of reading up about TDS as considering whether to buy a TDS meter but still getting my head round what TDS levels would be telling me and how to respond. 👍😊


----------



## Djoko Sauza

Conort2 said:


> Nothing is very exact. I aim roughly for a tds of around 60/70 when remineralising my RO water with equilibrium. I dose the tank with roughly a half to a third of ei levels. But it varies, I noticed my tds had started to creep up to nearly 200 recently so I undertook water changes with almost pure RO and reduced my dosing slightly. I try to keep my tds around the 120 mark now in the tank. The fish would probably prefer it lower but it’s a happy medium where the plants grow well and some of the fish still breed. Much lower and my crypts start dropping leaves and struggle to grow.
> 
> Cheers


Thanks. You're running with 0 kh then I assume? Or are you adding any carbonates via fert dosing?


----------



## Conort2

Djoko Sauza said:


> You're running with 0 kh then I assume


It should be as I’m not adding anything that should raise my Kh. Everything seems to be growing pretty well now, I had issues in the beginning where I wasn’t supplying enough nutrients with my dosing but now I’ve switched to half EI everything seems to be good. If the TDS gets too high I just cut back on the ferts. 

The fish would probably prefer the tds to be a bit lower but everyone seems to be pretty happy and I’m still getting successful spawns from my apistogramma lineata which is a black water species.

Is there any particular reason why you want a lower tds?

Cheers


----------



## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> Nothing is very exact. I aim roughly for a tds of around 60/70 when remineralising my RO water with equilibrium. I dose the tank with roughly a half to a third of ei levels. But it varies, I noticed my tds had started to creep up to nearly 200 recently so I undertook water changes with almost pure RO and reduced my dosing slightly. I try to keep my tds around the 120 mark now in the tank. The fish would probably prefer it lower but it’s a happy medium where the plants grow well and some of the fish still breed. Much lower and my crypts start dropping leaves and struggle to grow.
> 
> Cheers


Can you provide more details on your water condition; i know you have several species that strongly prefer soft acidic water so where I'm confused is that you can have high tds  but still meet the requirements for those fishes. My tap is 120 tds gh 7 kh 3 which is too hard for some of the species you have and the steady state tds in the tanks run around 140. I suspect I could go as low as 80 without harming the plants but i also suspect i have higher gh/kh than you have which would suggest your tds is composed of plant loving nutrients... but perhaps i misunderstand what is happening.


----------



## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> Is there any particular reason why you want a lower tds?
> 
> Cheers


I'm not sure how one can answer this question since I would think it depends on what solids are the basis for the tds. Also I might be mistaken but tds meters themselves are a bit misleading because they are measuring conductivity and it isn't clear to me that all conductivity is created equal.


----------



## Conort2

anewbie said:


> i also suspect i have higher gh/kh than you have which would suggest your tds is composed of plant loving nutrients


That’s correct, as far as I know I shouldn’t have any Kh which is what these fish wouldn’t like. They’d probably still do ok but there wouldn’t be breeding and colouration may not be as strong on say the nannostomus mortenthaleri for example.

As I use RO water everything I add is either plant fertiliser or equilibrium. Just so you’re aware I don’t undertake any water testing apart from measuring tds so I have no idea what ph my water sits at currently. As I use co2 I’m guessing it fluctuates a fair amount so I don’t see the bother in trying to work out what it is. I just use tds and the fish to ensure I am keeping conditions to what they prefer.

Cheers


----------



## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> That’s correct, as far as I know I shouldn’t have any Kh which is what these fish wouldn’t like. They’d probably still do ok but there wouldn’t be breeding and colouration may not be as strong on say the nannostomus mortenthaleri for example.
> 
> As I use RO water everything I add is either plant fertiliser or equilibrium. Just so you’re aware I don’t undertake any water testing apart from measuring tds so I have no idea what ph my water sits at currently. As I use co2 I’m guessing it fluctuates a fair amount so I don’t see the bother in trying to work out what it is. I just use tds and the fish to ensure I am keeping conditions to what they prefer.
> 
> Cheers


Do you know if there is a relationship between gh and tds. I.e, could you have modest gh while having  0 kh ? I realize 0 kh is required to make the tank acidic but are the apistogramma sensitive to hardness or is it sufficient to just have low ph ? Mostly i'm asking this as I intend to setup a 'low ph' tank next year and I had presume gh had to be around 1 or 2 but maybe i can have a higher gh and all will work well.


----------



## Wookii

anewbie said:


> Do you know if there is a relationship between gh and tds



1dGH = 17.8 ppm - something doesn't look quite right on your tap water TDS reading, GH 7 + KH 3 should be a fair bit higher than 120ppm TDS.


----------



## anewbie

Wookii said:


> 1dGH = 17.8 ppm - something doesn't look quite right on your tap water TDS reading, GH 7 + KH 3 should be a fair bit higher than 120ppm TDS.


Bad tds meter? I have 3 but all 3 seem to be in a similar range of 115-140.

Ok I just double check all my tanks are running from 141-151 tds (I have 5); and tap measured 122 tds.


----------



## Maf 2500

Wookii said:


> 1dGH = 17.8 ppm - something doesn't look quite right on your tap water TDS reading, GH 7 + KH 3 should be a fair bit higher than 120ppm TDS.


This is getting off-topic but if @anewbie 's tapwater is low in sodium and potassium cations it could quite possibly be in the 120's ppm TDS and GH 7.  Also depends what anions are present.

1dGH is equivalent to 17.8 ppm Calcium Carbonate but expressed as calcium is only about 7 mg/l (ppm). KH is only 3 so lots of wiggle room on the carbonate side of the equation.

@Conort2 love the tank!


----------



## Conort2

anewbie said:


> are the apistogramma sensitive to hardness or is it sufficient to just have low ph ?


As I don’t measure ph it would be hard for me to say for sure but I would imagine it would be the lower hardness rather than ph that allows the eggs to develop. To be honest I was surprised the first time I saw the female with fry as everything online says these fish need an extremely low ph for their eggs to develop. I know I don’t measure my ph but I’d be shocked if it was as low as some of the values that are recommended for breeding black water apistogramma which is around the 4/5 mark.

Cheers


----------



## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> As I don’t measure ph it would be hard for me to say for sure but I would imagine it would be the lower hardness rather than ph that allows the eggs to develop. To be honest I was surprised the first time I saw the female with fry as everything online says these fish need an extremely low ph for their eggs to develop. I know I don’t measure my ph but I’d be shocked if it was as low as some of the values that are recommended for breeding black water apistogramma which is around the 4/5 mark.
> 
> Cheers


With near 0 kh the ph could be fairly low. I'm pretty sure that ph is part of the equation for some blackwater apisto as well as hardness. Your tank is giving me hope that i can have a well planted tank that is suitable for breeding blackwater fishes (you have several as another fish I'm interested in are the Dicrossus filamentosus. I really do like your tanks as well as stocking.


----------



## Djoko Sauza

Conort2 said:


> Is there any particular reason why you want a lower tds?


I, as you, am keeping blackwater fish in a high tech tank, and since using only remineralised RO (with CaSo4 and MgSo4 to total 50 tds) my plants are not as happy as they were in tap water and full EI.

I'm still in the troubleshooting phase since it may be due to low CO2 or higher water temperature rather than water parameters. It is definitely more challenging this way though.

You mentioned your plants were possibly missing Cl, are you dosing any at the moment?

Apologies for sort of derailing your thread, if you prefer I can pm you. Thanks in advance.


----------



## Conort2

Just adding seachem equilibrium to my ro water and dosing EI at half to a third.

 There are a lot of plants that haven’t done well in here. All the wendtii type crypts currently in here are nowhere near as big and healthy in my tanks which have been tap water. I also had a lot of crypt flamingo which has completely gone. The swords I have left do well but the tank is mainly microsorum species, bolbitis, moss and anubias which are all classed as easy (although I never have had great success with microsorum low tech). The blyxa also grew like crazy in the lower tds water but I added iguanodectes which ate all of it.

There’s quite a high chance all these plants could grow without CO2 as I haven’t got anything demanding in here. This is what the tank looks like now, as you can see it’s changed a fair bit since the beginning.


----------



## bazz

Still looks good though!


----------



## Wookii

Looks great! Is the tank the 150 x 60 x 45 from A4L Conor? I’m about to order one of those myself!

What are you using for filtration?


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Is the tank the 150 x 60 x 45 from A4L Conor?


It is, can’t fault the build quality on these they’re brilliant.

I’ve got two ehiem pro 3 2075 which seem to do the job.

Cheers


----------



## MichaelJ

Wookii said:


> 1dGH = 17.8 ppm - something doesn't look quite right on your tap water TDS reading, GH 7 + KH 3 should be a fair bit higher than 120ppm TDS.



Hi @Wookii,

If the 3 KH is made from CaCO3 thats 3 x 17.8 = ~53 ppm.   If the 7 GH is made from 3 GH (the Ca in the CaCO3)  + 4 GH of Ca and Mg, that means, if we disregard the Mg contents (assume its all made from Ca), that the 4 GH is at most 7.14 x 4 = ~29 ppm.

So the TDS from GH/KH comes out at 53+29 = 82 ppm.

If the tap water comes out at 120 ppm that leaves 38 ppm for everything else is in the tapwater.

Sounds about right to me.

@Conort2  Nice tank!


EDITED: corrected the arithmetic.

Cheers,
Michael


----------



## anewbie

We have decent tap water; not great like they have up in oregon or seattle but decent - our nitrate is 0. probably not absolute 0; but 0 if one uses api test kit; i have a more sensitive test kit if it really matters.


----------



## Wookii

Maf 2500 said:


> This is getting off-topic but if @anewbie 's tapwater is low in sodium and potassium cations it could quite possibly be in the 120's ppm TDS and GH 7.  Also depends what anions are present.
> 
> 1dGH is equivalent to 17.8 ppm Calcium Carbonate but expressed as calcium is only about 7 mg/l (ppm). KH is only 3 so lots of wiggle room on the carbonate side of the equation.
> 
> @Conort2 love the tank!





MichaelJ said:


> Hi @Wookii,
> 
> If the 3 KH is made from CaCO3 thats 3 x 17.8 = ~53 ppm.   If the 7 GH is made from 3 GH from the (Ca in the CaCO3)  + 4 GH of Ca and Mg, that means, if we disregard the Mg contents (assume its all made from Ca), that the 4 GH is at most 7.14 x 4 = ~29 ppm.
> 
> So the TDS from GH/KH comes out at 53+29 = 82 ppm.
> 
> If the tap water comes out at 120 ppm that leaves 38 ppm for everything else is in the tapwater.
> 
> Sounds about right to me.
> 
> @Conort2  Nice tank!
> 
> 
> EDITED: corrected the arithmetic.
> 
> Cheers,
> Michael



Chemistry clearly not my strong point 😂


----------



## MichaelJ

Wookii said:


> Chemistry clearly not my strong point 😂


Well it doesn't seem to be a prerequisite for success in this hobby, and will not discourage me from continuing to seek your advice 😂


----------



## Conort2

Female Lineata has had another spawn as I suspected. This appears to be the largest one yet. I managed to scoop a few out but think they may have been too young to move so not very hopeful they’ll make it. If she can just keep a few alive until they’re around double the size it’ll be much safer to move them.


----------



## Wookii

Beautiful looking fish Conor! Is that as large as they grow - what is it, about 40mm?


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Beautiful looking fish Conor! Is that as large as they grow - what is it, about 40mm?


Probably a little bit bigger but not by much. The male is probably two to three times larger than her though. They can throw their weight about when they want to and definitely are the bosses of the tank. The biotodoma give them a wide berth which is funny when you see the size difference. 

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

She’s still going with the fry, doesn’t appear to have lost many thankfully.

How long will the fry stay with mum before they try and go at it alone? At the moment the fry seem to rely on mum to guide them around .


----------



## Conort2

I’ve managed to catch five of the fry and still leave some with mum. They’re a lot larger than the last time I attempted this so fingers crossed I can keep them alive! As you can see they’re already starting to look like mini apistos. 

Cheers, Conor


----------



## shangman

Very exciting, good luck!


----------



## Wookii

Thise fry are very cute @Conort2 

How are you getting on with the Green Darters?

Also how are the Tuncano’s getting on - I’m definitely getting those for my new tank. Do you have them in your main tank, or a separate one?


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> How are you getting on with the Green Darters?


I think I lost a couple unfortunately. I haven’t seen any bodies but haven’t seen all six together for a while now. I probably shouldn’t have added any tank mates in with them as they compete poorly for food. However the remaining darters seem healthy so maybe that wasn’t the reason. Some were rather skinny so may have been parasites.


Wookii said:


> Tuncano’s getting on - I’m definitely getting those for my new tank. Do you have them in your main tank, or a separate one?


they’re doing great, no they’re in a smaller tank in the cabinet. I would love to have them in the 1500 but I think the biotodoma would make a meal of them.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

I’m sure someone else on here got the darters around the same time, can’t remember who. Would be good to see how they’re getting on.


----------



## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> I think I lost a couple unfortunately. I haven’t seen any bodies but haven’t seen all six together for a while now. I probably shouldn’t have added any tank mates in with them as they compete poorly for food. However the remaining darters seem healthy so maybe that wasn’t the reason. Some were rather skinny so may have been parasites.



Sorry to hear that. I guess it’s always going to be a risk with the more delicate sensitive species.



Conort2 said:


> they’re doing great, no they’re in a smaller tank in the cabinet. I would love to have them in the 1500 but I think the biotodoma would make a meal of them.



Great! Would love to see some pics when you have chance. How closely do they shoal up, and how active are they (compared to, say, your typical Embers which tend to hang in a favoured spot until food shows up)?


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Great! Would love to see some pics when you have chance. How closely do they shoal up, and how active are they (compared to, say, your typical Embers which tend to hang in a favoured spot until food shows up)?


They have their own little spots which they defend quite fiercely however they’ll often whizz around the tank together, they’re a great species.


----------



## Conort2

Hope you’re all good?

Mum is still going strong with the fry she has left, they’ve put on some size and are clever enough to hide now when they see danger coming. I’m getting hopeful a couple might make it now.

With the fry I’ve moved into a seperate tank, I’ve seen one swimming around once. But the tank is full to the brim with moss so I’m hoping they’re just staying well hidden.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

Hi,

Hope everyone’s good? Not much to report. mum and the fry are still doing well, she leaves them for long periods now and they have the sense to hide in the moss so I’m hopeful I’ll have a couple of survivors at least.

 Thought I’d share a few pictures of this beast, it’s a male corydoras robustus. Strange behaviour for a corydoras, Hides all day and only comes out for food sometimes or when the tank is in complete darkness. Has to be the one of the biggest corys I’ve seen. Probably only beaten by a couple of brochis species. As an idea of the size, those are fairly sizeable female c121 and duplicareus next to him and they look tiny.

Oh and as you can see BBA has come back  in quite a major way! The microsorum on the wood has exploded and is restricting the flow and subsequently where CO2 is reaching in the tank. I can feel a rescape coming on soon with more wood and less plants. I have some large pieces of river wood on order and some small pieces soaking already.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2




----------



## mort

That's a stunning tetra.


----------



## Conort2

mort said:


> That's a stunning tetra.


They’re nice aren’t they. Will hopefully get a lot better than this though as they’re still juveniles. Will end up solid orange with a jet black tail.


----------



## PremierFantasy88

mort said:


> That's a stunning tetra.


I agree. Lovely, strong colouration

Also noticed a Dicrossus in the background of the pencil... one of my favourite dwarf/dither combos


----------



## Conort2

When I found out the dimensions of this scapers tank I couldn’t resist! Fits almost perfectly inside the cabinet. Since I had to move the darter characins out of the main tank I haven’t had an independent breeding tank. This will give me a chance to give the apistogramma lineata another go on their own. I will also give some of the rare tetras I’ve got a go if things don’t work out with mr and mrs apisto of which there is always a chance.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

Probably should have thought about this before I filled it up but does anyone know how safe this actually is? The cabinet is extremely well made but it’s made to have a tank sit on top of it rather than have an additional two in the cabinet. I already had one 50 litre and a 35 lite under there and all was ok, however this new tank is 70l. The 70 litre is replacing the 35 litre. Am I worrying too much or am I pushing my luck having this on the bottom too?


----------



## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> Probably should have thought about this before I filled it up but does anyone know how safe this actually is? The cabinet is extremely well made but it’s made to have a tank sit on top of it rather than have an additional two in the cabinet. I already had one 50 litre and a 35 lite under there and all was ok, however this new tank is 70l. The 70 litre is replacing the 35 litre. Am I worrying too much or am I pushing my luck having this on the bottom too?
> 
> View attachment 182836



Is the cabinet one of their steel framed units? What is underneath the panel that the tank is sitting on?

It looks like there is a foot either side of the section the tank is on, so it’s likely fine, but you could always put some pieces of wood between the floor and the base panel to sure it up - I probably would, just to be ‘belt and braces’.


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Is the cabinet one of their steel framed units? What is underneath the panel that the tank is sitting on?
> 
> It looks like there is a foot either side of the section the tank is on, so it’s likely fine, but you could always put some pieces of wood between the floor and the base panel to sure it up - I probably would, just to be ‘belt and braces’.


It’s not steel framed, it’s one of their double skinned units. That panel is floating with the feet you can see supporting it. There’s a total of 8 feet supporting the cabinet, with four in close proximity to the new tank.


----------



## Conort2

This pair of apistos obviously don’t read the books! They’re supposed to be strictly carnivorous however these two love peas, nori and now spinach too. The dicrossus are also a fan of veg too. Definitely always worth giving a variety of food items a try as you’ll never know what fish might take it.


----------



## Hufsa

I dont have a link at hand but I read one study where they caught wild discus and analyzed the stomach contents. Fruit made up a surprisingly large portion of the diet. I think many of our fishes have a broader diet than what we traditionally think. My otos love earthworm sticks, for instance. 
Lovely fish as always @Conort2


----------



## Djoko Sauza

Stomach contents found on wild Apistogramma Agassizii:





From this paper on Apistogramma agassizii diet in streams of the Western Amazon.

Just thought it could be interesting, make of it what you will.


----------



## dw1305

Hi all, 


Djoko Sauza said:


> Just thought it could be interesting, make of it what you will.


They eat a lot of bloodworms and terrestrial insects in the wild. It would be really interesting to know what the insects were.

cheers Darrel


----------



## Conort2

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> They eat a lot of bloodworms and terrestrial insects in the wild. It would be really interesting to know what the insects were.
> 
> cheers Darrel


Some people don’t feed bloodworm due to supposed links to bloat. Do you feel this is an issue? Lots of reports on what fish feed on in the wild shows bloodworm to be a large part of their diet. 

Only reason I don’t feed it as I’m allergic to it unfortunately!


----------



## dw1305

Hi all,


Conort2 said:


> Some people don’t feed bloodworm due to supposed links to bloat. Do you feel this is an issue? Lots of reports on what fish feed on in the wild shows bloodworm to be a large part of their diet.


It is a bit of a strange one, but I think both parts are correct.  I think this dichotomy occurs because you only get commercially collectable amounts of bloodworm in <"very polluted water">, where absolutely <"huge numbers"> can occur.

If you look at a <"Biotic Index for UK freshwater">, they are the lowest scoring (most pollution tolerant) taxa. Chironomid (non-biting midges) are found in freshwater all over the world and are a preferred food item for nearly all fish. People talk about the larval head capsule causing intestinal blockages etc., but I'm not convinced this is a real issue.  I've always fed my own fish live, <"ranched" Bloodworms">, but  I wouldn't feed  <"commercially collected bloodworms">, and particularly <"not frozen or freeze dried ones">, whether they had been irradiated or not.  Another issue is that, although we can't tell the difference between species easily,  there are actually a large number of different species, with different <"ecological tolerances">, lumped under "bloodworm".



dw1305 said:


> ......... This would be conjecture, but I visualise the microbial assemblage in a filter in the same way that I think about the <"benthic invertebrate assemblage in a stream">. In clean water (water with a lot of dissolved oxygen and a low Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)) you have a diverse assemblage of invertebrates, including <"Mayflies (Ephemeroptera), Stoneflies (Plecoptera), Caseless Caddis (Trichoptera) etc."> with Tubificid worms (Naididae) and "Bloodworms" (Chronomidae) etc present, but as a minor component of the assemblage.
> 
> As pollution (BOD) increases dissolved oxygen levels fall and you lose the more sensitive species from the assemblage. At the same time the number of Blood worm and "Tubifex" increases. As pollution continues to increase eventually only the haemoglobin containing Blood worms and Tubifex are left, and these often <"build up to huge numbers">.
> 
> The "Tubifex and Blood-worm" scenario is the traditional view of "cycling", with _Nitrobacter winogradskyi etc_ representing Tubifex etc. If you only ever look at sewage treatment works? You never find the Mayflies.



cheers Darrel


----------



## Conort2

dw1305 said:


> It is a bit of a strange one, but I think both parts are correct. I think this dichotomy occurs because you only get commercially collectable amounts of bloodworm in <"very polluted water">, where absolutely <"huge numbers"> can occur.


This is what I had heard previously. I am currently feeding frozen black mosquito larvae as it does trigger a reaction with me. However looking at your statement about commercial collection for bloodworms I’d assume black mosquito larvae would be the same if not worse considering they can survive in almost any body of water even if it is heavily polluted. 

I am also unsure where the live blackworm I purchase would be collected from, are they also tolerant of polluted conditions? Most of these I purchase are not fed instantly but kept for a long period of time outside in fresh water with some dead leaves so may be less of an issue regardless. 

The fish up until now have looked great and a lot have spawned so maybe I’m just over thinking things! 

Cheers


----------



## Wookii

Are white worms not a viable alternative to bloodworms and blackworms? They are a similar size, largely guaranteed to be parasite free, and you can gut load them to an extent?


----------



## dw1305

Hi all,


Conort2 said:


> However looking at your statement about commercial collection for bloodworms I’d assume black mosquito larvae would be the same if not worse considering they can survive in almost any body of water even if it is heavily polluted.


I've never fed frozen mosquito larvae, and I don't know how they are collected, but I'd guess they are probably collected from cleaner water than bloodworms. You don't tend to find mosquito larvae where there are fish present, I assume that this is because they are much more visible at the waters surface, but live ones are a food item that all fish go absolutely wild for.

Ghost midge larvae ("Glassworms" / "White mosquito larvae") should be pretty safe, they only live in clean water where there are _Daphnia_ etc

cheers Darrel


----------



## dw1305

Hi all, 


Wookii said:


> Are white worms not a viable alternative to bloodworms and blackworms?


I use Grindal worms a lot. They are a lot fattier than Midge / Mosquito larvae, so you need to feed them carefully.  I've had bloating with <"_Dicrossus maculatus_">, and I think the issue was that that I've fed them too many Grindal and Blackworms in the winter.

I think the chitin content in bloodworms etc. is probably an advantage in keeping fish healthy.

cheers Darrel


----------



## Conort2

dw1305 said:


> think the chitin content in bloodworms etc. is probably an advantage in keeping fish healthy.


I try and use live daphnia for this reason alongside the blackworms.

 I also use grindal worms but mainly for the tucano tetras and darter characins as they’re pretty small.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

They’re as bad as convict cichlids! The female eventually gave up looking after the remaining fry. I’m hoping some are still alive, I saw a fairly largish one lurking in the moss a while ago. However it hasn’t taken her long to spawn again with a big brood for such a small fish.


----------



## Conort2

Hi, Hope you’re all good.

Not much to report on this except for it has become a mass off microsorum narrow and bba everywhere due to the lack of flow the mass of fern is causing. I have a large amount of driftwood soaking in the garden in preparation of a rescape soon. 

Female apisto still has a small group of fry she fiercely defends. When I was feeding the fry some baby brine shrimp this evening I noticed some movement at the bottom of the moss and found this little chap from her first spawn! Seems to be a fair size now, safe enough from most fish but not the biotodoma. Fingers crossed it’s made it’s this far it can now make it to adulthood.

Cheers


----------



## Conort2

Started looking at rescaping the weekend and got abit carried away!

It’s fair to say that I had let this one go to the point of where I felt I couldn’t save most of the plants this time round. BBA had covered a lot of stuff I didn’t fancy bombarding the inhabitants with lots of glute to try and turn it around. I like the look of the wood so much that I’m not going to bother with epithytes this time around. It’s going to be planted with a variety of medium echinodorus species and that’s all to give the inhabitants as much room as possible. The plecos only seemed to like echinodorus bleheri so I should be safe! The tetras and biotodoma seem to be much happier with more open swimming space currently.

I’m debating whether to keep the biotodoma, there’s too many fish in this set up and the biotodoma are by far the largest and the biggest waste producers. They’re also always nervous wrecks whenever there is a lot of movement around the tank as there often is as this is in my kitchen diner.

It looks a mess at the moment but I’m hoping it’ll turn around in a month or so.




Cheers


----------



## Conort2

Nothing brings the colours out better in the fish than sunlight hitting the tank. Apologies for the reflections, shadows, dirty glass, algae and overall terrible pictures 😂


----------



## mort

I love natural sunlight.


----------



## John q

Apologies accepted, fish look stunning 😍


----------



## MichaelJ

mort said:


> I love natural sunlight.


Absolutely nothing that I am aware of brings out the "_natural"_ colors of fishes than natural sunlight!  ... looks stunning!   ... but who know what the fishes themselves are actually seeing(?). 

Cheers,
Michael


----------



## mort

MichaelJ said:


> Absolutely nothing that I am aware of brings out the "_natural"_ colors of fishes than natural sunlight!  ... looks stunning!   ... but who know what the fishes themselves are actually seeing(?).
> 
> Cheers,
> Michael



Some marine fish have hidden markings brought out by natural light (although not to our eyes) but for tropical I don't really know either. They definitely seem to like sunlight from my experience as everytime the sun has hit a tank I've owned, the fish have congregated there. When I sold fish we had lots of natural light and I would deliberately put the more bland fish in the tanks that got the afternoon sun, where they sold very well.


----------



## Conort2

They definitely prefer it when sunlight hits the tank, as you can see all the characins will congregate where it is. It definitely helps bring out colouration too, those hemigrammus rubrostriatus in the middle of all the pictures can be quite silver with not much colouration. Once the sun hits them they turn gold with a pronounced pink a stripe.


----------



## ScareCrow

mort said:


> When I sold fish we had lots of natural light and I would deliberately put the more bland fish in the tanks that got the afternoon sun, where they sold very well.


The only time I've seen sparkling gouramis look good in a shop was when their tank had supplemental lighting from the sun


----------



## dw1305

Hi all,


Conort2 said:


> It definitely helps bring out colouration too, those hemigrammus rubrostriatus in the middle of all the pictures can be quite silver with not much colouration.


When I had Black-Neon Tetra (_Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi_) they always spawned early in the morning when the sun was low and <"obliquely shining on their tank">. If I had a tank that regularly got some sun-light I might go down the "silver" Tetra route, with something like <"_Hemigrammus rodwayi_">.

cheers Darrel


----------



## PARAGUAY

I have noticed my Gold Barbs, they split up but at certain times sunlight catches the bottom corner and they all gather. Whether it's a natural behaviour or curiosity not sure because Barbs on general are a bold fish


----------



## Conort2

The swords are starting to get going now so hopefully won’t be too long until this starts to look respectable.

The worlds worst parents have decided to spawn, the apistos put these to shame. I don’t think the eggs have ever lasted long enough to hatch.


----------



## Conort2

Tanks a mess but at least the fish are nice….


----------



## Tim Lee

Beautiful tetra, can I ask what they are?


----------



## Conort2

Tim Lee said:


> Beautiful tetra, can I ask what they are?


They’re hyphessobrycon peugoti. Quite hard to get hold of at the moment but I think they will become more available once people start breeding them. I’m pretty sure these are tank bred due to the price so someone up north is doing it already. I just need to do the same now so they become more prevalent around this way.

These are only young males, the dorsal should get a bit longer and the red deeper as they mature. The females are very nice too but different to the males, almost like a giant ember tetra.

Cheers


----------



## Tim Lee

Great stuff, thanks for the info. Can I ask where you got them from?


----------



## Conort2

Tim Lee said:


> Great stuff, thanks for the info. Can I ask where you got them from?


I got these delivered from pier aquatics.

Would highly recommend it, I ordered around 20 tetras and each one was individually bagged.

Cheers


----------



## Tim Lee

Thanks very much, will take a look at their site now


----------



## Conort2

Well fair to say one of the biggest fish keeping disasters I’ve ever had was narrowly avoided last night. 

I broke my bubble counter the other day so had to replace it with new. The bubble count was always high on this tank due to the size but I must’ve knocked the regulator and adjusted it further without realising. I left the tank for around an hour or so and came back to complete carnage. Fish all across the surface, others spiralling and corydoras all on their backs motionless. I thought I’d killed the whole tank. Proceeded to change water as fast as I could and add extra air pumps and raise the filter outlets. This seemed to do the job and it appears I saved everything apart from one cardinal tetra in the nick of time. Everything seemed ok this morning but the dicrossus seemed to struggle more than others and looked dead at one point so need to check on them. 

Can what happened cause any long lasting damage to the fish? I feel awful and I would packed it all in last night if I didn’t save them and I’ve been keeping fish non stop for around 20years or so. CO2 has been removed never to be used again. The ridiculous thing was I was debating getting rid of the C02 before I replaced the bubble counter. It’s just not worth the risk, there are so many special species in that tank. Some that have only made it to the uk a few times so I can’t afford for any more mistakes like this. I’m extremely lucky.

Cheers


----------



## Wookii

Glad to hear you got there just in time!

Which part of the reg did you accidentally knock and adjust, the needle valve itself? Or the control knob that adjusts the second stage outlet pressure?


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Which part of the reg did you accidentally knock and adjust, the needle valve itself? Or the control knob that adjusts the second stage outlet pressure?


The thing is I have no idea, I’m sure I didn’t touch anything but must’ve knocked something somewhere to be able to gas a 400l tank in less than a hour.


----------



## John q

Conort2 said:


> Can what happened cause any long lasting damage to the fish?


I asked myself the same question a while ago when I had a similar near miss and couldn't find any conclusive answers about it.
There's a few studies out there that referenced short term exposure of lethal levels of co2 (ld50 0f 40mg/l) and others that mention the long term effects of prolonged exposure to levels of (20 mg/l) but these were mainly conducted on marine fish or rainbow trout, these studies were often at odds with themselves and non of them specifically mentioned the longterm effects of short term, high level exposure.

The only crumb of comfort I can offer is that its been almost 3 months since I gassed my fish and they all appear to be healthy, the corys still regularly spawn and the glass cats which were particularly affected go about there business as normal.

Its a good reminder to anybody reading this that when things go wrong with co2 it happens quickly and can often be catastrophic.

Hope all the fish recover 🙏


----------



## dw1305

Hi all, 


Conort2 said:


> .......... CO2 has been removed never to be used again. The ridiculous thing was I was debating getting rid of the C02 before I replaced the bubble counter. It’s just not worth the risk, there are so many special species in that tank............


Same for me, no CO2 ever.

cheers Darrel


----------



## Conort2

John q said:


> The only crumb of comfort I can offer is that its been almost 3 months since I gassed my fish and they all appear to be healthy, the corys still regularly spawn and the glass cats which were particularly affected go about there business as normal.


That’s good to hear. The fish seem fine today and the added flow from the power heads and air stones seems to have set the corydoras into breeding mode. Crazy seeing that they seemed as if they were near death last night.


----------



## Conort2

Also something else to note it seemed to affect cichlids worse than the characins and catfish. Loricariids which I would class as more oxygen dependant reophilic species seemed to ride it out better than all other species which was a surprise.


----------



## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> The thing is I have no idea, I’m sure I didn’t touch anything but must’ve knocked something somewhere to be able to gas a 400l tank in less than a hour.



Almost sounds like complete failure of the needle valve to do it that quickly. I've knocked my old CO2Art one before, as they are so flimsy and inaccurate. One of the reasons I always use the Camozzi needle valves now as they are much better quality than the stock ones, and have the locking nut to ensure it can't be adjusted accidentally.


----------



## fredi

I am guessing that it’s common knowledge here, however, single stage regulators, do not maintain constant pressure, as the cylinder pressure drops, the pressure delivered by the regulator can rise considerably


----------



## Conort2

fredi said:


> I am guessing that it’s common knowledge here, however, single stage regulators, do not maintain constant pressure, as the cylinder pressure drops, the pressure delivered by the regulator can rise considerably


This was a double with plenty left in the tank so it was definitely a mistake somewhere by me.


----------



## mort

That's a horrible thing to discover but glad things mostly turned out ok, you have quite some fish collection so going the simple route is probably for the best.


----------



## Conort2

To be fair since the upgrade to a larger tank it’s never been a proper high tech and co2 stability/distribution has always been an issue hence the bba appearing a lot. I was debating removing the co2 for a while and it’s a shame it took this to do it. I’ve always been more of a fish keeper than aquascaper so this is definitely the best thing to do for the fish.

I was always under the impression I never added much co2 but since the removal some of the tetra species are definitely brighter in colouration. I have also decided to keep an extra power head in there now to be benefit the loricariids.

It’s pretty much my dream tank stocking wise for an aquarium this size so it was silly ever risking the livestock really. Hopefully that’s the end of any drama for now!


----------



## ElleDee

I'm a big fan of your livestock and am so glad you caught your error before things got more dire. And for all the limitations of not using supplemental CO2, when the tank is well balanced it can feel sort of effortless and robust. It's an underrated quality IMO, especially in a tank where the fish are the stars of the show anyway.

I look forward to the next chapter!


----------



## Conort2

Hope everyone’s keeping well.

New plants are starting to fill out now and the tank doesn’t look so bare. Believe it or not I thought I’d removed all the nymphaea in here around 9 months ago. Since the removal of the dense plant mass and floaters they have reappeared everywhere, there must have been some small daughter bulbs in the substrate waiting for the right time to return.

 Mum apisto has had another spawn in a pleco cave which she has clever covered with sand to make entrance small enough for only her to squeeze through. I’m planning on removing cave, mother and eggs together into one of the tanks in the cabinet. I’m hoping if I cover the front with my hand and move everything together full of water it won’t disturb the female enough to abandon her eggs. Anyone have any thoughts on this or if they’ve done anything similar with another cichlid before?

Cheers


----------



## castle

Conort2 said:


> I’m planning on removing cave, mother and eggs together into one of the tanks in the cabinet. I’m hoping if I cover the front with my hand and move everything together full of water it won’t disturb the female enough to abandon her eggs. Anyone have any thoughts on this or if they’ve done anything similar with another cichlid before?


Place a pint glass (or large tuppereware) around the cave, hopefully cave is small enough to be engulfed then move entire cave carefully to new tank. Don't take mum, i suspect she may eat eggs if moved.


----------



## Hanuman

Conort2 said:


> Well fair to say one of the biggest fish keeping disasters I’ve ever had was narrowly avoided last night.
> 
> I broke my bubble counter the other day so had to replace it with new. The bubble count was always high on this tank due to the size but I must’ve knocked the regulator and adjusted it further without realising. I left the tank for around an hour or so and came back to complete carnage. Fish all across the surface, others spiralling and corydoras all on their backs motionless. I thought I’d killed the whole tank. Proceeded to change water as fast as I could and add extra air pumps and raise the filter outlets. This seemed to do the job and it appears I saved everything apart from one cardinal tetra in the nick of time. Everything seemed ok this morning but the dicrossus seemed to struggle more than others and looked dead at one point so need to check on them.
> 
> Can what happened cause any long lasting damage to the fish? I feel awful and I would packed it all in last night if I didn’t save them and I’ve been keeping fish non stop for around 20years or so. CO2 has been removed never to be used again. The ridiculous thing was I was debating getting rid of the C02 before I replaced the bubble counter. It’s just not worth the risk, there are so many special species in that tank. Some that have only made it to the uk a few times so I can’t afford for any more mistakes like this. I’m extremely lucky.
> 
> Cheers





John q said:


> Its a good reminder to anybody reading this that when things go wrong with co2 it happens quickly and can often be catastrophic.


Something similar happened to me last Saturday. When I do water changes after CO2 has started but before light goes on, I usually crank the CO2 a full needle valve revolution for 5min, tops 8min after I do the WC.  This is to replenish CO2 in water just before lights go on.  Well, I forgot to bring the needle valve to its baseline position. This was only 5 minutes extra from what I usually do. The rasborras and the ottos where already at the top of the tank looking for oxygen. Was lucky I caught it in time and no one died.
With CO2 things can go down south very fast.


----------



## Conort2

Hanuman said:


> This was only 5 minutes extra from what I usually do.


It’s crazy how fast things can turn with C02. My incident was probably less than half an hour in a pretty big tank with surface agitation and everything was nearly dead!

To be fair I’m not even sure me adding c02 this tank was benefiting anything. The inconsistency of the C02 due the way my c02 was distributed around the tank seemed to be negatively affecting it. BBA has receded but not gone completely now and plant health has actually improved. Interestingly light levels are still the same though.


----------



## Yugang

Conort2 said:


> It’s crazy how fast things can turn with C02


Perhaps consider        CO2 Spray Bar ?  No matter what happens, it is safe as excess CO2 will escape and will not affect dissolved CO2 at all.

I continue testing my spray bar, including some small refinements. Will update with latest insight soon.


----------



## Conort2

Yugang said:


> Perhaps consider        CO2 Spray Bar ?  No matter what happens, it is safe as excess CO2 will escape and will not affect dissolved CO2 at all.
> 
> I continue testing my spray bar, including some small refinements. Will update with latest insight soon.


Good idea but the C02 ship has sailed on this tank for me. I might try it I set up my 70cm tank but that won’t be for a while. 

Annoyingly BBA is starting to return on the hardscape again. It goes away when I dose liquid carbon directly to the tank but was hoping it was something I could stop adding. I guess the heavy stocking and large amount of wood is going to make this an ongoing problem.


----------



## brhau

Conort2 said:


> Annoyingly BBA is starting to return on the hardscape again. It goes away when I dose liquid carbon directly to the tank but was hoping it was something I could stop adding. I guess the heavy stocking and large amount of wood is going to make this an ongoing problem.


I spot control with glut, but mostly keep it under control by reducing light.


----------



## Yugang

Conort2 said:


> Good idea but the C02 ship has sailed on this tank for me. I might try it I set up my 70cm tank but that won’t be for a while.
> 
> Annoyingly BBA is starting to return on the hardscape again. It goes away when I dose liquid carbon directly to the tank but was hoping it was something I could stop adding. I guess the heavy stocking and large amount of wood is going to make this an ongoing problem.


You have an amazing tank, I love this style.
With or without BBA, who cares 

From the FTS I can't see the flow pattern clearly , but my guess would be that here is an issue to focus on if you don't like the BBA. Consider a transparent spraybar along the full tank length on the back?


----------



## dw1305

Hi all, 


Yugang said:


> You have an amazing tank, I love this style.
> With or without BBA, who cares


Same for me. Also BBA tends to <"come and go of its own accord"> and I'd guess that it will eventually decline again. 

cheers Darrel


----------



## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> I guess the heavy stocking and large amount of wood is going to make this an ongoing problem.



That would be my guess too - BBA seems to like higher level of organic waste in the tank. I’ve always had it appear when I’ve become a bit more max with maintenance.

What is your current water change regime?

Anything you can do longer term to reduce the organics - flush them out with increased water changes, increase DO levels (surface agitation, airstone (even if just at night), Twinstar type devices), perhaps consider using Purigen pouches - should all help longer term.


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> That would be my guess too - BBA seems to like higher level of organic waste in the tank. I’ve always had it appear when I’ve become a bit more max with maintenance.
> 
> What is your current water change regime?
> 
> Anything you can do longer term to reduce the organics - flush them out with increased water changes, increase DO levels (surface agitation, airstone (even if just at night), Twinstar type devices), perhaps consider using Purigen pouches - should all help longer term.


Around 50 percent once a week. Eheim filters cleaned weekly now - I used to be a nightmare when it came to cleaning my external but thought I’d keep on top of this now as I thought it was contributing to the issue. I do have purigen in the filter but I’m sure this has been exhausted now, I really need to put it in some bleach to bring it back. 

Flow is pretty good, 2 x filter outlets in a jet style facing the front and a circulation pump too. Although I’ve always found bba prefers high flow areas.

 I should probably just embrace the algae to be fair as it looks pretty natural on the wood and the plecs enjoy sifting through it. I had a load of friends round yesterday and all enjoyed the tank and none mentioned the algae. Although they did ask why don’t I get some nice big fish like some parrot fish! 😫😫😫😫😫


----------



## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> Although they did ask why don’t I get some nice big fish like some parrot fish! 😫😫😫😫😫



Great idea! A nice shoal of parrot fish, a couple of barracuda, maybe a Napoleon wrasse - they only get to around 400lb 😂


----------



## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Great idea! A nice shoal of parrot fish, a couple of barracuda, maybe a Napoleon wrasse - they only get to around 400lb 😂


I think he meant the awful deformed orange hybrid cichlids that look like they’ve swallowed a golf ball.

Napoleon wrasse, Now that’s a proper fish! Seem some absolute beasts when I’ve been diving before. Same with barracudas.


----------



## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> I think he meant the awful deformed orange hybrid cichlids that look like they’ve swallowed a golf ball.



Oh right yeah, they’re awful manufactured things.



Conort2 said:


> Napoleon wrasse, Now that’s a proper fish! Seem some absolute beasts when I’ve been diving before. Same with barracudas.



Likewise, almost bumped into a 5ft barracuda while diving in Mexico - I saw it at the last minute about 2ft from its face - it had no intention of moving - top predator arrogance! 

Similarly a massive Napoleon Wrasse almost scared me to death when it suddenly appeared over the top of coral ridge I was diving beneath, in the Red Sea - it swam right over the top of me. Both times were almost full on ‘Code Brown’ moments! 😂


----------



## Yugang

Wookii said:


> Likewise, almost bumped into a 5ft barracuda while diving in Mexico - I saw it at the last minute about 2ft from its face - it had no intention of moving - top predator arrogance!
> 
> Similarly a massive Napoleon Wrasse almost scared me to death when it suddenly appeared over the top of coral ridge I was diving beneath, in the Red Sea - it swam right over the top of me. Both times were almost full on ‘Code Brown’ moments! 😂


So what is it really, that attracts you to shrimp @Wookii ?

PS Just joking, it's getting late in HK


----------



## Wookii

Yugang said:


> So what is it really, that attracts you to shrimp @Wookii ?



The fact that they won’t take your hand off! 😂


----------



## KirstyF

Wookii said:


> Oh right yeah, they’re awful manufactured things.
> 
> 
> 
> Likewise, almost bumped into a 5ft barracuda while diving in Mexico - I saw it at the last minute about 2ft from its face - it had no intention of moving - top predator arrogance!
> 
> Similarly a massive Napoleon Wrasse almost scared me to death when it suddenly appeared over the top of coral ridge I was diving beneath, in the Red Sea - it swam right over the top of me. Both times were almost full on ‘Code Brown’ moments! 😂



😂
Had a similar experience with a rather large Moray Eel. I’m kinda diddy at less than 5ft but wasn’t so keen to be swimming alongside anything that’s bigger than me and has scary looking teeth! 😳


----------



## Conort2

KirstyF said:


> 😂
> Had a similar experience with a rather large Moray Eel. I’m kinda diddy at less than 5ft but wasn’t so keen to be swimming alongside anything that’s bigger than me and has scary looking teeth! 😳


They can grow into monsters! 

The worst are the Titan triggerfish when they’re in breeding mode, fearless with massive bloody teeth! They won’t back down from anything, have to make sure you give them a wide berth.


----------



## Wookii

Conort2 said:


> They can grow into monsters!
> 
> The worst are the Titan triggerfish when they’re in breeding mode, fearless with massive bloody teeth! They won’t back down from anything, have to make sure you give them a wide berth.



Yeah, a girl on our first open water dive after passing the PADI course got hit by a Titan trigger as soon as she jumped off the boat - bit a massive 20mm diameter hole in her fin - she was lucky she wasn’t barefoot!

Apparently their breeding territory is like a cone, so it can be 3m diameter on the seabed, but 30m diameter by the time you get to the surface - so you never swim upwards to avoid them!


----------



## KirstyF

Wookii said:


> Yeah, a girl on our first open water dive after passing the PADI course got hit by a Titan trigger as soon as she jumped off the boat - bit a massive 20mm diameter hole in her fin - she was lucky she wasn’t barefoot!
> 
> Apparently their breeding territory is like a cone, so it can be 3m diameter on the seabed, but 30m diameter by the time you get to the surface - so you never swim upwards to avoid them!



Good to know!! 👍 Sideways….at speed…got it!! 😂

I had a weeks diving in Egypt booked 8 days after the ‘world’ shut down for the first lock down. Was gutted to miss it.

May well finally re-book late this year, assuming the airports ever get their act together!! 

I am missing both the sun and the sea!


----------



## Conort2

Hope everyone’s good?

Seen freeze dried blackworm mentioned a few times recently. It’s a great food and I swear by it now for conditioning corydoras however all fish love it and it’s a favourite of discus breeders. I stick it on the glass low to the substrate and it drives the corydoras mad like no other food, it even allows me to take some rubbish pictures of them! 

I highly recommend it for most fish except herbivorous species like mbuna as it is very high in protein.

Cheers


----------



## John q

Conort2 said:


> I stick it on the glass low to the substrate and it drives the corydoras mad


Great photos and the fish look in fantastic condition.


----------



## Tim Lee

Beautiful fish, can I ask where do you get the freeze dried black worms from?


----------



## Conort2

Tim Lee said:


> Beautiful fish, can I ask where do you get the freeze dried black worms from?


I get them from TA aquaculture.

Cheers


----------



## PARAGUAY

Yeh great photos . Any tips for how get to capture the fish like that Connor


----------



## Conort2

PARAGUAY said:


> Yeh great photos . Any tips for how get to capture the fish like that Connor


I’m pretty hopeless at taking pictures, I manage to get pictures of the catfish as they’re pretty still whilst eating the blackworm. As for the tetras I just take loads and occasionally the odd one or two turn out ok but it’s pretty rare! Would love to be able to take decent pictures with a good quality camera as these iPhone pictures really don’t highlight the true colours of these fish.

Cheers


----------



## Tim Lee

Great, thank you


----------



## PARAGUAY

Ha ha think your fish pictures not bad at all @Conort2 . Taking with a Motorola which seems Ok .probably take a few like you say. I have a few Barbs never still always active and out of focus


----------



## Conort2

Not sure if the really warm weather was anything to do with it but everything has gone spawning mad in the main tank. Pencilfish and hyphessobrycon spawning regularly however they turn around and eat their spawn almost instantly. The corydoras duplicareus are also in the mood, managed to save a few eggs the other day but only had one hatch. Seems to be doing ok even though I accidentally sucked it up whilst cleaning the breeding box! It’s impossible to see amongst the mulm.




Cheers


----------



## Conort2

Hope you’re all good.

The corydoras seemed to be spawning mode so I thought I’d buy a few spawning mops and Chuck them in the display. Didn’t think anything would come of it and if they did spawn any eggs would get eaten. Was quite surprised to find a fair amount of eggs hidden within them. They’re now in a Tupperware floating in the main tank with some alder cones. Think the problem last time was that I put them in a breeding trap, this didn’t allow the alder cones to protect the eggs as all the beneficial tannins were just lost into the main aquarium. This time I can see the eggs have all got a decent brown protective coating over them from the cones. Hoping I have a better hatch rate this time round.

Cheers


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## castle

Conort2 said:


> Hope you’re all good.
> 
> The corydoras seemed to be spawning mode so I thought I’d buy a few spawning mops and Chuck them in the display. Didn’t think anything would come of it and if they did spawn any eggs would get eaten. Was quite surprised to find a fair amount of eggs hidden within them. They’re now in a Tupperware floating in the main tank with some alder cones. Think the problem last time was that I put them in a breeding trap, this didn’t allow the alder cones to protect the eggs as all the beneficial tannins were just lost into the main aquarium. This time I can see the eggs have all got a decent brown protective coating over them from the cones. Hoping I have a better hatch rate this time round.
> 
> Cheers
> View attachment 190356View attachment 190357



Looking good! If not already i'd run an airline tune into the tubs - pinch the tube a bit to reduce flow, but those tubs would benefit from some movement 👍


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## Conort2

castle said:


> Looking good! If not already i'd run an airline tune into the tubs - pinch the tube a bit to reduce flow, but those tubs would benefit from some movement 👍


Thank you! There’s one in there I just took it out for the photo, will probably do a near 100percent water change every day on it too. There’s also a few trumpet snails in there to eat any mouldy eggs. They’ll be going into a Ziss breeder box once they hatch.


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## Conort2

Hope everyone’s good, been a while since Ive updated but there’s not been too much to report.

Plant growth has started to explode which I’ve found is often the case with low tech, it takes a while to get going but all of a sudden it noticeably speeds up. Algae is receding and plant health is starting to look decent.

Fish wise I have unfortunately lost nearly all my dwarf cichlids. The dicrossus slowly dwindled away and unfortunately I have now lost my pair of apistogramma lineata who were probably my favourite fish. These fish were all adults when I got them so I believe it may be due to old age. The only cichlid left now is the lone apistogramma fry which survived. I am unsure whether I will add anymore cichlids now, I really like apistogramma but the catfish are certainly doing better without the cichlids. The corydoras spawn continually and without any cichlids around and the decent plant cover I’m certain I could get some fry survive in the main tank without intervention. A few of the duplicareus fry have made it which I rescued and are of a size now where they are almost ready to join their parents.

The hyphessobrycon puegoti shown in the earlier posts have matured into beautiful specimens, unfortunately the males prefer to hang in the shadows and it’s normally the females which are on show. Stocking wise not much will change now, I may add some more hyphessobrycon wadai at some point as they’re stunners and always on show. I also have some extremely rare corydoras cw83 growing out in one of the tanks below which I will add soon and hopefully spawn In the future.

Overall pretty happy with how things are going now and will hopefully have some more corydoras fry to raise in the near future as a massive shoal of duplicareus would look impressive.

Cheers


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## Wookii

Amazing colours on those tetra @Conort2 - what is the black/orange catfish in your picture above?


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## ScareCrow

Absolutely love the view up through the lily pads.


Conort2 said:


> a massive shoal of duplicareus would look impressive.


Totally agree, they're a beautiful fish.


Wookii said:


> what is the black/orange catfish in your picture above?


I'm going with L134. I'm trying to improve my pleco ID skills, so I could be totally wrong.


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## Conort2

Wookii said:


> Amazing colours on those tetra @Conort2 - what is the black/orange catfish in your picture above?


It’s a young peckoltia compta l134. The pattern breaks more into spots and broken stripes when they mature but the colour remains. There are four adults and two youngsters in there. They’re a great smaller pleco which are hardy and eat anything you give them. They’re often on show and are always out of food is added.

This is one of the adults, it’s a rubbish picture but gives you more of an idea of the adult pattern. This fish still has some growing to do still aswell so the pattern will develop even more yet.


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## Conort2

The little duplicareus have grown a fair size and are now with their parents. Only ended up with three growing out to a decent size. They probably need their own separate tank rather than a breeder box to raise them in decent numbers. A great fish and one of my favourites, the colour on these are hard to beat on a corydoras.

Cheers


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## Conort2

Hi,

Hope everyone’s good?

Not much to report, tanks ticking along nicely with a massive reduction in algae. I haven’t cleaned the glass in weeks which is a good sign. I have also added a load of ramshorn snails which seems to be keeping the bba at bay once it’s been spot treated with liquid carbon. 

Fish seem happy and the corydoras duplicareus are still breeding almost constantly. I leave some spawning mops in and collect eggs when I can. I got a decent fertilised batch the other day which have hatched and appear to be doing well so hopefully I can add to my duplicareus group. No luck with the laser corydoras in here unfortunately but I’ve got a feeling they may need it a bit cooler and harder than the duplicareus so they may go in their own spawning setup in the near future. 

Cheers


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## Conort2

Hope you’re all good.

The fry are doing really well and I don’t appear to have had any losses this time. Only thing I’ve done differently is feed heavier but also stocked lots of snails to clear up any uneaten food before it rots. They’ll be safe to release in the main tank once they reach the size where they develop their adult colouration.

Will hopefully get the hyphessobrycon peugoti set up to spawn now I have one of my small tanks empty, I just have to try and catch them!

Cheers


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## mort

Brings back memories but with adolfoi for me. I think they began to pick up their adult markings after 5-6 weeks but didn't look fully adult until 10-12 weeks.


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## Conort2

mort said:


> Brings back memories but with adolfoi for me. I think they began to pick up their adult markings after 5-6 weeks but didn't look fully adult until 10-12 weeks.


Adolfoi are stunners too, all the rio negro orange blotch species are a favourite of mine. I’d love to get hold of corydoras serratus but apparently they all go to japan for silly money. I’ve also got corydoras c121 in here with them. They go through the motions but they require true blackwater conditions to spawn. 

The duplicareus spawn almost constantly, I’ve taken out the mops currently as these are enough to be getting on with for now.


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## Conort2

One of the last batch of duplicareus youngsters with a female c121. They’re very similar to duplicareus but much harder to breed due to needing strict black water conditions for the eggs to develop properly. These will need their own specific breeding set up to be successful,. Will definitely give them a go one day as they’re  beautiful and rarely seen compared to adolfoi and duplicareus.

Cheers


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## Conort2

Pencils getting old but still looking good. Parotocinclus has also finally made an appearance looking nice and plump which is good.

Cheers


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## John q

Glad the parotocinclus finally turned up to the party.


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## Conort2

John q said:


> Glad the parotocinclus finally turned up to the party.


Still not seen more than two at the same time but I’m hoping they’re just hiding. They’re masters of disguise though, they change colour depending on what surface they are on. I gutted their quarantine tank and only found 5. All of a sudden the other day a little fella popped up on the glass in there so hoping I’ve still got all 6.


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## Conort2

few of the male characins showing off as they do in the evening. Shame I can never get a picture of the male hyphessobrycon peugoti, they’re the best looking fish in my opinion but very camera shy!

Cheers


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## Conort2




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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> View attachment 198236


Which tetra is that; i've seen it before and i think it is fairly common but i can't bring the name to the tip of my tongue....


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## castle

anewbie said:


> Which tetra is that; i've seen it before and i think it is fairly common but i can't bring the name to the tip of my tongue....


hyphessobrycon peugoti, really rare fish.


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## anewbie

castle said:


> hyphessobrycon peugoti, really rare fish.


A little confused; the pictures i see are like the yellow one; not the red ones with black tail. Is this a sex thing or are they two different species ?


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## Conort2

anewbie said:


> A little confused; the pictures i see are like the yellow one; not the red ones with black tail. Is this a sex thing or are they two different species ?


The yellow/orange are females and the red is a male. Both when in the mood will have a jet black tail but only the male develops the red colouration. When he is displaying this is blood red but it’s very hard to photograph as the males prefer to hang out at the back of the tank. As @castle mentioned they’re pretty rare so there’s not many photos of mature fish online. These are tank bred though so like many of the new tetras they’ll hopefully become more available soon. They’re pretty hardy and extremely beautiful once mature.

Cheers


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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> The yellow/orange are females and the red is a male. Both when in the mood will have a jet black tail but only the male develops the red colouration. When he is displaying this is blood red but it’s very hard to photograph as the males prefer to hang out at the back of the tank. As @castle mentioned they’re pretty rare so there’s not many photos of mature fish online. These are tank bred though so like many of the new tetras they’ll hopefully become more available soon. They’re pretty hardy and extremely beautiful once mature.
> 
> Cheers


I looked them up; in the usa they seem available but are rather pricey. Still i'm setting up sa tank with more acidic water so it might be an option to mix them with serape - i'm going ot assume these need near blackwater condition to actually breed (which might be a bad assumption) but the tank in question won't be quite that pure so i don't have to worry about the serpae cross breeding with them.


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## Conort2

anewbie said:


> I looked them up; in the usa they seem available but are rather pricey. Still i'm setting up sa tank with more acidic water so it might be an option to mix them with serape - i'm going ot assume these need near blackwater condition to actually breed (which might be a bad assumption) but the tank in question won't be quite that pure so i don't have to worry about the serpae cross breeding with them.


I don’t think black water will be required. They’re from the matto grosso region same as serpaes. This definitely isn’t a black water area like say the rio negro. I keep them in soft water still though. No breeding attempts yet but by all accounts they shouldn’t be the hardest to breed and I’ll get round to it when I get the chance. A big shoal of these in this tank would look stunning.


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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> I don’t think black water will be required. They’re from the matto grosso region same as serpaes. This definitely isn’t a black water area like say the rio negro. I keep them in soft water still though. No breeding attempts yet but by all accounts they shouldn’t be the hardest to breed and I’ll get round to it when I get the chance. A big shoal of these in this tank would look stunning.


Thank you. Do you think it is safe to mix them with serpae or some similar species or will they cross breed ?


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## Conort2

anewbie said:


> Thank you. Do you think it is safe to mix them with serpae or some similar species or will they cross breed ?


The chance of this happening would be extremely low. These fish are egg scatterers so most eggs would be eaten immediately after spawning unless you was making special allowances to protect these eggs in a proper breeding set up. And then the chances of these two cross breeding would be extremely low. They’re both hyphessobrycon but pretty differrent. May be a different story if you mixed peugoti with say heliacus or Procyon which are very similar. 

Make sure you have a large enough shoal of serpae tetras, these are notorious for being nippy when kept in low numbers.

Cheers


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## anewbie

Conort2 said:


> The chance of this happening would be extremely low. These fish are egg scatterers so most eggs would be eaten immediately after spawning unless you was making special allowances to protect these eggs in a proper breeding set up. And then the chances of these two cross breeding would be extremely low. They’re both hyphessobrycon but pretty differrent. May be a different story if you mixed peugoti with say heliacus or Procyon which are very similar.
> 
> Make sure you have a large enough shoal of serpae tetras, these are notorious for being nippy when kept in low numbers.
> 
> Cheers


I kept 2 in a 120 for 3 years and they never bothered the angles or anyone else - also stayed as far apart as possible from each other. I currently have 20 in the 120 and those are the ones i will move the 550; it was a question of getting more of them or adding some other odd species. The 20 i  have now are not what i would consider full grown adults but sub-adults. They also avoid the angels. Quite frankly i think they are afraid of the angels.


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## Conort2

anewbie said:


> I kept 2 in a 120 for 3 years and they never bothered the angles or anyone else - also stayed as far apart as possible from each other. I currently have 20 in the 120 and those are the ones i will move the 550; it was a question of getting more of them or adding some other odd species. The 20 i  have now are not what i would consider full grown adults but sub-adults. They also avoid the angels. Quite frankly i think they are afraid of the angels.


To be honest all my male hyphessobrycon can be nippy to each other and other male tetras. Some worse than others, but when they’re in the mood to spawn they can all throw their weight about. I’m sure you’ll be fine mixing similar species, there are so many species to choose from now with new ones entering the trade every month at the moment you’re spoilt for choice.


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