# MTV-Kribs



## ScareCrow (22 Feb 2021)

I've been meaning to create a journal for a while but haven't got around to it, so now I need to do a bit of a catchup.

The tank was setup at the start end of November 2020.

Substrate is beech and oak leaf mould mixed approximately 50:50 with cat litter. I've also added some Miracle-gro slow release fertiliser to increase longevity. I've topped this with more cat litter.
Hardscape is stone that I've dug up from my garden. Pro's, it's sandstone, inert and free. Con's I've dug up about 2 tonnes of the stuff. I've collected beech branches that had fallen and soaked until they wouldn't float or pretty close. I left the bark on as I've removed back several times in the past and it's a horrible job. I've never noticed any difference between leaving it on or taking it off.

Tank is a AquaOne Aqua Nano 40 (55 Litres)
Equipment is mostly contained in the back section but I've added an eheim ecco 130 as the back section works well as a surface skimmer but is useless at removing detritus and so the mosses were getting covered in detritus.
Lighting is a Chihiros rgb

Immersed plants are:
_Pogostemon Helferi
hydrocotyle tripartita
Hygrophila Polysperma _(I ordered rosanervig but got green, so I'll probably add to this).
A few Buces that the Royal Mail kindly took care off for a few weeks, so not looking the happiest but they've all started regrowing
_Aegagropila linnaei _(Moss ball)
_Microsorum pteropus_ 'Needle Leaf'
_Fissidens fontanus
Distichophyllum sp.
Limnobium laevigatum_

Riparian plants are:
_Philodendron _'Marble Queen' (doesn't show much variegation as it doesn't get much light).
_Philodendron '_white butterfly'
_tradescantia _zebrina
_Lysimachia nummularia_

Fish: One pair of _Pelvicachromis _taeniatus 'Nigeria red'

I started by making a bag to contain the leaf mould cat litter mix as previous experience with cat litter has taught me that it is very light and probably useless at capping anything below it. I then created the rock structure, on top of some pond egg crate and then placed the structure on top of some stones to provide the kribs a place to hide and hopefully spawn. I glued some plastic to the underside of the egg crate to give them a flat surface to spawn on (this may have been a mistake, more on this below). This is what the tank looked like on the 28th of November 2020.




After this I did very little to the tank other than dose EI at 50%, liquid carbon at 1ml and do weekly 50% water changes. This is the tank on the 10th of Jan.



17th of Jan I added the fissidens and added some more branches to get the height I wanted.



How the tank looks today. I flattened the moss balls and stuck them on to the stone to try and get a more natural moss covered rock look with a sense of scale for this size of tank but I think it looks a bit telly tubby house now. So I'm considering scrapping this and going with coconut hides, essentially just a pile of whole and halved coconuts to look like a natural pile with some structural leaf litter to add to the natural look, reuse the branches in my current setup and then densely plant something along the lines of what @shangman has done as I think it looks fantastic (link here). I think I want to use sand as the cat litter is very lightweight and plants often break free for a few weeks before they establish decent roots. I'd also like the kribs to be able to filter the substrate like they would do naturally. The reason I say sticking the plastic under the egg crate is possible mistake as I'm really struggling to get these kribs to spawn successfully. I don't know if the plastic is too slippery and so the eggs can't adhere to the roof of the cave or whether they just aren't happy with the cave provided. I've tried making the entrances smaller so they had to dig them, they've definitely spawned since being added to the tank and have spawned in a previous setup but only managed to keep 7 (of 9) fry for a few days. They were quite young at that point so I wasn't too concerned. I've kept this krib variant before and they're not as easy to breed as the conventional krib. Last time I didn't manage to get them to spawn at all (that time I didn't have them long before I had to rehome them and breakdown the tank), so if anyone has any advice I'd be grateful as it took me a long time to find them and I'd really like to keep them going this time. My thinking is that if I switch to the coconut hides I can provide more breeding site options and the eggs will definitely be able to stick to the inside of the coconut. I also have some ideas to improve the filtration so I can remove the canister filter but I've bored you enough for now. Thanks for reading.


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## Hufsa (22 Feb 2021)

Nice to finally see a journal from you 
I second the love of @shangman 's wonderful tank, I want to try to get mine to look more like hers as well.
Keep us updated


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## Courtneybst (22 Feb 2021)

Love the name!


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## ScareCrow (22 Feb 2021)

Thanks @Courtneybst it's the best name I've ever come up with so had to start a journal to make use of it


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## shangman (22 Feb 2021)

Oh wow thank you what a big compliment!! I'm so pleased you like it. I was planning on doing a little writeup about how I plant my tank in that thread, I will do it this week in case it's helpful. 

I think changing to sand is always a good thing in a breeding tank with sand-sifting fish, I love watching them sift. Also it is definitely easier to plant into sand. It's really cute when the babies start to do it but have to spit it out too. 

For botanicals I use oaks leaves and a variety of medium and large seedpods from <Blackwater UK> which looks really natural in a nice tropical way, and can give you variety so it's not just coconuts. The seedpods are a really easy way to make beautiful caves, seeing my apistos explore them and my female come out with babies from one was so cool. Also of course they provide more biofilm and microfauna for the babies to eat. If you keep any otos or shrimp they find them delicious as well. Plus they soften the water that tiny bit extra which can help with breeding.

Agree with everyone, the journal name is A+!


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## ScareCrow (23 Feb 2021)

Thanks @shangman. I was planning to use sand but got worried about compaction as I added too much soil substrate and would need about 10mm cap making total substrate depth of about 40mm maybe a bit more. Subsequent research has lessened my concern so after talking myself out of using the sand I bought 6 years ago with the intention of using it in a tank, I think I'll give it ago. When I dismantle this setup I'll reduce the amount of soil substrate before adding the sand cap though. 
My original plan was to use oak leaves that I collected back last year and have dried out but the P.helferi were so small when I got them I thought the leaves might block light getting to them. I'll add the leaves along with some acorn caps I found while collecting the leaves and I add alder cones every week with my water change but normally put them in the back section, so I might drop them in the tank to add some extra interest. They should all help add tannins too which is good as my water is hard (although I'm moving back to using rainwater) and the fish show better colour when there are some tannins in the water. The tank is mostly about the fish with the plants there to make the fish more comfortable with the added benefit that they look nice.
My plan is to do the following but if there are any opinions or advice please share:
1) Remove the back section as it is essentially a sediment trap. I do culture black worms in one of the sections but it hasn't been going as well as I'd like (it's hard to access, which makes 'propagating' the worms tricky). I also culture grindal worms, hatch brineshrimp, feed 5 different types of frozen food and 5 different types of dry food (the fish eat better than I do) so I don't think they're missing out if I can't find an alternative location to culture the black worms.
2) Make a smaller boxed in area to hide the filter and heater, but this will have the intake at the bottom, so more detritus will be collected in the filter, opposed to be the moss. Hopefully this will allow me to remove the eheim (possibly making space for the black worm culture in the cabinet).
3) Reduce substrate depth, add sand cap and replant. 
4) Come up with some aesthetically pleasing way to hold the riparium plants. I'm contemplating adding a moss wall, so it might be possible to incorporate something and hide it from view.
5) Add CO2 but at a low rate. This should allow me to stop dosing liquid carbon.

Fish pic for putting up with my rambling, thanks all.


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## shangman (23 Feb 2021)

That's a gorgeous fish! Your plan sounds really good, I'm sure your fish will really love it 

For your emergents/back wall ... In my other tank I have a moss/java fern back wall with a mesh back (which maybe you could shape around the filter/heater or something), and then across the top of it there's a piece of wood, at a slight angle to create a pocket behind it (the wood has 2 suckers superglued to it so it sticks to the glass in place). In that pocket we have some plants, which we put there planning to set up better and more naturally with net and soil but was delayed and now the roots have gone through the pots and into the wall, whoops. I would change it but it's technically my dad's tank so leave it alone for now. There's moss growing on the wood so that bit looks quite nice, and even though it's shady under the wood/pocket the java fern doesn't mind and grew out to the light. It was inspired by @zozo's journal which has some wood with emergents on it that's super nice, <link here>


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## zozo (23 Feb 2021)

Looks lovely... And thank you!... 👍


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## ScareCrow (5 Mar 2021)

Thanks for the idea @shangman. I'm thinking I might have a sponge the whole height of the tank in one corner and plant into that, sort of like a matten filter and then have moss back and side walls so it blends in.
I've cut the back section out and have removed some of the leaf mould substrate, ready to be capped over with sand, which is where I'm struggling a bit. I want the substrate to be dark to get the best out of the fish colour, so I ordered some black sand. Problem is it looks really fake to me. I've been trying to tell myself that it could be a river on a volcanic island but I'm still not selling it to myself. The first bag of black sand wasn't enough and stupidly I ordered a second bag before I thought about mixing it with some other sand I have. The pic below is a 3:1 mix of light and black sand. My sales pitch to myself is that it looks like the bed of a very slow moving tributary where lots of organic matter has built up amongst the sand. Is anyone else convinced 😂? I'm going to put loads of leaves on top of it in the end and hopefully have very dense planting so the substrate might not be very visible anyway.


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## shangman (5 Mar 2021)

ScareCrow said:


> Thanks for the idea @shangman. I'm thinking I might have a sponge the whole height of the tank in one corner and plant into that, sort of like a matten filter and then have moss back and side walls so it blends in.
> I've cut the back section out and have removed some of the leaf mould substrate, ready to be capped over with sand, which is where I'm struggling a bit. I want the substrate to be dark to get the best out of the fish colour, so I ordered some black sand. Problem is it looks really fake to me. I've been trying to tell myself that it could be a river on a volcanic island but I'm still not selling it to myself. The first bag of black sand wasn't enough and stupidly I ordered a second bag before I thought about mixing it with some other sand I have. The pic below is a 3:1 mix of light and black sand. My sales pitch to myself is that it looks like the bed of a very slow moving tributary where lots of organic matter has built up amongst the sand. Is anyone else convinced 😂? I'm going to put loads of leaves on top of it in the end and hopefully have very dense planting so the substrate might not be very visible anyway.


It's hard to tell without a tank shot, but it does look a bit strange... a lot of leaves will do the trick though!


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## ScareCrow (3 Jun 2021)

So I left it a while without an update and then the longer I left it the more daunting writing up all the changes became.
This will be a step towards getting up to date. I think creating one massive post will terrible to read, so I'll space it out with a few pictures.
Back in March I removed everything from the tank and cut out the rear 'sump' section to give the fish a little more space. I added some of the leaf mould I had in my previous setup but this time with more cat litter added and a lot less substrate in total. This is placed in a mesh bag to help contain it. I capped it over with black sand. I wasn't keen on the sand at the time but it has really brought out the colouration in the fish and I don't think I'll ever use a different substrate again. Hardscape is currently 5 coconuts (buying 5 coconuts and nothing else got some slightly odd looks at the supermarket) and some branches I've tried to arrange to look like a fallen tree. I covered everything in a mixture of mosses and bucephalandras.
This is what it looked like after the rescape.



It was a long day and the coconuts were tired. This what I imagine a yawning coconut would look like.


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## shangman (3 Jun 2021)

Omg that coconut 💀😂 it's a bit Munch's The Scream!!

Looking forward to seeing your updates and how it is doing now 🙂


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## ScareCrow (4 Jun 2021)

I made a basket that is filled with mix of various biological media I had spare, to use as a riparium planter. The basket is made of a gardening mesh, suspended in the water by two acrylic rods. I'd like to grow something (I'm thinking mini / trident / needle leaf java fern and mosses or I have some Bacopa monnieri that didn't like growing immersed) over the mesh eventually to help hide it when looking in the tank but at the moment the roots of the limnobium block the view of just about everything anyway.

Pictures of the planter.


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## ScareCrow (5 Jun 2021)

At this point not a lot changed. I gradually switched to using just rainwater and did 50% weekly water changes. I stopped dosing easycarbo. I noticed that even with dosing macro and micro fertiliser at the full dose recommended by aquarium plant food UK, I was still getting holes in the leaves of the Hygrophila polysperma. I also had a single Hygrophila pinatifida turn up with some other plants. I've wanted to try H.pinatifida for a long time but all the mixed reports of other peoples success or lack of, put me off. It did really well for a few weeks but then I forgot to dose for a couple of days. In almost no time it developed more holes than leaves and it didn't recover. I've now upped the macro dose to 15ml on the assumption that there was starting to be a potassium deficiency. I check the TDS before and after water changes. After a water change the tank is at 140-160ppm by the end of the week that creeps up to 200ppm. So I think all of the riparium and floating plants are removing a lot of nutrients.
Annoyingly I didn't take any full tank shots around this time but if you imagine the hardscape above with some scruffy looking moss tied on, some poorly scaped additions of Hygrophila polysperma, needle leaf java fern and Pogostemon helferi along with a piece of Hydrocotyle tripartita that I was some how killing in my previous setup, you'll be pretty close.
Pictures of the fishy inhabitants showing better colouration on a darker substrate.


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## Courtneybst (5 Jun 2021)

Kribs are looking beautiful!

How's things since increasing the macros? I've noticed the same thing with APF so I've increased my dosage too.


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## shangman (5 Jun 2021)

Those kribs are STUNNING!!! Will have to keep some one day, what magnificent fish 😍 The kribs look great in their jungley tank

The riparium back is amazing! And great that those plants keep the water so clean, I have read that when you keep plants like that you have to add insane amounts of ferts to feed the aquatic plants 😂


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## ScareCrow (5 Jun 2021)

Thanks @Courtneybst. I meant to say it was your journal that helped me to decide to use black sand, so thanks.
Interesting you've found the same with APF. I'm not sure if I'll increase the concentration of potassium in the next batch I mix. I'm seeing how big I can grow Limnobium laevigatum after I noticed they're getting quite big. So I think the extra nutrients will help fuel that.


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## ScareCrow (5 Jun 2021)

shangman said:


> Those kribs are STUNNING!!! Will have to keep some one day, what magnificent fish 😍 The kribs look great in their jungley tank
> 
> The riparium back is amazing! And great that those plants keep the water so clean, I have read that when you keep plants like that you have to add insane amounts of ferts to feed the aquatic plants 😂


Thanks shangman.
I really want to extend the riparium section so that the tall foliage transitions into shorter foliage toward the front. I'd like some carnivorous plants but not sure if the salts in the ferts will damage them so need to do some research. I know Mr Teapot had a couple in his Green Pekeo pond. Something has happened in the tank that has delayed plans for now though. 
I'll leave that little cliff hanger to build suspense for the next update😂


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## Courtneybst (5 Jun 2021)

ScareCrow said:


> Thanks @Courtneybst. I meant to say it was your journal that helped me to decide to use black sand, so thanks.
> Interesting you've found the same with APF. I'm not sure if I'll increase the concentration of potassium in the next batch I mix. I'm seeing how big I can grow Limnobium laevigatum after I noticed they're getting quite big. So I think the extra nutrients will help fuel that.
> View attachment 170307View attachment 170308​


Awesome! Glad I could help 

Those Limnobium look ripe and ready!


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## ScareCrow (7 Jun 2021)

So not long after the rescape the kribs settled in and started doing their usual display dance.



After about 7 days from laying eggs I normally see fry but after that they disappear. This time the male got really aggressive towards the female so I decided to separate him.
I thought this must be the reason the fry aren't surviving. I excitedly started counting down the days but after 7 days I could see the female but no fry😞. I thought I'll leave it another couple of days just in case. That afternoon I was greeted by this (apologies about the glare the tank gets sun in the afternoon).



Approximate headcount is 85 so as Shangman did, they will be free to ukaps members. @shangman, you said you wanted to keep kribs so I'm reading that as you'll be taking a pair or maybe more 😂.
I'll post in the for sale section when they're ready but if you're interested you can PM and I'll remember to contact you.
I'm really happy that they've now spawned successfully. I know kribs (P. pulcher) are easy to breed. Like most people I've had accidental spawns with them but this P. taeniatus 'Nigerian red' artificial colour variant seems to be more tricky.


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## shangman (7 Jun 2021)

WOW, beautiful!!! 😍 The parents are just so regal.

I didn't realise "one day" meant this year! 😂 Alas, I suspect my apistos would not be pleased to have some kribby friends, maybe I will get to keep their great-great grandfish down the line.

Love it when the fish breed, it's so magical, and 85 is a crazzzzzzzyyyyyy number! As they're so beautiful (and rare?) I'm sure you'll have no problems finding homes - as well as UKAPS, I also found people via facebook (apisto group, bet there's one for kribs too), and my LFS took the rest very happily.


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## ScareCrow (8 Jun 2021)

Courtneybst said:


> How's things since increasing the macros?


Sorry @Courtneybst I realised I didn't answer you question. Things have improved since increasing the macros by 5ml. Old leaves have been dropped and new leaves look healthy.



shangman said:


> Love it when the fish breed, it's so magical, and 85 is a crazzzzzzzyyyyyy number! As they're so beautiful (and rare?)


Yeah I like to try and breed (or at least spawn) everything I keep if possible. I think it gives more insight into keeping something, rather than just sustaining it.
I've read that up to 300 eggs can be laid so, I'm glad that I've only got 85😂
I don't know how rare they are. I certainly struggled to find this colour variant though. I believe they used to come from a German source but don't know if that was the case with this pair.
They're growing quite quickly as things are but I want to setup a grow out tank in the next few weeks.


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## dw1305 (9 Jun 2021)

Hi all, 


ScareCrow said:


> @shangman, you said you wanted to keep kribs so I'm reading that as you'll be taking a pair or maybe more 😂.





ScareCrow said:


> but this P. taeniatus 'Nigerian red' artificial colour variant seems to be more tricky.


You could try the "British Cichlid Society" Facebook group, you aren't allowed to advertise them for sale, but you could gauge interest.

cheers Darrel


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## ScareCrow (9 Jun 2021)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> 
> You could try the "British Cichlid Society" Facebook group, you aren't allowed to advertise them for sale, but you could gauge interest.
> ...


Thanks for the suggestion Darrel. I've not used Facebook in years. A few people have told me about fish related groups on there so I may have to give it another go.
There's an independent shop near me that closer to the time I'll contact. I'm not sure with covid whether shops would have been able to sell many fish and so taking on more might just add to the overhead cost but we'll see.


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## ScareCrow (9 Jun 2021)

Not sure if some of the fry are starting to develop colouration. There are a few with a dark horizontal band (the most prominent is towards the top left). If it is adult colouration I hope these aren't the only females. With my parameters of pH around 7.5 (this could be nonsense given my TDS) and TDS 140  I'm expecting a fairly even mix of males and females.


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## John q (9 Jun 2021)

Would love to caption the above photo"dad, why you worried about tds"

On a serious note are these kribensis worried about ph, tds. I'm thinking of adding some pelvicachromis taeniatus "moliwe" but concernd they won't be happy with ph 7.2 and tds of 200. Thoughts..


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## ScareCrow (9 Jun 2021)

John q said:


> Would love to caption the above photo"dad, why you worried about tds"
> 
> On a serious note are these kribensis worried about ph, tds. I'm thinking of adding some pelvicachromis taeniatus "moliwe" but concernd they won't be happy with ph 7.2 and tds of 200. Thoughts..



I've not kept 'moliwe' but I imagine they'll be fine in those conditions. Most of the Pelvicachromis are quite adaptable and from what I've read they're found in a range of conditions in the wild. I believe the kribs I have are a P. taeniatus cross. The female certainly looks similar to a P.taeniatus female.
The only reason I mention pH is that there was a study, which showed a correlation between pH and gender. A higher pH results in more females. Neutral results in a  more even ratio apparently. It'll be interesting to see what I end up with.

Here's a section from the paper if you're interested.


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## John q (9 Jun 2021)

Yeah I think darrel mentioned in another post ph makes a sporting difference to the resulting sexual orientation of the fry. 
Thanks for the feedback 😀


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## ScareCrow (16 Jun 2021)

So not much has been happening, just the normal 50% weekly water change, daily ferts and feeding an obscene amount every day.
Quite a few of the fry (aka bebbies) are now developing a horizontal band. I've not counted but assuming these are female I'd say there are more females.
Please excuse the sponge at the back I'm trying to get it somewhat mature before setting up a grow out tank. I'll be moving lots of floating plants as well.


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## ScareCrow (22 Jun 2021)

Again not much to update other than the bebbies are now 4 weeks old. They're eating and growing at an incredible rate (they range between (10-15mm). I feed 3 times a day and try to provide as much variety as I can. I'm currently feeding banana worms, grindal worms, midge larvae, frozen daphnia, adult brineshrimp and mysis, freeze dried tubifex, TA aquaculture granules, Astaxanthin granule and a micro pellet that I forget the name of.
My frozen foods are quickly getting consumed and I tend to rely mostly on the grindal and banana worms, which I'm a little concerned about although what I've found online suggests they're a very good food source. I don't really want to use dried foods if I can avoid it so I'd like to get cultures of dero worms and moina and culture them together as I've read others on here do. If anyone knows of a supplier of dero worms, please let me know. I've posted in the wanted section so hopefully someone might have some. On eBay the only seller in the UK wants £18.99 for them, which seems a bit pricey.
Apologies for the even poorer than normal picture quality, the Amazon frogbit is shading out the majority of the light, so my phone is really struggling.


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## ScareCrow (5 Jul 2021)

Again not much has happened. I've started moving the bebbies into a grow out tank as they're getting pretty big now. 
It's looking like they're predominantly female. One of the shops I spoke to with regards to rehoming them wanted pairs or trios, which might be a bit of a problem. I'm tempted to gradually increase the hardness in the tank with the adults and let them spawn again to see if I can get more males. It also seems like a stupid idea as I've not really got room to house the number I've already got.
While moving the bebbies to their grow out tank I removed all of the floating plants. This gave me the chance to see how things have matured since setting up the tank, as normally it's impossible to see past the roots of the frogbit. I'll get a full tank shot once I've finished destroying things while trying to catch the bebbies. I'm happy with the growth of the buce, considering they've been in almost total darkness. As I've removed so much cover from the top I've reduced the lighting to 25%.


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## Courtneybst (5 Jul 2021)

That buce looks cosmic! Bravo!


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## ScareCrow (6 Jul 2021)

Thanks @Courtneybst, I think it's just the lighting as other than ferts and water changes I don't do anything to the tank. I got a RGB light ages ago as I was interested to see how they'd perform. I don't think it grows anything better than the flood light I was using did but fish/plant colours look better. I want to try a floodlight that has controllable colour next. I think that will be the best budget option.


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## ScareCrow (9 Jul 2021)

The bebbies are now in their grow out tank, so time for a full tank shot. I removed the branch that was hiding the emersed plant basket. I think I'm going to add some smaller branches with some branches sticking out into the tank. I can attach moss and buces to the branches, to help hide the basket and add some height. Unless anyone has any better ideas?
I like how the bottom half of the tank looks just want something to fill in the top half. I was hoping the stems would have grown in more but they haven't. So I think I fill the area where the stems currently are with ferns and have them growing through the hardscape, like they are in the middle.


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## ScareCrow (24 Jul 2021)

So the bebbies are now 8 weeks old and doing what they do................swim, eat, grow repeat.



My grindal worm cultures both started to crash at the same time so I think growth slowed for a while as I had to feed more frozen and dried foods. Not sure what caused the worms to crash. I started to run out of food for them so started trying all the alternatives I've seen mentioned online but I think they've acquired a taste for Hikari cichlid gold so I had to buy some just to feed them. Since removing the bebbies to their own grow out tank and releasing the male from solitary confinement, he's been displaying a lot but not a breeding display, so I wonder if he's re-establishing his territory. This isn't full display but he really doesn't like the camera, so this is the best I've managed. The red is much brighter in real life.



I've acquired some more plants to fill in some of the gaps that were created when I removed the stems that weren't really doing much. Thanks @Deano3  and @Wookii for some fantastic plants. I just need to add some more hardscape to mount all the epiphytes. I'm quite happy with the right side of the tank now.



I've developed a serious buce addiction and spend too much time researching how to grow them better, their natural environment and trying to source more. I'd like to ID those that I have but I've not found an accurate way without using the flower. So if anyone knows of a way please let me know.
Some new leaves.


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## dw1305 (26 Jul 2021)

Hi all, 


ScareCrow said:


> Not sure what caused the worms to crash.


They are a <"bit prone to this">.  I now know that if you suddenly seem to have a lot more Grindal worms, it is time to sub-culture. I should also say that I've managed to reduce <"my mite problem"> by keeping the cultures a lot wetter. 

cheers Darrel


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## ScareCrow (26 Jul 2021)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> They are a <"bit prone to this">.  I now know that if you suddenly seem to have a lot more Grindal worms, it is time to sub-culture. I should also say that I've managed to reduce <"my mite problem"> by keeping the cultures a lot wetter.
> 
> cheers Darrel


It's interesting you mention the sudden increase. I can't say I noticed a sudden increase but I've been really trying to maximise production at the moment, which could have masked it. I find it strange that they're so finicky about food. I did read a thread where you mentioned crushing rolled oats and feeding them that. I tried that as it would've been perfect. Others suggest they'll eat pretty much anything. I'll try again to get them on to something less expensive in the future.
Thankfully I've not had mites with grindals but did have them with white worms. The white worms were so sensitive to temperature fluctuations though I just gave up in the end.


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## dw1305 (26 Jul 2021)

Hi all,


ScareCrow said:


> I did read a thread where you mentioned crushing rolled oats and feeding them that.


I feed both the Grindal and Micro/Banana worms on <"Rolled Oats">. They are really cheap to buy and <"nutritionally pretty good">. 


> .......... Whole oats (uncooked) are 68% carbohydrates, 6% fat, and 13% protein. In a 100 gram reference amount, whole oats supply 379 calories and contain high amounts (20% or more the Daily Value, DV) of the B vitamins – thiamine and pantothenic acid (40% and 22% DV, respectively) – and several dietary minerals, especially manganese (173% DV) and phosphorus (59% DV)........


I buy these:




Ground in a pestle and mortar for the Grindal worms and just sprinkled on the culture for the  Micro worms.

cheers Darrel


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## ScareCrow (26 Jul 2021)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I feed both the Grindal and Micro/Banana worms on <"Rolled Oats">. They are really cheap to buy and <"nutritionally pretty good">.
> 
> ...


Thanks Darrell, those were the ones I was using. My banana worms like them and I also eat them (the oats not the worms). I was hoping we could all sit down to breakfast together but sadly the grindal worms didn't seem keen. It could have been that the culture was crashing just as I tried to change their diet and I was feeding the same volume of oats as I was feeding Hikari pellets. Or it might have just been bad timing. Luckily I refreshed the substrate the culture was in, just in time and now they're better than before.


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## dw1305 (26 Jul 2021)

Hi all, 


ScareCrow said:


> but sadly the grindal worms didn't seem keen


They definitely need grinding. I used to use "Instant Oat Cereal", but it is more expensive.


ScareCrow said:


> I also eat them (the oats not the worms).


My wife eats them and my daughter is very keen on turning them into "flapjacks" (in both cases the oats not the worms).

cheers Darrel


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## Wookii (28 Jul 2021)

How long does it take your grindal worms to eat the oats? I've only ever fed mine cat biscuits (on @Simon Cole 's recommendation) which disappear completely in 48 hours (feeding 4 or so at a time). Touch wood, I've had no 'crashing' in the last 18 months, I just feed one or two times a week, and stir the coconut coir to loosen it, every 4-5 months.


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## ScareCrow (28 Jul 2021)

Wookii said:


> How long does it take your grindal worms to eat the oats? I've only ever fed mine cat biscuits (on @Simon Cole 's recommendation) which disappear completely in 48 hours (feeding 4 or so at a time). Touch wood, I've had no 'crashing' in the last 18 months, I just feed one or two times a week, and stir the coconut coir to loosen it, every 4-5 months.


I've not had any luck with oats unfortunately. @dw1305 uses them though.
I feed 8 medium Hikari cichlid gold pellets twice a day. I'm trying to culture as many grindals as I can at the moment. Normally I'd only feed every couple of days.


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## ScareCrow (5 Aug 2021)

Overall I'm pretty happy with how things are going. I still want to fill in the top left corner but I don't think bolbitis is particularly fond of my water. Still waiting to see what happens but have some other ideas, should it not work out. 




I like the mossy textures although I should have maybe just stuck to 2 or 3 varieties as in places it looks messier than I'd like. It's no problem pulling out the odd look bit's though so just a case of refining as things grow in.
Most of the buce at the bottom are being held there temporarily while I work out where to put them. Again I have ideas, just need to find the time. Now that I'm happy with how things are progressing I'm of course considering upgrading the tank. I have the 100l version of this tank sat in my garage and have been considering modifying the cabinet to accommodate it. I don't really enjoy setting up new tanks as I much prefer them when they're grown in, so I'm a bit conflicted as this tank is doing well by my standards (no algae, a leaf a week from the buce, nothing struggling to the point it's barely holding on to life etc). However, it will give me more space for more buce! 
Last thing, just wanted to say thanks to @Gill again for helping me workout how to use band. I was able to get a couple of buces I've been looking for. These aren't them but it is one of my favourite views through the tank.


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## shangman (5 Aug 2021)

It's looking great!! Lovely and thick, looking forward to seeing what you do with the new buces too. Eventually 2 or 3 mosses probably will take over and dominate, in mine the fissidens just went WHOOSH at one point and took over everything else.

I now what you mean about rescapes, a fully grown-in tank is really the best, but when you've got loads of lovely plants like this it's not too bad at all, I'm sure it would grow in in no time.


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## ScareCrow (9 Aug 2021)

I think I've made the decision to move over to the bigger tank. So I've ordered another bag of black sand and started going through a few ideas of what to do in the additional space. Just need to set aside some time to make the bits to extend the stand.

I'm very pleased with the progress in the grow out tank. Definitely have some males now, possibly more than I'd want but I do have a plastic box I can move some into if things get a bit too aggressive. Also have some shops interested and various avenues to advertise through so hopefully when they are large enough to move on, they won't be stuck here for too long.
Really pleased with the colours they're developing already. The top and middle foreground are males. Bottom left and middle background are possibly females.


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## ScareCrow (19 Aug 2021)

They're now three months old and have started practicing the kribensis interpretation of a bait ball. This was the best shot I could get but it got a lot more chaotic (think Black Friday sale levels of chaos) and this was after they'd been fed.


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## ScareCrow (29 Sep 2021)

Quick update. I finished extending the stand and the tank is now in place. Even remembered to put a background on this time! 
Quite happy with how the stand turned out, it's pretty close to the original. Not sure about the door inserts at the moment though. I got fed up with cutting down wood so that it kept the aesthetic of the original stand. So the inserts are a quick fix for now.



It's been a bit of a rush as some of the plants were starting to suffer in their temporary accommodation. So everything has been dumped in until I have more time.
One thing that has worked well are these plant holders for the riparium plants. I made them from some stiff wire I had. They create a spring clip, so clipping it to the tank makes the holder grip the plant and when in place you don't really see them. So far they seem really secure and have the benefit of being able to move plants around easily.


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## ScareCrow (7 Oct 2021)

Final update on the baby kribs. They're now 4½ months. I'm taking them to a shop tomorrow. My intension was to give some away to members of the forum. However, it looks like I've got almost entirely males so don't really want to pass that problem on to someone else. I've made the shop aware of this so they can get females to balance out the numbers.
Maybe pure rainwater wasn't such a good idea. I may start adding some tap water to my rainwater and then try breeding them again in the future.


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## ScareCrow (19 Oct 2021)

I decided against taking all of them to the shop and kept 3 back for myself. There used to be a video on YouTube of a tank housing a group of taeniatus and I thought it looked brilliant. I've not been able to recreate that as I don't have a big enough tank or enough females but I've kept a trio.
Some males also managed to evade capture so I have a few that are still growing out, that I need to find homes for.
Apologies for the worse than normal pic, I need to clean the glass. Here's the male and one female I kept back. They're now 5 months old.


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## ScareCrow (31 Oct 2021)

I've start getting diatoms, I think this is caused by two things. The first being that although the substrate, wood and plants were established and came over from my previous setup. The substrate was left in a bucket for a couple of weeks. Because of that I thought it best to wash it through rather than leave things to breakdown when added back in to tank.
I've been slowly(ish) increasing the light intensity. It's been running at 40% for a few months as there's not much floating plant cover. However, I started to get a bit impatient with growth being slow so bumped it up to 60% over about 6 weeks. I've dropped it back to 40% now and started dosing 2ml of glute as I had half a bottle left. I'll keep up with water changes and dosing to hopefully get the diatoms under control.
In more exciting news I added 12 kuhli loaches. I'm thinking of going back to get another 6 and also pick up the rosy loaches I regret not buying.


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## ScareCrow (15 Nov 2021)

The kuhli loaches seem to like their new home and aren't shy at all, which I'm really pleased about. They get fed twice a day and seem to have picked up on the filter turning off means food is coming. I turn the filter off and a few minutes later they've massed at the front of the tank waiting. Of the foods I have, banana worms seem to be the kuhli loach food of choice. I think grindal worms are a bit too big for them at the moment but they've definitely put on some weight since I brought them home.
Just as a record for myself, I've tried turning the lights up to 50%. As the diatoms seem to be reducing slowly.


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## shangman (15 Nov 2021)

Omg look at that!!! I'm green with envy, usually only see 1 big kuhli a day if I'm lucky 😩


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## ScareCrow (15 Nov 2021)

shangman said:


> Omg look at that!!! I'm green with envy, usually only see 1 big kuhli a day if I'm lucky 😩


I'm not sure what's going on. I was a little worried about getting them as I know they can be quite elusive. I like to be able to do a head count regularly to make sure no one has disappeared, which might cause water quality problems and thought this might be a problem with kuhlis. They do have a lot of cover but I think the dark substrate might be the main influence. I don't have any evidence but I'm planning to rescape as I don't like how the tank looks at the moment. This time I'm going to try a proper 'scape' but the idea I have will mean fewer plants at the front (if I can control myself). So we'll see if they're still happy to venture out. If they do hide more I'll just have to add more plants, what a shame 
I'd recommend adding some coconut shells. I don't know if these help make them feel more comfortable but there's nothing funnier than when they suddenly pop out of one of the eye holes.


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## ScareCrow (29 Nov 2021)

The kuhlis seem to be getting quite boisterous. They swarm food to the point where the kribs just look on, not sure what to do. It's funny when the kribs gently move the kuhlis out the way to get at the food underneath the mass of loaches. It doesn't seem to bother the kuhlis as they just carry on eating and aren't at all bothered by the kribs being near them.
Here's a truly terrible pic of a kuhli swarm and a krib confused at where the food went. I think there are 10 kuhlis in the pic. Just in case you wan to play count the kuhli, as I do most evenings


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## shangman (30 Nov 2021)

Great photo, feeling even more jealous!! The krib seems totally miffed 😂

I've never seen more than 2 of my 6 big kuhlis it and about (small ones do come out a lot more tho). I'd be worried that they're dead (also like to headcount regularly), except I never saw them out in the old smaller tank either, and when I drained it there they all were!

Now you just need some kubotai rasboras to kontinue the theme of fish with a k!!


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## ScareCrow (30 Nov 2021)

shangman said:


> Great photo, feeling even more jealous!! The krib seems totally miffed 😂
> 
> I've never seen more than 2 of my 6 big kuhlis it and about (small ones do come out a lot more tho). I'd be worried that they're dead (also like to headcount regularly), except I never saw them out in the old smaller tank either, and when I drained it there they all were!
> 
> Now you just need some kubotai rasboras to kontinue the theme of fish with a k!!


Haha, I'm after some Pseudomugil luminatus. I'm also considering rehoming the kribs but then I'd need to start a new journal as the name would no longer be relevant.
I'd really like to give breeding the kuhlis a proper go but with the kribs in there it will never happen. A couple of kuhlis have really swollen up since getting them, so there's definitely a mix of males and females.
I really need to have a proper go at scaping the tank before I do anything though, as it looks more like a plant holding tank than a display tank.
This is the sort of thing I'd like to recreate. The problem is I have no control with plants and scale goes out the window. What I'm hoping is that I'll have enough space to display all the plants I've a massed, while giving them room to grow and create a nice aesthetic. Opposed to the jumble I currently have.


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## Onoma1 (30 Nov 2021)

Fantastic, lush looking 'jumble'!


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## shangman (1 Dec 2021)

ScareCrow said:


> Haha, I'm after some Pseudomugil luminatus. I'm also considering rehoming the kribs but then I'd need to start a new journal as the name would no longer be relevant.
> I'd really like to give breeding the kuhlis a proper go but with the kribs in there it will never happen. A couple of kuhlis have really swollen up since getting them, so there's definitely a mix of males and females.
> I really need to have a proper go at scaping the tank before I do anything though, as it looks more like a plant holding tank than a display tank.
> This is the sort of thing I'd like to recreate. The problem is I have no control with plants and scale goes out the window. What I'm hoping is that I'll have enough space to display all the plants I've a massed, while giving them room to grow and create a nice aesthetic. Opposed to the jumble I currently have.
> View attachment 177934


Restraint? With plants? Simply impossible!!
Though tbh I think that inspo is a good one because it looks like moss as a base with all sorts of other plants mixed in anyway. Simple but really effective, definitely worthy of a rescape! 

Pseudomugil luminatus are beautiful, such an amazing colour. I'd be really intrigued to see your kuhlis breeding, especially since they are clearly so comfortable in your tank it sounds like a great plan. Sad to rehome the kribs but you have done amazing with breeding them too!


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## ScareCrow (1 Dec 2021)

shangman said:


> Restraint? With plants? Simply impossible!!


Haha, I get the theory of small leaved plants at the back and large leaved plants at the front to create a false sense of depth and those sorts of things but when it comes to buying plants I don't think of the overall aesthetic but instead "ooo this one has cool leaves" etc. So the end result is just a series of plants that I think are interesting.



shangman said:


> I think that inspo is a good one because it looks like moss as a base with all sorts of other plants mixed in anyway. Simple but really effective, definitely worthy of a rescape!


Yeah was dennerles first austrian aquascaping contest winner back in 2016



shangman said:


> Pseudomugil luminatus are beautiful, such an amazing colour. I'd be really intrigued to see your kuhlis breeding, especially since they are clearly so comfortable in your tank it sounds like a great plan. Sad to rehome the kribs but you have done amazing with breeding them too!


The only relatively detailed breeding report I found makes it sound quite simple. Condition them, do a big water change and watch out for egg scattering in the morning. Fingers crossed it works.
I really wanted to breed that particular krib for a long time but having 70+ fry to grow out with very limited space was a bit of a challenge. I'm glad I was able to do it but now I think I want fish that I can breed in small numbers and allow to grow on in a community tank, without the need for grow out tanks.


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## ScareCrow (22 Dec 2021)

Hi all, 

I recently got a group of psuedomugils luminatus. I've been trying to get these for a while, so when I got a call from the shop to say they were in I (in retrospect stupidly) went and got 6. I probably should've let them settle in longer/studied them more closely in the shop. The day after getting them a few showed signs of fungus and within a few days I was left with three (luckily a male and two females). Thankfully I put them in a tank I had setup for housing the adult kribs, which I moved out, so it was only them in the tank.



They're very small (less than 25mm) so I'm assuming they are very young but within 2 weeks they'd started spawning. They're spawning every morning, so I take the moss that they've spawned in and put it in a hang on breeding net. However, after about a day the eggs turn white and then a day or two later they fungus. I know that unfertilised eggs will go white and eventually fungus and that this might be the case if they're too young but are there any suggestions of things to do assuming the eggs are fertile? I've added alder cones, oak and beech leaves to add tannins for the antifungal properties. 
It's still early days and I'm being impatient but I'd really like to boost the numbers of these back up.
They're not just using moss to spawn on (poor snail).


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## ScareCrow (24 Dec 2021)

I might have panicked too soon. I was doing a water change and checking through the moss that was in the breeder net, before putting it back in the main tank, when I spotted some movement. I've only been able to find one fry but hopefully it means there will be more in the future.


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## ScareCrow (24 Mar 2022)

Long time no update.

There have been a  few successes and a few failures since my last post.
I'll try to summarise with pictures as they're supposedly worth a thousand words.

I'm please with how the rescape went. I nearly changed the name of the journal to tree ents bath time after @Wolf6 spotted a figure in the hardscape on the right of the tank. It's not as complete as I wanted as things become rushed but I can add more in time.




The reason for the rush was these new additions as well as some venezuelanus. I'm overstocked but it won't be long term as a big tank is planned for the future and these are 3 months old so still small.




Rainbow breeding is where the success and failure has come in. I painstakingly picked eggs every day for a week until I had 20 fertilised eggs. 18 successfully hatched out. After a week I moved them from an in tank breeder net to a hang on breeder box and this is where the problem occured. For some reason I lost them all within a couple of hours. I think it was the slightly larger fry in there but can't be sure. 
On the flip side, the success. 8 or so eggs must have been laid in plants in my holding tank and now I have 8 fry growing on. I'm trialling growing them out with moina so that they have a constant food source and I don't have to hatch out brine shrimp.
Unfortunately my male rainbow jumped out and I didn't find him until it was too late. So I'm hoping that I get a male from the fish I've bred.
Here are some pics of the fry at various stages. I think the smallest is a couple of days and the largest is about 2 months.


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## dw1305 (24 Mar 2022)

Hi all,


ScareCrow said:


> On the flip side, the success. 8 or so eggs must have been laid in plants in my holding tank and now I have 8 fry growing on. I'm trialling growing them out with moina so that they have a constant food source and I don't have to hatch out brine shrimp.
> Unfortunately my male rainbow jumped out and I didn't find him until it was too late. So I'm hoping that I get a male from the fish I've bred.


Bad luck, you would be statistically pretty unlucky not to get a male out of eight fry. Assuming there aren't any biases between sexes it is 2^8 (1/2 * 1/2  etc) to give you a 1 / 256 chance of getting all females (or all males).


ScareCrow said:


> The reason for the rush was these new additions


They look really good. Are they_ <"__Corydoras (_Ln. 9_) duplicareus_?">

cheers Darrel


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## ScareCrow (24 Mar 2022)

dw1305 said:


> Bad luck, you would be statistically pretty unlucky not to get a male out of eight fry. Assuming there aren't any biases between sexes it is 2^8 (1/2 * 1/2 etc) to give you a 1 / 256 chance of getting all females (or all males).


It's still early days but there appears to be one with the markings of a male from the batch of eight. I also have two fry from an earlier spawn, one of which also has the markings of a male. It'll be nice to watch the fin extensions grow in.


dw1305 said:


> They look really good. Are they_ <"__Corydoras (_Ln. 9_) duplicareus_?">


They are indeed. A guy about an hour from me breeds lots of corydoras. It was amazing to see all the species he's working with and his breeding setups.


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## dw1305 (24 Mar 2022)

Hi all,


ScareCrow said:


> A guy about an hour from me breeds lots of corydoras. It was amazing to see all the species he's working with and his breeding setups


Tell me more, I'm all ears now.

cheers Darrel


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## Hufsa (24 Mar 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> I'm please with how the rescape went.



It looks amazing! 😍



ScareCrow said:


> I nearly changed the name of the journal to tree ents bath time after @Wolf6 spotted a figure in the hardscape on the right of the tank.



 And you can hardly even see the ents now and the "huge ahhh growth"


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## ScareCrow (24 Mar 2022)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Tell me more, I'm all ears now.
> 
> cheers Darrel


It was wall to wall corydoras. I'm no cory aficionado but I do like to breed fish and his setup was something to aspire to. He had approximately 20 tanks split between his kitchen and living room all housing various species. He had a tank in his hallway housing some eques. All were filtered by air driven sponge's. There was a very thin layer of sand in all of the tanks. There was also shrimp in all his tanks. He said they weren't an addition he'd made purposefully but I've read there are a lot of benefits of keeping shrimp with fry so it's something I've started doing. He uses RO and remineralises to a tds of 60ppm. I don't think he mentioned other values. Other than when we were talking about breeding eques, which I've read is hard and he confirmed it. From memory you need to simulate the dry season like with most corries but eques need extremes to trigger them. So you need to stop doing water changes, increase temperature, let nitrates become very high and then in his words it becomes very nerve wracking but you need to keep it like that for several months before doing a large cool water change.
One of the species he's working on at the moment is C. oiapoquensis, which will be very tempting when they are available.
He's based near Malmesbury so probably not too far from you, should you be tempted


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## ScareCrow (24 Mar 2022)

Hufsa said:


> It looks amazing! 😍
> 
> 
> 
> And you can hardly even see the ents now and the "huge ahhh growth"


Thanks, I was trying to create a autumnal forest floor with the crypts representing the autumn leaves. All the time I was planting it I was thinking about that ent 

I also though of a comment you made somewhere about corydoras barbells. The venezuelanus have the equivalent of a handlebar mustache. When they swim through the water it trails along. Brilliant to watch. The duplicareus on the other hand are complete 🤬. They tuck their barbells in when they swim. The first few times they did it I thought their barbells had totally eroded and I panicked.


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## dw1305 (25 Mar 2022)

Hi all,


ScareCrow said:


> He's based near Malmesbury so probably not too far from you, should you be tempted


That is close to me, just the other side of Chippenham. I'll PM you when I'm ready.

cheers Darrel


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## ScareCrow (25 Mar 2022)

Forgot I'd taken these. Here are some eyed up P.luminatus eggs.



And here is the reason none survive in the main tank.


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## Hufsa (27 Mar 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> One thing that has worked well are these plant holders for the riparium plants. I made them from some stiff wire I had. They create a spring clip, so clipping it to the tank makes the holder grip the plant and when in place you don't really see them. So far they seem really secure and have the benefit of being able to move plants around easily.


How has these wire holders held up? Im thinking of getting some of this wire myself, but I thought I would check in with you first


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## Conort2 (27 Mar 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> Forgot I'd taken these. Here are some eyed up P.luminatus eggs.


They look like quite large eggs for a small fish. Is that the case or is it just the photo making it appear that way?


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## ScareCrow (27 Mar 2022)

Conort2 said:


> They look like quite large eggs for a small fish. Is that the case or is it just the photo making it appear that way?


Compared to the size of the fish at the time the eggs were quite large, probably 1-2mm. The fry are quite small when they first hatch though. The food dispersing across the surface is enough to push them along with it.


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## ScareCrow (27 Mar 2022)

Hufsa said:


> How has these wire holders held up? Im thinking of getting some of this wire myself, but I thought I would check in with you first


They seem to be holding up fine. I think the wire is PVC coated so should hold up long term. It was wire that I took out of the 30amp circuit in my kitchen.


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## ScareCrow (27 Mar 2022)

After several months of being scared to breath near it, the buce 'martini' is starting to put out new leaves and change colour.
Full disclosure, I corrected the colour for the buce so it looks true to life. Not sure happened to the lagenandra at the bottom. I'd like it to look that red though.


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## plantnoobdude (27 Mar 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> After several months of being scared to breath near it, the buce 'martini' is starting to put out new leaves and change colour.
> Full disclosure, I corrected the colour for the buce so it looks true to life. Not sure happened to the lagenandra at the bottom. I'd like it to look that red though.
> View attachment 185265


looks great!


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## ScareCrow (27 Mar 2022)

Just posted a question about this in the fish forum but posting it here too for my own record.
Just found 2 really small fry in with my Psuedomugil grow outs. They look like they're about a week old. 
My adult Psuedomugils haven't been in the tank for >10weeks so not sure how these have appeared. 
The juveniles in there are 6 weeks old, could they breed at that age?

Here's a pic to roughly show the size difference. Juvenile fry in bottom right is about 10mm. Fry top left circled is a probably 4mm.


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## ScareCrow (9 Apr 2022)

I've added CO² after years of back and forth on whether to do it. So this is just a note for myself really so that I can monitor CO² usage.

For anyone interested in DIY CO² I'm using the fzone sodium bicarb / citric acid reactor, with a Colombo solenoid at about 1.2 bps. I'm not targeting a specific ppm of CO² just seeing how the plants respond and keeping it well below what is safe for the fish. I won't be increasing lighting so no point turning it up to 11. I'm just aiming for steady but slightly quicker plant growth. I'll document how things go so that there's a record of how long it lasts.


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## ScareCrow (18 May 2022)

The CO² is still going but getting near the end of the bottle so I'll update on that when it needs to be replaced.
In more exciting news the recent sudden change in weather triggered my kuhlis to spawn. Sadly I wasn't at home to collect eggs but I did manage to get some video of them going through the motions. Although I didn't get to collect any eggs I'm pleased it happened. My largest female (pic below) has been looking uncomfortably full of eggs for a while.



After @Hufsa mentioned her kuhli with a chin strap. I'm pleased I'm not the only one that looks for things in their Kuli loaches markings. It doesn't show how big she was but does show her little heart shape marking on her side.
Here are some terrible shots of the kuhlis spawning.


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## ScareCrow (20 May 2022)

1 year old today (approximately).


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## Conort2 (20 May 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> 1 year old today (approximately).
> View attachment 188862


Stunning, love this tank and the stocking.


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## ScareCrow (17 Jun 2022)

So the CO² continued longer than I was expecting. The working pressure has started to drop now though, so I'll need to refill it but 9 weeks seems pretty good to me. I've got mostly epiphytes and the few stems I have are still struggling despite the addition of CO². I think the stems might be lacking light though more than anything else.
The trident fern and mini christmas moss have shown the greatest change since adding CO². The mini christmas moss has grown really compact without any intervention and the trident fern has grown! It never did much before but now at the end of the CO² period it looks quite healthy.




I've not changed anything else in the last 9 weeks as I wanted to see what impact CO² had. I was expecting faster plant growth and higher nutrient uptake pretty much instantly but although plant growth increased quite quickly my TDS readings haven't really changed. This was until about a week maybe two ago. I noticed some of my buces becoming quite colourful (I think it's nutrient deficiency). When I tested my TDS it's only a little above what it is after a water change so time to up the ferts I think.



Now on to the fish!
The guy I got my corries from decided to sell off his breeding group of habrosus. So I had to have them. While we were looking round all his tanks he spotted that his C.nanus had spawned. As he wasn't going to raise anymore he offered me the eggs.



Unfortunately snails got to them overnight and they munched most of them but I did get a few fry. A few were deformed or just not swimming particularly well and I thought it was a bit of a loss, so I moved some luminatus fry into the breeder box and pretty much forgot about the C.nanus.



I pulled the luminatus fry out a couple of days ago and spotted a small Cory wiggling around at the bottom. So not the greatest success but at least I've got some experience now for when I can hopefully get the other Corys to spawn myself.


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## ScareCrow (22 Jun 2022)

So it's happened again! I was checking the breeder box housing some shrimp and the C.nanus fry when I noticed a P.luminatus fry swimming across the top. I've removed plants from the breeder box but I don't remember adding any and other than 3, approximately 3 month old P.luminatus I've not had any other P.luminatus in there. 
I don't know how fry keep appearing but it's getting to the point where I'm worried to leave drinks near the tank in case they start showing up there. 
Anyway it's a nice 'problem' to have


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## ScareCrow (16 Jul 2022)

The c.nanus has continued to grow and is now about 15mm.



I think I've managed to get the ferts back in balance and I'm now getting some more healthy growth and decent colour out of the bucephalandra. Still not as good as others seem to get but I'm winging it. I've not worked out what ppm of anything I'm dosing and my rainwater is an unknown so I just rely on the plants as an indicator. Hopefully I'll get there one day, unless anyone has any tips to get buce to colour up?


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## _Maq_ (16 Jul 2022)

Iron, perhaps?


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## ScareCrow (18 Jul 2022)

_Maq_ said:


> Iron, perhaps?


Possibly, I know APFUK mix I use is slightly lean on phosphate and when I'm not dosing enough I get holes in the leaves, followed by leaves being dropped if I don't increase the dose. I assumed that the red/yellow leaves I was getting before was due to possible nitrate deficiency. I've now increase the macros and leaves are regrowing and growth looks good but online I see people with really nice dark blues and metallics so just wonder how they get them or if it's just the lighting in the photo. 
Some of the buce have nice red rhizomes and the latest pic I posted was of 'martini pink', which is showing better colour now.


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## Hufsa (18 Jul 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> I've now increase the macros and leaves are regrowing and growth looks good but online I see people with really nice dark blues and metallics so just wonder how they get them or if it's just the lighting in the photo.


Some of it is light intensity, the buces will have stronger colors if grown under strong light, but this places a greater demand on the aquarist as you have to avoid algae growth on them.
In addition I see a lot lot lot of purple/red heavy light spectrum in the buce world, a trick can be to look for the color of items around the buce in a photo, if there is gravel, is it purple, same with any hand in the picture etc. Using a strong enough purple light you could make almost any buce appear purple. So looking out for those signs will help navigate what is real and what is heavily enhanced.
Some varieties of buce will be a bit stronger colored then others also.
I think yours looks nice already, maybe patience and letting them bush out a bit is all that will be needed 😊


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## ScareCrow (18 Jul 2022)

Hufsa said:


> Some of it is light intensity, the buces will have stronger colors if grown under strong light, but this places a greater demand on the aquarist as you have to avoid algae growth on them.
> In addition I see a lot lot lot of purple/red heavy light spectrum in the buce world, a trick can be to look for the color of items around the buce in a photo, if there is gravel, is it purple, same with any hand in the picture etc. Using a strong enough purple light you could make almost any buce appear purple. So looking out for those signs will help navigate what is real and what is heavily enhanced.
> Some varieties of buce will be a bit stronger colored then others also.
> I think yours looks nice already, maybe patience and letting them bush out a bit is all that will be needed 😊


Thanks very much. I'm looking forward to it getting bigger.
I think you're probably right about light intensity. Most of them are overgrown by needle leaf java fern or moss, so getting very little light. The one in the pic is stuck to a magnet to ensure it gets enough light.
I do have some at the top, directly under the light and they've gone orange but I'm not sure what species they are so not sure what they're optimum colour is.
I know what you mean about the light spectrum used. It's even worse with corals and the use of yellow lense filters makes it harder to spot.


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## ScareCrow (24 Jul 2022)

Finally managed to get a pic of another kuhli I have with interesting markings.



Excuse the dodgy photo editing but this is what I see when I look at her.



Kuhli cat clock.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend all


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## ScareCrow (23 Aug 2022)

It has been a long time since I've posted anything but as there's not much to write about, I'll use the a picture's worth a thousand words excuse and just spam you all with some pics.



Just saving energy in preparation for the evening feeding frenzy.



I finally gave in and add some more light. Colour and growth rate have definitely improved. 



The Luminatus are now grown up and showing some nice colour.



The stormy weather helped to trigger the habrosus into spawning. The eggs I saw, were quickly eaten though and unfortunately I've not spotted any fry. Excuse the water spots, they are there purposefully to mimick eggs and trick the fish into breeding...............yeah that's why and not because I'm lazy.



I released the C.nanus into the tank to be with the other corys. Sadly he/she does seem to have a swim bladder issue but otherwise does perfectly fine.

That's everything that's happened in the past month.


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## Tim Lee (23 Aug 2022)

Can I ask what species is the lovely grey Cory?


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## ScareCrow (24 Aug 2022)

Tim Lee said:


> Can I ask what species is the lovely grey Cory?


The one closest to the front in the first picture is C.venezuelanus 'orange'. I think the dark substrate and low light has made it quite dark. I want to setup another tank with light substrate to see if I can get them a little lighter to show off the orange more.
The other cory in the first picture is C.pygmaeus.


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## ScareCrow (24 Aug 2022)

I fed a lot of live food last night and this afternoon the C.pygmaeus have started spawning. I've got to admit, I didn't spot the egg at first, I thought it was another water spot


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## Tim Lee (24 Aug 2022)

Thank you, quite a difference in appearance there, beautiful in either outfit 😁


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## ScareCrow (8 Sep 2022)

Another leaf has emerged on the bucephalandra martini pink, and it's starting to live up to its name. A few diatoms on the older leaves but ignore that.


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## Tim Lee (8 Sep 2022)

Lovely Buce, can I ask where you sourced it from?


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## ScareCrow (8 Sep 2022)

Tim Lee said:


> Lovely Buce, can I ask where you sourced it from?


I got it from this seller. His service is really good. He grows them emersed so there is a transition period but I can definitely recommend him.
I did split the original plant and I have a small second plant that I'm growing on so I'll hopefully be able to make that available in the future.


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## Tim Lee (9 Sep 2022)

Thanks for the info, hope it continues to do well for you.


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## John q (9 Sep 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> I did split the original plant and I have a small second plant that I'm growing on so I'll hopefully be able to make that available in the future


As a Yorkshire man I hope you'll 'lkeep these fine specimens north of the border" 😀 "if" they bear fruit.. 👍
Edit: Getting you mixed up with another member.


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## PARAGUAY (10 Sep 2022)

Always room for a Nice🙂


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## PARAGUAY (10 Sep 2022)

Nice Buce


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## ScareCrow (10 Sep 2022)

John q said:


> As a Yorkshire man I hope you'll 'lkeep these fine specimens north of the border" 😀 "if" they bear fruit.. 👍
> Edit: Getting you mixed up with another member.


I do like Yorkshire but I'm definitely south of the border. 
I want to make it more available though especially after the hunt to get it, which was made more difficult by my own stupidity but got it in the end.


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