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400l mixed community

Conort2

Member
Joined
16 Feb 2018
Messages
1,470
Location
London
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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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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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
 
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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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.
 
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
 
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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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.
 
Another cheeky question.... Where are you getting these lovely fish from? Just wondering as some I haven't seen some for sale before!
 
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.
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!
 
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!

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?
 
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.


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.
 
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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