45x30x30cm acrylic

[chickennublet]

Just another entry.

Did a water change on 27 December, Friday night and have let the water evaporate without any intervention at all to see how low i will get and it's been about 6 days. The water level has gone down by about a fifth or a sixth? So it has gone down considerably but not so much that I feel the need to turn the fan off while I'm away. So i'll top the tank off on Saturday night, and then i'll be back by Friday and it would probably go down by a quarter maximum.

I did have to turn the internal filter off today morning before I left for work. Will do a little maintenance and adjustment tonight if I have the time and move the internal filter deeper so it can stay under the water line or remove it entirely since I've got a sponge filter in there anyway.

Very happy to say that the Phyllanthus fluitans is growing. But the Salvinia cucullata is struggling and melting a lot. They do not appear to have grown at all in the two and a half weeks I've had them.. Perhaps they don't like the water movement and the constant movement of air from the fan. The shrimp do seem to be eating the melting bits though so I think I'll leave them there for a bit longer.

Pictures:

From yesterday showing how low the water has gotten
20250101_213941 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

Floaters. See the new growth on the red root floaters and the melting Salvinia. The new growth is very green but it's probably because of how dim the lighting is. I've not tried growing this plant before so i'm not sure if they start out green and turn red over time or if the new growth should be red to begin with. Also not sure if it could be due to high nitrates in the water?
20250101_213906 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

Closer picture
20250101_213930 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

Short video

 

[chickennublet]

All 13 Gastrodermus hastatus are still doing well. These fish give me anxiety because of how small they are and how quickly I lost the first batch I bought, but these new ones have been with me for a month now and I've not noticed any issues with them at all such as clamped fins and refusing to eat, so I hope i'm more or less out of the danger zone.

I will be away for a couple of days. Have been feeding quite heavily leading up to today. Hope to see them all alive and well on my return. Also hoping that the floaters double by then.

20250104_224946 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr
20250104_223939 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[chickennublet]

Am back from holiday! This is the tank I was worried about the most but thankfully all the fish are fine. No signs of illness. Also spotted some shrimplets in there. I want to a water change on this tank but I feel a little under the weather today so will be resting instead. The floaters did not explode and some actually melted. Some of them did end up drying out a little because they found themselves stuck on the wood as the water level fell from evaporation. I'm also guessing that they don't like all the movement on the water surface but I can't do much about that.

Here are some pictures

20250111_153125 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

20250111_152817 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

20250111_172140 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

20250111_152835 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[chickennublet]

Hi all

No pictures because not much has changed with this tank. The fish are doing good, some of them are getting rather plump too. Have been spotting lots of shrimplets along with berried shrimp which is nice.

Haven't seen any breeding behaviour in the fish, although I do have one that is either very well fed or very full of eggs. I didn't set this tank up with the goal of getting them to breed, but it would be nice to see for sure. Perhaps I'll turn the fan off and let the temperature rise for a couple of days and then do a big water change.

Other than taking care of the current inhabitants, I'm not quite sure what to do next with this tank as it doesn't look very pretty at the moment. My red root floaters have not taken off at all and it looks as though the shrimp have been eating them. The Hydrocotyle leucocephala has hardly grown as well. I originally weighed it down with a plant weight but I've decided to let them float instead and see if they might prefer that. I've also gone and planted one of the saddest looking ones in the high tech tank next door, to see what it does there. The back of the tank is looking very empty as well. The original intention was to try growing an Echinodorus there but I haven't gotten round to getting one at all.

I did originally plan to keep this tank as a biotope but obviously that has gone out the window from day one since I added the shrimp in there. I don't see myself removing all of them, but I might relocate some if their numbers start to get out of hand. In any case, I'll likely scrap the whole biotope idea and just try my best to keep plant choices to South American plants. I'll be going out today and I'll try to pick up an Echinodorus to go in there. I was taking my time with getting one because I originally didn't want to buy a hybrid, but looking at the tank now, I think i'll be happy with any Echinodorus. I might also get some small pieces of wood so that the tank looks more interesting.

 

[chickennublet]

I bought two Echinodorus plants for the tank over the weekend but haven't had the time to plant them. I've just thrown them into the tank for now. From what I understand these are heavy root feeders, so they are probably not going to be happy until I finally plant them. I'll try to get that done by tonight or tomorrow night. I am not sure what they are but they were just labelled "Amazon sword" so I am going to assume that these are Echinodorus grisebachii. I don't really know very much about Echinodorus at all. I am happy that I found a species rather than one of the ornamental varieties though. The ornamental hybrids are very beautiful but I doubt I will be able to grow them very well in this tank, nor will they fit the aesthetic of the tank.

They will be planted in plastic cups/unglazed clay pots (depending on what I have) filled with aquasoil.

I am thinking of adding a tiny bit of CO2 to this tank but I'm not sure if that's wise given the botanicals in the tank. Will sit on this a little longer.

 

[chickennublet]

I have planted the two swords in a plastic cup with fresh aquasoil in it. Chose a product from Japan which other local hobbyists have told me is rather light in nutrients and barely leaches any ammonia. Obviously with livestock in the tank I can't possibly put the likes of ADA Amazonia in the tank. The sponge filter has been doing a good job so I'm quite confident that the filter will be able to deal with any possible leaching. I didn't add a lot of aquasoil either. In any case, I will be doing a few extra large water changes for a week or two. This tank usually gets a 70% water change once a week but I'll likely do at least three to four 50% water changes this week and next week.

I am a bit worried about the plants because I had some difficulty getting them to stay in the cup. Their roots haven't established so it seemed like they wanted to float up so I was quite rough with them. Given that they are Amazon swords I'm sure they will be fine but I'll know if they make it in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing them form roots which I should be able to see in the cup.

 

[Connswater]

I have planted the two swords in a plastic cup with fresh aquasoil in it. Chose a product from Japan which other local hobbyists have told me is rather light in nutrients and barely leaches any ammonia. Obviously with livestock in the tank I can't possibly put the likes of ADA Amazonia in the tank. The sponge filter has been doing a good job so I'm quite confident that the filter will be able to deal with any possible leaching. I didn't add a lot of aquasoil either. In any case, I will be doing a few extra large water changes for a week or two. This tank usually gets a 70% water change once a week but I'll likely do at least three to four 50% water changes this week and next week.

I am a bit worried about the plants because I had some difficulty getting them to stay in the cup. Their roots haven't established so it seemed like they wanted to float up so I was quite rough with them. Given that they are Amazon swords I'm sure they will be fine but I'll know if they make it in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing them form roots which I should be able to see in the cup.

Interesting idea, what species? I haven't used Amazon swords in last 30 years, because, when I did - Echinodorus grisebahii, the classic large commonly sold sword - even without CO2 in London tap water, under good illumination, 3 T8 fluorescent tubes, showing my age again, on a three foot tank, they grew in around 6 months to a year, to a huge rosette at least two feet across. I grew them in silver sand/fine gravel with osmocote fertilisers and regular additions of sequestered iron in the water column, filtration by internals not air operated. They grew massive roots which covered the entire base of the tank, evident when I took them out. I did this several times but then decided such large swords are for 6 or 8 foot tanks. My friend ran a fish shop and was happy to take them but thought they were a bit of a joke because of the size, it took a while for a customer to come along who had a tank to accommodate such monsters.

 

[chickennublet]

Interesting idea, what species? I haven't used Amazon swords in last 30 years, because, when I did - Echinodorus grisebahii, the classic large commonly sold sword - even without CO2 in London tap water, under good illumination, 3 T8 fluorescent tubes, showing my age again, on a three foot tank, they grew in around 6 months to a year, to a huge rosette at least two feet across. I grew them in silver sand/fine gravel with osmocote fertilisers and regular additions of sequestered iron in the water column, filtration by internals not air operated. They grew massive roots which covered the entire base of the tank, evident when I took them out. I did this several times but then decided such large swords are for 6 or 8 foot tanks. My friend ran a fish shop and was happy to take them but thought they were a bit of a joke because of the size, it took a while for a customer to come along who had a tank to accommodate such monsters.

Hiya

I'm not sure of the species but they were simply labelled "Amazon sword" so I do believe they are Echinodorus grisebachii. I've not grown these before but I have heard of their potential to grow to massive sizes. I'm thinking that being limited to a little cup will keep them somewhat manageable but if they get too big for this tank I'll have to pull them out. It is nice to see some greenery in the tank so I hope they settle in quickly.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

They grew massive roots which covered the entire base of the tank, evident when I took them out. I did this several times but then decided such large swords are for 6 or 8 foot tanks.

We have a thread <"Lighting for emersed Echinodorus">, and a picture:

cheers Darrel

 

[Connswater]

a picture

Look at the roots on that 'bad boy'.

 

[chickennublet]

Hi all,

We have a thread <"Lighting for emersed Echinodorus">, and a picture:

cheers Darrel

Would be awesome if I could get my Echinodorus to root like that! They are looking quite poorly now which I guess is to be expected since they're still adjusting but I'll post pictures once they have settled down.

Hyphessobrycon elachys are in stock at the moment for $1 a piece so i'm a little torn between getting those and getting more Corydoras hastatus. I also don't have a light on the tank I intended to use for quarantine so it would be very difficult for me to actually observe them for issues so I'll probably have to hold off for now until I tear down and rescape the neighbouring tank and use that for quarantine.

 

[chickennublet]

I strained my back in the gym on Tuesday night so I didn't get those water changes done as planned. I am feeling better today so I decided to do some maintenance today since I don't think I could put off at least doing a large water change any further.

I noticed that the Echinodorus that I planted appeared to have floated up a little and I could see some of the root poking out, which honestly annoyed me a little. I've found that not very good at planting, as the last time I tried planting these with tweezers, I would push them down a little deeper than where I want them to but as I remove my tweezers the whole plant would come floating out. The same thing happened the last time I planted Cryptocoryne in my 30cm tank. I poured a little more aquasoil into the pot, but it was quite a challenge because all the wood and equipment got in the way, and I ended up with aquasoil on the sand and also on the stalks which I did not want. I tried to shake the plant a little to get the soil off the plant itself and into the pot, which resulted in the plant rising up and exposing some root again. It was rather exasperating and in the end I realised that the best thing to do would be to leave the plants alone as they will eventually take root and there wouldn't be any chance of them floating off entirely.

I also broke my thermometer which was immensely annoying. I'll have to get a new one soon.

Despite this mornings frustrations I am happy to report that the swords seem to already be starting to grow! Here's a picture of a new leaf poking out of one of them:
20250208_113707 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

I hope that this is a good sign that they will adjust to life in my little tank without too much fuss.

 

[chickennublet]

I'm at work now but I don't have anything incredibly pressing that needs taking care of right now so I'm here once again indulging in my favourite distraction.

I looked in the tank yesterday and was delighted to see that the Echinodorus has been growing roots. Seems a little silly to be excited over a plain Amazon sword, but I've never grown these before so I am very pleased. I expect that with enough time the entire container will be filled with roots.

20250210_213312 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

I have not observed any spawning behaviour in my fish. Granted, I've not done anything to trigger them to spawn. I do carry out large water changes at least once a week, but not with water that is colder than the water in the tank. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't actually know the temperature of the water coming out of my tap. It's definitely warmer than the water in my two temperature controller tanks but thankfully I've never seen any signs of distress in my fish when doing water changes before. But I'll try to alleviate temperature mismatch in the future by turning off the aquarium fans and chillers the day before maintenance days.

I think what I'll do for this tank is turn the fan off in the middle of the week so that the water remains a little warmer for a few days. After that, I'll try to cool down the new water by leaving a bucket in a temperature controlled room. I usually sleep with the air-conditioning on anyway, so I might as well try chilling the water down while I'm sleeping so that I can use that the next day. I could also cool the water down with ice, but I would probably need a lot of ice. Perhaps this way I can try to induce spawning.

This weekend I'll be heading to a fish shop where I hope I can buy 4 to 6 more Gastrodermus hastatus to add to this existing group. I am currently running a spare filter now so that this weekend after buying fish I can move the filter over to a spare tank where the fish will be quarantined in.

 

[chickennublet]

Want to share a short feeding video. Have started sticking their tab food on the glass so that they learn to eat from there eventually. Most of them don't get it but they will learn eventually. So far their staple food as been JBL Novotab because of the convenience. They also go bonkers for this food. I also give them decapsulated brine shrimp sometimes. I have freeze dried tubifex which is quite messy, but I'm thinking of adding some to their diet.

I stuck half a tab in there which is actually quite a lot, but I eventually removed most of it and fed it to another tank as I didn't want them overeating.

 

[chickennublet]

Hi all

Was rather busy last week so the fish and shrimp went without food for about three days or so. The fish were absolutely fine without food for a while, but I did notice once again Hydrocotyle and red root floaters appear to have been chewed on. They looked fine before I stopped feeding.

I think that the shrimp have been munching on them whenever there isn't food in the tank which is a little annoying because even though I feed them everyday, stuff happens sometimes and I might not be able to feed them. There has been an explosion in their population recently so I will start removing them and moving them to different tanks soon.