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.