A Chocolate Puddle -

[darren636]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle Now with Chocolates and licorice

more pictures please, i need my fix.

 

[foxfish]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle Now with Chocolates and licorice

Alistair.could you please remind me about your lighting, how high up are the lights, long long are they on for & how many watts?
Thanks...

 

[Kristoph91]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle Now with Chocolates and licorice

Looks really good, its growing in great ! Sorry to hear about the chocs. 🙁

 

[Alastair]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle Now with Chocolates and licorice

Love this tank! It's just my favourite style by far. Working with an emersed section is way more fun than a regular planted aquarium. Everyone should try it.

Thanks mate, I totally agree with you there, it gives a much bigger impact and if the plants above blend well it looks great. The prayer plants on the right almost have a crypt like look to them sp blend in well with the mixed crypts underwater. I've actually also put in a floating raft across the back and attached moss to it do will see how it looks with the pothos growing above it along the length of the rear too.

more pictures please, i need my fix.

Ha ha ok mate will get some this week whilst the little ones on holiday. I've got a friend coming over to take some Ermmmm slightly better pics with his fancy lenses etc so lots of close ups etc. beatst iPhone ha ha

Alistair.could you please remind me about your lighting, how high up are the lights, long long are they on for & how many watts?
Thanks...

Hiya mate, hope your well.
Yep sure, lighting is a ati sunpower 4 x 54 watt, lights are on from 11:45 to 8:30pm. I originally ran just 2 x 54 watts quite close to the water but began raising it slowly as emmersed cyperus got taller. Then with the new plants in they created alot of shade so I raised the unit 4 foot above substrate level and used all 4 tubes.
Back down to just 2 tubes for now purely as the hydrocotyle on the surface started suffering GSA but I think it would have been fine leaving all 4 on. The ati is quite powerful even with just the two. Hope that helps mate sorry for the essay.

Looks really good, its growing in great ! Sorry to hear about the chocs. 🙁

Thanks Kris, me too, but only 2 casualties in the fish department and only ever found 2 dead CBS although from 15 I can only ever find 7 of the CBS. Lots of hiding places though

 

[Alastair]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle Now with Chocolates and licorice

just a little update with a few pics of the tank now, not much change really other than the plants spreading out and the shrimp being full of eggs







and an emmersed E.SChlutueri Leopard


and lastly i thought id take a quick vid with the iphone showing the gouramis at feeding time. excuse the bits thats just the tubifex the choccos tear off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saNU-ey-pOs&hd=1

 

[tim]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle Now with Chocolates and licorice

bloody awsome licorice gouramis rock stunning fish this just gets better and better mate

 

[Antipofish]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video

Those liqourice gouramies are even lovelier than the chocos 🙂 And the tank is looking fabulous mate.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video

Looks fantastic alistair, makes me really regret not sticking to the emersed route with mine... only would have been over shadowed by this anyway :?
Any sign of some the chocolates getting jiggy with it?
What filter are you running now?

 

[Westyggx]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

Looks awsome mate, is that my E.SChlutueri Leopard looks gorgeous!

Are those albino corys the babies that i saw a few months back?

 

[sarahtermite]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

Wow - you have created an utterly bewitching underwater world there. Your fish look ever so happy, and it's lovely to see. I really like the first pic, too - somehow it manages to look jungly-wild and elegant at the same time. Quite an achievement!

 

[Ian Holdich]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

enjoyed the the vid mate, really good, everything looks super healthy. How do the Liquorice's get on with the Cherries?

 

[Alastair]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle Now with Chocolates and licorice

bloody awsome licorice gouramis rock stunning fish this just gets better and better mate

totally agree mate, gorgeous fish. Im not bigging myslef up but the tank has really exceeded my expectations

Those liqourice gouramies are even lovelier than the chocos 🙂 And the tank is looking fabulous mate.

Thanks matey i cant decide which are nicer, they're unique in their own ways i think.

Looks fantastic alistair, makes me really regret not sticking to the emersed route with mine... only would have been over shadowed by this anyway :?
Any sign of some the chocolates getting jiggy with it?
What filter are you running now?

Thanks buddy, did you get rid of all your emmersed stuff then in your other tank???
funny you mention the getting jiggy with it lol, there are two that are constantly circling each other recently, one being the bright red tailed one in the video and i presume its a he as he chases away any other chocco that comes near them so fingers crossed im hoping so. there's plenty of places for babies to survive in their and my gh is 4, kh 1 and ph 6 so conditions are ideal for them plus all my fish are fed live food daily barring the occasional freeze dried tubifex for the choccos (licorice will only eat live food nothing else).

Filter wise im now running a fluval 306 but set on half flow and mainly packed with mechanical and filter floss.

Looks awsome mate, is that my E.SChlutueri Leopard looks gorgeous!

Are those albino corys the babies that i saw a few months back?

hey matey, well sort of yeah ha ha. its one of the plantlets off the stems it keeps sending up, i snipped it off and attached it to the side of the tank and its throwing out bigger and taller leaves every 3 or 4 days now. im interested to see how big and tall it will go. Doesnt keep its spots for long emmersed though like underwater.
The albinos are 4 of those babies lol, i gave the other god knows how many away although these are now showing signs of getting it owwwwwn

Wow - you have created an utterly bewitching underwater world there. Your fish look ever so happy, and it's lovely to see. I really like the first pic, too - somehow it manages to look jungly-wild and elegant at the same time. Quite an achievement!

Thank you Sarah, i love the way you describe tanks on here, ill use your descriptions instead so i dont have to upload pics ha ha. Thank you 😀

enjoyed the the vid mate, really good, everything looks super healthy. How do the Liquorice's get on with the Cherries?

Hiya Ian, thanks for the comments, i know the vid is rubbish quality but hopefully ill be able to invest in some good camera equipment..........eventually
The licorice dont bother with the cherries, cbs or amanos at all, although i imagine any babies theyll snap up as they hide amongst the mosses and leaf litter anyway plus they will only eat live food so always darting in and out looking for nibbles. Definitely not a fish for a show though, a tank should really be set up around their requirements. I read up for a bit before i got them as i know how hard they are to keep. Lots of sites say they'll accept dried food etc but they don't.

 

[Timms2011]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

I'm lost for words, mate thats outstanding work

 

[AshRolls]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

I have just read through this entire journal, outstanding stuff and very inspiring. Thanks for documenting your efforts Alastair.

 

[Matt1988]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

Looks amazing just about to start up my first planted tank and if I get it half as good looking as yours I'll be happy. One quick question do you buy your live food regularly or do you culture it?

I'd like to try and make my tank as natural looking as pos and try to feed the fish natural live food so I'm on the hunt for some culturing guides 🙂

Matt

 

[dw1305]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

Hi all,
Matt have a look on caudata.org for culturing guides <http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...11-food-live-frozen-freeze-dried-pellets-etc/>, and there are quite a few posts on the BCA forum <http://www.britishcichlid.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=3613&hilit=+Daphnia>, <http://www.britishcichlid.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=1327> & <http://www.britishcichlid.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=7413&hilit=+Daphnia>.

If you are serious about using live food it would be worth getting Mike Hellweg's book "Culturing Live Foods". Feeding live foods offers both long term savings and healthier fish, so it is well worth doing.

cheers Darrel

 

[Alastair]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

Well I'd thought I should pop up just a couple of pics of the tank from last night to keep my journal up to date as haven't been on much recently. Thanks to those who have commented on it since I last posted 🙂



Calathea has gone mental




[

Other than a current problem with hydra break out, which I'll soon have obliterated everything is going great, chocco's are in breeding mode and it appears that I have a female with a full mouth so fingers crossed. She isn't eating and stays in the same area unless I try to take a photograph. I just hope she doesn't spit the eggs too early.
The shrimp are constantly buried but have yet to find babies as I think my various paras and chocco's must hunt them down. Either that or they aren't surviving for some reason.

I reiterate top what Darren says, live food is fantastic and my fish love it. They get the occasional freeze dried tubifex but other than that its banana worm/micro worms twice a day.
Have had someone come take some shots with a cracking camera this week so will see what ones I can stick up. Hopefully my new iPhone 5 this weekend will live up to its promise of good macro shots too.

Thanks everyone for all the positive feed back on this tank so far 🙂


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BigTom]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

Looking brilliant there Al. Still on track to be home at the end of next week so expect some panacur shortly after that.

 

[somethingfishy]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

Wowsers that tank is really looking smart you must be so chuffed

 

[Ian Holdich]

Re: A Chocolate Puddle - quick update with video pg 17

awesome!

get us another vid up!