Re-education.....

[Iain Sutherland]

I'd second Congo Tetra, stunning when settled and would suit your scape.
If you fancy lower level then African butterfly chiclids work well with congos.

The African tank I did is still my all time favourite and that was all because of the stocking... always active and playful and little aggression once the chiclids sorted ranks.

Failing that dwarf neon rainbows???


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[Ady34]

I'd second Congo Tetra, stunning when settled and would suit your scape.
If you fancy lower level then African butterfly chiclids work well with congos.

The African tank I did is still my all time favourite and that was all because of the stocking... always active and playful and little aggression once the chiclids sorted ranks.

Failing that dwarf neon rainbows???


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Stunning fish, and great photos. Many congos Ive seen seem poor quality, I appreciate they don’t colour up fully until mature but those I’ve seen recently in shops are not great. Good ones seem hard to come by.
Dwarf neons are nice too, my son has some in his tank.
Cheerio

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Too true Ady, a lot of poor looking ones out there. MA generally have good quality ones or certainly my local one.
I'm sure what ever goes I will look great in that scape fella.

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[Daveslaney]

A good shoal of Emperor Tetras would look nice.

 

[X3NiTH]

A good shoal of Emperor Tetras would look nice.

If it's the Purple variety (Inpaichthys Kerri) they are gorgeous but make sure it's a decent sized shoal because less than 10 turned into Fight Club for me, and now there are two with half a tank each where mealtimes can get a bit sporty.

🙂

 

[Costa]

Amazon exotics ships wild caught fish, including Congo and Phenacogrammus aurantiacus "Lemon Congo Tetra" Lefini River. They quoted €50/piece for the latter which unfortunately it's out of my budget, but you guys that buy ADA soils and lights might be able to afford a school 🙂

 

[alto]

Amazon exotics ships wild caught fish, including Congo and Phenacogrammus aurantiacus "Lemon Congo Tetra" Lefini River. They quoted €50/piece for the latter which unfortunately it's out of my budget, but you guys that buy ADA soils and lights might be able to afford a school 🙂

Not so much
I’d do my tank (& have some soil left over) with 3 bags ADA, but 3 Lemon Congo Tetra would disappear in the foliage 😛

 

[alto]

My vote, new tank, new fish - choose species you’ve not kept before 😎

As a side I was thrilled with my purchase of a group of 10 strong dwarf chain loach......which I now never see except on a morning when lights are off

Are you certain of the species?
A sidthimunki are lovely fish, I had a group of 6 back when (wild caught) and they were always out & about

I added some of these a couple months ago, they hated the small quarantine tank (only ever saw a single grey fish) but always show up here and there in the main tank
https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/mugilogobius_rexi_en/

Note other sites discuss temperature range etc

 

[Ady34]

A good shoal of Emperor Tetras would look nice.

Yep in numbers they do look cool 😎

If it's the Purple variety (Inpaichthys Kerri) they are gorgeous but make sure it's a decent sized shoal because less than 10 turned into Fight Club for me, and now there are two with half a tank each where mealtimes can get a bit sporty.

🙂

😱 Don’t want that!

Amazon exotics ships wild caught fish, including Congo and Phenacogrammus aurantiacus "Lemon Congo Tetra" Lefini River. They quoted €50/piece for the latter which unfortunately it's out of my budget, but you guys that buy ADA soils and lights might be able to afford a school 🙂

Out of my budget too, so was the soil just had to do a scape with sand only😉

My vote, new tank, new fish - choose species you’ve not kept before 😎



Are you certain of the species?
A sidthimunki are lovely fish, I had a group of 6 back when (wild caught) and they were always out & about

I added some of these a couple months ago, they hated the small quarantine tank (only ever saw a single grey fish) but always show up here and there in the main tank
https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/mugilogobius_rexi_en/

Note other sites discuss temperature range etc

Yeah different fish are nice to keep, I will see what comes up.
I’m pretty sure they are sidthimunki, don’t know any others that look the same. They act and look like them but are very shy currently.....maybe the rocks and wood I thought would offer them fun to nip in and out of simply offer good shelter to hide from humans
Cool little gobies you have, Ive looked at a few rhinogobius species but I’d maybe rather see them in a rocky flowing biofilm laden scape. They may prefer more alkaline water than I can offer also?

Well I carried out my long awaited maintenance tonight, it was filthy and the plants full of settled detrius. Good wafting, sand siphon and a bit of thinning of the old bolbitis leaves to try and encourage new growth will hopefully help. Cleaned pipes, glassware and the co2 diffuser to improve flow and help the co2 mist again which had noticeably reduced.
Boy I’m pleased cabinets have doors, mine is a tip underneath so it’s great to be able to shut it off I remove the cabinet doors during maintenance for ease of access.....photo directly after refilling and during chihiros activity so pretty milky.....



Lights up to 57% intensity. Will monitor co2 tomorrow as cleaning the diffuser will have altered efficiency and I’ve been increasing the pre-light on injection period to optimise levels, hopefully I won’t have gone too far.
I really must get my under tank sorted and tidied 😳

Oh, spotted a few shrimplets tonight also so that’s good news after loosing a few berried cherry shrimp.

Cheerio,

 

[alto]

I’m pretty sure they are sidthimunki, don’t know any others that look the same.

When these first entered the aquarium trade, juveniles were often shipped as sid’s (discussions may still be available in the LOL archives)
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/ambastaia-nigrolineata/
Fish that are “typically” marked seem easy to differentiate, but in LOL discussions (at the time) posters included individuals that were impossible to distinguish (without getting into meristics)
One observation was that A nigrolineata tended to be more reserved (though now there’s discussion that dominant fish may set the behaviour trend for the shoal)

They may prefer more alkaline water than I can offer also?

My group seems happy despite the soft, non-alkaline water ... I’d intended to set up a more suitable tank while they were in quarantine but then thought they’d perished (I’d treated for a ich initially)
I kept feeding the tank occasionally just in case, then finally broke the tank down as I’d not seen what I thought was the last fish, for a week
😱 as I found one, then another, then another for a total of 5 (I’d begun with 6)
With no where really suitable to place them, I dropped them in the 90cm tank so they could be hidden creatures with space to move about in secret (rock, wood, plants)
A couple weeks later they began coming out whenever I approached the tank - obviously waiting on the Food Drop 😉

And now they’re that translucent golden yellow (rather than the odd grey/brown fish I saw occasionally in the Q tank- which did have harder etc water)

I really must get my under tank sorted and tidied 😳

At least you’ve mounted the power bar and not just balanced it on some containers 😳 😳 😳

 

[alto]

bit of thinning of the old bolbitis leaves to try and encourage new growth will hopefully help

Jurijs mit JS has some video from a new tank set up (with GF I believe) where he trims back most of the Bolbitis emerse growth, saying this promotes new submerse leafs

 

[Guest]

Nice FTS...
Is that Blue cylinder an RO unit Ady? And I'd be really interested to know how the tanks plumbing works for emptying and refilling; for future reference if ever I get around to doing something similar 🙄
Did you also mentioned something about a thermostatic mixer tap further back in the journal, if so which one ?

 

[Ady34]

When these first entered the aquarium trade, juveniles were often shipped as sid’s (discussions may still be available in the LOL archives)
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/ambastaia-nigrolineata/
Fish that are “typically” marked seem easy to differentiate, but in LOL discussions (at the time) posters included individuals that were impossible to distinguish (without getting into meristics)
One observation was that A nigrolineata tended to be more reserved (though now there’s discussion that dominant fish may set the behaviour trend for the shoal)

Mmm, never seen those before but yes they look very very similar, almost indistinguishable from sids, so could well be. Would be just my luck that the dominant fish was camera shy

My group seems happy despite the soft, non-alkaline water ... I’d intended to set up a more suitable tank while they were in quarantine but then thought they’d perished (I’d treated for a ich initially)
I kept feeding the tank occasionally just in case, then finally broke the tank down as I’d not seen what I thought was the last fish, for a week
😱 as I found one, then another, then another for a total of 5 (I’d begun with 6)
With no where really suitable to place them, I dropped them in the 90cm tank so they could be hidden creatures with space to move about in secret (rock, wood, plants)
A couple weeks later they began coming out whenever I approached the tank - obviously waiting on the Food Drop 😉

And now they’re that translucent golden yellow (rather than the odd grey/brown fish I saw occasionally in the Q tank- which did have harder etc water)

Ah, pleased they are doing great Always nice when the fish come to you when you approach the tank too.

At least you’ve mounted the power bar and not just balanced it on some containers 😳 😳 😳

Ha, only one power bar is currently mounted, how can I not find the time to sort this out

Jurijs mit JS has some video from a new tank set up (with GF I believe) where he trims back most of the Bolbitis emerse growth, saying this promotes new submerse leafs

Yeah, we discussed this earlier in the journal, Mr. Amano used to do it also, but I wasn’t brave enough as there would have literally been no height or build to the plant mass visually......I wish I had done it now though

Nice FTS...
Is that Blue cylinder an RO unit Ady? And I'd be really interested to know how the tanks plumbing works for emptying and refilling; for future reference if ever I get around to doing something similar 🙄
Did you also mentioned something about a thermostatic mixer tap further back in the journal, if so which one ?

Cheers Tim, the blue unit is a HMA filter, doesn’t strip the water, just removes chlorine, chloramine and other heavy metals. The pluming is pretty basic and not entirely automated. I’ll take more images later to explain better.

Another FTS this morning once things had cleared, just popped the lights on briefly to check things.....



Cheerio,

 

[Costa]

Beautiful, flawless. Tempted to rage-unfollow

 

[Vijay_06]

Simply stunning!!!


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[alto]

Time to trim
-the moss (close to wood Amano style for first 3-4 trims)
-the upwardly mobile pinnatifida (it will start crawling only if you insist), just stash the trimmed stem somewhere and it will continue on, once it’s got roots, pinch out the tip for side shoot formation ... though I’m sure you know all this 😎

 

[sciencefiction]

Smashing tank Ady.

I am voting for the loaches and SAEs or similar. They're gregarious species and a lot more fun than the typical schooling fish I see around in planted tanks. They'd love that sort of tank. The sidthimunki will do the fun part, the SAEs will typically join them and may actually school/play with them if they're in numbers but will also clean up around the place. And then pick a a bunch of smaller schooling fish to patrol the mid and surface waters, something more colorful to offset the black/white/grey, but something active too in order not to get spooked by the active loaches/SAEs.

 

[Ady34]

Beautiful, flawless. Tempted to rage-unfollow

Thank you and ......the plants are far from flawless though

Simply stunning!!!


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Thank you Vijay, very kind words.

Time to trim
-the moss (close to wood Amano style for first 3-4 trims)
-the upwardly mobile pinnatifida (it will start crawling only if you insist), just stash the trimmed stem somewhere and it will continue on, once it’s got roots, pinch out the tip for side shoot formation ... though I’m sure you know all this 😎

Yes, I nearly chopped the fissidens during maintenance but I just couldn’t bring myself too as it’s the only thing that has filled in. I will do it soon though.
As for the pinnatifida, I only have the one bit that has started to sprout upwards but I will nip it right down to encourage sidewards growth. I’m feeling a little like the ‘gorilla’ superglue I used to attach it may have hindered growth somehow. Some of the plants failed completely, some are stunted and only one has now started to show normal healthy growth. I’m sure I read a post somewhere on the forum about this brand of superglue perhaps not being an ideal choice, maybe this is true.
(Found the post: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/loctite-superglue-hydroquinone.56498/)

Smashing tank Ady.

I am voting for the loaches and SAEs or similar. They're gregarious species and a lot more fun than the typical schooling fish I see around in planted tanks. They'd love that sort of tank. The sidthimunki will do the fun part, the SAEs will typically join them and may actually school/play with them if they're in numbers but will also clean up around the place. And then pick a a bunch of smaller schooling fish to patrol the mid and surface waters, something more colorful to offset the black/white/grey, but something active too in order not to get spooked by the active loaches/SAEs.

Thanks sciencefiction, I have sae and the dwarf chain loach. The dcl did school with the sae on introduction but have now become more reclusive. Just today a few of them are becoming more adventurous so fingers crossed I will get the interesting behaviour I wanted. The sae are always on the go, cleaning, sparring and even hunting weak shrimp 😱
I’m considering adding a group of sumo loach but a little concerned they may be too boisterous.
Saw some lovely dumbo female fighters today also which were a consideration. An odd choice but the colours were lovely. Ooooh, choices choices, I may just go all eclectic and mix it right up, I do love the fish and there’s just some many to choose from 😀

Cheerio,

 

[sciencefiction]

The sae are always on the go, cleaning, sparring and even hunting weak shrimp

Do they have a black blotch around the anal area? I am just trying to determine the species you've got.

Loaches in general may need a bit more time to settle in, perhaps weeks, but once they do, they should be quite bold dancing at the front. SAEs seem to be confident in big groups too, very social fish that needs its own species. Most people buy 1 or 2 of them and wonder why they disappear or become reclusive.

 

[alto]

Saw some lovely dumbo female fighters today also which were a consideration. An odd choice but the colours were lovely.

A “sorority” group of Betta splendens usually does fine in a tank this size - just pick up 10-12 females
Chances of peaceful coexistence is improved with juvenile fish (avoid egg bound mature females as these can be reluctant to acclimate to “sorority” life, also losses are more likely due to inability to release/reabsorb egg masses ... depending)
A true “sorority” with juvenile females from same brood is a different experience than buying in unrelated females
ie have the fun of breeding your own Betta and grow out the spawn in this amazing tank! 😎

You can also add several Betta ‘Giant’ males or females or mixed group to an aquarium of this size (but these are usually much more expensive) - I noticed that Chen Betta had some nice coloured ‘Giants’
(though I personally prefer HMPK)

One comment re dumbo Betta - they often do better longterm in lower flow aquariums, there are compromises with the ‘dumbo’ gene, especially dumbo + dragon scale (as both may affect respiratory ability), also dumbo + rosetail
(again, personally I’d avoid rosetail in a community aquarium, and especially in a high flow system)
Consequences are often minimal in young fish, becoming more apparent with maturity

Note that Rosetail is in most Halfmoon lines these days, but as both appear to be multi-loci, the effects are variable over a fairly broad range

Apologies for the lecture 😳