South American 400l

[PARAGUAY]

Yeh great photos . Any tips for how get to capture the fish like that Connor

 

[Conort2]

Yeh great photos . Any tips for how get to capture the fish like that Connor

I’m pretty hopeless at taking pictures, I manage to get pictures of the catfish as they’re pretty still whilst eating the blackworm. As for the tetras I just take loads and occasionally the odd one or two turn out ok but it’s pretty rare! Would love to be able to take decent pictures with a good quality camera as these iPhone pictures really don’t highlight the true colours of these fish.

Cheers

 

[Tim Lee]

Great, thank you

 

[PARAGUAY]

Ha ha think your fish pictures not bad at all @Conort2 . Taking with a Motorola which seems Ok .probably take a few like you say. I have a few Barbs never still always active and out of focus

 

[Conort2]

Not sure if the really warm weather was anything to do with it but everything has gone spawning mad in the main tank. Pencilfish and hyphessobrycon spawning regularly however they turn around and eat their spawn almost instantly. The corydoras duplicareus are also in the mood, managed to save a few eggs the other day but only had one hatch. Seems to be doing ok even though I accidentally sucked it up whilst cleaning the breeding box! It’s impossible to see amongst the mulm.

Cheers

 

[Conort2]

Hope you’re all good.

The corydoras seemed to be spawning mode so I thought I’d buy a few spawning mops and Chuck them in the display. Didn’t think anything would come of it and if they did spawn any eggs would get eaten. Was quite surprised to find a fair amount of eggs hidden within them. They’re now in a Tupperware floating in the main tank with some alder cones. Think the problem last time was that I put them in a breeding trap, this didn’t allow the alder cones to protect the eggs as all the beneficial tannins were just lost into the main aquarium. This time I can see the eggs have all got a decent brown protective coating over them from the cones. Hoping I have a better hatch rate this time round.

Cheers

 

[castle]

Hope you’re all good.

The corydoras seemed to be spawning mode so I thought I’d buy a few spawning mops and Chuck them in the display. Didn’t think anything would come of it and if they did spawn any eggs would get eaten. Was quite surprised to find a fair amount of eggs hidden within them. They’re now in a Tupperware floating in the main tank with some alder cones. Think the problem last time was that I put them in a breeding trap, this didn’t allow the alder cones to protect the eggs as all the beneficial tannins were just lost into the main aquarium. This time I can see the eggs have all got a decent brown protective coating over them from the cones. Hoping I have a better hatch rate this time round.

Cheers
View attachment 190356View attachment 190357

Looking good! If not already i'd run an airline tune into the tubs - pinch the tube a bit to reduce flow, but those tubs would benefit from some movement 👍

 

[Conort2]

Looking good! If not already i'd run an airline tune into the tubs - pinch the tube a bit to reduce flow, but those tubs would benefit from some movement 👍

Thank you! There’s one in there I just took it out for the photo, will probably do a near 100percent water change every day on it too. There’s also a few trumpet snails in there to eat any mouldy eggs. They’ll be going into a Ziss breeder box once they hatch.

 

[Conort2]

Hope everyone’s good, been a while since Ive updated but there’s not been too much to report.

Plant growth has started to explode which I’ve found is often the case with low tech, it takes a while to get going but all of a sudden it noticeably speeds up. Algae is receding and plant health is starting to look decent.

Fish wise I have unfortunately lost nearly all my dwarf cichlids. The dicrossus slowly dwindled away and unfortunately I have now lost my pair of apistogramma lineata who were probably my favourite fish. These fish were all adults when I got them so I believe it may be due to old age. The only cichlid left now is the lone apistogramma fry which survived. I am unsure whether I will add anymore cichlids now, I really like apistogramma but the catfish are certainly doing better without the cichlids. The corydoras spawn continually and without any cichlids around and the decent plant cover I’m certain I could get some fry survive in the main tank without intervention. A few of the duplicareus fry have made it which I rescued and are of a size now where they are almost ready to join their parents.

The hyphessobrycon puegoti shown in the earlier posts have matured into beautiful specimens, unfortunately the males prefer to hang in the shadows and it’s normally the females which are on show. Stocking wise not much will change now, I may add some more hyphessobrycon wadai at some point as they’re stunners and always on show. I also have some extremely rare corydoras cw83 growing out in one of the tanks below which I will add soon and hopefully spawn In the future.

Overall pretty happy with how things are going now and will hopefully have some more corydoras fry to raise in the near future as a massive shoal of duplicareus would look impressive.

Cheers

 

[Wookii]

Amazing colours on those tetra @Conort2 - what is the black/orange catfish in your picture above?

 

[ScareCrow]

Absolutely love the view up through the lily pads.

a massive shoal of duplicareus would look impressive.

Totally agree, they're a beautiful fish.

what is the black/orange catfish in your picture above?

I'm going with L134. I'm trying to improve my pleco ID skills, so I could be totally wrong.

 

[Conort2]

Amazing colours on those tetra @Conort2 - what is the black/orange catfish in your picture above?

It’s a young peckoltia compta l134. The pattern breaks more into spots and broken stripes when they mature but the colour remains. There are four adults and two youngsters in there. They’re a great smaller pleco which are hardy and eat anything you give them. They’re often on show and are always out of food is added.

This is one of the adults, it’s a rubbish picture but gives you more of an idea of the adult pattern. This fish still has some growing to do still aswell so the pattern will develop even more yet.

 

[Conort2]

The little duplicareus have grown a fair size and are now with their parents. Only ended up with three growing out to a decent size. They probably need their own separate tank rather than a breeder box to raise them in decent numbers. A great fish and one of my favourites, the colour on these are hard to beat on a corydoras.

Cheers

 

[Conort2]

Hi,

Hope everyone’s good?

Not much to report, tanks ticking along nicely with a massive reduction in algae. I haven’t cleaned the glass in weeks which is a good sign. I have also added a load of ramshorn snails which seems to be keeping the bba at bay once it’s been spot treated with liquid carbon.

Fish seem happy and the corydoras duplicareus are still breeding almost constantly. I leave some spawning mops in and collect eggs when I can. I got a decent fertilised batch the other day which have hatched and appear to be doing well so hopefully I can add to my duplicareus group. No luck with the laser corydoras in here unfortunately but I’ve got a feeling they may need it a bit cooler and harder than the duplicareus so they may go in their own spawning setup in the near future.

Cheers

 

[Conort2]

Hope you’re all good.

The fry are doing really well and I don’t appear to have had any losses this time. Only thing I’ve done differently is feed heavier but also stocked lots of snails to clear up any uneaten food before it rots. They’ll be safe to release in the main tank once they reach the size where they develop their adult colouration.

Will hopefully get the hyphessobrycon peugoti set up to spawn now I have one of my small tanks empty, I just have to try and catch them!

Cheers

 

[mort]

Brings back memories but with adolfoi for me. I think they began to pick up their adult markings after 5-6 weeks but didn't look fully adult until 10-12 weeks.

 

[Conort2]

Brings back memories but with adolfoi for me. I think they began to pick up their adult markings after 5-6 weeks but didn't look fully adult until 10-12 weeks.

Adolfoi are stunners too, all the rio negro orange blotch species are a favourite of mine. I’d love to get hold of corydoras serratus but apparently they all go to japan for silly money. I’ve also got corydoras c121 in here with them. They go through the motions but they require true blackwater conditions to spawn.

The duplicareus spawn almost constantly, I’ve taken out the mops currently as these are enough to be getting on with for now.

 

[Conort2]

One of the last batch of duplicareus youngsters with a female c121. They’re very similar to duplicareus but much harder to breed due to needing strict black water conditions for the eggs to develop properly. These will need their own specific breeding set up to be successful,. Will definitely give them a go one day as they’re beautiful and rarely seen compared to adolfoi and duplicareus.

Cheers

 

[Conort2]

Pencils getting old but still looking good. Parotocinclus has also finally made an appearance looking nice and plump which is good.

Cheers

 

[John q]

Glad the parotocinclus finally turned up to the party.