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The Nymph's Spring (EA900)

Think it’s an oxyropsis, I’d say it’s pretty rare.

I’ve never seen one for sale, shame you only have the one as it’ll be difficult to source more. Price doesn’t always mean rare either, you can some really cool rare contaminants in South American wild caught shipments.

cheers
Aha! Thank you very much, that's definitely it. This image looks exactly like mine on the glass, apparently Oxyropsis carinata. It's rare enough that I've never heard of it!

oxyropsis_carinata2.jpg


Oxyropsis-carinata.jpg

I look back now and think damn, I should've got all of them (there were only 4/5 or so). Or kept none and not let my dad convince me to get just a few (he is a terrible influence lol). I actually got this guy at ADC , I'll ask them next time I'm there if they will ever stock more, and maybe ask the fish barn. Hopefully a few more will appear as bycatches at some point. On the other hand, if anyone has, or knows someone with a colony of these I would gladly give this little guy up so he can live with some friends.

Any tips for sourcing these and other rare "contaminant" fish? Just out of curiousity really. Recently I discovered the existence of the emerald oto and that's become the holy grail of fish to me.
 
Any tips for sourcing these and other rare "contaminant" fish? Just out of curiousity really. Recently I discovered the existence of the emerald oto and that's become the holy grail of fish to me.
Just any shops that get wild caught South American orders in really. You often get contaminants with wild cardinals and wild apistogrammas can always be abit of a lottery in regards to what fish you get. Likewise with some of the corydoras species that come in.

Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll be getting any emerald ottos as a contaminant as nice as that would be ha, as they’re found down in the south. However I have definitely seen them available in the past but they’re a rarity for sure.

Cheers
 
Just any shops that get wild caught South American orders in really. You often get contaminants with wild cardinals and wild apistogrammas can always be abit of a lottery in regards to what fish you get. Likewise with some of the corydoras species that come in.

Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll be getting any emerald ottos as a contaminant as nice as that would be ha, as they’re found down in the south. However I have definitely seen them available in the past but they’re a rarity for sure.

Cheers
So a shop that orders wild-caught fish will buy some wild cardinals, and in the bag there'll be a few other random fish in it? How exciting! I will ask around so the shops know if any some in I want them. I'm actually planning a visit to the Fish Barn for the first time over the next month, really can't wait to see all those lovely fish they have irl. Will have to exhibit some real restraint 😂 It's nice to go there knowing that I have a little bit of space to fill though.

I get the feeling those emerald otos are real £££ when they do appear, so definitely something for further in the future. They'd make a fantastic breeding project. I love those green darter tetra too, anything luminious green and interesting like that deserves a place on the "love to keep" list. I have a secret hankering with my next blackwater wabi-kusa pond tank to keep those with dicrossus and one or two other slightly odd SA fish.
 
So a shop that orders wild-caught fish will buy some wild cardinals, and in the bag there'll be a few other random fish in it? How exciting! I will ask around so the shops know if any some in I want them. I'm actually planning a visit to the Fish Barn for the first time over the next month, really can't wait to see all those lovely fish they have irl. Will have to exhibit some real restraint 😂 It's nice to go there knowing that I have a little bit of space to fill though.

I get the feeling those emerald otos are real £££ when they do appear, so definitely something for further in the future. They'd make a fantastic breeding project. I love those green darter tetra too, anything luminious green and interesting like that deserves a place on the "love to keep" list. I have a secret hankering with my next blackwater wabi-kusa pond tank to keep those with dicrossus and one or two other slightly odd SA fish.

If you ever find any Green Darters, let me know, I'd love some of them!! :thumbup:

61e9ff303137803fc79b8333bfb50061_large.jpg
 
So a shop that orders wild-caught fish will buy some wild cardinals, and in the bag there'll be a few other random fish in it?
Sometimes, but not always. Odd tetras often come in with cardinals and sometimes the odd small apisto if you’re lucky.
 
If you ever find any Green Darters, let me know, I'd love some of them!! :thumbup:

61e9ff303137803fc79b8333bfb50061_large.jpg
They're sooooooooooo cuteeeeee! Darter tetras are just fascinating. Not surprised that both you and @Conort2 are also after some!

They’re on my list as well, I’ve asked a few people to bring some in if they see them so I’ll give you a heads up if they ever do.
Yes please, if they became available I'd set up my blackwater remarkably quickly. Only fish with funny faces or weird colours need apply.

Are there any other fascinating fish you're after? No competing, but you have great taste and I love hearing about what's possible to keep.
 
Are there any other fascinating fish you're after?
I’m pretty much all done now, there’s only so many fish I can fit in that 400l. Will add some of the darter characins if they ever appear anywhere and also hyphessobrycon peugoti but they’re so rare it may never happen unfortunately. I know pier aquatics got some in a while ago but I’ve not heard of any others around since.
 
I’m pretty much all done now, there’s only so many fish I can fit in that 400l. Will add some of the darter characins if they ever appear anywhere and also hyphessobrycon peugoti but they’re so rare it may never happen unfortunately. I know pier aquatics got some in a while ago but I’ve not heard of any others around since.
You do already have an amazing selection of fish in there. It's nice to have a few almost-impossible fish on the list I think, hopefully you'll get a nice surprise one day!
 
So every day this week I've been monitoring the CO2 and it is really weird and variable. From what I can tell, every morning when the CO2 comes on (8am), the bubble count is either faster or slower than what I sent it at the day before, and I have to adjust it back to the approx. level it should be. I don't really know why it's doing that or what to do to change it, tbh I'm thinking of just buying a new regulator (this one was second hand) so I don't have to worry, and then later on can fiddle with this one and see if I can get it working. Some of my plants are doing well but certainly not all, especially the stem plants at the back so I really need to get it up to scratch, and the "carpet" at the front which is just a pile of dying plants atm.

The flow seems good though (I moved the drop checker and it was bright green at the back in the afternoon once the CO2 level was right, I add 35ml ferts every day and the light is at 50% so I think it's the regulator. I haven't had hardly any algae yet (just a bit in the mosses at the top) and I really want to sort this out. It's just obviously things are dodgy but I've checked all the connections for leaks, and once I've redialed the CO2 things seem fine but clearly it's quite unstable like this. I also have a full CO2 bottle so with the new reg I'll put it with that too which hopefully will help!
 
OK been fiddling with the co2 again and got it up to a higher rate again, the dropchecker is properly lime green and there are bubbles all over the tank, and my anubias is pearling a lot. We'll see if tomorrow morning the rate resets itself again, if it does then I'll get a new regulator.

The only thing is that in the back right corner there are significantly less bubbles, a few but not that many. Due to the positioning of the wood I have no idea how to get more co2 bubbles there, even with another powerhead or something I can't really see where I'd position that to make a difference. Currently my CO2 comes out of a jet lily pipe rather than a normal one, so I'm going to try to swap those over and see if that wider shape helps spread co2 any better.

What do you guys do about "dead corners"? Originally I wanted loads of stems there but maybe that is the wrong thing to try with this giant wood in the way. Maybe I should put an echinodorus there and some grass or something else easy and the stems can be a bit more in the middle where they won't suffer. Another kinda-mad idea is to get the new regulator for my main in-line co2, and then had a little separate diffuser at the back left corner (there is the second lily pipe above it to distribute across the whole back). Probably overkill but I'm not sure how else to deal with it.

The back left corner seems ok, the co2 goes over the wood and down there, lots of lovely bubbles.
 
C. Balansae for dark low flow corners, as long as your not in any hurry.
Cheers!
Aha! Of course! Crypts! That is a good suggestion thank you. Balansae is particularly beautiful too 😍
 
So I've been monitoring the CO2 and definitely every morning it's completely different, and every day I have to reset it. I think I reset it slightly too high yesterday as I had my first jumper - an amano shrimp almost 2m from the tank! But luckily my boyfriend noticed it and it went straight back in the tank alive and kicking. I've ordered a new regulator for piece of mind, risking the fish is NOT IT. I'm hopeful the regulator I have now can be fixed with a clean or something, but I don't feel confident enough doing it without a real backup. If I can fix it, it can just go on another tank maybe (the 45L? 👀).

Luckily I got a bit of work in so have a bit of money for that, I also splashed out on 2 pairs of 16/22 double taps to go on my inlet, so I can take that off and add a hose to suck all the mulm out. The mulm will all go into the prefilter, which immediately after I'll take out and clean, I think it'll be much more efficient this way and I can save any shrimps that get sucked in too. I hate siphoning this big tank with a bucket, it doesn't feel like I ever get enough out.

Will take a photo of the tank today, some things are growing (anibias and scismatoglotis have new leaves, yay!), but also some things look awful (monte carlo) which I think I might just remove, there are some green tips but I feel it's just gonna screw the water quality and promote algae. As soon as I get this new regulartor I'm going to buy some new plants to fill in the massive gaps.
 
Probably the needle valve on the CO2 variability - the one that come with the regs, like the CO2 Art ones, are crap. I had the same issue on my CO2 Art Elite reg.

I got this needle value eventually, and ran it online after the reg, and it’s been faultless for me:

 
Probably the needle valve on the CO2 variability - the one that come with the regs, like the CO2 Art ones, are crap. I had the same issue on my CO2 Art Elite reg.

I got this needle value eventually, and ran it online after the reg, and it’s been faultless for me:

Aha! Big thanks for this, I'll try it out. Glad it's not just a problem for me, I did a search but couldn't find much which made me more worried lol. What a shame that the ones they come with have this problem, co2 is stressful enough!
 
bardills have the standard darters in at the moment.
ooooh these darters are so cute, if I didn't already have the pygmy cories these would've been a great fish to keep! I'm so jealous of all the great fish shops you seem to have close!
 
Tank updates:

On Sunday I added the 7 pygmy cories, and 2 sparkling gouramis from my dad's 45L to this tank. I'm really glad I moved them, there used to be more cories (11), and in this tank one of the gouramis immediately tried to eat a medium-sized cull shrimp, confirming my dad's suspicions that they were eating the baby crystal shrimps. There's more to this update in my other journal The Mossy Spider, the crystals now have their own tank to live in, shared with the refuge black shrimps from this tank that I've saved from the jaws of Mr Apisto (who I now call Mr Daffodil, inspired by his Narcissus-like staring at himself in the glass and lovely long orange fins).

As the pygmy corydoras were IMMEDIATELY SO CUTE AND HAPPY .... I bought 19 more yesterday. Only asked for 15 but the guy couldn't be bothered to count them all and I'm not complaining, so now I have a lovely group of 26. Honestly, what an absolute delight. The fish from the shop went in the tank, were shocked for 5 mins (I did drip acclimate), then were swimming around happily all together, wiggling joyfully, with the original pygmies joining them, and they haven't stopped since. They sometimes swim in a big school, sometimes small groups, sometimes in pairs, and often sit on the bottom and sift the sand but they're all active and using all parts of the tank. I guess they will settle down in a few weeks and I'll never see them again, but fingers crossed with this size group and scaping it will be ok. Honestly if I had a bigger tank I'd get 100. Another benefit is as they're so small, they really enhance the scale of the tank marvelously. A+ fish, would recommend.

I also bought 10 more kuhli loaches, which are so tiny - the size of matchsticks. Again, I only wanted 6 - 8, but when there's only 10 left in the shop, who am I to say no to a few more? Obviously they're very shy but they've come out to eat sinking loach pellets which is a great start.

The sparkling gouramis are a bit hmmmmm right now because the apistos don't like them, and seem to single them out to chase more than the other fish, it seems the apistos understand that they are more of a threat than the other peaceful fish. On the other hand they seem to invite it, because they often follow Mr Daffodil around curiously, and then get chased when he realises it, though he hasn't actually got them. I wish I had space for another nano tank that they could live in as a group alone, but I don't. I think things will be alright long term once my plants have grown in more (buying more plants today to fill in the gaps left by co2 dodginess), they like to really hide and ambush.

Finally... Ms Apisto has confirmed that they can indeed breed and have eggs hatch in this 50/50 rain/tap tank, by coming out this morning with an enormous group of babies. They're currently nomming on the wood, hopefully there's some good microfauna in there for them. Not sure how many, if any, will make it, but she's scaring every fish away successfully right now, and I'm adding a little extra live food daily to keep the others satisfied.

Pics tonight, going to finally harass my partner enough to get the camera out as my phone is really not up to the job.
 
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I guess they will settle down in a few weeks and I'll never see them again, but fingers crossed with this size group and scaping it will be ok. Honestly if I had a bigger tank I'd get 100. Another benefit is as they're so small, they really enhance the scale of the tank marvelously. A+ fish, would recommend.
Much as I love them, I wont get them again for this very reason. They are amazingly cute, but like the x-files, I have to believe they are out there in my tank as I only catch glimpses of them. There are 10 or so in my 50l tank but I actually believed them dead for a long time, until for some reason the whole group came out of the foliage a month or so ago and to my surprise all were still present. They all looked happy enough, not skinny, so I'm guessing they are just happy where they are, but for me it means I'll get fish a bit less shy next time, because this is somewhat extreme :) I see one or 2 occasionally resting here and there but thats it :(
 
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