@alto suggested something smart (and kinda obvious can't believe I didn't think of it before) to me in a message, that I should set this tank up first as a grow-up tank for the baby apistos, so they have a bigger space to grow into, which I think is a great idea. I just need my first filter - I think an Oase biomaster thermo 600, so can work with lowtch or hightech later. Will set the tank up with seeded media, new+ old sand, a really big load of dried leaves, a bit of misc wood I have, maybe a few basic epiphytes and a lot of floating plants as a low tech while they grow so they can get to a good size for the shop. The babies are rapidly getting bigger now and a bit squeezed in the 60L, and motherfish would clearly prefer they left, I think it would help a lot with water quality in both tanks.
I'm going to use this as a chance to test out doing the water changes, as I think I could start with filling the tank and get used to the new regime, and see whether I can manage a 50% weekly, or 25% double weekly, small amounts daily, etc. Or I'll learn that 50% weekly will kill me, and go no CO2. @alto mentioned that the fish might benefit from a bit of extra tap water as well, so it will be mixed as we've been chatting about here, and we'll see how that goes. I think if I go no CO2 I can still achieve something really beautiful, I just wanted to try it out and get to have some beautiful colourful textured stem plants, but it would also be a great challenge to try and make something just as beautiful without CO2.
Will order my filter tonight I think!
Ps. if anyone wants a group of unsexed (ish, I might be able to make some guesses) Apistogramma Macmasteri Redmask juveniles I think there are some big enough to go as most are 2cm, with maybe 4-6 being 3cm. If interested, they'd have to be picked up from South London I don't think I can ship. Of course people can wait longer too and get them bigger lol, but they're already very cute and funny and it is a joy to see them grow, so I get it if people are interested in that. I think I will try to set up this tank this weekend, so I could sort some of the bigger ones out then if anyone was interested. No worries if not, I can always give them to the shop and do enjoy watching them grow 🙂 Will post this in my other thread too in case and merge that thread with this one.
Below are some photos, you can see that the babies are really getting bigger. Apologies that they're quite blurry, they are so fast! I also included a photo of a baby lotus plant I found yesterday which doing some trimming, perfect timing for it to grow a new plant, that's definitely going in the new tank. Not sure if you can tell, I bought some hygrophila from @Konrad Michalski for another tank, but he gave me such a big portion i added some to this tank too, and it looks great with the grasses. Definitely going to be using more of it soon, it's such a lovely plant that really reminds me of oak saplings.
In these photos they mostly look like males, but a week ago they mostly looked like females with black eye slits and dark front fin bits, so I guess we'll see! The temp has been 26 the whole time, so should be an even mix of sexes, fingers crossed.
I'm going to use this as a chance to test out doing the water changes, as I think I could start with filling the tank and get used to the new regime, and see whether I can manage a 50% weekly, or 25% double weekly, small amounts daily, etc. Or I'll learn that 50% weekly will kill me, and go no CO2. @alto mentioned that the fish might benefit from a bit of extra tap water as well, so it will be mixed as we've been chatting about here, and we'll see how that goes. I think if I go no CO2 I can still achieve something really beautiful, I just wanted to try it out and get to have some beautiful colourful textured stem plants, but it would also be a great challenge to try and make something just as beautiful without CO2.
Will order my filter tonight I think!
Ps. if anyone wants a group of unsexed (ish, I might be able to make some guesses) Apistogramma Macmasteri Redmask juveniles I think there are some big enough to go as most are 2cm, with maybe 4-6 being 3cm. If interested, they'd have to be picked up from South London I don't think I can ship. Of course people can wait longer too and get them bigger lol, but they're already very cute and funny and it is a joy to see them grow, so I get it if people are interested in that. I think I will try to set up this tank this weekend, so I could sort some of the bigger ones out then if anyone was interested. No worries if not, I can always give them to the shop and do enjoy watching them grow 🙂 Will post this in my other thread too in case and merge that thread with this one.
Below are some photos, you can see that the babies are really getting bigger. Apologies that they're quite blurry, they are so fast! I also included a photo of a baby lotus plant I found yesterday which doing some trimming, perfect timing for it to grow a new plant, that's definitely going in the new tank. Not sure if you can tell, I bought some hygrophila from @Konrad Michalski for another tank, but he gave me such a big portion i added some to this tank too, and it looks great with the grasses. Definitely going to be using more of it soon, it's such a lovely plant that really reminds me of oak saplings.
In these photos they mostly look like males, but a week ago they mostly looked like females with black eye slits and dark front fin bits, so I guess we'll see! The temp has been 26 the whole time, so should be an even mix of sexes, fingers crossed.
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If you have a big water carton or something I can give you some of my rainwater too (like 20L or something) to ease them in, in case that helps.