flatfish

After several days of the eggs "disappearing", I noticed the male with his mouth always closed even when food's near.  Took a video, continued observing and about 15 minutes later, out comes a clutch of fry from his mouth.  Totally surprised!
 
 

Pic below taken a week after video above.  Managed to save about half a dozen fry and put into a 60L tank, with sponge filter.

 
Pic below taken today.  After several weeks, the initial few fry I've managed to save have now grown to slightly more than a centimeter.

 
Also, their parents have managed to spawn and successfully hatched another batch.  But as I've not been able to separate them out into another tank, sadly those fry just became food.

Time for an update.  Yesterday I added the final two fish to this tank - it has taken me since the beginning of last year to source (at the same time) a powder blue tang and a yellow tang which were the last two fish to be added and needed to be added together.  
Final stocking -
pair of Picasso Clowns
Lawnmower Blenny
Chromis x 2
Copperband Butterfly
Schooling Bannerfish (False Idol)
Foxface (Lo) Rabbitfish
Blue Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Yellow Tang
Corals are still a work in progress
 
 
 
 

The little 201's are 5 weeks old now and are starting to show a hint of their polkadots

Well after eating 6 batches of eggs the male finally managed to rear a handful. Things are looking up.

The little 201's are 5 weeks old now and are starting to show a hint of their polkadots

The little 201's are 5 weeks old now and are starting to show a hint of their polkadots

The little 201's are 5 weeks old now and are starting to show a hint of their polkadots

Well after eating 6 batches of eggs the male finally managed to rear a handful. Things are looking up.

The little 201's are 5 weeks old now and are starting to show a hint of their polkadots

Well after eating 6 batches of eggs the male finally managed to rear a handful. Things are looking up.

Well after eating 6 batches of eggs the male finally managed to rear a handful. Things are looking up.

Well after eating 6 batches of eggs the male finally managed to rear a handful. Things are looking up.

I think this is water hyacinth. There is a lot of it around in Laos. We have seen distant fish farms and a few fish, plus we have eaten some too. Now in Vietnam.


 
 

Recommend you read this:  http://aquariumworld.nz/plants/articles/optimising-plant-growth-and-minimising-algae-r6/  and do as much research before starting because if you get things wrong then it can go very wrong.
Carbon:  It's main use is to get rid of dissolved solids and some chemicals from the water so if you add fertilizer then it will remove that fertilizer.  It is only needed / used when there is a problem like removing excess medication, if its not needed (when the aquarium is running well) then its just a waste of money and doing nothing.  It will also only last a couple of weeks so remove it or leave it in there but don't bother with replacing it.  You don't find piles of activated carbon in natural streams or lakes.....
For plants:  More light means more fertilizer (like Flourish) and carbon (like Excel or C02) is needed and likewise more fertilizer & carbon more light is needed.   Too little of any of these 3 things means the plants will die off (how much depends on plant type). And too much will mean the plants won't be able to consume it all (again depends on plant type) and algae will take over the tank.
An easy way of thinking of it is that light supplies the plants energy and the fertilizers / carbon their food.  They can't consume food without energy and can't use the energy without the right amount of food.  BUT algae can happily use one or the other.   Plants will out compete algae if everything is just right but algae will out compete plants if there are too much of one thing or another (especially light).
Its all a matter of balance, finding that balance is specific to your particular tank and what plants you have in it.  So you need to do some research before you start and once running slowly experiment to find the right balance that suits your tank.
 

An update on the upgrade! The move went smoothly as it could for the 80L and I've gotten it settled in with sand and planting. The dwarf hairgrass keeps getting pulled up by the kuhlis but hopefully after a few weeks it may start setting down roots so this doesn't happen... I can always hope. All in all I've moved with only one suspected casualty - a honey gourami female who seemed to have been stressed by the move and developed bloating issues. Apart from that everyone has been fine and I'm even seeing more of my pygmy corys!

Thanks Wacky  
I've managed to get myself down to two tanks. Lost my siamese fighter  but otherwise everyone is going well  
200L
Current inhabitants:
30+ Sterbai corydoras
15x Threadfin Rainbow fish 
17x Harlequin Rasbora
10x Steel Blue Apistos
3x Banjo Catfish 
1x female Guppy 
2x Pearlspot Gourami
1x Indian Green Spiny Eel
1x Blue Phantom Pleco
3x Red Whiptail Catfish 
I've managed to breed my sterbai corydoras and have added 10-15 babies who have now increased my group  I've also added a male pearlspot, 3 red whips, 15 or so Threadfins and a Red Tiger Lotus  I also removed the swords and have extended the java fern clumps further along the tank. The apistos have gotten better colour too :3 


60L
25x Emerald Rasbora (and similar species fish)
9x pygmy corydoras
9x Banded Kuhli Loaches
4x Black Kuhli Loaches
6x Golden Honey Gourami (Trichogaster chuna)
In this tank I've added some more emeralds who have turned out to be a similar species who grows larger  They seem to bicker a bit but are getting along reasonably well for now. 
I've also had a massive BBA growth in this tank but hopefully since I've started dosing excel everything will at least slow down 

I haven't updated on what I've done with my tanks on FNZAS recently, so thought I'd better do something to keep track. I've also had to downgrade recently to just 3 aquariums, which is a huge change as I got up to 8 at one stage, but I'm happy with the tanks I have left.They're not the best aquariums in the world, but they're mine and as always are a work in progress, which is the fun of it after all  

200L Tropical Community

Current tank inhabitants:
21x Sterbai Corydora
17x Harlequin Rasbora
10x Steel Blue Apistos
3x Banjo Catfish 
2x female Guppy 
1x Pearlspot Gourami
1x Indian Green Spiny Eel
1x Blue Phantom Pleco
I recently had a shuffle around in stocking-- I used to have an angelfish pair in this tank who I am very fond of, but unfortunately the male had so much a go at the female that I was very worried about her chances for survival, and so have rehomed them both to a larger tank with Alexyay, where hopefully aggression is more spread with other angelfish in the tank. It has allowed me to add the apistos though, who I am enjoying watching already :3
The banjos, eel and pleco I don't often see, but they are nice 'surprise' fish to bump into a couple of days a week  The sterbai army is marching along really well, and I have a tank full of their babies who have made it through their first month so far  The pearlspot gourami is lovely but I feel like shes a bit lonely, so may get a male/another female down the track. I am also looking into getting some threadfin rainbowfish, and possibly swapping the harlequin rasbora for rocket pencilfish, but that would be a long while from now  Anyone had any experiences with these fish/possible combinations with fish I have in this tank?  
 


60L Almost-Biotype
Current tank inhabitants:
17x Emerald Rasbora
9x pygmy corydoras
9x Banded Kuhli Loaches
4x Black Kuhli Loaches
6x Golden Honey Gourami (Trichogaster chuna)

This is probably the tank I am happiest with at the moment  The rasbora are busy, simple yet beautiful wee fish, the honeys have intriguing wee territorial conflicts and breeding habits to watch, and the kuhlis snuffle along the bottom, hide in tubes and dance on the glass surface when they feel the need. I was going to move along the pygmy corydoras, but they have recently become more active and I've fallen in love with them again, so I'm happy with this being an almost-biotype tank for now  I got a fluval 106 recently and it has done wonders for the water quality and the fish are enjoying the increase in flow  I'll probably tinker with the hardscape and occasionally have wild dreams of upgrading it to a Rubix 80 with a proper shiny stand but am definitely in love with the tank overall  



20ish L Fighter Tank

Inhabitant: Fidget the HMPK male marble siamese fighting fish  

I love this tank for it's inhabitant  had this wee guy about 6 months now and he's still as hyperactive as on day 1, is so cute to watch hunting for live food like a 'real wild fish', ferocious against his mirror, jumps up to bump your finger out of the water, and sleeps in a floating tube. He recently had a downgrade because his bigger version of this tank (an aqua one trio with the dividers ripped out) developed a leak, so he now lives in an aqua one duo with the dividers ripped out . I'll be fiddling with the scape at some stage as am unhappy with it but have been distracted by other things recently. The tank is super stable with readings of under 10 nitrates every time I bother to test it, probably due to the low stocking and the large abundance of plants. All in all its a tank I go to to interact with the fish in it, rather than one that I sit in front of to watch for extended periods of time. 



 

Multicoloured Tiger Endler :



This one is pink at the back - sadly doesn't look that impressive on the pictures:



Blonde Tiger with Wagtail:

Blonde basecolour isn't supposed to show black colour so I'm a bit confused by this fish to be honest. Never seen anything like this before.


Just normal Tiger Endler:



Update from the Glass Belly Guppies:

As you can see nearly all of the silver skin is gone and also the silver layer on the gills. Not many generations to go now !


Another drop of Swallow Tail Guppies. With 25% the best result I had so far:



Cheers,
JaSa

More of the Lutino (WREA) Asia Blau Endler:

 
Something for the blue lovers:

 
Swallow Tail Guppies:

 
Blue and Multi Coloured Tiger Endler:

 
Cheers,
JaSa

Good evening,
 
Black Lace crossed into my Swallow Tail Guppies:

 
Flamenco Dancer:

 
Something new to play with:

 
Blue Tiger Endler:

 
Cheers,
JaSa

Having finally figured out how to do video on the tablet, upload to YouTube, and link it here, here is a video of the elephantnose at feeding time. I couldn't get one of the handfeeding - there is only me here, but this is just after the hand feeding, and they are all snuffling around looking for the food that dropped.
Gligor, you asked where the elephantnose were in the African Butterfly fish video - they go to sleep mid morning, and wake up just before dinnertime, so here they are now 
 

What an awesome looking tank, I particularly like all the plants in it, and the ENFs are looking great - especially in a group!

Ok, so no-one seems terribly interested in elephantnose fish, but they are my all time fav, so I'm going to keep posting anyway - lol.
I had been waiting for more to come into the country, as I wanted to add to the two I had, and they finally came. I bought another 4, which came a couple of days ago, so now have a nice little group of six. They have settled in really well, and are very lively. 
It took almost a month to train Petey to eat out of my hand, and now every time I stick my hand in the tank to clean etc., he gets all excited looking for food. But the new ones saw Petey eating out of my hand, and within 3 days they were all doing it, and even the discus and featherfin sydontis are joining in! It is so cool!
So here is a pic of my new ENF.