Sophia

how long do you plan on keeping this one for i said to my husband the other day, look at it this way, rescaping the tank is a cheap way to practise a repressed interior design hobby...

that's a good idea, low maintenance and good hiding places when they get bigger you can use it as a net to catch them!!!

fry seen again last night. Could swear it is a different one as it seemed smaller than the last time. I need a way of getting them to gather up for posing so I know if it's the same one or if there are more :roll: growwwww little fries!

I might be misreading your original comment Dennis, but having crystal clear water is not the same as having crap floating about after you disturb the bottom when cleaning... do you gravel vac? Do you swish all the stuff up? How do you get the water out when doing a change? If the bottom never gets disturbed in cleaning then no you won't see any debris floating around. I have always had clear water, maybe verging on yellowy with the ferts I use, and when I get the siphon going it stirs up the bottom. It calms down again after a while and the debris settles in the corners or wherever.

sssh you aren't supposed to see the net! It's a bit of an experiment but when it grows out I think the fry will like to hide in there. you are too kind!!! thanks for the compliment

fundulopanchax scheeli too please!

Planted more ambulia today - lots more lush greenery and places to hide next plan is some moss on the sticking out branch of the log, and some dwarf chain sword in among the hydrocotyle and to eventually make the log look like it's sitting in grass

here's a picture of my makeshift scraper I couldn't find a razor blade with a safe side so I stuck a double against a piece of metal and masking taped it to the end of a useless other kind of scraper I bought. very rudimentary :lol: but it worked and I was exceedingly gentle as I'm paranoid about scratching the glass

join a club and you get Aquarium world magazine for free, otherwise can buy it viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11615

I saw some comments about duckweed like that when I was looking into floating plants. In 'my reality' duckweed is easy to get rid of, you just pook it out with out with tweezers or net touch a bunch of it with a sponge or such like and the little leaves stick to it.

I have duckweed and riccia together and I like the duckweed best with the trailing roots and butterfly shaped leaves. However unless you get heaps of it to make a carpet I think riccia is better at blocking the light as it's thicker. Judging by your request in trade section I can see you've made your mind up anyway

am looking forward to the photos when you are underway

Started a new thread as it’s not a treescape anymore... more au naturel now 8) 50cm long. 28 front to back. 30 deep. Full shots Left side – cabomba, ambulia, small twisted val at the back Riccia rock (a week old), log planted with new windelov fern, scraps of other fern that survived from earlier – far right corner you can just see scrap of wood where eggs are Crypt walkerii and tiger lotus. Lotus puts out a new leaf every few days and is starting to lengthen the stalks to the surface now. Crypt didn’t melt, I cut off 2 emersed leaves, I think there is 1 left. There is also a Retrospiralis crypt at the very back, you can see one leaf poking out behind the windelov. That one has had a couple of leaves melt so far. Riccia and duckweed on the surface. Original thread viewtopic.php?f=15&t=47536 in case you wish to compare or see plant growth and changes. I wouldn’t have guessed the riccia would spring back so well. I think it will take over soon!

I took the driftwood out to attach more plant this morning, and on a scrappy little piece that has a scrappy piece of half brown java fern, I found 5 eggs stuck in among the roots. Like little pearls, but clear. Little daddy fish hangs out there, I suspect they are his brood. Unless he's tenderising them for snacks at dusk. the plant I added was windelov and it has a really good set of roots, I think this will be one of the new egg laying places.

cool

My ex-boat builder husband says: either epoxy resin with a pigment additive colour of your choice that you can get from Adhesive Technologies, or a polyester based Flowcoat. The surface of Gelcoat won't go completely hard unless it's seperated from air, which is usually when it's stuck between a mould and the fibreglass it's being stuck to. If you used Gelcoat to paint on like this, the surface would always be a bit tacky. There are ways around this but probably too complicated for a DIY project. Another option is to use epoxy based 2 pot marine paint like Allcraft, suitable for being submersed all the time.

haha P44 tonight they will have something else, next time they get it I'll try a different method.

look at this little piggie! I bought them some freeze dried brine shrimp and the guy in the shop said you can stick to the side of the tank. So I broke off a little fingernail sized blob and stuck it there and Madame Pigfish raced up and stole the lot. She must have known she had the jackpot because she raced off the corner to see about digesting it in privacy, but it was far too much. She sat there with the whole thing in her mouth for a minute before spitting it out again. I spoiled the fun by retrieving the main blob. Moments later she had forgotten that her stomach was now the size of pregnant guppy and was back for more. I take it that this is normal behaviour? Makes me think I'm not feeding enough but I must be. At dinner time they get what they can eat in 5 mins of whatever is on the menu and I make sure everyone gets some. They get breakfast about half the week, depending how much they ate the night before.

can you get hydra from freeze dried brine shrimp or is it just a live brine shrimp thing?

sounds like his left some brain cells in Bulgaria or maybe he was colour blind!!! :roll:

If you don't keep it trimmed does it sneak or break off to other parts of the tank and attach to things like java moss? Or does it just get bigger as a plant by itself? I'm trying to decide whether to ditch my riccia stone and switch to xmas moss. thanks

:bounce:

thanks it doesn't look like this any more as the wood had to be removed. I will post new pics soon.