Alexyay's tanks 02/02/14

[alexyay]

I know, hence why he's the called the skinny one.

[TomGilberg]

fantastic photography!

[NoFishing]

fantastic photography!

:iag: :nfs:

[alexyay]

Thanks :thup:

Here's a quick (cruddy) video of him bubblenesting -

[Sophia]

got a full tank shot to send in for POTM?

please?

[alexyay]

got a full tank shot to send in for POTM?

please?

Tanks are currently covered in plants which I'm growing lol :c will look at it tomorrow.

[Insectile]

What is the fish above the khuli in pic 5?

[alexyay]

It's a threadfin rainbowfish they only had one in stock but I'm planning on building up a school of 7 over a period of time. A cruddy photo of it - I swear it's impossible to get photos of (I can never get its face in focus lol)

[alexyay]

:nilly: I need some DPF help!

So I've isolated the skinniest guy in a breeder net so that he could at least get some food... but now I've discovered that any food that he gets just goes right through him? I've used a dewormer that I got from the Bird Barn (they don't know what it's called, it's called de-wormer from the importer) but that was at the beginning of the week and I presume it would have taken effect by now? Are there any other anti-parasite medications I should buy? Should I contact HFF to see if they can send anything down for me?

When I say any food is going right through him - he ate some white worms, and it came out the other end still wriggling :sick: I don't know about the other skinny-ish one but the fat one is looking to be just fine. Help!

[calculator]

You may want to post that in a seperate thread in the 'diseases' board as more people will see it and respond. Sorry I can't offer any help.

[alexyay]

Some real cruddy photos and an update -

Gosh, everything has been pretty messy.

My 90L's Aqua Clear HOB filter (my favourite filter too ) leaked - had been doing this for a few days to a week. Fortunately insurance is covering everything but the carpet moulded and dirty water got into the wall. And luckily I was cycling an Aqua One 1000 canister on the same tank so filtration was covered. And, if that wasn't enough, the next week I was cleaning the tank and noticed water piling up to one side. Wiped it down, and the water kept flowing. It was a 2nd hand tank and the silicone had been re-done (really awfully done), but I had hoped that if I didn't touch the silicone it wouldn't leak :tears: However the day before we were coming back from Fielding - Mum was at a friends talking about my fish and they said "Hey, we've got a spare tank if you want it?" - so I had a nice new-looking 120L to put everything into. So at about 8pm we did a panicked switch from one tank to the other and everything was a mess - rocks were everywhere and I didn't have enough substrate, so it's not until recently that I've scaped the tank and make it look almost presentable.

Well, I guess I was planning on upgrading...

The skinny puffer got pop-eye and got really sick, but he managed to stay alive and is looking a lot better. He's still blind in the eye and it's still "pop"y but there's not much I can do. I had to give away the other puffer (who is way healthier but I'm attached to this guy lol) because he was beating him up and competing for food.

I have a black neon tetra which looks like it's going to explode - we think it's egg bound, but it's been like this for 4-5 weeks so we're not sure what to do. It's still eating and shoaling with the others, so it doesn't appear sick or unhappy.

I got a new fighter - a blue mustard gas dragonscale HM - it's hard to tell but he's gooorgeous when he flares. (ahh, the tank is being attacked by GSA again, sorry)

I also got myself a killi trio (orange lyretail), but one came home with what we thought was cauliflower disease, and quickly turned into a fungal infection - we lost her, the other one also wouldn't eat and got lethargic and died. The temperature was a bit too high, but the male was looking super healthy. We could only buy them in pairs so we got a female-male pair - the male is at Dad's in his own little tank, and the female is in my tank looking pretty healthy. She hasn't spawned yet and is getting chased constantly by the male, so we're looking for three more at the moment (one more for my tank, two more for his).

Tanks -

21L - killi tank

Stock - Male and female pair, Aphyosemion australe "orange"

Super messy 31L - puffer tank

Stock - one dwarf puffer (unsure of sex)

When I had the 90L, the 31L shared its lighting - but when I changed I had to find some more lighting for it. I bought a 2nd hand Aqua One T5-LO 18W unit (flickers when it turns on?), but changed to a 10W LED flood light. The flood light seemed to keep the plants happy, but I gave it to Dad and switched back to the Aqua One unit. Then after a week of being away (no changes in ferts or anything), my amazon sword lost most of its leaves, my barthii sword now has two leaves left (was looking really healthy before that) and my riccia moss turned into brown mulch. Ew. So once I get paid I'll try switching to the Beamswork LEDs.

70L also messy planted tank.

Stock -

1x Betta

7x gold pristella tetras

6x black neon tetras

1x regular BN

2x calico longfin BNs

Plants sitting around the front are just being revived and are there so I can keep an eye on them. The sword has literally outgrown the tank and its leaves are now growing in the tank hood.

Also, when can you split an anubias rhizome (also, what species is this? I was given it for free about a year ago)

And last of all, the 120L - also pretty messy planted tank.

Stock -

2x red thicklipped gourami (I still haven't put them in a breeding tank, but I did get them breeding - except he hadn't bubblenested and all the eggs got eaten)

1x SAE (temporary, was supposed to clean up the BBA, hasn't done that yet but is feasting on the green hair algae)

5x threadfin rainbows (males have their "maturity" stripes now - the lone guy is looking a LOT happier too now that he's got buddies. They're gorgeous when they flare their fins, waiting for the females to become plump with eggs and may have a go breeding them?)

3x otos (Not having much luck with these - just regularly losing any new ones, lost on in the emergency tank transfer, and lost the egg bearing one which I think maybe became eggbound)

5x red whiptail catfish (growing out two of them for Dad)

5x Kuhli loach

1x L129

The side walls of this tank are being overloaded with GSA, but not sure what would be strong enough to eat GSA - but it's a new tank so I'll give it time to settle. Also got some BBA issues with this tank, it's manageable but just a pain.

(Do you guys reckon some american flagfish would be OK in this tank? Looking at 1 male, 2-3 females)

Here's the thicklipped gourami bubblenesting and breeding -

[Li@m]

(also, what species is this? I was given it for free about a year ago)

Its SAURURUS CERNUUS

[alexyay]

I didn't know it was a true aquatic - but this doesn't have a stem, does it?

[ss_boy86]

that mjustard gas male is nearly identical to the one i had not long ago. but mine died he was getting old. have plenty of offspring from him though

[alexyay]

that mjustard gas male is nearly identical to the one i had not long ago. but mine died he was getting old. have plenty of offspring from him though

This guy is apparently an import to definitely not one of his offspring - but I plan on breeding him to a nice female (I have a lot of research to do first) once I move (in a few months time)

[alexyay]

Update time?

Pics first for those who don't want to read the long wordy stuff.

Two bad photos of a male american flag fish - he's camera shy

Female american flag fish

oto - I can never get these guys in focus, I think it's because they don't have enough texture so my lens gets confused

Thicklipped gourami

Red whiptail cat

Male threadfin rainbow - I think my camera also can't get a point of focus on these guys (I have a couple of ideas but it would be a PITA to do) - I can have a clear shot of them with the focal point in the middle and the camera goes "what?" as it's trying to focus on the bodies and gets confused when it's trying to focus on something just grey - so I need to move the focal area to the right or left to get the eye but yeah it's just a pain lol. These guys are bloody fast and it's really hard to get them when they're flaring. I hate hate hate photographing threadfin rainbows.

Female - sorry she was close to the top so the flash was quite strong on her and there's particles in the way D:

Male a australe "orange"

Female (bottom photo gal has always been small and sickly - she was from HFF, top gal was from a TMer from Chch - top gal has only been there for a month but is way bigger than the HFF girl who has always had the very reddened gills and sad looking body - was really disappointed in their killies overall)

Hara cat (colour and soft focus is all wrong on these guys, sorry)

Bad pic, just some otos hanging out - they danced after this as they usually do after a nice water change

Update update post is coming next.

[alexyay]

Tanks - I'm hopefully moving in the next 4-5 weeks, so these will all look different when I re-set them up.

70L - is looking pretty sad at the moment. I've discovered my constant issues with stem plants dying is probably because of lighting at the back of the tank. I think the filter is in the way so they don't get as much light as they do when at the front - I put them in the front to thrive, move them to the back where they die, so I have to move them back to the front to revive them again.

Anyway, it's pretty atrocious to look at. The Java fern won't take hold so it's floating. All my dwarf baby tears just died (they were thriving, and then they all just withered). The large sword was given to Monzae as it outgrew my tank, so I'm currently trying to grow one of its pups (can't really be seen). The E uruguayensis just came from TM so yeah that isn't established. Cabomba is giving me the same issues as the ambulia where it just grew straggly and raggedy. The only nice looking plant at the moment is the crypt to the left which is growing surprisingly well (not sure on what species it is, was given to me for free)

After I move I'll ditch the awful gravel mix and also make the new gravel deeper - there's not enough so plants regularly fall out of place if not rooted properly

- 8 Black neon tetras (I had one suddenly have "seizures" after a water change, for a week after it spasmed and never got better. I couldn't find its body but I presume it passed. I then got 3 from animates "on special" which is more expensive than most LFSs anyway lol, but one also has no tail. They ran out of bags so I didn't get to see it until it came home. Didn't bring it back because I figured it'd just be euthanized and felt bad for it)

- 7 Pristella tetras

- 1 Betta splenden

- One regular BN

- 2 Calico longin BNs (thanks Adrienne! I'm loving these guys so far!)

Do the longfin BNs get as big as the normal ancistrus sp? I just haven't noticed any growth in them so far, and have never seen a large one.

21L Killie tank - looking the same mess as usual. Keep on getting this brown stringy algae though, but it hasn't taken over or anything. Put a java fern pup in there to see how its going - I had this on it and while it grew the ambulia, christmas moss and crypt, the R rotundifolia is looking really really sad. I now have the Beamswork 200 as well as the bulb above on there and will see how it all goes. I can't get the killies spawning - female is getting a belly but seems uninterested, so I'm going to have to look for/make a proper spawning mop (I had hoped the moss would work just the same but oh well). Although I'm thinking of seeing whether the male is OK in the community tank, as the girls can't go anywhere without him trying to breed with them.

3 A Australes, 2 female one male.

120L community - everything looks to be OK. It's currently a big mess however. Crypts are growing out lots of pups but aren't getting bigger as such. I have one sword which I'm reviving for Dad, an amazon sword which I'm reviving from it being in the killie tank (too low of light I presume), one barthii sword which I'm still reviving from the aqua one light killing it in the puffer tank, and the e horemanii which I got given and I plan on keeping in there. But at the moment there's like no room for anything.

- 5 american flagfish (1 male, 4 females)

- 5 threadfin rainbows (still looking to up numbers - 3 males, 2 females - no aggression issues)

- 2 thicklipped gourami (currently in a breeding tank at the moment however)

- 3 "Hara jerdoni"

- 1 banjo catfish (such an odd fish - often looks dead and I freak out. I made him and the other fish a sand bay but he chooses to bury in the gravel - I don't see him much at all)

- 1 L129

- 5 Kuhli loaches

- 5 whiptail cats (again thanks Adrienne, I'm really loving these too! Out all day happily chomping on anything they're given, really cool fish)

(riccia moss needs to be cut back lol - currently in the process of remembering who it was that wanted to buy some off me from the FB NZFK group)

31L dwarf puffer tank - the water wisteria has grown - it's not a plant I like but I think it looks OK. The DHG is looking quite sad though. Switched from the Beamswork 200 to a Green Element and I'm really happy with it, hopefully it grows out nicely. Still getting a lot of brown algae though. Currently growing mint out the HOB filter but I don't think it has enough light, so is growing very slowly.

The puffer still has his pop-eye months later - I don't know how to fix it. He's looking way happier but the eye is still big and he is still blind in it (real pain when feeding him but we're both learning to work around it). Also think he is a she. She's made loads of progress from this to [ur=http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss286/_AalexandraA_/DSC_3429.jpgl]this (in which she was on the brink of death, I didn't think she'd make it but I'm glad she did) to -

She still has quite a way to go (especially with the eye) but she's looking MUCH fatter and happier! I'm so glad she's looking so much better. Especially compared to the first pic! I'm thinking of getting 3 otos to live in there, do you guys think the filtration is enough? It's an Aquamanta hfx100.

I think that's it. I've got loads of plans for when I move, although at the moment I just want to think about the move which is going to be a right pain Moving from Tauranga to Auckland! I have a 150L holding tank and Dad's 450L but almost all of my fish would get lost in that one. Moving into much smaller space, but should technically have more space for tanks. Excited but very scared!

[camtang]

I like the flag fish. I have never seen a picture of them before, so thanks for sharing!

[alexyay]

Thanks I was worried they'd end up terrorizing the tank but they've been pretty good so far (they like to chase occasionally but no issues yet).

For those with dwarf sag and stargrass - what do you prefer as a ground cover plant? Is one better for low light than the other?

[Adrienne]

I was unable to get stargrass to convert to submersed in my tank so I prefer dwarf sag.

[NoFishing]

I found stargrass grows too fast and the dwarf sag not fast enough. BUT, I prefer the dwarf sag.

The stargrass tends to grow upwards as well, but you can pinch off the tips and replant them every couple of weeks it grows so fast. You will have plenty of cover quite quickly.

The dwarf sag will take significantly longer to get a decent cover, but once grown it's pretty much care free. The dwarf sag is much better in my opinion, but you can still use the stargrass as well, as a temporary measure to fill in the gaps till the dwarf sag has taken hold properly.

[alexyay]

Great, thanks for the help I think I'll try to find some dwarf sag for now - maybe some star grass for dad's tank to see whether it survives his fish (not many plants do)

[alexyay]

One of my female threadfin rainbows seems to have a bent spine - I'm pretty sure it wasn't always like that. What's wrong?

The males are also having their fins nipped but I don't believe that's related - just saying to log it for myself. I think it's the American flags but I can't put them in Dad's tank for another 3-4 weeks (I really don't want to get rid of them!)

[alexyay]

Not many pics available, but here's a few tank pics -

- 55L,

3x female australe "gold"

2x hara catfish

Current plans: Get another female and male killi. Planning on getting 3-5 more hara cats.

I want to replace the rock with some driftwood, specifically spiderwood. I'm really not sure how to go about getting a small piece of spiderwood from anywhere other than a pet store though - it's a shame they cost so much. Hopefully this will provide some more hiding space for all the fish. It is now covered in oak leaf litter as well, which the fish are really enjoying. I'm basically planning on making it more "biotope" (not quite, but more natural for both fish species), minus the sand as it's too difficult to change now that it contains fish and dalton's mix.

I'm still deciding on a carpeting plant species. It is only being run with 2x T8 bulbs, so there's little light. I currently have stargrass in there but am not too keen on it.

I'm thinking of adding a third species. My current like is the licorice gourami - but I have no experience keeping these. Do you guys think they will be compatible? Or too boisterous for the killies? I have one weird killifish who will even eat from my hand, but the other two are very shy.

Excuse the brown algae & the string algae lol. And the insane amount of duckweed covering the top.

31L -

1x Dwarf puffer

Current plans: Not much, really. Brown algae has always been a pain in this tank, but I've also always had quite low nitrates. I would increase light but that gives me cyanobacteria which is even worse lol. I've gotten some gross brown stringy algae that grows in clumps, it smells atrocious and is really hard to get out - I'm not sure how to get rid of this. I'm currently feeding extra Iron which I've been told is what used to cause my excess green string algae - I'm growing this for the american flagfish as they love it. So, not much to change. Want to eventually replace the water wisteria with something. Still not getting much growth from the crypts, unfortunately.

120L -

1x Thicklip gourami (female)

1x Red honey gourami (male)

3x Indian banded gourami (I think female)

5x American flagfish

1x L129

5x Red whiptail catfish

Current plans:

I want another female and male of the wild-type thicklip and 2 red female honey. I also want to get a male indian banded gourami. I have a thread in the WTB forum if anyone has any of these. Eventually I would ideally have 2 females and 1 male of each gourami.

Does anyone have any idea of what the stocking levels sound like? I had a weird nitrate spike - I lost a kuhli and threadfin rainbow and those are my only thought as to what might have caused it. I lost all 3 otos - my nitrates seem to be 60-80ppm (lost 1/3 otos). I did multiple WCs, about 3 days to a week later (I can't quite remember the timeline) and the nitrates were back up at 60 (and lost 2/3 otos). I'm still not sure what created these spikes. I've since moved, and removed the threadfin rainbows and remaining kuhli loaches.

I'm now thinking of adding more fish (on top of the current plans), either rocket pencilfish (10-ish), or 4 more L129s. The L129s are pricey, though, and will be added over time (this, or I think I will have to sell mine, as I think it would be happier in a group). But I can't afford to have my nitrate spike happen again. If a fish dies, it cannot cause others to die if I cannot find it and it causes the nitrates to spike There have since been more plants added, but it takes a lot to remove the nitrates from 60ppm water! I do 30% WCs once every 6 days.

It looks heaps different than it used to! I now have a gorgeous red tiger lotus, and all the plants are really flourishing since using dalton's aquatic mix under the substrate - I never had this much growth in the last tank! The crypt from the last setup totally melted, so it's looking pretty miserable I'm really upset about that, but hopefully it'll grow back soon. Still deciding on a carpeting plant for this tank too.

It's also covered in plants converting from emersed growth, so ignore those lol. I can't seem to get my emersed Hydrocotyle verticillata thriving, which is a real shame.

-140L

4x Rio bristlenose

1x Calico bristlenose

1x Regular BN

8x Black neon tetras

7x Pristella tetras

1x Platy (not mine, growing out)

3x Kuhli loaches

Current plans: Add more kuhlis (lost one without knowing, then one swam into the heater guard and got stuck...), and give Dad the pristellas (I think they're big enough to not be eaten by angels?) and get more black neon tetras. I'd really like some Sterbai cories, but I'm thinking the footprint is too small for these + the BNs and kuhlis. I'm finding crap really settles at the bottom though - I have a wavemaker in one dead spot but it shifts the sand and messes stuff up, more than anything. I was hoping maybe cories would sift through the sand and lift dirt and help to keep things circulating. Of course, it's a matter of whether my bioload can handle it and whether the footprint is big enough. I will eventually find a mid-top fish to keep as well, as there's no top dwellers other than the tetras. Suggestions definitely welcome here.

This tank is currently a mess lol. I had this amazing planted scape in mind, and had the driftwood set perfectly. Common sense is not my forte. Water went in, and the driftwood shot up and floated. Duh. So, daltons everywhere. And I'm trying to figure out what kinds of plants I'm going to put in it. It's a very tall tank, and hard to plant. And of course now when it water logs I'm going to have to try and shift it without squishing any fish :oops: it's pretty embarrassing to look at. I'm trying to find a white plastic background, but not sure where to find any.

So yeah, everything is a mess right now. Sorry!

I lost my betta fish. That's a whole other post lol, but I'll post it here to record it (just in another post). I also lost my calico BN and am not sure why. It was one of my favourites, too

I'm afraid those are the only pics I have.

BN death:

I was wondering whether anyone had experienced this as a symptom before a bristlenose dies? One of my Dad's last BNs died a week ago, and the day before it did the same thing as one of my old BNs about a year or so ago. A day before its death, it develops really bright spots - looks stunning, but to me means "that bristlenose will die tomorrow".

Mine before it died:

His before it died:

Mine was only about 6months old, his probably a few years (but definitely not at the end of its lifespan). I found they hung out in full view, when both were very timid normally (my guy was an idiot - went under rocks when I was placing them, got stuck trying to swim up the filter - opposite to the flow, so he hated people and was always stressed).

It's not a major, but it'd be interesting to know whether this is a "thing" or not.

[alexyay]

Oh! And the threadfin rainbow with the bent spine disappeared, I didn't find her body (about a week or so before the nitrate spike). I didn't see any other fish show similar symptoms.

Now for the betta:

About half an hour after putting him in the tank, I came back and found him like this -

Raised scales only around the face, but no other symptoms. He looked a bit grouchy (probably sore), but was not lethargic - swimming normally, ate normally etc. His face looked like a parrot.

It was suggested that this was stress, no one had seen it before though. So, we kept an eye on him.

The next day he looked similar, but had lost a couple of scales.

The day after that, he had lost a lot of the scales around his face. I think about day 4 I managed to get some Furan 2, but he passed overnight (I simply wasn't able to get it day 3 when we had decided it was the best course of action - because no one knew what it was).

This is what it became:

He was still eating at this point, just very sore and unhappy. It got worse on the last day, but I didn't get any pictures.

In the end, it was suggested it was columnaris (ate at the flesh, progressed quickly) - I personally just found it very odd that it attacked his face and only his face. The rest of his body looked fine. It ate away most of the flesh, just about down to the bone.

I was wondering whether anyone has a picture of what it looks like when you lift the operculum (and the one thin layer of blackish gills) - in him there was a fine layer of white flesh/tissue but nothing underneath (hole straight through to the other side). I lack fish knowledge - is this normal? Would I expect to see more gills than that one thin layer that was easy to lift (lifted with the operculum)? I was just wondering whether it was attacking him internally at all. I might just be stupid and ignorant of fish, though. It's kind of hard to get reference photos, and bettas are darn small.

The whole thing was really, really upsetting. He came from the same tank as the bristlenoses and all other fish look just fine. I had intended to breed him (a dragon, mustard gas HM to another dragon yellow/blue HMPK - preferably one with no red wash at all) - I keep on losing my bettas to weird things! Not having much luck with them, am taking a break at the moment (the new tank isn't covered properly anyway, so that is a concern).

But if anyone has seen this and has a definite diagnosis of it, please let me know! I saw about two other cases on the internet of the same thing, and no diagnosis was made (no one knew what was going on). I'd like to be able to help people in the future if they have the same issue.