6ft low tech , planted

pics

ok, so latest water change has revealed that things are going well, the plants are really growing in and its starting to resemble the heavily planted West African setup I was aiming for. Its looking a little crowded and while I relocated the last few Minnow to my shrimp tank the Gouramis are starting to catch my eye... Since feeding live food (insects) I have also noted that the Butterfly fish are not the most voracious hunters in my tank, neither are the Bush Fish... The award for most aggressive predator goes to the Congo Tetras. No sooner has something touched the surface and they are on it, nobody else stands a chance. I am going to need to be more creative at feeding time.
Had a successful shrimp hunt and found some beauties, caught t least 8 Green Swords too which all went back in, they are prolific out here. Thought id include a shot of my favourite shrimp spot too.

 

So awesome Greg! Can see why they're called butterfly fish No worries about the photos ^^,

 

thank you !!, I will get better........

 

Picked up a few nice Anubias barteri Nana "Petite" for R50 so ill be adding them tonight, planning on removing a few of the Java Ferns from the main piece of wood and replace them with the Petites.. all part of the slow removal of all things South American..

Tanks coming along, still not entirely happy with the layout, think I may just need a slightly bigger tank

 

@GregM, LOOKING AWESOME!!!

 

thank you so much ! im about 60% happy but itll get there... slow and steady. Im practicing my photography so hopefully I can upload some decent shots soon

 

Looks really good man! How's that slow leak? You still keeping a lookout for a tank?

 

Hey @GregM that looks amazing! -Like you'r "shrimping " spot too!

 

@GaryG, thank you so much mate, much appreciated. This Sunday is shrimping day, cant wait (hope im not too hungover after celebrating our Semi Final success....)
@RoGe, thank you bud. It seems to have settled somewhat, there is some evidence of water under the base but very little. Its not panic stations right now but as soon as I find the right thing I will be replacing this one.

its slow going and I keep interrupting things with my tinkering but its getting there. I removed some Java Fern and replaced with Petite Anubia so its getting more authentic.
Pics to follow.

Cheers,

Greg

 

So, I was keeping a little secret.. My largest Bush Fish showed up one morning with a massive wound on his head.. My first thought was that it was attacked but he is the biggest and baddest so it seemed unlikely, my second thought due to the size of the wound was Hole in Head and I s..t myself. I removed him and dosed the quarantine tank with a tiny amount of ick treatment and later a tiny amount of Prime (don't know why prime but yeah,,,) two days later to my immense relief he has healed up completely and is back in the main tank happy as the day is long. I think I actually injured him when cleaning the tank, maybe moved some hardscape where he was hiding, I felt like I the worst person in the world. He's ok now and my lesson has been learned.
Second to that I found some fantastic Congos at a tiny new LFS, it suspected my existing school was mainly female and hopefully these two will redress this.
Also found 5 (what appear to be) Cory Eggs) attached to the glass which made very happy indeed.. Pics to follow as always.

 

Greg, if possible, get yourself a UV light for the tank, it helps a lot with diseases, and it's not always through our doing that a fish becomes ill, so don't feel bad. It happens. One of my tilapia had HITH (either that or a wound), I added a canister with a UV light and a few days later the wound had healed.

The tank is coming a long very nicely Also looks like your bush fish were doing the mating dance in one of the previous pics.

 

thanks @Linxie, thankfully there have been no diseases yet, as I mentioned he seemed to be physically hurt and thankfully has healed up. I was so shocked with the possibility of it being disease related as I have never had a sick fish before.

To be honest the amount of "sexual activity" in my tank at the moment makes me want to blush and look away . I have a permanent bubble nest on either side of the tank martialled by two separate gourami's, there are cory eggs, the Swords are permanently ready to pop, the Bush Fish cuddle for hours and now I have introduced male Congos....Its like a pay per hour hotel......
Just hope some of these offspring make it. Im not getting involved, nature must do its thing. There are plenty of hinging places for fry so we will cross our fingers see.

thanks again fot the advice.=

 

HAHAHA tank is definitely healthy Enjoy, hope some of the fry survive.

 

SHRIMP FRY !!

whist transferring some Hornwort from my Shrimp tank to the Nano I noticed snail eggs on the wort and removed it. I put it in a large bowl to remove the eggs and to my astonishment.....

 

I would go for Thrall and Garosh

 

my man ! im a recovering addict sadly. I fear every time I name something for a WOW char I might slip...

 

Thats really cool @GregM

 

What kind of shrimp are they @GregM ?

 

Hey @ tanked72, been a while !

Thank you, they are glass/ghost shrimp. They are all quite different though, some dark, some striped, some totally clear. I have even found some that a almost blue/pink... may just be a dietary/environmental thing..

 

Yesterday was 'shrimping day' and I got a few nice ones.. seems the recent rain we have had down here is beginning to fill the streams. Water was freezing (by Durban stds) and flowing a bit quicker but was surprisingly crystal clear. Among the normal odd mix of shrimp I again caught some wild swords, the most unusual of which being this one..
There are only the feral 'green sword' in these streams so this presumed morph was quite odd. Anyone have any ideas ?