Amano New Year Build!

This has to be my favourite thing about CO2. I can sit for hours watching the whole tank fizz and bubble like it was a cube of Sprite.





Oh and ammonia is finally down, barely present at <0.25ppm, but I'll check it again in the morning.

 

Ten green barbs and ten cardinals.

Not my doing and I'm filled with dread.

 

1am roll call and safety check - all the fish are present and correct, everybody chill, no surface surfing, ammonia in the clear. I'll post pics in the morning.

 

Are they still in the bucket or did you add them to the tank?

 

These fish are from an entirely different LFS, located in Boksburg. The barbs in particular look like they're from a different stock, and almost all of them have patches of clear scales, unlike the uniform turquoise of my old fish. They are still very striking, though. They are also pretty big - as big as my old fish were.

The cardinals seem to have an entirely different temperament to the neons (I think neons are prettier, but I won't mention this out loud in front of them).

 

They went in at about 5pm yesterday. I had to do an emergency water change first because the tank water was 30'C - I'd been doing my weekly boil.

 

glad you got some more barbs!

 

I've sneaked in 6 undercover cardinals with my 9 neons, so far the neons have not suspected anything. (I don't think the neons are very bright)

 

Well, if it had to been my choice, I would have gotten something else - plain old tigers perhaps but very likely no barbs at all. There's a distinct emotional disconnect towards the newcomers that I need to work through. The original six were just little kiddos too and there was a whole journey with them. Right now I'm just passively observing without trying to form any attachment.

The fish overall I was just not ready for, the tank hadn't been sitting fallow for long enough imo - my whole direction for the tank in the coming months was heading elsewhere. My first impulse was dismay and like I should return them to the LFS, but my bestie got these for me and that, as they say, is that. That being said I think my father is the Judas goat behind all this once again, because I also received this:



So right now there's a discordant clanging of dissonant emotions of being forced into something, a certain sense of betrayal, gratitude and feeling like an ingrate, concern for the fish, a lack of concern... the fishless tank was actually very relaxing and in an instant it was turned into an object of stress. I trust the fish will be fine and time will take care of the rest.

 

Hah! I'm tempted to think the opposite. The cardinals seem a bit dumb come feeding time and take forever to latch on and target flakes that are drifting by. I'm a bit concerned for them in this aspect, I feel like they're not getting enough food because of this as the barbs just go berserk.

 

Fun factoid - it takes 2.2MJ of energy to raise the temperature of 90L of water from 24'C to 30'C. That's enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for over 9 1/2 hours.

 

+- 0.627 kWh without taking into account energy losses.

 

My latest goodies from Temu arrived this morning - included in the order was 10m of 50cm aluminized bubble wrap. I'll definitely be making an Anti-Eskom tank cozy.

 

I have slight greenwater this morning - whether it was somehow triggered by the introduction of fish (or the cessation of CO2 in the interim while they settle in) is unknown. I grabedb an ancient JBL PO4 test kit from my dad's stuff - expired in 2024 but whatever.

It's a braindead test and I don't know what the people at JBL were thinking. You're supposed to fill two identical vials, dose one of them with reagents, then place them in this little comparator block and stare downwards while the quantum displacement of the photonic lensing in the clear vial guides your unsteady hand until wave function collapse.

Anyway one of the vials is missing so I can't do it the way they want or have any idea of the exact reading - but looking at the dosed vial, the implication is clear that I have a shittonne of phosphate. And this is after a 30-odd percent WC.

 

The newcomers look great! I'm confident they'll settle in and do well. A tank isn't really a tank without fish

Neons over Cardinals ?! What?! Cardinals are an upgrade in every which way, price included lol

 

I dunno... the silver bellies of the neons make them stand out more for me.

@Jakes has both in one tank, he can be the final judge

 

I've always kept neons because I could never justify paying double the price for Cardinals when they look so similar. Loved the neons I've had over the years.

When I was setting up this tank, a store had a "bulk" deal on the Cardinals, 10 for 300. Was too good a deal to pass up and hence my current school. I've found them to be a bit more lively than neons were.

 

cardinals are superior to neons for sure

green neons are even better!

and for those tired of neons and cardinals looking for something a little different but similar, sundadanio axelrodi