Ferryman's 3ft construction

I get the feeling that you have a pretty strong current in this tank, right?

You must remember that these poor long-finned zebras are actually burdened by these long fins and are actually not really able to swim very well, particularly in currents. Maybe this fish is just exhausted. I think you should perhaps try to reduce the currents by pointing the filter outlets into the corner of the tank. Just a thought.

I also do not think that the vermiculite is responsible unless for some or other reason the fishes have actually eaten some of the particles as this stuff was released into the water. Even then vermiculite is not toxic and maybe they are just suffering from indigestion.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Okay, thank you for the tip prof, i will reduce the flow as suggested.
I get the idea, its like trying to swim record time with a board-short on your ankles, no doubt

At least i saw all the fish nibble at some flakes just now, and some even dived for the sinking prima granules

 

Tank really looks good Ferryman, Well done

 

Thanks Gareth, i had moved alot of plants around into sections so hoping it'll be a nice display once i get some better growth out of the plants, they'll fill out nicely. Getting some cuttings from F-fish tomorrow, so i'll have a bit more variety to work with, yay

Btw, my little quarintine idea flopped, so i decided to do a second tank instead, embracing a bit of mts...

 

I am happy to report, for the past few days, my albino zebs have all been eating well, swimming around lively and none mope anymore. dunno what the cause was, as i turned up the flow again BEFORE they stopped hanging about up top, needed the powerhead to inject a bit of CO2 into the tank, got a major, nay, MAJOR plant cutting packet from f-fish today, so i went a bit ballistic with planting, loved it, i'll probably need to get my hardness tested for the proff, as he wants data to formulate ferts for up here, Slojo, would you mind helping with those hardness tests? the API kit has those right? then we can get some of those ferts up here as well.

Anyway... along with the new little neighbour tank full of Slayers guppies and pink danios,


I have also recieved some really nice fishies from f-fish who really surprized me with an awesome package today,

Plantapalooza

Snail bag!!

Guppies, alien bugeyed fry, and platies


as well as some hydroton which i still need to figure out how to implement, (seeing as its porous clay balls, a tiny bit went into the tinytank filter to see how it fares as a bioball type filtermedia...) i'll probably be experimenting with some for hydroponic emersed growth once i can do a setup for it. I love the idea of mixing my love for plants, gardening, bonsai and potting stuff with aquatic plants, its new and different, i love it.

Anyway, i rushed to work after todays compulsory cyberlaw workshop, to find the box fish left me, nice and sealed so the other staff wouldn't go poking (luckily it was the other weekend team today, not the very curios ones i anticipated)

After tryna figure out what fish looked like an if he actually came to the nursery for a bit other than JUST for me, like an afternoon at the waterfall area in the teagarden or something (all i got was, he has a beard, and was there a bit, dunno if he stayed...) i rushed home and found the above treasures. Needless to say i was really STOKED

Anyway, i quickly started sorting plants and cuttings, and added the fish bag to the main tank to equalise temp, went into a planting frenzy and added as much as would look okay (plus more, just so it'd all fit, lol) to the tinytank and the main tank, though main tank got preference due to size...

I then stuck an airtube in the baggy and siphoned out ALL the fishy poo, damn those guppies poo'd alot in that bag... lol.. then proceeded to drip acclimatise the fish, finally releasing them into the tank.

Its awesome how much more life the main tank has now, with all the little colourfull fishies added, and the little bugeyed fry are cute, i think i spotted a preggies guppy as well, dunno how to manage fry yet, so for now i'll let nature take its course with the young, survival of the tank smart, should they come... (still learning here)

More piccies->
This snail thought it a good idea to climb up my water lilly leaf, got to the top and the leaf bent over, nowhere for the little idiot to go, so i bumped it off again, lol

tried to get some guppy photos, its luckily easier in this tank, as the fish have more predictable routes to swim in all the space, tinytank they go about crazily.


think she's preggies?

some random shots

Cory mania, got three in one shot!

Platies and an albino zeb


I really like how this came out....

 

Looking good

 

Thanks, i must say, its much more fun to watch now that there's more movement and life in the tank

lol, with all the new "member threads" popping up, dare i say i think i encouraged a trend?
lol, cool, i like seeing other people's labour's too.
@garreth, when are we gonna see some pics of all those tanks of yours too it'll be an impressive thread.

 

lol.....Not that impressive I can guaranty it but as soon as I have all sorted out the way I want them I will post pic

 

No problem but it will have to be the week after next as i am going to be at Kapama in Hoedspruit this whole week.

 

righto, thanks man
i think the prof needs readings of tap water and borehole water, do you have a borehole? (i fill my tank up with borehole water)

Just now i was posting on a bonsai forum site, reporting on the progress of a port jackson fig i cut down, and while looking at the pic i realised i can get some really nice dark soil, from a bonsai supplier i know, but its mixed with some small bark chips which will float in water, so i'll have to drown the stuff and siphon off the organics...
see inside that pot? top right


its black pebbles, i was thinking of getting some somewhere and mixing it up with my current silica sand, to get a bit of a darker colour, i dont like the white silica look that much, i want something more dark in there.... black if possible,

Anyone think it's a good idea to mix black and white sand, or should i completely replace the white sand with black sand/pebbles,

I'll need to drain the tank in a month or so to move the tanks out while the flat is painted, and i have a plastic container of equal size to the tank, where i can pump out and keep the fish while i replace/mix the sand and rescape all the plants i recently got into a more logical arrangement....

 

I think if you mix it, it will look great...

 

Some new piccies

Right, so last night i got this urge to do a rescape of the plants i got in a way that actually made some substrate visible once more, lol, so i took out all the plants, and floated them in my square container thingus, moved the interior around, took out a rock, and started replanting,

the two types of vallis i have were both used to cover the three sides of the tank, back, left right.

then i grouped the ambulia diagonally across, and hid the elodea pieces in the bck, they seem to have stopped growing so much, anyway
all the bacopa was planted into a little bacopa forrest in one crammed corner, i placed a few rocks so as to create a cave type feature, though of coarse not useful, as none of my current fish seem to need one, its a nice feature for me

i added a co2 concoction to the mix about a week ago, and though i've been moving plants around so much i dont really have before and after pics to show, i have several times made marks on the glass with erasable marked, and seen how the plants passed the mark in a few days, so growth is good, can't wait till i have my canopy wood and lights all set, its gonna feel like i actually completed this construction, currently i have a square of black cloth draped over the boxes of light up top to hide the mismatch and the tomato crate, lol...







this morning i found a leopard danio swinmming in a very weird way, like a drunk guy who swerves all over the lanes would... i dont know if he possibly got hurt between something i moved (the rocks) or what happened, but for safety of the other leopards i moved him to the smaller tank, i don't think he is sick, and i feel bad for the little guy (or more likely girl, as its a bit rounder) ... it seems to have calmed down a bit in the smaller tank, its just got horny guppies and a few pink danios in, so its not that 'busy'.

The other logic behind the move, is sadly also true... if it dies, it'll be much easier to see and remove than in the much more planted main tank...

hope it mends whatever probably got bruised, or whatever is wrong with it comes right.

 

what plant is that on the right, in front of the tank in pic 1?

 

the really really red looking one? as far as i can tell its alternanthera, just wanna make sure its reineki, or another variety or whatnot, but for argument sake i'll say its Alternanthera reineki

see my current plant list (here)

when i first got it, the leaves were turning green as my lighting was to low, then i added the pictureframe box thing with the two 20W osram cool white T12's and it turned red again. just waiting for it to settle now and root so it can grow

 

Platy-mates

it seems apart from the horney guppies in the tank, i have now spotted that the two platy males are circling the 2 females like sharks, lol

Its competition between my blue-black one and the normal orange one, fins displayed fully, and they circle the female then make quick lashes at each other, but neither really backs down much, hehe, i actaully hope the black-blue one wins the courting, cause the other one looks so boring, the other is atleast interesting

he's the one you see in the pic, top left, the semi blur

oh, btw, wito, if you were referring to the plant with the two long red shoots to the surface, its a water lily

cut a small piece off the rhizome in the koi pond, then divided that by two

@carping, if you read this, safari hasn't recieved waterlily stock yet, said we'll get in October
@henk, if you actually read this, the bulbs we have in are just the normal stuff hadeco sends out for the season, the bulbs you asked me about i don't think they're in the stock, what we have is probably the same stuff that big garden centre down there in CT would get from Hadeco

 

Ahhhh! Tiny parasites

Today i wanted to do a maintenance water change, and scoop out and move my riccia to grow in the smaller tank... and low and behold i found...



that my tank had been infiltrated by these tiny little parasites comprising mostly of two goggley eyes and a little frantic tail, skitting about in the floating plants up top,

The water conditions, parameters and temps of my main and tiny tank are the same, so i decided to move all the adults from my tiny tank and catch and move the parasites from my main tank into the smaller tank, to find out if those goggley eyes and frantic tails might morph into something more fish like

In retrospect
dunno exactly what the logic behind my decision was, as possibly the addition of more adults would probably cause the parasites to be eaten before i could find more, but on the other hand, the parasites i've found have now started exploring the tinytank a bit, and swimming a tiny bit lower than the tippytop of the tank.

Anyone care to comment or advise me on what might be a better solution if i wished to keep more parasites alive during the time i don't yet have knowledge of them?

I think i got about 6 or 7 today

 

Congratulations

 

No this one. I have it in guppy tank and the guppy fry love to swim among the stems.:bigsmile: Thanks Ferryman

 

Oh, thats Bacopa monnieri