Ferryman's 3ft construction

Congrats on the new fish dude I hope they stop hiding soon....
how are the mollies doing can you see sex yet or not because mine are starting to show very nicely now...lol let me know

 

Nope, still hiding, atleast now i can see where they hide, only two options, i shifted everything around so their hiding is observable, but i wish they swam around a bit.

The sailfins are doing well, filling out nicely, i think i have males and females in the batch, just not too sure who's who in the zoo. males aren't "showing" or raising the fin yet, but a few seem to have longer dorsals than the other, so i guess they are the males.

I had a fatality with one of my first neons the other day, so then decided to get another 10 more to result in 19 in all, bigger group, better shoaling, in theory... they all do get together now and then but then break up into individual groupies, then recombine... since adding the new ones i've found two dead ones in the last two or three days, hoping the rest are strong ones.

water params are fine though. bioload has decreased since the guppy mass was removed.

the platies have bred and spawned a few newlings, i've spotted a platy fry here and there, hiding near the substrate, lol, those danio are good hunters it seems

 

Give the fish some time they will start to venture out soon...
as for the mollies I am sure you have both sexes
as for you neons I have bought about 50 or so in the last few months and on have about 20 left that are going strong. I heard that neons are very weak fish and die due almost any thing

 

I've also heard that neons die for no reason. It's something to do with the way they're being bred over and over and losing genetic diversity, thereby becoming weaker.

 

i heard that too, thats why i wasn't really worried when the neons bit it.

atleast i know the water is fine.

The pearls are still hiding, but i saw that at night while "sleeping" they now hang stationary out in the open, near the top. bot still hiding the whole time... how can i be sure they are eating?

 

The fish wont starve them selves so I would not worry to much about it.

 

Update pics

The plants aren't doing well, i seriously need to get better lighting, it seems the plants are just surviving, so round about the 23rd or thereabouts, of november, when i wrote my last exam (hopefully no re-exams necessary) i will be cutting up and making my canopy or at least the frame, so i can go buy the necessary lights and get the plants happy again.

I moved all the wood into one corner in a bid to create a hiding spot for the pearls that is visible to me too, lol, so left is a rock cave i made, and right is the wood corner

 

nice fish dude, the tanks looking good, hope u come right on the lights i know what a pain that can be

 

Sadly i lost my red robin female today. What clinches it, is i think i scared her to death or something i moved hurt her, i havent rubbed down the inside panes in quite some time, since i dont really have any algae problems in my low light, so today i got my sponge on a stick thing and cleaned the panes, which did scare the fish, but i also knocked over the wood while rubbing, and after i set it right, i noticed her upside down, not breathing, not moving etc. But still coloured up, so she only recently died, either before or during clean. Sigh, ill find another female next week sometime.

my one eyed cory also is also -rip- since last week, dunno what happened. Just found it lifeless in the tank one morning. And the eye was healing so well. Darn. . The pearls are atleast swimming about, sometimes, they still hide, but only 1 does all the time, the other explores atleast

 

sorry abt the loss dude always sucks to loose fish, i know the feeling recently had to adopt 2 fish from a friend, had to make some changes in my tank for these special requirement fish and lost 4 halequins, 2 corys, and 2 guppies in the process

 

N'kay. . . I am at a loss. R80's worth. . . The male red robin, and the always hiding Pearl gourami have both died last night. I'm beginning to suspect the lfs i bought from. I'm rather gonna avoid them from now on. .

 

sorry about the fish loss, it happens sometime. Dont think about it too much
Your tank does look awsome.

 

That's pretty weird dude, I've bought plenty of fish from them and the only losses I suffered within a month or two of getting the fish was Otos, which are notorious for their high mortality rate. Are you sure you don't have another fish in the tank that might be harassing the gouramis?

 

maybe you had a lot of food waste under that wood you disturb an that caused an amonia spike and your sensitive fish could not handle it

 

Sorry for your lose dude hope you can sort out the problem quickly with out any more losses

 

well the remaining gourami has suddenly become much more inquizitive, making appearances, ogling me infront of the tank. Swimming about. . Its weird

 

It might be him that killed off the other fish????

 

an assassin pearl gourami? hmmm

 

just keep an eye on him I heard that Gourami's get a few parasites and don't show all the symptoms

 

Quick update

The tank has been stable and unchanged for a while now.

Some red plants have dissapeared and others are thriving
I'm itching to do a rescape as i got a new idea for the tank scape, to move my rock cave to the middle, driftwood left and right and then plants in order of height back to front with the centre openish cept for hairgrass or somesuch. i have noticed the plants though growing in the gravel ground, dont spread as easily as they wood in sand (take vallis with its stolons for instance)... so i might need to remove some gravel and mix in 50% sand type substrate, but i dont wanna disturb the tank so soon after settling. urg, conflicts... lol... need another tank to play with...

Here are some pics.
ive recentlt added two loaches as my main tank had been breached by ramshorns, but it seems the population as either being decimated or held in check, either way, i can only spot a rams on the odd offchance...

After the gouramies died, i decided to go in search of a buddy for the pearl who was swimming with its own reflection the whole time, i got a nice one from petapond, and also decided to get one threespot, which is one of my tank-favs now, its very curious, extending that elongated fin thingy at anything it wishes to inspect, and seems to share the sailfin's ideas that my arm is a tubiflex field, and my armhair the buffet,

Anyways, so i now have a happy threesome of gourami about, no longer hiding since i got it a healthy friend, and the blue/threespot gets along well.

Then the loaches were one yoyo/pakistani and one loach that was labled a banded loach, but i am not sure its an accurate name, more of a general lable, so if someone can id this fella id be greatful?

pics->
love my cories




from shy


to tank explorers



the curious one




one of my minnows by my rock cave


the "banded loach"



a tank shot


there are a few additions to the plants too, i got a nice big dark green fern thing, and some round leaf anubias, and some java ferns as well but i'll add those pics later