Gamma's fishy adventures.

Right. Thought I might as well start a thread to document my changes over time to see the growth and progression!

Initial pictures of all my tanks:
Alpha:

Beta(Left) and Gamma(Right):


Did a rescape tonight, but water is quite cloudy, so will post some updated pictures soon!

Also received this lovely order today:

Left to right: Rotala Hra,Hygrophila C Augustifolio,Java Moss,Glass diffuser, osmocote plus root tabs, DIY Co2 kit!

Really interested to see how CO2 will impact my tanks.

On a side note, I really enjoy my Assassin snails, anyone have any tips on breeding them? Just provide them with enough other snails and hope for the best.

 

Alpha already looks stunning @Gamma..
I like the pieces of wood in the others

 

Oooh sooo pretty!! Love the look in Beta.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I am still debating with myself if I should add a background or not... Was thinking blue or black but I honestly don't know. Kinda like how it currently looks.

 

Assassins take a while to breed, but once they start, there is no STOP button.
You will start noticing their eggs on the underside of driftwood, on leaves of plants, and even on the base of the sponge filters.

What I have noticed though regarding the eggs, is that they will remain as they are for a number of weeks, until there is a food source for baby assassins, which consists of baby pest snails.
You will then have a veritable explosion of young Assassins.
I have noticed this twice now in a small bare bottom 45 litre tank that I use to grow out CPD fry in.

After introducing the Assassins to the tank, they started laying eggs everywhere, but none of the eggs hatched.
I added a handful of pond snails to help clean up any left over food, and the pond snails soon had the tank covered in egg sacs.
About a week later the glass was full of baby pond snails, and suddenly I started noticing the floor was literally covered with empty baby pond snail shells.
After lifting a piece of driftwood, there were dozens of baby Assassins hiding from the light.

In a bare bottomed tank it is easier to see, as in a tank with substrate the young will bury themselves under the substrate, only emerging when they are about 5mm in size.
The baby Assassins grow quite quickly, reaching about 5mm in a matter or 2-3 months.

I have had to introduce pest snails 3 times now in the last 4 months. Firstly Ramshorns, that didn't last more than a few days.
Secondly a lot of Pond snails, which managed to produce a couple of thousand young, that lasted about a month before they were all gone.
Lastly a handful of MTS, that are also disappeared in a matter of weeks.

 

Some great advice thanks.
Mind me asking how many assassin snails did you add to the 45L? Currently i have dumped all my pet snails I could find in my smallest tank in the hope that the asssasin snails go mad in there, but still no luck. Assuming I don't have a male and female, so looking to get just a few more to bring the chances up to get some eggs.

 

Black looks good on planted tanks, at least in my experience!

Looks good though!

 

I added ten to begin with, and have had quite a bit of success with breeding them.
If you are close to Aqua Empire, they still had some of my stock the last time I was there about a week ago.

 

Never knew about Aqua Empire! Time for another road trip!
I actually bought another 6 snails today, bringing my total up to 9 now so hopefully that should be enough to get started. I did however read that it can take up to 4 months before you really see any of the new snails, depending on a lot of factors. Food, temp, water PH, hardness. Did actually not think it could effect the time that much.

 

And with a sudden shock I realized I bought baking powder instead of baking soda for the CO2 mix. :faceplam:

 

Lol - actually never tried adding cream of tartar, he he

 

Quick update on main tank, lighting is a bit bad since I took it just before I left for work.
Also ignore the random pipes in the front, currently cycling a filter for someone.



Hoping to add CO2 to this soon. Think the carpet would really enjoy that.

 

Update time!

Got my CO2 running this weekend!
Quite impressed, had it running in my grow out tank to see how it works and let it run for a day, saw amazing results, O MY WORD THE PEARLING ON JAVAMOSS, and then promptly decided it would be better to add it to my main tank. Hooked it up, let it run for a few hours and checked it. Had to go out for the day and go back home a few hours later, with all my fish gasping for air, and the co2 diffuser going crazy. Looks like there was and issue with the mixture was not 100% dissolved yet and when it did, it got a bit more potent.

Rushed to get some air stones in and did a 20% WC to get the water back to where it should be, but lesson learned, small steps and monitor! Luckily did not lose any fish.

Was thinking of doing 1 bubble per second at first, but would that be too much for the fish to handle?

 

So it seems like my PH and KH is slowly dropping.
Based from what I have found online this could be due to a number of things.

What would be the best way to get it up slowly and stable again? Some crushed coral in the filter, or rather a small amount of baking soda mixed with the water.

Other than the PH/KH the tank is doing amazing! Plants are finally starting to fill in nicely and fish seem happier than ever.

 

Waterchanges help keep things buffered for me, and I have soft water. How much is the drop?

 

Tank is currently 6.1 whereby it was around 6.5. The drop was very slow over a couple of weeks, so fish adjusted to it, but would like to up it a little. Can't remember the KH values now, will have to double check them when at home.

Dropped an air stone in some fresh water and let it sit for 48h and tested it. 6.1PH and very low KH. So tap water is not really a buffer for me at this stage haha.

Fourways area has been having quite a bit of water issues the last couple of months. Seems like the water quality as a results is very up and down.

 

Some pictures of my latest changes :

Beta got converted into a shrimp tank!


And during a WC I noticed below, was pleasantly surprised by it! Did some looking around and they are everywhere in the tank.

 

Nice tanks @Gamma ! The s.repens is gonna look good once planted