Marco's Fish-room

@Marco....... I will go to Mozi for you. I won't even ask you to pay for the Sea Food that I would consume in massive amounts.............( Fresh fish, I am staving just thinking about it)

 

Ooh stunning, the name suits it.
You making it hard for me to choose between these and the apisto's.:wondering: Will just have to get both then. :bigsmile:

 

Definitely putting an order in for these !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Even me

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Congrats, looks like you have a captive market already

 

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They are incredible! Would also like to get my hands on them!

White sand tank with dark Knights and black Venezuelan Corrys.

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Hey guys

I havent posted on here in a while. Been a bit busy with work and also the fishroom when at home.
@Reedfish - the Dark knight Rams will be popular because it is something different. I am also not a great fan of them and will always prefer my Powder blues. The Powder blues have a very special place in my fishkeeping history, and I doubt these will come close.
It is however not comparable to a Stendker Dark angel
That is unfair - these Rams are at least pretty!

At the moment I have more fry.

This Dicrossus maculatus female has been taking very good care of her brood.


Then I have another new Ram line.
Blushing Golden Rams


And they are raising their first spawn


And then last but certainly not least I have some Rio Xingu babies again






Thats about it. Im hoping for a healthy batch Xingu babies and will monitor them closely. I estimate there to be about 70 fry. Im hoping for 60 healthy ones to soon be 6cm.

Kind regards

Marco

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Love those Rio Xingu discus sooooo much.

 

Great. Looking fish

 

Never tried my hand at Discus, but will one day.

 

Those Rams are looking awesome Marco. They are close to my heart as they are to yours. But thanks for the awesome pics as always.


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@Marco earlier in the post you mention using 80-90% RO water with aged tap water, i have been told this may lead to a PH crash in the tank, how do you avoid this in your set ups?

 

Hi @Peter E

I use that high ratio of RO water on my Dicrossus tanks yes. I do so because Dicrossus do not do well in hard water. They simply can not adapt to hard water (albeit that our tap water is not that hard) and their eggs also do not develop in water that is hard and have a high PH.

I tested the water in the tank housing the Dicrossus filamentosus last week and the ph was at 3.9, and the TDS of the water 35ppm.
I tested the water cause I noticed that the plants in the tank were struggling.
I have a very fast growing floating plant in the tank and it sucks up the nitrates and the little minerals and salts that comes with the small amt of tap water.

You ask how I buffer against a PH crash. I dont.
I am no expert in water chemistry but from experience have found that the way I go about it results in a very moderate and slow drop in ph over time. Even though there is no buffering. Its not as if a large quantity of hydrogen ions are introduced suddenly which would result in a ph-crash.
Over a couple of weeks the ph slowly drops as the filtration causes build up of hydrogen.

I have never had an issue before. I have kept Wild green Discus, Heckels, Rams and Dicrossus in the same way and find it always to go the same.

I however do not try to prevent the ph from falling, nor do I increase or lower it artificially - and I am of the opinion that most ph-crashes are a result of doing so.

Now if we look at the current ph of 3.9 - I strongly doubt Im going to have a ph-fall from 3.9 to....what? 2?
Impossible! I simply do not believe that will happen.
Not with tank maintenance and no artificial acidification.

Water does not simply turn to Vinegar by adding some fish-poop.

I am convinced problems with ph start the moment you start fiddling with it.
I dont fiddle with it. Lol

Kind regards

Marco

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How do you get a ph of 3.9

In my shrimp tanks I use lots of aquasoil and RO/DI with tds of 0, and even the lowest the aquasoil can buffer this is to ph 5.5

 

Hi @morris

I have some aquasoil in the tank but also have a lot of alder cones, catappa and oak leaves.
When i started these tanks i mustve put approx 20 Alder cones and as many Catappa leaves in. Its only a 150lit tank. The water went nearly pitch black and since then Ive just been doing small water changes and top-ups

One thing to consider is that unless you have a proper, proven Ph meter/monitor you will get incorrect ph readings in very soft water. The meter needs conductivity to measure the ph and at low tds levels they often give incorrect readings.

Rgds

Marco

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@Marco Thank you for the informative reply, A very interesting read and logically i cant argue with that logic!

 

Hey @Reedfish,

Yes atm they very happy. Its always a juggling act I guess and with our water supply being the way it is at the moment things can easily take a turn for the worse unfortunately.

Here are the Xingu parents now on day 10 with happy fry


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