new growth

No water change this week, but I did dose plant ferts (Leaf Zone). Since the circulation is more gentle now, I poured the ferts into a few cups of water in a clean bucket, mixed well, and poured back slowly into the tank while sweeping that sideways, to try and distribute it evenly. There's more melt still, but also lots of new leaves unfurling! I'm especially pleased with the crypt moehlmanii, I'd thought it was getting pale lately- new leaf is a healthier-looking, slightly darker green color:

Crypt beckettii-petchii

Buce 'wavy green' and unknown.

I thought this was a crypt beckettii-petchii also, but it's got broader leaves with a kind of rounder tip. Another variety I forgot I had? maybe it's the 'undulata'. Or natural variation due to conditions.

shrimp and snail jars

Tidied up my shrimp jar again. Overhead shot. Once again, all my floaters have gradually died off. I really thought the frogbit was going to make it this time around. Nope. Maybe it's something about the substrate I use. Or lack of nutrients, as there's so few shrimps now . . . 

Just two amanos. 

Removed most of the algae-marked anubias leaves.

Mermaid weed was all bare on the lower stems. So I cut them both back and replanted. Quite short now.

It might be my imagination, but I think the twisty vals are doing better.

Ramshorn snail.

Still not thrilled with the other jar. I think if the crypt undulata grows out enough in my 33, I'll transfer some into here. It might give more plant height.

all the jars-

well, the newest one is a vase. This same vase. Now I have it with crypt balansae, which I couldn't bear to throw away when emptied the 20H. Keeping it in here for a few months, hopefully then whatever pathogen killed my angelfishes, will have died off, and if the plants are still alive I might move them into the 33L.

It's so strange to have an empty tank in the room

and houseplants moved into its spot.

But I've still got my jars- this one 

with two shrimps

the anubias need older leaves with algae trimmed off again, but the buces are all nice

I hadn't noticed it until today, but my little patch of corkscrew vals is getting thin. Some of it's been dying off. I think I need to add a few more shrimp to make waste, or put plant food in (haven't done that in a long time)

The mermaid weed is rather small, too. Looks wavy in this picture from the old thick glass

which also blurs out the snail I tried to get a closeup of.

My other jar has less variety of plants- just anubias, crypt beckettii-petchii, 

a few buces. Nothing tall, so it doesn't even start to fill the space

It does look nice from above, though. Only snails live in here, most of them ramshorns.

window tank rescape

I redid some stuff in here, too. Full tank shot (a tad blurry, so hard to get a good photo of this):

On one end, I pulled some crypt moehlmannii that was growing into areas it wouldn't have space (into the anubias thicket, under the log). The original parent plant in center has lost all its leaves, but there's a row of younger plants off runners up against the glass now. Thinned out the vals too- mostly pulling out leaves that had decay. Added a small piece of hardscape with buces and subwassertang on it (just in front of the large anubias there)

Most of the work I did was central- pulling out crypts from the back wall and moving them into the center, shifting smaller crypts from the center to further back, and pulling up most of the dwarf sag (which didn't end up staying tank height after all) moving them to the foreground. They're doing okay after all- I found lots of new baby ones!

Tucker the paradise fish kept getting in the pictures

Also trimmed and replanted more rotalas to make a further wall of them against the rear glass. Which is hard to see as it's backlit from the window-

Moved a few more plants around on this side, too- but mostly noticable is just the addition of another buce clump from the angel tank.

The leaves on my madagascar lace come and go. Never seem to have more than two or three really healthy ones at a time- sigh.

Here's Tucker who kept getting in front of the camera, but never held still of course!

His tail fin has got short again, lost its filaments, and he's been kind of pale lately. So I'm concerned for his health, too. (White clouds look totally fine. In fact, they're still breeding. The first two fry I saw this year are half-grown already, swimming in the open with adults now. There's one smaller fry half their size- probably two months old, and another much smaller fry several weeks old I'm guessing. So at least four!)

Angle shot-

I do like seeing the sun come through the plant leaves, like here- but found it was too much this time. Or my faulty maintenance. Found some cyanobacteria (aka blue-green alage) behind the bolbitis driftwood, against the window side glass. Icky stuff. Dismayed because that means definitely my tank has too much mulm buildup, and I'm afraid it will be hard to get rid of.

I've done another water change, cleaned filter sponge (found the housing of one was cracked, so I did a little repair with fishing line) and temporarily blocked out some of the window light. Tomorrow going to do another water change with thorough gravel vac in that problem area. Felt like I was on my feet nearly all day working on this tank- far longer than I expected to!

So that's my big update for now.

tank news

I'm glad in the angelfish tank, to see the pothos roots all extending down branching, healthy and fast-growing. Nitrates are remaining below 10 every time I test, now. Still doing the twice-weekly wc.

Sad that I lost one of the minnow fry- I only had two, in the ten gallon. Was doing a partial wc today and one accidentally got sucked up by the hose. Not a problem- small enough it didn't get any injury in trip to the bucket, but when I went to catch it, the little fish darted at last minute and got pinched against bucket side by frame of the net. Looked okay, but couldn't swim straight. Hanging at the surface, or spinning in circles head up. I think either its swim bladder or its brain got injured. 

Also sad that the best, close-up photos I ever get of these fish is when they're sick or hurt.

I watched it struggle for a while, (and the other one immediately hid, probably alarmed by the unusual movements). Then feeling very morose and guilty, I netted it (far too easy this time) and dropped in the big tank. Miss Beautiful had a quick snap. 

So now just one. It's only a few months old and I'm still leery to put it in the 33L with the adults. Sometimes, particularly when he hasn't eaten in a while (although I feel like I feed him well), Tucker now doggedly pursues a white cloud around and around the tank.

I'm pretty sure he's trying to catch and eat one. They're too quick and agile, but I don't know if this younger one could evade him.

the smallest ones

I moved my shrimp jar back downstairs, and put the old one (left) next to the new one (right).

First jar is pretty much the same- 

Second one I planted with the corkscrew vals. Funny, I don't really like how these vals look in my main aquarium, but I find them interesting in the small jar. 

Above view:

Each jar now has just two amano shrimp.

Camera had trouble focusing on this one.

In my tenner, the few white cloud minnow fry are getting bigger- enough to look like regular fish, just so small. They're still a tad smaller than a single rotala leaf!

And very hard to get photos of.