angel vals

Here's the new plants I put in my 45g a few weeks ago. Crypt spiralis and crypt retrospiralis (yes, trying them again).

 there's the crypt retrospiralis in the far background,

and crypt spiralis behind something else-

it looks a lot like the crypt balasae (foreground here)

I pulled the crinum out of my window tank- it was never happy in there- and moved it into one of the planter baskets in here- background.

My aponogeton capuroni seem to be doing better now, btw.

And here's a new grand thing: vallisneria 'rubra'

The strappy foliage is very broad, and it's cool to see the texture

My angelfish seems to feel comfortable with all these new 'grasslike' additions

I just don't know how well the 'rubra' will do longterm, I haven't seen any new foliage grow out yet and am pretty sure the leaf thickness and/or color will differ as it adjusts to my tank.

Also, I had ordered from the same company two new aponogetons- 'longiplumulosis' and 'Boivinianus' which I was really looking forward to growing. Unfortunately, when I opened the package, one bulb was obviously moldy and smelled bad. I had to toss it. I didn't feel it was worth mentioning back as I had gotten them as a two-for-one deal, so one was free. I put the other one in the tank, and a few days later it was covered in white mold as well. Ugh. Both goners.

window tank plant report

Yesterday I changed something in the paradise fish tank so I took a lot of pictures. I had this chunk of mopani wood in a corner that was really too big for the space, and an anubias I'd taken out of the betta tank weeks ago- it was getting too large for the 10g. I sawed the mopani into several smaller pieces- ended up with two medium and a bunch small. Onto one I tied the large anubias- it neatly hides the sponge filter in that corner. I figure anubias will do better here than those crypts which melted few weeks ago. Could be from how the light changes, where it angles to hit this end of the tank during different seasons. I'd rather have to remove some anubias leaves that get algae once in a while, than deal with crypt melt and wait to regrow over and over.

Here's a picture of that anubias from the front- and there's the crypts in foreground still trying to grow back.

This is my younger crypt moehlmanii- wow has it grown.

A row of random buces. I keep sticking buces in here, that come loose from tethers in the angelfish tank. There's a 'green wavy' front left that a snail has been chewing on, a bunch of 'brownie ghost' behind (I think), a few round-leaved 'emerald green'.

In front of the newly-sized driftwood chunk I put that anubias on, a few buce 'selena'. And the crypt willisii of course.

Another buce 'green wavy' on the other side of the tank. I ought to regroup them by type someday.

Anubias congensis on the other short end- this one is really chewed on. Some of my snails are hungry? Maybe I have too many trumpet snails in here, they aren't finding enough leftovers or algae to eat off the glass? could be time to cull snails.

I finally gave in to ferts. Had firm idea early on, I wouldn't dose this tank, just grow what can manage off the fish waste. Not any more- tucked half a root tab under these vals and finally they are showing some progress. (The anubias congensis is next to them, maybe you also noticed in the previous pic it's putting out a new leaf too)

The other medium-sized driftwood piece, I tied some windelov ferns onto it. Kind of rearranged all the windelov.

Here's more- that have their roots clinging to substrate or a rock- off to the side of the mopani piece. They never look too good in this tank, maybe someday I'll decide to move them all out and just have in here the plants that do well . . .

On the even smaller pieces of wood (that broke off while I was working at it with the saw) I tied some bolbitis fern. There were rhizomes growing off the main clump on the driftwood, and some scattered here and there on the tank floor. Here's one of the new bunches on small wood- middle of this photo in the back, between the two ludwigia arcuata stems.

Another piece with bolbitis tied on is behind this crypt moehlmanii.

Surprise- my tiny bit of anubias pangolino appears to be growing. It's on the dragon stone behind this clump of crypt becketti.

Another happy surprise- the fissidens I tied onto another dragon stone behind the other crypt becketti cluster- is also growing out! (couldn't quite get the camera to focus on it)

there's some on each end of the rock- here's the other side:

I've found that the elodea pieces that came loose and float, do so much better here than the ones I had stuck in the substrate. So (like hornwort in the angel tank) I let them all do that:

I'm wondering if I should just give up on the crinum. Mine keeps growing new strappy leaves, and stays green, but the leaves never grow out long, they always break off. So doesn't seem to be doing so well. Maybe the substrate is too shallow for it.

Side view of my ludwigia (or is it hygro?) stems - photo isn't that great, but you can see how they've grown! I cut and replanted tops again.

Side view looking down long through the tank- crypts becketti on left, flanked by the dragon stone, windelov fern in front, stems on the right (which is the rear of the tank), bolbitis fern just visible in background. More upcoming . . .

ramshorns move

I had all my extra ramshorn snails in plastic tub, with an oak leaf, the fake bridge, and some bits of plants.

Transferred all the largest ramshorns into the window tank, about ten of them. Laddie sure was interested. I let them float long enough he quit trying to bite them through the plastic and moved away. I opened the back half of the tank lid, Laddie was at front looking to see if I'd give food, and I just dropped the snails in the back, straight into the bolbitis thicket where Laddie can't reach. So he won't get them all right away, leave them time to crawl around some.

One was up on the glass shortly after, nomming away on algae already.

The smaller ramshorns- a good dozen more- I put into square glass container on my kitchen windowsill, with the plant bits- elodea, baby java ferns sprouting off a leaf, windelov fern tied onto wood pieces. Give the plants time to grow out some. Found three little jelly-like blobs of ramshorn eggs on the walls of the bin when I cleaned it out- so they must have been content in there- I gently scraped them off with fingernail and dropped in here. Not sure if I damaged them or not.

Here's one up on the glass already. (There was a blob of snail poo under it, I didn't want that in the picture so I nudged it to fall away, but that disturbed the snail it started to pull back into the shell here)

Next to it on the sill, is my other glass box with the subwassertang and a few more, smaller ramshorns. It was in a gelato container before, this has more volume.

I like to see the subwassertang floating, and the light shining through it.

There was one snail in the plastic tub I suspected wasn't alive, but it didn't stink. The snail body was pulled far back into the shell; I hadn't seen it move in a day. I figured the shrimps would tell me- I dropped it into their jar. Immediately one claimed it and was busy picking, picking to eat. (Distortion from the glass)

tanks update

I haven't had time to take and upload photos, but here's a bit of update. My betta still has popeye, on one side only. I gave him several epsom salt baths, no change. I increased water changes on his tank, and was more careful about cleaning out food he didn't eat. His appetite has come back and he is not as lethargic, but still spends lots of time resting in a sheltered spot under edge of windelov driftwood, or hiding behind the anubias. I don't know if he will ever recover from the damage of going through the tank cycle, sigh.

I had two groups of black skirt tetras going through quarantine. It was almost two weeks, then up came a family vacation (bad timing on my part, I shouldn't have got new fish so close to a trip). One group of tetras looked great, I put them in the angelfish tank. Other group had signs of ich and fungus. I returned those to the store. Came home from trip and the tetras in the angel tank look well- good color, alert, super eager to eat. But on closer inspection a few of them had specks of ich on fins. Either they had it and my QT wasn't long enough, or I somehow cross-contaminated even though I use different siphon hose for each tank, and wash hands between. Dang. Angelfish doesn't show spots but yesterday was definitely looking irritated and flashing, scraping on stuff. Looks like it's in her gills. I have to order meds online- the stores don't carry much anymore. Meanwhile am raising the temperature- it's 82° now and so far all the fishes doing fine with that- and doing a 50% water change every other day- glad of the bare bottom, hoping I can physically remove a lot of it.

My shrimp bowl is fine. While I was gone, instead of eating some older anubias leaves mottled with algae I had clipped off and left drifting, the shrimps picked apart the elodea stems. I removed what was left of that. Buces and mermaid weed are doing great in here, the flame moss I tried tying onto a rock all turned yellow and looks dead.

Paradise fish is doing great. Tank is nice and green with summer. I replaced some of the older sweet potato vines on the back with new cuttings. For some reason smaller crypts on the left of the tank are doing poorly- had a lot of leaves turn white and melt. Also the crinum is looking sad (no new growth, tips dying off on older leaves), and salvinia minima floaters have a lot of dieoff. I don't know if all this is from only having one fish in the tank instead of two now- less food input so less plant nutrients? or something else. Flame moss died in here too, but the fissidens remaining on the mesh is looking great. I'm hoping to move some of that onto a rock soon. A lot of the vals have died off too, but the few left are finally growing taller and I hope they send out some runners.

oh, Perry

what happened? This morning he looks paler and more pinched than usual, and has a dent, a dark vertical mark on his body- just below the dorsal fin.

And the bottom edge of the wall is pushed in towards Laddie's side.

I think Perry was trying to force his way under the wall at night, and injured himself. He got a small tear in one pectoral fin last week, and broke his upper caudal filament weeks before- I wonder if this is all the same thing- him trying to break through the wall and fight to get it all back. SIGH.

I am dosing the tank with metro and praziquantel- starting tomorrow- had to buy a new packet of meds. Just because Perry continues to have poor appetite yet looks plump, and occasionally flicks against things still. It's either one of two things: Perry is miserable from stress over his tank neighbor, or that stress had lowered his immune system so he fell sick to parasites while Laddie didn't. I don't know.

I am looking around this weekend to find something I can use for a solid wall between them. It doesn't have to allow water flow, as I have a sponge filter on each end.

window tank added ground

Yesterday was just supposed to be regular maintenance and tank cleanings

but I decided if I'm going to do it, I need to do it- move everything out of the 20H so the betta tank can go in this spot upstairs. So it was an extra hour of work, but now my 20H is empty.

I moved out the plants- the nicer anubias into Laddie's corner over the terra cotta cave (in the window tank)- it looks really different now-

After moving out the other plants, shrimps (see next post) and fishes, I scooped out the substrate by hand, rinsed in bucket of tank water as well as I could, and put it in the window tank. Mostly around the base of the crinum

and large crypt Moehlmanii, which need more hold for their roots. Extra elodea got planted behind the crypt M-

I also scattered it into the stands of crypt undulata and lutea, and the still-unhappy vallisneria. Put the dragon stone pieces from the 20H in here, too- situated behind clumps of plants- they blend in with the substrate. I'm thinking of planting them with moss at some point- try that again.

more substrate scattered thicker under other crypts, too- though eventually it will level out across the tank again

Full tank shot- unfortunately due to the backlighting of window, most of the plants washed out- someday soon I'll set up a background panel and take more photos properly

Laddie's side-

Perry's side-

Usually Perry holds his tail fin shut as in the above picture- but here can see how uneven it looks now the upper fin extension broke off. I don't know if it will grow back-

After everything settled yesterday, of course the tank got very murky and Perry looked distressed- I did another water change before nightfall. This morning tested for ammonia- zero, and the fishes look alert again, Laddie especially wriggling and begging for food. I'm glad I was able to beef up the substrate, but still disappointed I won't be able to take the dividing wall down until I am back to one fish in here...