45 short sides

The gap between my largest tank and the walls of its niche, are just wide enough I can stick my head in there and look through the side the of tank. I like to do this sometimes and view the angels on a clear background. Tried to get a photo of each end- it's awkward to use the camera there. (I had to patch the pictures together, so there's a misalignment halfway down) Left side:

Right side looks nicer:

The angels don't like the camera. I think for the little red light that blinks when I focus it. They kept farthest away, behind the sticks and roots. Can just see Skye, stripes all washed out, framed in the sticks below

Here's a photo I meant to include last time. New leaf emerging on the java fern! There's quite a few, and more fiddleheads all the time.

somewhat improved

I've switched to using the finer sponges. The tank is cleaner.

Still have the coarse 'pro' sponges temporarily sitting in the background, for bacteria transfer. And I have prior pieces of clay pot, tiny spare sponge filters and extra hydro I sponge tucked behind the driftwood out of sight. A reservoir of the good bacteria, I guess you could say. If I ever need a QT in a hurry, I'll just pull those pieces out and jump-start an empty tank.

I know there's still mulm settling on things, but it's not as much as before, and I find it more tolerable since I don't see stuff drifting around in the water column all the time (only when the kuhlis stir things up). Even though I was sick this past week so skipped a water change day, the nitrates stayed below ten. (I've noticed however, that the frogbits do better if I only change 25% at a time. I think otherwise the nutrients are just too low for them). Here's a few pics

blue buce ridge

the young anubias barteri I grew from a rhizome piece

Windelov fern on the rock on the driftwood. Too soon to tell if it's happier in here, but it's definitely growing out new leaves already!

more buces in the front

Looking down into the tank- can see the buce 'green wavy' on the rocks. And a leaf I accidentally tore with the siphon hose on the right

I thinned out this anubias thicket a bit- moved some into my 20H tetra tank.

darker anubias afzelii in the front corner

The tank is now sparse on driftwood. I found the angels acting very skittish earlier in the week, and two of the sticks knocked over. I guess when the fish dart behind them, they tend to knock some aside. Maybe that is what's always frightening them. I pulled out all the sticks that tend to fall down, and rearranged the last three so they prop each other up (should have been more careful to do that when I first set it all up). They now have more room to freely swim behind the driftwood sticks, instead of pressing against the back wall. It's too soon to tell yet, but I think after a few days of this new arrangement, the angels seem less nervous.

Now I have trouble getting a good side view photo-

because they usually face me, watching sharp for food offerings

(note the zebra nerite in the background of above pic- my apple snail finally died, and I moved in here the last zebra nerite from the paradise fish tank)

My larger angel- he doesn't have a single name- I always call him Mr. Beautiful, or Gorgeous, or Handsome- as in "hey, there Handsome, are you hungry?" or "why hello, Gorgeous"- it looks like his left gill cover is receding a bit. The one that's curled. Here for comparison- the normal one, and then the other side. When the fish breathes, I can see the edge of the gill flutter on that short side. It doesn't show red, though. I don't know if this is genetic, or because tank conditions haven't been perfect.... I read somewhere it's maybe caused by the fish growing up too fast. Oh, probably I shouldn't have been stuffing them with three feedings a day when they first came in!

and I'm sorry to say but my beautiful Skye, I wish she (I'm guessing which is male/female, but it's easier to say he/she than it, so...) didn't have this really dark mark behind her eye. It's a heavy blot. And the angle of her lower jaw makes it look like her nose turns down. I just don't find her as attractive as Mr. Beautiful. The Gorgeous angel also has dark mark behind the eye, but his isn't obvious all the time, and it's not as pronounced. Skye looks like someone punched her and gave her a black eye.

45 plants

Starting at top- I like how my frogbit looks- and it always gathers around the roots of pothos- probably caught there by the current- so it kind of looks like these long, trailing roots are from the frogbit

but they're from the pothos- which are doing pretty well, although a few leaves look pale

Frogbit seems healthier than it was in my prior setup- at least, it's not melting and dying as much. But a lot of the leaves look anemic. So I wonder if it lacks some nutrients. Maybe will do better when I step back to once-a-week water changes.

I've started cutting older, ragged-edged leaves off the largest anubias

Smaller one appreciates its shade

Narrow-leaved ones are growing new foliage- although hard to tell, in that thicket.

I'm getting rather tired of seeing the debris around the tank- although I don't think water quality is poor, and my angels look fantastic. So I'm not replenishing the leaf litter this time around, but allowing it to decay away. Tank edges are becoming visible now along the floor. I want to see if the breakdown of leaves is causing so much of the mulm, or if its just my fishes. Also considering switching the type of sponge I use- one with finer pores might trap and 'hold' more of the mulm for cleanout.

I know the kuhlis will miss the leaves, but I'm planning on introducing a lot more bucephalandra- to cover the floor on individual stone anchors, as it were, and they can still shelter and hide among the plants. It won't be as fun as watching them dive in and out of leaf litter though.... The buces all seem to be doing well in here. Here's 'brownie ghost'-

'Green wavy' - hard to get a good photo of it in the background, but it looks nice-

'Selena'. The apple snail seems to be slowing down. I don't see it move around the tank as much, and it often stays in the same spot for a day or two at a time. When it does crawl around, it keeps the feelers tucked in- so I think the angels have probably nipped at it.

Java ferns are still doing great in here. They look so good compared to all the java ferns in my other tanks, I'm thinking of moving every single one into here.

Here's the younger ones on driftwood. I have a few babies floating around that are just about big enough to fasten down, too.

Elodea appears to have all died out in here- or maybe the pieces are snagged on a root among the frogbit and I just can't see them easily. I removed the few vallisneria and planted them in the paradise fish tank.

angel tank pic

that's Aiya, front center (Zee nearby on left had just turned away)

angel pics!

My little angels are quickly becoming confident in their new home- out all over the tank most of the day. When I walk by they dart to the back wall, then turn and approach front again. They're already starting to realize I mean food.

They like the tangle of roots, and hang out a lot under the frogbits

Here's the larger, standard one in front-

and the smaller, zebra-striped one-

a few pictures focused on the smaller one:

and my slightly-larger, standard angel:

This one seems to have a scratch on its right side? where the lateral line goes across flank, there's a mark going down, and viewing the fish from rear, it looks like something is on its side there- torn scale? parasite? I can't tell. I hope it's not something to worry about. Maybe I'll dose with something anti-parasitic.

Just eaten- slightly bulgy tummies. I've offered them nearly all the foods I have, now- and a few more are coming from online order soon. They like crushed shrimp pellets, the protein flake, bug bites, spriulina bites. They spat out betta micro pellets so I won't bother to offer that again. Ate frozen mysis/brine shrimp mix, and bloodworms- but only if those are small enough. Liked NLS pellets but I have to crush those up, the size is too large for them still. Ecstatic about live mosquito wigglers- for those they will hang around front of the tank looking eagerly for more. They also eat the Gold Pearls eagerly. I also tried giving them some very small red wigglers (from my vermicompost bin)- they following the writhing worms down as sank through the water column, but just stared and didn't bite.

My kuhlis go nuts when I offer food to the angels (three or four times a day right now). Once a day I deliberately drop a sinking food for them, before I feed the angels at top. Tiger has figured out he can slide his body between the stem structure of frogbit and hang out at surface to find food, now. The others wriggle and wriggle constantly to keep themselves up there- but if I give them time to find the food on the floor, it works better. Some of them also now know to look for food that drops onto the anubias leaves- which is great because their activity there keeps it cleaner of debris as well. This guy moved right when I snapped the photo.

Full tank shot, and idea of scale:

~
Later in the day- I think I've been overfeeding- it's hard to judge how much the little guys eat. Maybe three times is plenty, and I shouldn't give so much. Especially with the frozen foods, I'm new to using those. Water looks clear, Ammonia tests at zero and Nitrates less than 10ppm, but the larger angel I noticed today has black edge on the caudal fin and it looks a bit ragged in a few spots. I wonder if water quality has gone down, doing another 25% wc even though I just did one yesterday.

plants on tanks

I put some sweet potato vine cuttings on the new window tank. It's in second stage of cycle- I have zero ammonia, and nitrite spiking. Food I've been dropping in growing mold or fungus- ugh, I hate that part. But it's progressing, and the snails are chowing down. I had wondered if all the ramshorns I previously put in Perry's tank just hid? or did poorly with conditions. But when I cleaned out the tank to turn it over to serpaes, found plenty of empty ramshorn shells. And now the newly-introduced ramshorns are crawling around steadily with the trumpet snails. So I guess Perry did eat the rams.

He's getting a daily gallon water change on the bin, because I took out his pothos and moved it onto the 45 downstairs (it will do well in the very low light of that hallway). The roots are very long. I managed to work them back through the holes of plastic support strip without breaking many (had to reposition a few).

I also swapped lights- took the kit hood and light off the 45, and put on it LED and glass lid that used to be on the 38. And I took all the plastic plants out, and some bags of media, to make a QT setup. And I took the hornwort out, gave it to the serpae tetra 20H, moved frobits in. Rearranged a few plants, too- and of course the sticks always get shifted around a bit when I do a cleaning. Before:

After. I replenished some leaf litter, too.

With the new light- probably too bright now. Experimenting with plastic layers to see what will get the light level back to where I had it- don't know if I can match that close enough.

However I have a few more plants in here (so much for making this a driftwood/leaf litter only tank). I moved in the buces on dragon stone. Green 'wavy' in the background

and brownie ghost piece in the fore.

My other buces are still doing pretty well, in here.

I am moving my entire kuhli loach gang into this tank now. They certainly can't live with Perry, and I don't want to overcrowd the 20H (although tetras look very happy now they're starting to settle in). Today I introduced to the 45 my three newer black kuhlis, and the striped ones Albert and Tiger. Have a trap set for Sassy and Monty in the 20H- nearly all day has gone by and just now Sassy is starting to creep near the trap. He must be hungry.