new vals

Last week when I re-homed my young white clouds with a ton of subwassertang, also did a small plant swap. Fellow fishkeeper brought me his val trimmings a few days later. Loads of leopard vals also what looks like two small corkscrew vals in the bucket, and one small crypt. I sorted them by size, even though know will grow. Tallest went into the angelfish tank- and it looks so much more balanced now!

I planted the shortest vals in the tenner- 

Not so striking with the camera as in-person, but I do like how the narrow val leaves intermingle with the crypt undulata at rear- 

vals behind anubias and java fern windelov

ambient light pic from during the work-

one corkscrew val in the center.

Most happy with how they look in the window tank- tall in the lefthand filter corner

I did something different with acclimating these plants. They were dropped off late in the evening so I floated them ten minutes to equalize the temperature, then poured a cup or two of water into each bag so it was about half original water/half my tank water. Left them floating like that all night. The next day when I had time, went about planting. For each set of vals, poured the bag into small bucket, added more tank water to rinse them off, then lifted out to plant. I wonder if the long adjustment time will result in less melting. It would be nice. Have to wait and see a bit.

end round two

Uncovered the tanks and did all the huge water changes. Fishes all look fine. There's more normal (instead of white) waste on the bottom of the guppy growout tank, Laddie chased up and down the front glass eager for food, and the guppies in the tenner literally swarmed the front when I came near. I had the light strip propped up sideways unplugged the past few days and when reconnected it switched on with the timer before I put it up top again. The lighting from the side was neat so I started taking photos.

Most of the plants look better than ever, probably because near nil light for 72 hours (twice now) has eliminated algae. Only the stems and windelov fern appear to have suffered. Crypt lutea:

Anubias has a new shoot!

Tiny new windelov ferns below that:

Buces 'isabelle' are growing back visibly on the skull:

'Wavy' and 'Selena' below:

They're getting overgrown by the subwassertang, but so far I think the mingling looks nice:

Finally got a decent photo of a guppy!

window tank light

One day the winter sun exposure was just right for taking photographs- so I did. (That's Laddie top just off center, he likes to hang in the middle of the tank and look out).

Overall the tank needs more plants with height- my vals have just never grown up. Some of the elodea are starting to get there- behind the 'hill' of bolbitis fern.

The younger crypt moehlmanii is just as big as its parent now. In front of that, is the group of little crypts I moved out of the front left corner a while back

They'd been looking peaky for a long time, always having a leaf here or there turning pale and dropping off. I finally decided to shift them all to a spot that gets more light- and now they're doing great!

The dimmer corner is now with buces.

Two buce in the tenner were getting tall enough to need a trim- one 'selena' and one 'isabella' so I clipped their tops and planted in here. Near the dwarf sword, which continues to do fine even when the temp drops to 64° nights.

Other side of the tank everything is nearly the same height- because I trimmed the stems and replanted a few weeks ago, and they grow slow or not at all in winter. Oh well.

tiny teardowns

Got tired again of keeping glass boxes on the windowsill. Fished out all the bits of subwassertang today and dropped into the shrimp bowl, along with the baby ramshorn snails. Poured out the green water into the guppy fry box- they went nuts darting after copepods. Put the bits of java fern and baby windelovs into the QT- you can see they weren't doing so great:

so that's that.

the tenner

It looks rather empty without a betta. Needs plants with more height- I'm hoping the rotalas will grow enough I can trim and replant again soon. Have thought about getting guppy grass (as I have guppies now). The females are both getting very fat and squarish, little blue male flirts with them constantly. Still haven't seen any actual mating, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

Left side- I added a few more oak leaves in the back.

buce 'isabella' starting to leaf out again on the skull-

More round leaves sprouting from that anubias rhizome in front corner-

Round buce from the angel tank is definitely looking paler than the others-

This patch of buces front center always looks nice-

I cut some older leaves out of the windelov fern:

Subwassertang filling in- has its best shape in this tank

Right side. Snails keep uprooting the tiny plants in front corner. That pale stem leaning diagonally is a piece of elodea that sank- I'm waiting to see if it grows more or not.I dropped it in there because there was thread or hair algae. To see if the guppies ate it. They sure did- and pooped bright green for two days.

Crypt grows, but slowly

These stems are nice, but slow too-

Rotalas-

Short end view- hm

I pulled out the small enchinodorus- dwarf amazon sword- and moved it into the window tank. It just never looked happy so I'm trying a new location for it.

And newest bit is this plant growing out of the top-

more on that, next post!

the little snail jars

I cut out lots of java and windelov fern leaves in here-

that had black spots and pale patches. I think the younger leaves look better but now it's so sparse. Just aren't doing well like this-

It's fine for growing the subwassertang, though!

blue guppy

I'm starting to wonder what kind of guppies I have, or if it they're an endler cross? The little male has developed some brilliant color. (I often see him shimmying his fins around a female, haven't seen any mating but both females are getting very fat and square, so they might have).

He's bright blue, darker on the caudal peduncle and black on the fins, with a line of bright spots top and bottom of the caudal peduncle like a row of runway lights.

Of course I could not get a good photo- the colors only show well when the tank is dim, and the fish flits around so much my camera can't really catch it.

But maybe, although blurry, these pictures give an idea.

snail size

I cleaned up the second snail jar the other day- put all the elodea bits into the window tank. Now it's just baby java ferns and windelov fern.

Subwassertang jar is still just subwassertang, and snails.

Found tiny baby snails in each container:

This is the smallest one on a java leaf, the camera could just focus on. Rear view of the snail:

It moved- side view:

For size reference, that other snail below it is still fairly small-

and the two off to the left on glass edge are adult, but still modest in size. I've seen them larger.

One of the grown ramshorns:

I was skeptical how well the java and windelov ferns would do in here, but they look better than those in the paradise fish tank!

keeping this going for a while- not tired of it yet. Kind of fun to peer in at the snails while I'm washing dishes.