glory fish

Tucker has eaten nearly all the snails in his tank. A few trumpet snails escape him because they burrow during the day- but now a lot of plants are getting too much algae on them. I've put up background again. Makes it easier to take photos, so I tried for a few good ones of Tucker- but he moves so quickly it's difficult as ever!

He's grown a lot. Tip of anal fin reaches half the length of his tail!

I've started feeding him one earthworm (red wiggler) a few times a week- he really likes that.

unnamed paradise

While the angelfish tank is occupying my mind a lot these days, nothing could be easier than the 33L, or the centerpiece fish destined to go in it- my new paradise guy is still doing great. Haven't quite decided on his name yet.

The tank he'll go into- I tried to get a full length photo today- both with window light coming thru

and with a temporary backdrop 

Noted that I'm pleased how the dwarf sag has done so far

moved the small guys

I put my amano shrimps into tanks- two in the tenner and two in the window tank. Since there's not fish that will eat them (no betta, no paradise fish) right now, I figured they can help clear out the thread/hair algae, I can never get it all by hand. Also, now I can see them and find some amusement watching their busy antics. I dropped a few more snails in the 1.5 gal bowl to keep it going meanwhile...

In the tenner:

A day later there's significantly less algae on the sponge filter already!

Pics of the two in the 33L, among the blue buce 'Selena'

under a crypt

walking over the rock I failed to grow moss on

and through the standard vals (one has finally grown full tank height!)

blending in against the rock behind buce 'green wavy'

creeping back into the sagittaria thicket (growing up steadily!)

bonus pic of the buces in my tenner flowering

dwarf sag

Over a week ago I got some dwarf saggittaria from a fellow aquarium keeper, through the mail.

For years I never thought of trying this in my tanks. People use it in high-tech setups to make a carpet filling in the foreground substrate. But I learned recently that it can grow fine in a low tech setup, it will just get taller- which is what I want! - and it can also do okay with temps down into to the low sixties. Max height is twelve inches, so this might work perfectly in my unheated window tank.

I planted it in the middle, where all the weighed-down hornwort stems have finally come out. Same as last time, I floated the plants for a good long while with occasional additions of tank water to the bag, to give them a gradual acclimation. I haven't seen any melt. I expect them to grow rather slowly, at least until summer comes again.

Looking down at the middle: