tank notes

This week I dosed the same on the ten-gallon, and on the twenty omitted giving nitrate (per recommendations on fish forum- there's enough from the fish waste) -for the dry ferts. Things are looking well in the main aquarium.

Watersprite is growing like mad. Forming plantlets now with roots spreading down. A few pieces have broken off and once again I let them float- maybe they will do better that way now, and if they don't it's no big deal to loose them, there is so much of it.

Most of the aponos have new shoots, the few smallest ones left are getting darker leaves lie kind of flat on the substrate I remember the other one did this before it took off so I watch for them to bust out in growth soon too. This is the second-tallest, but most robust in terms of how wide the leaves are (overhead shot, tank lights off).

prettiest one, shot through the jungle of rotala

which is thus, now:

Continue to have just as many dying-off java fern leaves as newer ones, solid pretty green, but I only cut out a few of the worst each week- and there are some new fiddleheads now too. (Two pics, diff lighting)

Crypts look well at a glance, but the younger, smaller ones are beginning to look peaky and yellow. Bigger leaves yellowing between the veins too. Could be iron deficiency in here, too.

Other plants more or less the same- vallisneria doesn't seem bothered by anything so far

I have noticed that my kuhlis are like Pinkie- they don't care for stronger current. Last week the day after maintenance I saw (from below looking up into light source) that the surface of the water looked dusty? I think this was from putting in the root tabs- they start to disintegrate immediately when being pushed down. Some gets into the water column. I was anxious to filter it out- Pinkie might have trouble breathing with a film on the surface- so I removed the baffle to increase flow and turbulence. Right away the kuhlis started avoiding the left side of the tank, even the little rock cave- they stayed around the java log instead. Pinkie preferred to stay away from that side, too- he would venture over sometimes, but obviously had to struggle against the current. The barbs don't seem to care- they swim harder too but it doesn't deter them any.

Once the water seemed cleared up I put the baffle back on, and now the kuhlis are hanging out under plants on that side of the tank again.

It's kind of pathetic how many times in prior posts I proclaimed: the plants are doing better! when obviously to me now, looking back on pictures, they weren't. And still have a ways to go. In the ten, things are off again. I guess I don't yet have the right balance of ferts. There is only one nice java fern leaf, the others brown splotches turning into black and some pinholes. Some anubias leaves turning yellow (leaf veins remain green) and others darkening with algae again.... I had left off the paper on the short end by window because not much direct sun in winter but have put that back now. I think they need iron supplement- realize in my big tank this is delivered in the root tabs, and maybe enough leaches up somehow that the javas are kept happy- but in the small tank, I don't put root tabs, just ferts in the water. There are only a few fish, and fish food doesn't have much iron in it (I have been told) so they don't get any of that from fish poo either...

palm flower?

My palm isn't doing what I thought it was.

I don't think they every branch, actually. And this looks like a flower shoot!

winter measures

The coldest time of year here always seems to be january and february. That's when I start blocking my windowpanes with cardboard and pulling the more tender plants off, overnights.

I also try to remember to mist the houseplants- this is better than overwatering to counteract dryness, and helps against spider mites too. Some plants don't like this- jade, geranium, cyclamen (can get crown rot), african violet (will get mold on leaves), creeping charlie. Poinsettia and pothos- sometimes. The ones that definitely need it: schefflera, coleus, spider plants, dracanea, palms, croton, avocado, and especially the fern. That big beauty still gets special treatment- I often carry it into the bathroom during bath or shower time. The croton was showing signs of spider mites- two leaves dropped before I noticed- so I've moved it away from the window base to sit next to my avocado, where I see it more and won't forget to mist. Plus it won't spread mites to all the other plants here further from the group.

how my worms are doing

I seem to have finally got the right balance- the worms are consuming everything I give them at a steady rate. Since I started being picky about their food supply, I hadn't seen any mites in a while. The bin is also drier now- nice crumbly texture but I wondered if it was too dry for the worms- they didn't squirm as much, or look nice and glistening. A few times lately I sprinkled the bedding with old tank water, and put in some leftover liquids (juice from canned peaches, water from cooking veggies, etc- never much- only 1/4 cup or less each time) also making sure there's new cardboard put on top to hold the moisture in. Some worms had always been crawling up the sides but since I started adding a bit of moisture back in, they stay down in the bedding. With the added moisture mites are showing up again- so I will ease back on the liquids again. Overall I think it's going well enough.

kuhli antics

These guys are so fun to watch. I've started to see them piling onto each other sometimes. Two of the black ones here in the little rock cave against the glass- they don't fit!

I've also noticed lately they are climbing more! Every now and then I catch one climbing up onto the java log, once I saw Albert up in a thicket of rotala, then he slid down onto a broad crypt leaf and below. Caught a pic here of black kuhli up in a plant, striped one below. You can see the size difference.

Black kuhli resting on the vallisneria. This plant is doing very well now, by the way. I didn't really care to have it in my tank anymore, but when I found some bits left kept them just because they were alive.

Buster is doing better, by the way. He always did look fine, but the small grey patch on his side is diminishing, hard to even spot anymore when I look close. Glad.

fish day

Today was a day for everything on the tank, it seemed. Well, the small one was simple. I rinsed its sponge filter last week, it doesn't seem to need it every week now- doesn't get as clogged. The java moss hasn't grown visibly and no dead leaves, so nothing to trim. It was just water replacement, ferts dose and clean the glass. The main tank needed more attention.

I added root tabs, dosed dry ferts, trimmed the tallest rotala and replanted stems, cut out a few dead leaves (java fern and apono), tied down an errant java fern (it had floated free of its moorings and was hung up in the rotala) plus all the regular work. Filter still needed a bit of maint- it continues to overflow I think having three cartridge pads on there- two old ones backed onto the carbon cartridge is just too much. I cut a side open in the cartridge to empty to old carbon (probably not doing anything at this point) and sewed the two extra pads back on which freed up the flow again. You can see from the overhead pic how much the watersprite has grown! Quicker than any other.

I am easing into dosing with the other macros- especially since the tanks already have nitrates from fishes- still not sure what's exactly needed and I get varying answers on the forums- but for now (since the tenner has fewer fish and thus lower nitrates, at 5ppm this week) I gave the ten gallon the normal recommended doses- 1/16 tsp KNO3, 1/32 tsp K2SO4 and half again that of KH2PO4. The twenty has at least 20ppm nitrate, so I gave it the regular dose of K2SO4 (1/16 tsp) and half-dose of KNO3 and KH2PO4 (1/16 and half the 1/32 respectively- to get half of 1/32 I used the same method as I did when putting small amounts of meds in the 5 gal QT- I dissolved 1/32 tsp into 10ml of tank water and dosed 5ml of that into the aquarium). Probably not exactly right but at least the plants are not dying anymore, most are growing better, and I will continue to tweak the doses and read up on stuff until I get it right.

(Now I'm being told on forums that if my plants show a need for extra ferts I really should give them CO2 as well- not what I had planned on! I might try it.... liquid version or DIY yeast supply, but that's another thing altogether...)

notes

to myself. I've improved a few small things with my fishkeeping- silly probably, but don't want to forget.

For a long time now I had wondered if the timers on my tank lights were not working properly- they always seem to lag behind after a while. Finally I realized- duh!- that whenever I turn the power off for tank maintenance, the timer will lag by however much time it was off. Of course. I'm not yet in the habit of resetting it every time (I should), but when I notice the aquarium is turning on/off a lot later than I want it to, I readjust.

Since I quit doing gravel vac I have been using a designated plastic "fish cup" (the ugliest kid's drinking cup in my house- covered with bright, garish pictures) to scoop water for removal. But I don't think this is the best method- I wonder if the bright color distresses the fishes, and they definitely feel the disturbance of the water rocking around. Instead last week I took the hose off the vac and used that to siphon out the water. Why didn't I do this before? It's a perfectly smooth operation, takes less effort, and instead of hiding the fishes come up curious. Pinkie even nibbles at my hand and once bit at the end of the tube- until he felt the suction pull! Now he doesn't approach so close.

I'm still growing java moss in jars on my dresser- from bits I find in the big tank and from trimmings off the skull in the tenner. My method has been to put the skull in the 2 gallon fish bucket with some removed tank water, trim in there, then fish out the trimmings. By hand. Which is tedious and tricky. Much easier to simply siphon out the bits of greenery with a straw- like how I used to retrieve dropped pea bits from the betta bowls. Again- why didn't I think of this before?!

Also to note- I've been reading more about fishkeeping- got hold of a few old (seven years at least) aquarium hobby magazines. I'm learning a lot. Things that don't really apply to me yet (or ever) like that the miniature octopus that some aquarists keep as pets have a poisonous bite! Or that the temperature fish eggs hatch at can affect the male/female ratio in the brood. It's fascinating to read about collection techniques in the wild, too. I'm also dreaming more and more of a future 40 gallon tank for angelfish- have learned that it ought to be established at least a month before the angels are introduced, and that the young fish should be put in their destined home tank from the beginning- because they can reach full size in just a few months. I was planning on that anyways, but it's good to know!

I am actually excited for maintenance day this friday, because I now have all my macro ferts! The response of the plants to just the potassium sulfate and micros has been wonderful, so I can't wait to see how much better they do with the balance. Java fern seems to be lagging now (no new fiddleheads in a while) and the amazon sword is looking peaky. Watersprite has hit the ceiling- three large stems spreading out, so much dense growth below when the fishes hide I can barely see them- and yet no stems turn brown (hooray!) I think the fishes are enjoying the improved cover- it's been a long time since I've seen any posturing among them, but yesterday they were picking through the watersprite, nibbling on the leaves (or some microorganism on them) and the largest female Freckles- she has a dark spot on her anal fin- was jerking her fins wide and tall, turning sideways to other barbs in display. I thought I saw Buster or Sangre wiggling their fins eagerly at females among the foliage too.

A bit worried that Buster seems to have a very small gray patch on one side- the size of a few scales- that might be fungus? I am keeping a close eye- maybe should pull him out and put in QT but he is behaving perfectly normal so far. One of the large females had a similar patch on her back for several weeks but now I can't see any fish with that so I think it's healed. Pinkie has a missing scale on his right side near the belly- I think he might have gotten poked by a kuhli spine- he likes to cram under the log in the space they occupy too- and maybe there was some excitement during a feeding or water change and he got poked. I can't think what else would have caused it.

And that's all my fishy thoughts for the day.

avocado

The older leaves on my avocado plant are starting to look tired and shabby.

But the newer ones are full-size now, and more shoots arising. I am wondering if I should trim off the older foliage, it just might branch again.

arrow leaf

The original arrowhead plant has finally produced a new leaf in its pot.

But I still prefer the bouquet of green in a vase- I think I will keep it this way, and move the potted plant out the door once it is bigger.

Its roots have reached the bottom of the vase, are curling around.

rosy

Cyclamen likes the colder weather. On days when the sun isn't too bright, I put it in the windowsill. I have fewer crowns now (some died off when it was repotted a while ago) but what is left rosy pink stems and healthy dark patterned leaves- so pretty.

plants!

I keep taking pictures of the underwater plants, to compare their progress. Can't help myself, being so pleased with the improvement. Today during maintenance only trimmed off a few bleached out leaves of java fern and deteriorating amazon sword in the big tank, none in the tenner. I think the plants are still going through a bit of adjustment and letting their older, damaged leaves die off- the new growth continues to look good. I just ordered the other two macro nutrient dry ferts, so next week my plants will get the complete dose. I haven't taken a picture of the entire tank in a while (dismayed at how awful it was doing for so long) and it's hard to avoid a glare in the center for some reason, but here it is:

I'm so pleased that the watersprite has become a thicket dense enough that one of the striped kuhlis likes to hang out under it.

From the side you can see how quickly its grown! Touching the ceiling.

It's nice to see the plants becoming a green background to the group of cherry barbs.

The most mature apono in the corner is starting to really show its ruffled beauty

Funny that it has such a different growth habit from the others- it has narrow leaves

while the second-largest (quickly catching up) has broad, darker leaves:

and this one in the corner with narrower leaves seems to turn around itself

Also found a tiny leaf of val that got stuck in the gravel layer- but is growing tiny roots! (hard to picture)

fish pics

It has been a very long time since my bettas saw another of their own kind. I propped a small mirror against side of the aquarium to let the fish see himself. They are still feisty fellows! Pinkie showing his colors:

I think this is the first time I've seen Oliver display. He has more red color in his dorsal fin than I realized (the red showing under opened gill covers looks alarming, but is normal.

This photo shows his form nicely, but disappointed there's bad reflection of my own hand in the glass

And I like this one backlit which shows the shape of his finnage against light

I finally got a photo of the two new black kuhlis together- one hanging out in the rotala stems!

momentarily

kuhli power

is in numbers! I have two new guys who just got introduced to the tank day before yesterday. They're black kuhli loaches:

They like resting in curves on the crypt leaves where they touch the glass

And they really like the rock cave, but can't quite fit inside it!

They're much more robust than my striped kuhlis.

And they have made the first kuhlis bold. I noticed immediately that I'm seeing kuhli squiggles all over the tank, even during the day:

I'm very impressed with these guys. They have given my original kuhlis enough confidence that for the first time ever, they came out to compete against the cherry barbs for spirulina wafers. I won't have to sneak food under the kuhli log anymore, they were hogging the food from the other fishes!

Even Pinkie shoving his way in didn't deter the kuhlis.

Yah kuhlis!

(All these pics taken with aquarium lights off, to let the new guys settle in. I'll get some better photos soon).

downsides

Not much happening with plants in winter- and the potato didn't grow it rotted, so will try that again later. So I keep posting about fishes. Oliver is not as accepting as I thought. I never see him actively chase or threaten the platies, but they were fine last week

and now one of them has a bitten tail.

I'm going to have to find them a new home... Maybe Oliver would do better with cories. Or shrimp. Or just snails (ie: nobody!) I've noticed that since Sammy moved out, Oliver the black flag hangs out in the sheltered driftwood spot more. Is this because the kuhli is gone, so he's moved into that area- or that he doesn't like sharing the upper levels with the platies, so sticks near the bottom.