125 gallon South American community progress

[PheonixKingZ]

Gotta love those Plecos!

Give him time with the wood. Mine took a while to get a liking for it.

 

[Snagrio]

The new fish in quarantine have been faring well and should be ready to move into the main tank soon. But the apistogramma trifasciata have matured enough to the point where it's fully obvious I have two males and a female, and one male has been shunned to a corner.

Question is should I see what happens once they move from the 10 gallon QT to the far bigger 125, or should I just outright return the shunned male to the store and not risk things potentially escalating?

 

[Colin_T]

Either get another female for the smaller male or get rid of it.

There should be enough room in a 125 gallon tank for 2 prs of Apistogrammas

 

[Snagrio]

I would have to be lucky to find another female. These three I got from the LFS were not only the only three of their kind there at the time, but the female I ended up with was likely one of the only female dwarf apisto there period, the rest looked like males across all the species they were carrying.

 

[Snagrio]

No pics at this time but here's what's going on.

I was doing the weekly water change and noticed the salvinia is just, gone. Vanished without a trace. I'm convinced it was the snails, I distinctly remembered seeing chew marks on some leaves and none of the fish could've been responsible so, that really sucks. They thankfully haven't touched anything else though.

While doing the water change I tried to see if any of the Javas and anubias had grown in enough. Only the biggest Java stayed put, I did two more plants and they weren't even close. Attempted to replace the rubber bands with sewing string but my giant clumsy hands just weren't doing a good job at it so I left the rest of the rubber bands alone, next water change I'm going to get some gorilla super glue and take out the decor to glue the plants on one by one because I've grown tired of this.

The vallis are exploding. One has not only reached the surface but has a leaf stretching along the entire width of the tank.
The Amazon sword is still growing frustratingly low and isn't putting any effort into height.
The ludwigias are almost always free-floating no matter how many times I replant them.
The bacopas are staying put but aren't faring all that well thanks to brown algae setting in which has been affecting them more than the rest I feel.
Baby Javas are everywhere.
The anubias look more or less the same, maybe a new leaf or two.
The micro swords are on their last legs, just a few sprigs remaining from each plant.
The crypts are doing okay-ish. They weren't happy about being moved twice but are recovering.

At this point had I known how much of a pain trying a bunch of different plants was going to be, I would've just gotten a large batch of vallis to grow throughout the tank and call it a day. Oy vey...

 

[Snagrio]

Well some good but mostly bad news...

Good news is I found another female trifasciata at the store today plus 5 more "visually popping" corydoras species (atropersonatus) as the delphax crew, while doing great, are practically invisible with the dark substrate and tannin water.




...Now for the slew of bad news. Once again I've failed to procure any black neon tetras. Went to two regular stores and there wasn't a single one to be seen, and the ones at the LFS were few in number and one of the rams bunking with them was covered in ich to boot. At this point, the weather's warming up and I'm fed up with this wild goose chase so I'm just going to order a wholesale batch of 20+ later and see how that goes.

There was a sizable group of marble hatchets which got me excited, but they were in really sorry shape; over half of them having a fungal-looking growth all over their mouths.

They finally had farlowellas, but there was a catch. They were royal farlowellas, which evidently are significantly more expensive than "regular" farlos (which go for 12-15 bucks, the royals are going for 60, yeah that ain't happening).

Finally the most pressing issue, looking at the female I just bought is making me think ALL 3 of the apistos I already have are males.

This one is obvious. The most colored and after only a day he roams the main sectors of the tank like he owns the place.


These two however, they're looking way too blue to be female, and I've noticed they keep cowering in the back compared to the clearly dominant one (this was the best pic I could get of them to give an idea). I've also noticed them chasing each other around a bit.



Here's a newer pic of the female in the QT to show how much yellower she is.


So, now what? I'm already planning to go back on Thursday as that's what I was told the best time to come in for fresh shipments is (they come in on Monday and are set out for sale on Thursday) so should I just take back the two other males?

 

[Snagrio]

Been a while hasn't it. Here's how things are looking now.

As of now, the residents are:
1 Giant danio
1 Eastern rainbowfish
2 Bristlenose plecos (there were two babies but I don't believe they've survived unfortunately)
4 Three-striped dwarf cichlids
8 False blochi corydoras
5 Fairy corydoras
21 Neon tetras
20 Black neon tetras
1 Glowlight tetra
1 Male guppy
5 Mystery snails






Some extra schooling shots.





Two of the fairy corydoras (Atropersonatus).


Some mystery snail pics (they go CRAZY for cucumber).



Closeups of the three-striped apistos (Trifasciata).



Vagrant the stowaway guppy. He's fully developed now and looks unbelievably stunning. This pic doesn't do him nearly enough justice (though the back of his tail sadly has a slight tear).


And finally the orphan glowlight. It's been doing well. Notice the bunches of Javas in the background, those are all just a handful of the children my main plants have been producing at an insane rate. If you look closely you'll see them dotted throughout the aquascape.


As a bonus, new pics of the 17 silver hatchets and 2 prized farlowella catfish in quarantine. The hatchets have been dealing with ich since the second day they've been here but are responding well to heat treatment as the pest is nearly gone.

 

[dsch132]

Made up my mind, going to try and expand. By my estimations nearly everything already in the tank would benefit from larger quarters (be it sheer size or required numbers per species), and I can't in good conscience just rehome an entire community to replace it with something else when they've already been with me for a number of years.

My aim will be a 125 gallon or so, with proper aquascaping (I'll try "non-rooted" species like java ferns and java moss). I already tried to make the setup at least semi-naturalistic but I want to go further. It won't happen for a while until I can find what I'm looking for and there's still research to be done but hopefully I can navigate this and make the changes I want to see.

Thank you for taking responsibility for your fish. I have a lot of respect for your dedication to their wellbeing. Upgrading is exactly what I would want to do were I in that situation. I understand that my fish probably don't give a damn about me as anything but a provider of food (and I don't know that all of them make that association). However, we, as aquarists, often develop affection and attachment.

If you need help with plants, ask the forum again! A lot of us have experience with planted tanks. I, myself, currently have a large planted community as well as a 6 gallon planted betta tank. I'm just finishing up on cycling another betta tank that will eventually house plants. They do wonders for bioload, aesthetics, and the comfort of the fish. Best of luck!

 

[Snagrio]

Thank you for taking responsibility for your fish. I have a lot of respect for your dedication to their wellbeing. Upgrading is exactly what I would want to do were I in that situation. I understand that my fish probably don't give a damn about me as anything but a provider of food (and I don't know that all of them make that association). However, we, as aquarists, often develop affection and attachment.

If you need help with plants, ask the forum again! A lot of us have experience with planted tanks. I, myself, currently have a large planted community as well as a 6 gallon planted betta tank. I'm just finishing up on cycling another betta tank that will eventually house plants. They do wonders for bioload, aesthetics, and the comfort of the fish. Best of luck!

Uh, appreciate the post but you'll probably want to read the rest of this thread because things have changed quite a bit since the initial plans. ?

 

[azvictoria]

I'm having conflicting thoughts... A part of me wants to just rehome fish and "start over" but, the other part wants to try and make things better with what I already have and deal with the challenges as they come. When I was young I had a huge collection of animals (already had several and then others came from friends and then some reproduced and so on) and eventually I rehomed many of them, an act which still haunts me to this day.

I know it's strange to impart such emotional baggage to fish of all things but, considering how long some of them have been with me I don't know how to feel about giving them away after all this time. But t

Hey there, I'm new here and have a predicament to discuss. I've had fish for a number of years now but it's come to my attention that things aren't as up to snuff as they should be and I'm unsure of the best course of action at this point.

Currently have a 55 gallon community, with issues of species that need far bigger space and others that aren't doing so well. The residents are 4 clown loaches, 2 Australian rainbowfish, an albino rainbow shark, 2 upside-down catfish, a giant danio and a pleco of indeterminate species. Nothing special about the setup, just two hang-on-back filters, dual heaters (water stays around 80F), gravel and plastic plants with a fake log hide and one piece of driftwood (gave up trying live plants since the clowns dig out everything before long). Try to water change every couple weeks but I've had a less than stellar track record of maintenance upkeep.

The community itself is over a decade old, and many have already come and gone (used to actually be a smaller species community until the loaches figured out that small fish make excellent snacks), and several that are less keep having issues like on and off fin rot, one of the rainbowfish seems to have swim bladder issues (constantly swimming at a diagonal angle) and the giant danio has some kind of tumor-like growth on its lip. But the biggest problem as you may have guessed is space. I know clown loaches need double the dimensions that they are currently in. In fact I never would've gotten any but when I started out with a 30 gallon off Craigslist it came with one and I've slowly introduced more so it wouldn't be lonely. And the pleco was a blunder as it was supposed to be a bristlenose but it's clearly a species that's going to get giant (it's relatively new so it's small for now).

However, I don't think it's possible to upgrade to the required 100+ gallon setup as within the next few years I'll be moving out on my own and I'm nervous about the prospect of having to fit a tank of that size in an apartment, let alone having to worry about floor structural integrity that one needs to be aware of with that kind of weight. Bottom line is, the setup is kind of a mess that needs serious rethinking. Should I just attempt to rehome the loaches and pleco? Sell the entire thing since I've done a rather mediocre job? Are the other fish savable at this point? Really unsure what I should do.

he prospect of dealing with a setup over double the size I currently have that'd be required to give them their best life is equally daunting, not just in itself (space, cost, maintenance) but the extra dilemmas down the line with moving and such. I'm at a crossroads and I'm left wanting of an answer as to which path to take...

It's not strange at all to become attached. I recently had to rehome a 5-year old aggressive angel that I've had since he was the size of a quarter. It was a hard day driving him off to his breeder in a glass jar. I wonder how he is, even though I know he went into good hands, it was hard but right. When my nearly 10 year old angle (Copernicus) passed several years ago, I was devastated - it's allowed! Don't feel bad about worrying about them, but at a point, some need to go to other places. They aren't attached to us like we are to them. Be discerning and trust your gut. I wouldn't put a larger tank on a floor that's not on a first level unless it's your own home without attached neighbors - you don't know the ins and outs of the framework, and you don't want any liability. That clown loach is the biggest I've seen - perhaps there's a big restaurant or museum tank that he could go to? He'd likely have routine maintenance and people to admire him. The pleco will also get big. I really can't stand the thought of living without aquaria - if you can, keep it small, but keep it. That likely means giving up the big kids. New and fresh ideas might be really inspiring!