55 Gallon Long Planted

[joegti]

I recently upgraded from a 29 gallon to a 55 long. Ive been putting things together piecemeal and here is what i have so far.

Inhabitants:
1 Female & 1 Male Variable Platy
2 Female Rosy Barbs
2 Female Harlequin Rasbora
2 Corys
1 Freshwater Snail
~50 Variable Platy Fry (Intank Breeding Tank)

I use an old Emperor 400 biowheel filter.

I use a cheap walmart airpump. I might be upgrading that next.

Tank background is a black garbage bag cut to size and taped to the glass.

My substrate is natural white sand from a secluded spot on the shores of Moriches bay adjacent to the Atlantic ocean on Long Island. This sand was thoroughly cleaned, i had it in my old tank for many months with no problems. I also have a pile of rocks made into a nice hiding spot for future fry to hide in from the shore of the Long Island Sound in Riverhead.

Plants:
2 Amazon Swords
2 Tall Grass
1 Forgot the name of
3 Artificials

 

[karin]

Wow, what species is that shark? Does not look like a Bala, but not certain.

Tank looks great!

 

[PaBucsFan]

Very nice. I hope to see updates as the plants continue to grow. I too use white sand although not from the same area you collected your sand from, how old are the platy fry?

 

[joegti]

Very nice. I hope to see updates as the plants continue to grow. I too use white sand although not from the same area you collected your sand from, how old are the platy fry?

Thanks guys.

Fry are 15 days old, i have a pic thread going here.

 

[PaBucsFan]

They look great! Only another 15 or so days and they can safely live with mommy and daddy platy in the 55 gal if those are your plans.

 

[joegti]

They look great! Only another 15 or so days and they can safely live with mommy and daddy platy in the 55 gal if those are your plans.

Im itching to get them out of the breeder, i was thinking of releasing them today. Theyre still too small though and the rosy barbs will have a field day on them. Like you said, another 10-15 days and im setting them free. Cleaning that breeder pen is a pain, i always manage to suck up like 5 fry through the tube into the bucket lol...theres so many in there i dont have room to clean with out doing that. I almost have to 'wrangle' them into one side of the tank to clean it good.

Yes, my plans are to keep this batch of fry...it might get a little over crowded eventually. Any other fry drops that happen from this point on will be left to find places to hide if they intend on living. That pile of rocks and plants i made should be sufficient.

My LPS said they will buy any juvenile platy i bring in so if it gets out of hand i have someplace to go.

 

[joegti]

Heres a few quick pics of the community...

 

[joegti]

So, its been 6 months since the start of this post...time for some new pics.

Also as a little bit of a background....the fry i foolishly set free when they were way too small and they all got eaten except one. That fry is now a juvi and i believe is preggo, she is in pics #1. The adult has since had another drop at some point about 2 months ago and 1 survived...its another female and shes starting to mingle in the party. She is in pic #2. The adult is about to drop again.

Had a couple random deaths in the tank, water quality is good...nothing to get worked up about. Pretty much my original batch of fish i stared this tank are still alive just about 1 year into it.

Found a dead mickey mouse platy recently, scooped it out and flushed. Today i find a few very new beet red fry (pic #3) in the hiding spot i made....thinking mother died giving birth.

Anyways...heres some pics.

 

[3l3ctric]

Too bad about your losses... but I think your tank looks pretty nice right now. I've always thought that platys are pretty fun and finding fry is always interesting They wouldn't make sense in my tank right now, but I used to have some and they were definitely in my top favourites.