bitterlings in their tank ( 9 babies ) still have 4 hatchet fish in a tank with no top...

[Magnum Man]

hatchets look great... day two...got high hopes for the bitterlings, as I've never had them before...

Blue Amur Taiwanese Bitterling (Paracheilognathus himantegus)

This colorful, subtropical bitterling is known to tolerate cold temperatures and can be a great fish for controlling pond algae and mosquitoes, or it can be a superb fish for the planted aquarium!

aquaticarts.com

 

[Magnum Man]

instructions talked about drip acclimation... not happening here, with 9 fish in a single bag... lots of drifting around poop, so I did my normal variation of cut plop... have a cup of tank water handy before opening the bag, add as much tank water to the bag, as soon as it's open, give them a minute or so for the waters to mix in the bag, pour it through a rinsed/ wet net, and add the fish to the tank... these went right into their new tank, as it was empty, except for the 3 rabbit snails I added earlier this week...

 

[Magnum Man]

bitterlings look great, lots of activity... only disappointing, is they are so small... guppy sized

 

[Magnum Man]

been looking for a source for freshwater mussels, or clams, that are legal for me to bring into Minnesota... pickings are pretty difficult... any suggestions

 

[Magnum Man]

Bitterlings appeared to be playing in the bubbles this morning... most of my tanks are highly aerated, all with double the needed hang on back filters, and many with different versions of air stones, as I'm still experimenting... the Bitterling tank has 2 ( one on each end ) big 4 inch by 2 inch air stones, that create a lot of bubbles, maybe too many, as the bubbles breaking the surface and popping, creates moisture that gets on to the outside of the glass, in those areas, and requires specific cleaning occasionally...

the Bitterlings seem to enjoy those heavy bubble areas...

I'm going to add a few panda garra to this tank, as well as a pearl gourami, or two... it also previously had a few rabbit snails, prior to adding the Bitterlings, and thinking about a few of those dwarf crayfish... slowly... at least that is the vision I have for this tank, and of coarse some sort of shellfish, when I find the right one or two...

 

[Magnum Man]

the Bitterlings are doing a good job, cleaning up some of the mulm in this tank, being a white sand bottom, and heavily rooted from the terrestrial vines ( 4 different varieties ) there was a large amount of mulm, that has proven to be difficult to remove, from the previous tank crash... they are listed as used for cleaning up ponds, and I've noticed them eating the stuff around the roots, that was difficult to remove... they are tiny yet, so no over night changes, but the tank is starting to look cleaner... assume the garas will join the cause, when they arrive, as well as the snails, and the tank will be spick and span in no time...

 

[AJ356]

the Bitterlings seem to enjoy those heavy bubble areas...

This just triggerd a really fond memory for me. I used to love watching my dad's bitterling constantly swimming over the bubbles from an airstone we had. It was almost like they were forming an orderly queue. Really interesting deja vu feeling reading your post. Without your post, this memory of mine would have just stayed dormant.

 

[AJ356]

I'm going to add a few panda garra to this tank, as well as a pearl gourami, or two...

I always thought bitterling were cold water fish?

 

[Magnum Man]

I have the heater set at 70 degrees, the same as my Hillstream tank, that has 5 gara's, and also contains a kisser gourami... maybe there is a difference between the kisser, and the pearl, as far as desired temperatures???

 

[Magnum Man]

the Bitterling preferred temp range seems like 65 - 75 degrees F.

 

[Magnum Man]

Bitterlings are still doing great... they have almost doubled in size so far ( still small... just twice the size of a guppy right now )... it's just a pair of rabbit snails, and the Bitterlings right now, they'll be joined by a group of panda gara, and a single gourami and a couple mystery snails next week... this tank is even more full of roots, than the tank the hatchets went into, so it's impossible to get an exact count on the Bitterlings but there is still a lot of them, with activity all over the tank, they never did school up

 

[Magnum Man]

This tank is slowly coming along, aside from the fact all the fish have been coming in tiny, and it's a 55 gallon, with tons of vining plants growing out of it... I believe all the Bitterlings are still in there, but I never see them all at one time, last week 3 Panda gara were added... again, they also arrived tiny... they hid themselves the 1st couple days, but I've been seeing them more and more the last few days... a couple weeks ago, I added 2 rabbit snails, which I see pretty often, and well as a starter culture of dwarf orange crayfish, that I watched them go in, and have not seen again, and last week 2 ivory mystery snails went in. those are pretty visible... the non fish have been added to work the white sand bottom where there is still a fair amount of mulm around the vine roots...

we enjoy the gang of adult panda gara, in my Hillstream tank, which is the same temperature as the Bitterling tank, so we are hoping that will be a good match... I'll probably add a few more dwarf crayfish, and a paradise fish, when I find the right one, otherwise I just need to wait for the fish to mature... down the road, I still have my eye out for a few mussels, but as small as the Bitterlings are, it'll be a long time, before they have a use for them...