Good News, Good News, Good News, Bad News.

[FishBlast]

Finally got my nitrite tester. So, I'm now 100% sure my tank has cycled long ago. Nitrite's 0 as well.

Got some java moss and some Fontinalis Antipyretica for the bogwood. Will post pic of new tank look tonight, as I want darkness around the tank.

And this is Eris, the new female swordtail lyretail. Cracker the male tried to court her and Bee took the role of a wife and immediately smacked him silly. He then proceeded to keep following Bee and ignoring the new female.

The bad news:
1) I wanted a koi lyretail or a white lyretail but they didn't have any. Well, spot reserved though.
2) Eris' tail is a bit nipped (unless it looks like this normally), hope it will grow better. She's pretty thin, but she ate a load of bloodworms easily.

 

[LucyB]

She's a beauty!

 

[FishBlast]

She's a beauty!

Yeah, the fish seller pointed her out when I said I wanted lyretails. He also showed me some blood-reds and such but they weren't any different from Bee or Cracker's colors so Eris is lighter due to her pink.

 

[FishBlast]

More bad news, after days of looking for my favorite snail Ramses the pest ramshorn, today I've come across his empty shell. Poor little guy... or girl, or whatever Ramses was.

 

[JDs4me]

Sorry to hear about Ramses, but Eris looks good! I also added to my tank today, with 6 Lake Kutubu rainbowfish and a couple of Golden Wonder panchax...they seem to be settling in OK....eating like yours, so must be a good sign

 

[FishBlast]

Sorry to hear about Ramses, but Eris looks good! I also added to my tank today, with 6 Lake Kutubu rainbowfish and a couple of Golden Wonder panchax...they seem to be settling in OK....eating like yours, so must be a good sign

He was my first snail, brought along with the plant back in March. Saw him grow since then.
Eris is a very calm female, but Bee is whacking Cracker all day now, they seem to be arguing about the courting incident earlier. LOL.
Those LK Rainbowfish on google images look cool. Please post pics of yours when you can. I want to see them. X)
Also of the Golden Wonder Panchax. Looks like a nice fish to have. What are the requirements for the panchax? (tank size, any particular needs?)

It may take a few days to a week to tell if Eris has settled in. Currently she tries to hang out with the funky couple, but they seem to ignore her. Forever alone...

I saw the cutest little hoplos at the pet shop. They remind me of Tzuppy when he was little. Too bad I can only keep one in my 20 gal.

And I also took a look at the salty area. Awesome reef tanks there. Their filters had anemone and other weird stuff growing on them, stuff that reminded me of the titanic's underwater remains. There were loads of ocean fish and a sea star.

 

[JDs4me]

My 4 hoplo's are growing....fast!. I thought these guys were slow to grow, but mine are certainly a lot bigger than they were when I had them (blimey, less than a month ago!)

Will post pics of the rainbows and panchax when they have settled....the panchax are good for my hard, alkaline water, with the required benefit that they are surface dwellers..and my male already looks very colourful as he slowly circuits his new domain. I now have surface, mid-level and bottom dwellers so my stocking is done for this tank! The Lake Kubutu's are seen at their best colours when mature I believe, but today they gave me a view of their potential, colouring up a little possibly through the stress of the travelling and the rather inexpert chasing they received by a young LFS salesman!

 

[FishBlast]

My 4 hoplo's are growing....fast!. I thought these guys were slow to grow, but mine are certainly a lot bigger than they were when I had them (blimey, less than a month ago!)

Will post pics of the rainbows and panchax when they have settled....the panchax are good for my hard, alkaline water, with the required benefit that they are surface dwellers..and my male already looks very colourful as he slowly circuits his new domain. I now have surface, mid-level and bottom dwellers so my stocking is done for this tank! The Lake Kubutu's are seen at their best colours when mature I believe, but today they gave me a view of their potential, colouring up a little possibly through the stress of the travelling and the rather inexpert chasing they received by a young LFS salesman!

Mine grew fast as well until they reached about 10 cm, then slowed down with each year that passed.
This was Tzuppy way back in the days when I was a noob. (he's in the back, the one in the front is Seadra, died at the age of 8 in 2010).

I feel like I have an all-bottom dwellers tank... There's no swordtail at the surface or middle, they all are gnawing on bogwood or the sand. I thought only my initial 2 were weird... I really don't understand, what's going on?
And during feeding time, the only surface feeder I have is the hoplo while the swordies just wait for the food to fall. How ironic.

 

[JDs4me]

I kept swordtails some 20 years ago so I am rusty...but am I right in thinking they feel more comfortable with lots of plants? I know they like space to swim free, but I seem to remember that they feel more secure if there is plenty of cover close by? If so perhaps yours keep close to your bogwood/substrate for that reason? Some cover at the surface then may draw them up to their prefered level...

Those hoplo's look awesome BTW!

 

[FishBlast]

I kept swordtails some 20 years ago so I am rusty...but am I right in thinking they feel more comfortable with lots of plants? I know they like space to swim free, but I seem to remember that they feel more secure if there is plenty of cover close by? If so perhaps yours keep close to your bogwood/substrate for that reason? Some cover at the surface then may draw them up to their prefered level...

Those hoplo's look awesome BTW!

Mine avoid the plants, even though the fern is fluffy enough, and they could always go under the bogwood or behind, but they stay in plain sight and graze on every bottom item they can, or on the glass. They're not scared though, they even peck my hands when I feed them. Tzuppy is taking it to a whole new level and climbs over my hand whenever I put it in the tank. Crazy kittyfish.
Even the fry peck me when I clean their cage.

I miss Seadra, he was bigger than Tzuppy. And different, his pectoral fins didn't have the pointy ends, they were rounded. And he had that funny nose that all my other hoplos had. Tzuppy never grew that thing, his head is quite flat. He looked a lot more like the hoplos they had in the shop now than the other tiny ones I had. Mostly grayish, with some lines and had very few spots on the tail, now he has a bar on his tail as an adult.
Another difference was that Seadra was calm, Tzuppy was (and still is) the little rascal who would attack strangers (humans only) and splash for all it's worth when I had to move him in and out of the tank to change their water (was doing 100% back then due to no filter). Seadra would land on my hand, he knew what time it was, so he allowed himself to be taken out every time.

 

[JDs4me]

hoplo's with character! hope mine grow to be as much fun as yours obviously gave you - they are a joy to watch!

heres a link to my latest arrivals; the rainbow males are the new town bullies, the panchax just ignores them, and the Ilyodons are wondering whats the rumpus...the hoplo's just carry on as they do and the raphaels sleep the day through! The Lake Kutubu's have definitely livened things up...



saw your new plants - looking good on the bogwood, should spread nicely

 

[FishBlast]

hoplo's with character! hope mine grow to be as much fun as yours obviously gave you - they are a joy to watch!

heres a link to my latest arrivals; the rainbow males are the new town bullies, the panchax just ignores them, and the Ilyodons are wondering whats the rumpus...the hoplo's just carry on as they do and the raphaels sleep the day through! The Lake Kutubu's have definitely livened things up...



saw your new plants - looking good on the bogwood, should spread nicely

Wow, your tank is perfectly in theme with everything. Even the LKs fit so well, surprisingly for some multi-colored fish.
It's like ghosts flying through a cemetery.
Lol Meldrew! He's just sitting there, watching his servants. His hair is growing awesome.
And your hoplos are so active. Mine's mostly sitting next to the bogwood, unless it's feeding time or he just wants to shift the sand a little. His nose is healing well too (accident during feeding time, when he hit his nose in the tweezers).

My willow moss needs some time to adapt, it has some dried leaves between the green ones, but I can't cool the water down to help it, I don't even have a heater but can't get 15C temp here without a cooler and my fish wouldn't like that low temp. The java moss that's between the wood's branches looks healthy though. My apple snails love it either way. And so does Eris, she picks the moss often.
My last ceratopteris branch took off for the surface. -.- I'll just wait for whichever moss spreads the most and replace it. at that rock area, or wait for Java Fern's new baby plant and put it between the rocks.

 

[ZoddyZod]

I feel like I have an all-bottom dwellers tank... There's no swordtail at the surface or middle, they all are gnawing on bogwood or the sand. I thought only my initial 2 were weird... I really don't understand, what's going on?
And during feeding time, the only surface feeder I have is the hoplo while the swordies just wait for the food to fall. How ironic.

If your tank is bare with very little in the way of plants or decoration that reaches the surface of the tank, then some fish will not feel secure enough to venture near the surface, including those that normally reside in that portion of the tank.

 

[FishBlast]

I feel like I have an all-bottom dwellers tank... There's no swordtail at the surface or middle, they all are gnawing on bogwood or the sand. I thought only my initial 2 were weird... I really don't understand, what's going on?
And during feeding time, the only surface feeder I have is the hoplo while the swordies just wait for the food to fall. How ironic.

If your tank is bare with very little in the way of plants or decoration that reaches the surface of the tank, then some fish will not feel secure enough to venture near the surface, including those that normally reside in that portion of the tank.

Well, I'll have to wait for the fern and ceratopteris to grow then. Another reason why they're not at the surface might be because my hoplo thinks that anything that sits at surface = food. He will often mistake the swordtails for food when they go there and try to suck them in. Not even the snails can sit there too long, he pushes them off the glass.

 

[JDs4me]

I feel like I have an all-bottom dwellers tank... There's no swordtail at the surface or middle, they all are gnawing on bogwood or the sand. I thought only my initial 2 were weird... I really don't understand, what's going on?
And during feeding time, the only surface feeder I have is the hoplo while the swordies just wait for the food to fall. How ironic.

If your tank is bare with very little in the way of plants or decoration that reaches the surface of the tank, then some fish will not feel secure enough to venture near the surface, including those that normally reside in that portion of the tank.

Well, I'll have to wait for the fern and ceratopteris to grow then. Another reason why they're not at the surface might be because my hoplo thinks that anything that sits at surface = food. He will often mistake the swordtails for food when they go there and try to suck them in. Not even the snails can sit there too long, he pushes them off the glass.

How about some vallis or similar in there Fishblast? That would give them immediate upper-layer cover which might entice them up there..as I recall that stuff spreads out quickly as well - I know my swords of old swam through it a lot!

And yes my hoplo's never stop, constantly up and down to the surface, competing at all levels for food...but then they are juvies unlike your mature fellow