Hello, I've not been here for ages I know! Life has just been busy - one of those things 
I'm more or less keeping on top of 3 tanks now I have my 300 litre Mbuna a 30 litre shrimp tank and my 100 litre cube. And its the latter I need a bit of help with, it was home to a group of Red Eye Red Tail Puffers but over the last year they have gradually died off, I got them in 2020 and my understanding is 3-5 years so I don't think it was anything untoward - they did become harder and harder to feed as all they would eat was frozen blood shrimp in the end totally ignoring snails and shrimp, to the point they lived with a colony of cherry shrimp and ramshorn snails... they did also have a group of Glowlight Danios in there but I've rehomed them to a friend - I had to totally strip this tank down this week due to a blue green algae outbreak that came from nowhere. Really annoying stinky stuff!
Anyway the tank is rescaped with lots of Frodo stones and I'm planting it out with Trident Ferns, Ludwigia Super Red, loads of Crypts and Lobelia Cardinalis Mini - as I look at the tank I do want to get some small Anubias in there too think that could work well. The rock work needs a bit of shuffling too but thats fine.
I'm at a bit of a loss what to do with the tank though so wondered what you thought and just wanted somewhere to write some ideas down as they come.
The tank is a 100 litre 60cm cube and its filtered by a Biomaster 250, substrate is a mix of fine sand and Wio Eonian, quite heavily planted and I grow emergent plants out of it (only one sprig of Pothos left after the Blue Green breakout). My water is pretty hard, it moves around through the year but 15gh is a pretty good rule of thumb.
I've been wondering about some Gourami species as some go quite hard - the red variant of the Thick Lipped Gourami is probably a good call. One of the species of Sparkling/Croaking Gourami are from harder parts too but I forget which one. I've seen some Rummynose Rasboras locally which could be cool and some Albino Cherry Barbs which look good too.
I'm not much into livebearers but contemplated that to some degree. I wondered about trying Indian Glassfish if I could find them but not 100% on that.
Then I know my hardwater isnt perfect for them but I have been wondering about some dwarf cichlids like Laetacara or Nannacara, if I got them locally then I suppose ethically I'd argue they stand their best chances with me vs less informed customers but its a thin argument... similarly any of the really commercially bred fish like X Ray Tetras or some of the Corys are so removed from their wild counterparts I've heard people having good success with them too.
It is a blank canvas though so if you've any ideas let me know
Wills
I'm more or less keeping on top of 3 tanks now I have my 300 litre Mbuna a 30 litre shrimp tank and my 100 litre cube. And its the latter I need a bit of help with, it was home to a group of Red Eye Red Tail Puffers but over the last year they have gradually died off, I got them in 2020 and my understanding is 3-5 years so I don't think it was anything untoward - they did become harder and harder to feed as all they would eat was frozen blood shrimp in the end totally ignoring snails and shrimp, to the point they lived with a colony of cherry shrimp and ramshorn snails... they did also have a group of Glowlight Danios in there but I've rehomed them to a friend - I had to totally strip this tank down this week due to a blue green algae outbreak that came from nowhere. Really annoying stinky stuff!
Anyway the tank is rescaped with lots of Frodo stones and I'm planting it out with Trident Ferns, Ludwigia Super Red, loads of Crypts and Lobelia Cardinalis Mini - as I look at the tank I do want to get some small Anubias in there too think that could work well. The rock work needs a bit of shuffling too but thats fine.
I'm at a bit of a loss what to do with the tank though so wondered what you thought and just wanted somewhere to write some ideas down as they come.
The tank is a 100 litre 60cm cube and its filtered by a Biomaster 250, substrate is a mix of fine sand and Wio Eonian, quite heavily planted and I grow emergent plants out of it (only one sprig of Pothos left after the Blue Green breakout). My water is pretty hard, it moves around through the year but 15gh is a pretty good rule of thumb.
I've been wondering about some Gourami species as some go quite hard - the red variant of the Thick Lipped Gourami is probably a good call. One of the species of Sparkling/Croaking Gourami are from harder parts too but I forget which one. I've seen some Rummynose Rasboras locally which could be cool and some Albino Cherry Barbs which look good too.
I'm not much into livebearers but contemplated that to some degree. I wondered about trying Indian Glassfish if I could find them but not 100% on that.
Then I know my hardwater isnt perfect for them but I have been wondering about some dwarf cichlids like Laetacara or Nannacara, if I got them locally then I suppose ethically I'd argue they stand their best chances with me vs less informed customers but its a thin argument... similarly any of the really commercially bred fish like X Ray Tetras or some of the Corys are so removed from their wild counterparts I've heard people having good success with them too.
It is a blank canvas though so if you've any ideas let me know
Wills
