90L
A few alterations and losses to this tank since the last post. Firstly, the last known female Sawbwa passed away suddenly, which was followed by the eldest male a week later. I know their cause of death weren't related, as the eldest male had long been suffering from old age. The days leading up to his passing weren't pretty. Severe weight loss and lack of eating basically made him more bone than body. I now have 2 males remaining and am strongly considering rehoming them if I can find a good one. As for the Cherrys, no issues there apart from the occasional damaged fin from sparring. I did end up getting a lone Cherry Tetra at a local shop, who has been nicknamed 'Terry'. He isn't in the picture above, but the colouration is a lot brighter and stronger on this fish than the others. Possibly a line-bred individual. As for plants, I relocated the Ludwigia into my 60L and replaced it with some Java fern & Anubias barteri var. caladiifolia. These epiphytes have been placed on DIY suction cup shelves behind the hardscape, which allow for a covered area at the back for the fish and shrimp to retreat to. I do intend to slowly phase out the floating plants, even though I would be going against the very advice Byron told me years ago in regard to tetras. I feel the cave made by hardscape and the covered area behind it are sufficient enough for the animals to use. When the floating plants are removed, I will be lowering the lighting intensity as well. That currently sits at 30%.
60L
Not much to update really with this one. I ended up using the Ludwigia from the 90L to backfill the area I talked about before. It's doing well and has created a covered area next to the filter that the Ricefish enjoy. I have noticed I am down a couple of daisies when doing a headcount recently. It would have been 10, but now only 8 can be found. The original group of these fish are quite old, so I'm not very surprised their numbers have dwindled. I may attempt to breed a few more next year to bump up the numbers when the summer temps come back.
12L
This one has been a great watch recently. Scuds were introduced not too long ago, and they really are fascinating. I have somehow already spotted baby scuds without using anything to magnify the tank! I did add in some excess Java ferns and more Susswassertang, which is taking up swim room for the little daisy, but I will be relocating that fish in the coming weeks as the room temp is dropping towards 20c.
Waterbowl
Not much has changed in this pond. I did trim the corkscrew as it was getting too big, but that's about it. I have ordered a pond pump prefilter sponge that is big enough to completely cover the pump unit, which should help reduce the clogging issue I faced in recent months.
