Thai wonder

Added around 25 microdevario kubotai today.

Gosh they sure are active compared to the CPD I have in the same room. Still fairly washed out but they are starting to colour. The sids are still half asleep although they did all come rushing out when I first added the newcomers. A few scary moments (for me), but it didn't take long to learn the new tankmates were too big to be food and were not a threat to the established hierarchy so it settled down fairly quickly.

The tank has a decent flow and they are not at all bothered by it. I have set the powerhead to come on for 2 out of every 6 hours with a complete rest overnight. There is no noticeable change in behaviour whether the powerhead is on or off. Just need to get some plants in now as it is looking a bit sterile.

 

The little guys certainly know what to do with food .
Last night they got the Dennerle equivalent of bug bites. I wouldn't normally feed on day 1 but ended up working away from home last week and was recently on hols for 2 weeks - so the sids have only been fed 1 week in the last 4.

Today they had NLS micro pellets. I had to guess how much to feed but I had to provide a second helping as my guesstimate was devoured within 20 seconds before the sids even realised it was feeding time .

I'm not sure they will eat off the substrate as they did not respond to the shrimp pellets I fed at bedtime. But it was still day one ...

 

This one still has some way to go. Added another 6 sids this weekend and planted some substrate plants. A couple of weeks ago I thinned the frogbit drastically. I have to wait for it to grow back because the other 2 tanks with frogbit have MTS and, for the time being, I don't want snails in this tank so can't top them up.

 

Woohoo. Did a water change at lunch time and this evening I walked in to find all 12 loaches out in the open doing their loachy dance. Pretty spectacular sight. Sadly I couldn't get a camera in time as I killed my phone's battery today while our corporate comms system was down

The newcomers appear to have learnt their place in the hierachy (i.e. towards the bottom ) and seem to be integrating nicely. Haven't observed any more than the usual amount of squabbling over the last few days

 

Yes - all the fish in there like a high water flow. Have it on a timer, 2 hours on, 4 hours off with complete rest between midnight and 6am

 

Arghhh - the green algae that was visible in the earlier pics is getting worse. I have already reduced my lighting to around 6 hours and stopped adding ferts as the crypts, hygrophilia and amazon sword all have root tabs. The Anubias are perfectly healthy, that's algae you see on the leaves - even though I have just wiped them. I do like the look on the wood but don't want to be cleaning the glass and leaves every week. One difference between this tank and the others is that it has no snails, so it is possible that I have been overfeeding, but in fairness the substrate is clean (and I have never vaccumed it).

Plants all look good, but they are all undemanding! So that just leaves the light, either intensity or colour. Just been using the cheap LEDs that came with the tank. Can't find any specs on the light and I have no way of measuring as I do low tech for a reason. I did have an old Arcadia 500mm 18W LED unit lying around so I have put that in and turned off the tank lights.

I guess its going to be a case of trial and error from here. If the change of lights does the trick I'll have to get the dremel out to make the lid fit properly.

Here it is with the arcadia lights - I have only cleaned the front glass.

 

How often have we seen (or typed) needs a group of at least 6 but more is better?

My group of 6 sids was often out and about in the community tank. When I moved them they became a bit reclusive, and it went on too long to just be the stress of being caught and moved. Adding the kubotai helped a bit but it was unusual to see more than 2 or 3 out and about. Just under 2 weeks ago I added another 6, which of course triggered a mini dominance struggle. It was fairly brief because the newcomers are so much smaller. But since then I often see them out and about while the lights are on. Here they are tonight (no food was involved in luring them out, saw them playing, fetched my phone and they were still at it when I returned

 

Had to go back to the drawing board on the algae. The more intense lights made the algae worse so I turned the original unit back on. I actually thought I had burnt the anubias but most of the "damage" was just new algae growth.

Current theory is I was overfeeding after all. The substrate always looks clean because of the high flow in the tank which ensures the organic waste ends up in the filter, where it ends up as nitrate. Its too early to tell if it has turned around but I have noticed that at the weekly sponge rinse there is visible organic waste in the filter. The sponges from the other tanks just make the water dirty, but I can't see any bits. I had been feeding a full algae wafer at lights out time, so one night I fed early and after an hour there was a good bit left. So now they get 1/4 and everything else reduced proportionally.