My Home Project

Thank you.  I love them too.  I'm not sure why but I have had a strong attraction to the barbs.  I think my end game is to have a huge school of them.  The size of the school will obviously depend on the size of the tank I build I would love to include the normal, albino, green, neon green, and I have even heard that there is a red tiger barb variant.  I am thinking 5-7 of each so 25-35 barbs total.  I would like to think this would be a large enough school to keep there aggression towards other breeds to a minimum.  But of course that thought is for another time after the new tank is built .  For now I must be content keeping my 55g together and practicing restraint from stocking too much and too fast.  I may even add another 7 to this tank at the end if I can't find other fish to be suitable tank mates with them.

More pics.  My wife actually got some fish this time.  She is still learning how to use her camera so hopefully she will be able to get more as we progress.

Love that last pic of the Ram!
 
Beautiful indeed.

Yes the ram is awesome. I know how you feel ..... my attraction is to black ghost kinfes ...beautiful fish and fun to interact with

Love BGK, especially the way they swim, just entrancing! 

So I have acquired a small supply of cherry wood for my smoker and am going to attempt to create a few pieces of driftwood from it. I have selected two small piece and stripped them of bark. I put them in a pot full of water and will boil the tannins out. Once the water quits changing colors, I replace it every hour or so, I am going to leave the wood in water until it sinks. I'll then take it to work and give it a light sandblasting to remove sharp edges. One last boil just to be sure there is no baddies left and then tie some anubias to it and put it in. Has anyone ever done this before? And is there a better way?

So It seems as is usual life has thrown me a curve and my plans have changed. Despite wanting to wait until January to buy any more fish it seems like I will be away for work for an unspecified amount of time in the near future. To add insult to injury my departure ranges from tomorrow to never. To help my wife out with tank maintenance I decided to pull the trigger on buying a small school of oto's. I called my LFS to see what they had. As luck would have it they had a group of 25 oto's that had been in there possession for 2.5 weeks with minimal deaths after arrival. Given this info (which I can only hope it true) plus the fact they were cheaper than petsmart I decided to buy 7. I also couldn't help myself so I bought 2 albino Cory's to round my school out to 6 (I had 4 bronze Cory's previously). Since I have tiger barbs I was looking for the otocinclus vittatus as my research suggested they could hold their own with semi aggressive fish. Of course every local fish store sold their oto's as simply otocinclus spp. I realized that the cost at my LFS was half the cost to order the fish online so I decided to take my chances (I say this because my LFS has not been the most reliable place in the past). I was smart enough to compare pics on my smart phone to the stock to determine health and species. By my best guess I got the right fish and they are healthy. After acclamation they immediately went to work cleaning algae iwas unable (or too lazy) to take care of. I am pretty sure my wife will have no issues keeping a clean tank while I am away. My wife promises she will work on getting pics of the new stock. Hopefully someone will confirm that I did in fact buy the vittatus species. And if not at least I'll b aware to look for problems. I did watch the interactions of the barbs with the oto's and after a little bit of investigation the barbs decided they're better off chasing each other (much to my relief). So hopefully I'll have pics tomorrow and nothing but good news to report about the barb oto relationship.

So I have added 4 Bolivian rams to the tank. The plan is to wait for a group to pair up then rehouse the rest. Hopefully I can get a meted pair quickly as I am worried that 5 rams in the tank is too many. Will update again if I get a pair or have to rehouse. Enforce that happens.

Will you be taking some pics once they get settled in?

Yes ma'am I will. I also owe you guys some pics of the oto's.

Ok guys, here are some long overdo pictures.  I managed to get a decent shot of one my bronze cory cats.  The other 3 are camera shy apparently.  I have a few shots of the oto's as well but they were not very cooperative either.  I also got the flying fox and 4 of the 5 rams.  I included a shot of the homemade driftwood I did as well.  I also took a pic of the whole tank as I have updated my lighting.  I went from two 15W 12" light bulbs to two 28W 48" bulbs.  I have to say the difference is clear to me and the tank looks much better.  I also think my plants will appreciate the change as well.  I also installed an air stone today for the bubbling effects.  I know that other than creating surface movement they are almost purely for aesthetic value but the catfish seem to like them too.  I ordered two small sponge filters online and they should be in tomorrow so those will be going into the tank soon as well.  I don't think I need more filtration, but I also don't think it would hurt and had an extra air pump so I figured I would put it to use.  I also installed another heater as I have noticed some temperature swings at night.  I am hoping that having 2 heaters will help this.  Anyways, I know you all probably just want to see the pics so here they are.  If the light does help my plants start growing I will get some pics of them as well. 

Couldn't get them all in one post.

Having two heaters should definitely help.
Love the rams & barbs. The other fish are lovely too though. I also really like the color of what you have draped behind the tank for the background!

I've been away from home for over a month now so naturally I was itching to play with my tank. Luckily I have live plants that are rooted so I can't go crazy lol. I've "blocked" off both far sides of my tank in an effort to create good breeding areas for my rams. After doing some homework and watching my tank I think I have 3 males and 2 females. I'm basing this on sex organ as if I look at the other physical characteristics I would say they were all males. I have tried to capture pictures, as did my beautiful wife, but unfortunately our camera is not going to let it happen. So suffice to say I have 3 rams with small pointy things and 2 with bigger rounder things. So I'm hoping that I actually have representatives of noth sexes and that I will get a breeding pair. If that happens my neighbor who has a much bigger tank is more than happy to take the other 3 and add more to create a larger group.

So now that we have gotten that out of the way...I've added an extra bubble stone as well as two bubble filters. I've put the filters on the far sides of the tank where I've tried to create breeding areas. I did this so that if I am lucky enough to get a breeding pair I'm hoping the fry can feed off of the sponge filters. If nothing else I've added filtration and the bubbles at surface help with oxygenation of the the tank so it is win win.

Ninjo thank you for the compliments. My barbs are my centerpiece fish. I've looked for a showcase fish and upon my return home realized I have 19 of them. I knew when I added the barbs they would dictate what else I could add, but now they are my tank for better of worse.

So plans going forward...I'm waiting for a pair of rams to develope(fingers crossed). Besides that I'm going to do my best to leave all of my plants alone, not just the rooted ones, and let them grow a bit. Every time I rearrange my tank I learn the minor details of what I want to do with my decor. I try to rearrange every time I add fish but there is a pattern emerging to my rearrangements that seems to suit the fishes preference as well as my own. I know I need to give my current plants a bit of time to grow in before I add new plants. I'm worried that my new light system may be too high tech for me as I am nog dosing ferts or co2. So before I add anymore plants I have to determine if I need to add nutrients for my plants to survive.

So after the pair of rams I'm thinking of adding a breeding pair of apistos. I'm worried this may be too much for my tank so I'm definitely going to take my time before adding them. After that I'm sure my tank would be "full" unless I can find a fish that stays in the top third of the tank, can handle barb aggression and doesn't require a large school. Worst case scenario is my tank stays like it is minus 3 rams and my children love it. Best case scenario I add a pair of apistos and a few top dwellers and my kids love it. Once again win win

So I'm sure most of you are wanting to know when I am going to build the large tank. That is still a ways off but I think I have the dimensions nailed down. It is going to be 7 ft x 3 ft x 2.75 ft tall. I'm going low tech and will keep all of my current fish. I have some ideas for the other types of fish I'm going to add but I'm keeping that under my hat for now. Suffice to say the combinations are risky but I will have my current tank for rehoming.

So for all of that there's no pic until tomorrow morning when the light is best. I'll post pics of what I hope are new breeding grounds for my rams as well a decent shot of the new layout. As always, if you've read this far, I'm sorry you've had to endure this. If you've followed this post I'm grateful you've humored me. Either feel free to post questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, or just plain BS. After all, I'm doing this for feedback.

Fish are definitely hard to get pics of! Glad your neighbor can take some of the rams off your hands.
That is going to be a lovely tank, whenever you do get to build it!
Looking forward to your pics tomorrow!

So rearranging has definitely led to male rams claiming territory.  It has also led to problems.  The two most dominant males claimed either side of the tank but have only been chasing other rams from the area.  My tiger barbs have been using one of the newly made areas as a hang out spot while my cory cats have claimed the other.  The 3rd male ram has been in limbo in the middle as well as the bigger of the two females.  The smaller female was stressed to death shortly after the rearrangement.  I think she had no where to go that the males would not chase her, and I even saw the female ram chasing her around as well.  As soon as she passed it seemed like the aggression started to focus on the weakest male that had no territory.  He begin to darken and was usually well hidden.  I took him out today and moved him to my neighbors tank.  Now I will have to watch the remaining female to see if a breeding pair will form or if the two males will pick on her.  Luckily she is rather large and seems to be able to hold her own.  My concern is that when she strays into the different territories the males chase her out.  I'm worried that a pair may not develop after all.  I am considering trying to add some more females to the mix as it seems like I have strong dominant males with clearly staked territory.  But I certainly don't want to end up with more dead fish because they males are acting like a-holes.  I am not going to rush out and buy anything today, but I may go this weekend and see if there are any vibrant females at my LFS.  If I don't add more it may not be that terrible as the remaining 3 rams are showing very nice colors despite not mating.  Perhaps the males are competing for the females attention, or just showing off to prove who is more masculine.  Either way they all look beautiful.  On an unrelated note I have witnessed my cory cats defending their newfound hideout.  They have gone so far as to chase the barbs away from time to time.  It was quite interesting to watch an albino cory chasing a larger male tiger barb.  I know I owe you guys a picture and will try to get one soon, hopefully before the end of the weekend.