Asian river tank

Some pictures

A quick update, last one for a while until I get the fish:
Day 12 of new tank. Thanks to established filter and some established plants, I so far didnt have any issues that new tanks have. No cloudy water, no algae bloom, no starter fish die off. Yay!

I decided to move a Cryptocoryne affinis (common crypt), that is a "daughter" plant of my other cryptocoryne in my other tank, here. It has been this small for like 6 months in the other tank, since it is a shrimp tank with low nutrients. I put it in here in the background and put a root tablet underneath it, to give it a fighting chance. If it goes, will be glad. I also learnt that I can barely reach the bottom in the background of the tank with my hands.
I target fed my multie, so she is happy for few days.
Here is a picture of the not healthy moss, the snails are not working it hard enough.

I just came back from the (not so local) LFS and I am like ready to cry, cause that was way worse than kid in a candy store. So many fish, I want all of them at home. I am 95% sold on the fact that I will not be getting rid of the fourth tank ( currently quarantine) and that I will most likely not get the african dwarf frogs, but a trio of some apistogramma or rams or something that I wanted in the past !

Anyways, bad news on my fish, even though it was a local breeder, the shop said they lost over 50% of the stock by the time I got there. I got the remaining 8 out of the 20 at a discounted price, have an agreement with the owner that I will inform him, if they fared well, and he will order new ones or will see.
I could switch to the vietnamese minnows, I have seen them in the store, they are also pretty nice, or I saw the odessa barb that I found interesting a LOT, will do a little reading on if they would do well with the panda garras and sewellia.
The shop even had Farlowella vitatta that @Byron recommended the other time, and I am thankful it was so expensive, or I would have left with it. So cute and it was quite small at that point.
I will so be posting a topic here to discuss my other fish options

The new otocinclus are sucking away on all the brown and green algae that I left on the glass in the quarantine, hopefully I will have better luck with them this time. I will have to wait till tomorrow for the hatchetfsh to color up, to check if I indeed have the marthae, as ordered.

Quick phone pictures, the gold variant is a good choice, may have to dim the lights a bit though, it is impossible to take a good picture of them. The rasbora is perplexed by their presence, the multifasciatus couldnt care less

I know it has been only few hours but the one identifiable male is flashing !! To females but to the rasbora too ) so cute, so in love
I think there is only one other male and he is being chased by the other, but hopefully it will calm down

Beastije said:

Some pictures

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Careful of the Ramshorns, they'll breed like crazy.
Amazing looking tank thoughI'm definitely watching this thread!

I need some advice please.
The LFS is going to have some fish i want including the minnows. Since it is a trip for me getting there I was considering getting the panda garra as well. Isnt it too soon for the tank? There is no real algae and biofilm growth there since technically it has only been a month and it he fish will be there in two weeks
Would you go for it or not? Otherwise i would wait for after xmass, late January or so

I didnt opt to order the panda garras, is a tad too early. Am waiting on news about the minnows, hopefull they will be in on thursday.
I meanwhile moved the pennyworth to the uttermost back corner, as it doubled in size, but today I took it out completely and put it in my south america tank, as an experiment.
Now the question, my java fern is sprouting new roots on the largest leaves, so do I try to find a different plant to put in the right corner, like the asian pennywort, or do I just put more java fern in there, once they detach.
The moss is also nicely growing, didnt expect it, given how full of algae it is.

For now I am experimenting with hornwort that I had in my vase. Not sure how it will handle flow, the one I have now or if I increase it. It is ofcourse shedding needless a bit again, monster

I have a love/hate relationship with this plant. I put it somewhere, like it, hate it, remove it,...

Tomorrow i am going to pick up few more minnows and redo the plants in the tank a bit. New java fern sprouts should be glued somewhere, and I decided to move 3/4 of the moss to the background and leave only 1/4 in the front. Will also inspect how it looks and do a water change. But on the first glance, comparing to the pictures, the moss took such a turn for the better

The algae is still there so will consider trimming the algae filled bottom out and keeping just the new sprouts. Will see and will post results tomorrow

It has been a while, so an update on my asian tank. I got 4 very small panda garra few days ago, they are about the same size as the minnows, which is strange. They are already starting to color up, two have slightly red tint to the fins. Not shy at all, good at feeding, tough they have to fight the minnows for the food a bit.
The minnows are not yet breeding, I suspect they eat the eggs, same as they eat the ramshorn eggs since I have no new little ramshorns, but have loads of pond snails (not great for me, but I guess will have to do). I will play around with surface plants, that are supposed to help with the fry.

There are no more harlequins or multifasciatus in the tank, I have rehomed them, reshuffled things. So the tank is as it should have been, waiting for more algae growth for the sewellia




I have split the moss, what you cant see, behind the stones, there is a big cluster of the moss and one cryptocoryne. This is an older picture by two weeks no garras and still the snail shells on the left side, those are gone now, instead there is another java fern clump.

Two weeks ago, I got the final inhabitants - five sewellia linoleata. They are slightly bigger than the garras and the minnows. Since there is enough algae, they are doing great, low water temp, high oxygen. I also seen some fin flaring and some scaring from a favorite stone. Such a cool bunch of fish. After two weeks they finally accepted first food (visibly) and that was a cucumber


too bad my phone cant capture the colors of the gold minnow variety. Such a deep crimson hue of the tail fin, the mouth, the piercing blue eye. The dating add writes itself.

having much fun with this tank, it is pretty much low maintenance. I will be replacing the light, at this moment I have a 60cm led light above it, I need the 60cm back for my other tank, so will get a long one here, the price is not so different here. And maybe the hornwort, that is growing white now, will do better. Also more algae is good for half the tank inhabitants

What a difference month and a half can make in the coloring of panda garra. Luckily they are easy to feed and they love what I am giving them

Love this tank! The Panda Garras look really good, I've been considering them for my big tank at some point but was worried they wont look as good in real life as they do in pictures but yours seem to be really yellow!

Wills

Wills said:

Love this tank! The Panda Garras look really good, I've been considering them for my big tank at some point but was worried they wont look as good in real life as they do in pictures but yours seem to be really yellow!

Wills

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Nothing dull about them, yellow, red tints but they are so active, sort of glass surfing, watching you, doing something non stop. I was more afraid they will be hidden in caves and seeing them will be a rare occurrence, but not at all. Fun fish