Refurbished 40ish gallon dirted tank/aquascape

I just realized I did my math horrendously wrong and my tank is actual about 40g. I plugged my stocking into aqadvisor and it told me I was 136% overstocked, and I should probably get another filter. For now though I think I'll keep up by simply doing two 25% water changes per week. I also have a little bit of wiggle room because it doesn't take plants into account, so that's that. However, if need be I can rehome either the cories or some tetras, but that would be a worst case scenario.

Anyhoo for now it's alright just wanted to update. In the meanwhile the tank is looking nice, and the cories have started to come out a lot more now, which is interesting.

Little update: fish doing great, and the Bolivian rams are in their breeding colours again. They haven’t laid any eggs yet though, possible because of the interference by the gouramis, but hopefully they’ll lay on the leaf. I might help them out by putting in a flat rock though we shall see.

Eggs! Hopefully this time they will be successful and keep the eggs alive, but if they don’t I might put in half a clay pot and a smooth plate and see if it works then.

Wriggler stage! Hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I’m not going to collect them but is there anything I can do otherwise to help the success of the babies? Thanks

I have no real experience with breeding, but you might get a few more bites if you post this also in the tropical discussion. This arena is already pretty quiet (plant nerds).

we’ve got some free swimmers! I can now easily observe the fry, and they’re also eating hikari baby food, so I have high hopes.

Hey guys it's been a while but here's an update on the 40 gal. The fish are all doing great and are growing. The plants have started to melt back a little for reasons I'm not sure about but otherwise the tank is doing great. I lost one amano shrimp but otherwise it's ok. I also bought a vampire shrimp yesterday which has been quite shy so far.

So it has been some time since last update, and since then I have moved out and gone to first year uni. I got my brother to take care of this tank while I was gone, and during that time he tried to get his six l010a red lizard catfish to breed by lowering the temperature and doing a water change. However, it seems he inadvertently caused the royal whiptails to breed instead, which has now left us with 20 or so fry in a mesh fry container.


Other than that, the fish seem to be doing great and there has only been one loss, which is a Bolivian ram that died while I was away. I’m not sure why, but my brother says it didn’t eat in the days leading to its death, which is unfortunate.

Here are some pictures of the breeding fish btw:

These are the mother and father respectively, and here are some pics of the fry:

Very cool.