55 Gallon Project

[mancin]

Aww! cute angels. I like the 1st speckled one! He is like 'what chu want?'
Angels eat the moss yet?

Sorry to hear one is sick :\

Yep! Their personalities are really starting to show. I fed them on my lunch break and they are starting to beg a little bit! Rather than swim away and hide and come get the food after I've stepped away, they were all that the glass as if they were saying "FEED ME!" If it were possible, I would think that the Koi Angel I have in my other tank would do backflips every time I approach the tank.

As far as the moss goes.... I don't have any! *sigh* The stuff I had shipped to me was not even worth it (literally wouldn't cover the tip top of one of wood branches), so I'm still hunting for some! I really wanted to have all of the plants, including the moss, before the fish! Oh well... can't do anything about it now.

The Angels have distrupted the plants a couple times as they seem to enjoy swimming through them. I've had to re-plant almost every single stem plant in there at LEAST once.

The sick one does seem to be doing a bit better. I managed to get it to eat a bit today, so that's definitely progress! Poor little guy (or gal) though, is missing one of the ventral fins! It was there before, so I know it didn't come that way. There is no spinning like there was before, but he does lean a bit to one side. I half wonder if it's because that fin is missing now. Not sure if they use them for balance in any way.

 

[lljdma06]

The angels just need to fatten up a bit. Hope the sick one recovers. What are you feeding them?

The tank looks good. How are things going plantwise?

 

[mancin]

The angels just need to fatten up a bit. Hope the sick one recovers. What are you feeding them?

Yep, I agree. They are all a bit thin. I'd like to get them looking like the Koi I have in my other tank. He's nice and healthy and growing FAST. For reference, here is my Koi:

The sick one had a sunken in belly when I got him. Poor guy. He doesn't look sunken in anymore, but still pretty skinny -- still skinnier than the rest of them. He is doing MUCH better though. I have him in Quarantine and he'll be in there for another week to finish out his treatment. Tolak has been a huge help in nursing the fish back to health. I was almost certain I was going to lose him. My bf can stop giving me crap now about 'jinxing' my fish to death.

I've been feeding them brine shrimp and some flakes (excluding the sick one - he's just getting small amounts of brine shrimp daily until he's back in the main tank). I'll likely throw some blood worms in there occasionally, but just haven't gotten it into the rotation yet. I feed Cichlid sticks in my other tank (soak them a bit before I put them in there and break them up into small pieces) and the Koi LOVES those. I'll likely add that to the rotation too, but am trying to avoid anything that will sink to the bottom as I don't have any bottom feeders right now and don't want to disturb the HC too much.

The tank looks good. How are things going plantwise?

Thanks! Meh, the plants could be better. I think my low light tank is doing better than this one. Everything looks good for the most part except the HC. Some areas are OK, but others are starting to die off. I might call it quits and try something else for a carpet plant. I don't want to have too many decaying plants in there and chance an ammonia spike. The Water Sprite is growing like a weed. The Crypt leaves are still growing in and have a very nice color.

 

[mancin]

I think I might call it quits with the HC. Most of it doesn't look very good now. A shame because I would have liked to see it grow in the tank. Now I have to decide if I want to replace it with Dwarf Hairgrass or Micro Sword....

 

[lljdma06]

What's your CO2 level in your tank? HC needs CO2. It doesn't strike me as odd that your low-light is doing better. There is less nutrient and CO2 demand at lower light levels, and if you planted intelligently with plants that do not require a lot of CO2 or nutrients to do well, then you will have an easier time with the low-light. With higher light, the plants demand more nutrients and CO2. It will be harder to maintain the right levels. Plants consume at different rates, maybe your HC is not getting enough because it is losing out to other plants.

That is a fat and sassy koi. It will be great when the others catch up.

llj