90L Dirted Planted Tank

[Sparx]

Sorry for your loss. Would they have died from starvation after just a week though?

 

[MattW]

Sorry for your loss. Would they have died from starvation after just a week though?

Im 90% certain. These two individuals were deformed which made it difficult for them to feed/swim especially scavenge at the bottom like the others do.

It's kinda hard to tell on this image. On the left is a healthy female, while circled on the right is one of the two that died (photo from around 3 months back). This fish had somewhat clamped caudal fins + a deformed head and a sort of bent tail. I had at least 5 specimens have this out of 20+ from breeding.

After doing some reading, it may have been caused by Fish TB at early development when they were fry. The other fish that died was even worse. Its body was similar to that of a tadpole Large head + a very small body. I know it may have been more humane to euthanize these fish when I was breeding them back last year but my end goal was to have as large a group as possible. As finding females of these species is hard to come by in my area at the moment. At least I know for next time

 

[Sparx]

Hi Matt. I’ve been reading your thread from the beginning, I was interested to see the full build. It looks awesome and is great seeing how far it’s come.
I do have one question; what is WROD? Hubby wants to get Cherry Shrimp for the Betta tank so I’m just doing as much research as poss as we’ve never kept shrimp before.

 

[MattW]

I do have one question; what is WROD? Hubby wants to get Cherry Shrimp for the Betta tank so I’m just doing as much research as poss as we’ve never kept shrimp before.

White Ring Of Death. Unsuccessful molts of a shrimp

"Bad, or failed molts are usually linked to too large of water changes, a poor diet, or wrong parameters (GH, KH, PH). When shrimp are lacking the key elements of their parameters, they are unable to grow, and shed healthy exoskeletons. You may notice this in the early stage as the “white ring of death” which looks like a solid white band around the shrimp where the head meets the body. A healthy shrimp will split just at the top of it’s head, allowing it a clean break, or molt, out of its exoskeleton. When the ring appears, it makes doing this more difficult, and a shrimp may die in the process of trying to molt, because it can get stuck while trying to do so." - Buceplant

The bloody mary cherry shrimp I kept were prone to this. This was the first time I had kept neocaridina shrimp. I couldn't figure out the cause and went from 15 shrimp to now 2 remaining. I tried Mineral blocks, organic salad leaf diet, reducing water changes to 10-15L a week, and even introducing a cuttlefish bone to boost the hardness all of which didn't work. I've since bought some lower-grade cherry shrimp and had no deaths in the month and 2 days I've had them now. I still struggle to understand neocaridina shrimp. I've kept amano shrimp much longer and never had any issues like what my RCS had. My guess is that water parameters caused the problems as I have softer water.

 

[Sparx]

White Ring Of Death. Unsuccessful molts of a shrimp

"Bad, or failed molts are usually linked to too large of water changes, a poor diet, or wrong parameters (GH, KH, PH). When shrimp are lacking the key elements of their parameters, they are unable to grow, and shed healthy exoskeletons. You may notice this in the early stage as the “white ring of death” which looks like a solid white band around the shrimp where the head meets the body. A healthy shrimp will split just at the top of it’s head, allowing it a clean break, or molt, out of its exoskeleton. When the ring appears, it makes doing this more difficult, and a shrimp may die in the process of trying to molt, because it can get stuck while trying to do so." - Buceplant
View attachment 345857

The bloody mary cherry shrimp I kept were prone to this. This was the first time I had kept neocaridina shrimp. I couldn't figure out the cause and went from 15 shrimp to now 2 remaining. I tried Mineral blocks, organic salad leaf diet, reducing water changes to 10-15L a week, and even introducing a cuttlefish bone to boost the hardness all of which didn't work. I've since bought some lower-grade cherry shrimp and had no deaths in the month and 2 days I've had them now. I still struggle to understand neocaridina shrimp. I've kept amano shrimp much longer and never had any issues like what my RCS had. My guess is that water parameters caused the problems as I have softer water.

Thanks for the information, much appreciated

 

[Essjay]

Hubby wants to get Cherry Shrimp for the Betta tank

Just a word of caution - many bettas will eat cherry shrimp so I suggest just a couple to test the betta, then if s/he's OK with them you can get more. I've had a betta which ignored even baby shrimp, one which ignored adults but ate babies, and one which dismembered shrimps - there were shrimp bits all over the tank.

 

[Sparx]

Just a word of caution - many bettas will eat cherry shrimp so I suggest just a couple to test the betta, then if s/he's OK with them you can get more. I've had a betta which ignored even baby shrimp, one which ignored adults but ate babies, and one which dismembered shrimps - there were shrimp bits all over the tank.

Oh wow, ok! Thanks for the heads up. We’re definitely going to watch the behaviour of the fish in the store before we buy so hopefully if we find a peaceful one we will be ok

 

[MattW]

Adults are in​

Added the 3 adults from my paludarium today. A 45-minute drip acclimation was done as the water chemistry between the two tanks is a tad different. The Smaller of the two males instantly went berzerk (in a good way). Sparring over females with the other 3 males, after being in the tank less than 10 minutes. While the other male and female took a bit longer to adjust to their new planted home .

 

[Sparx]

That’s so cute!

 

[MattW]

Unexpected Surprise​

I went to feed the fish after I got back from work and saw this RCS hanging around at the back. I would have never expected this to happen in this tank after all the cr*p of water parameters and hardness I've dealt with, especially yielding no results in the many months I've had them. I'm assuming these are eggs and not some sort of parasite? There's a slim chance anyway that eggs or hatchlings would even survive. Sawbwa's love a good live food hunt..

 

[MattW]

I won the war! I think?​

Well, I decided today was the day to eradicate the duckweed. I started my usual tank maintenance at 11:30 today and finished 4 hours later . It was a painful chore as duckweed was everywhere. Hidden behind the heater, the internal filter, even hiding underwater amongst the Bolbitis! Sadly I also had to remove 90% of the water lettuce and frogbit as they were infested too but I managed to save a handful by carefully picking away at the duckweed with tweezers. I don't doubt they will multiply within the coming weeks. I also installed my new APS EF-150 which seems to be doing ok so far. A little vibration and trapped air are still audible at a close distance but great overall. I'm thinking of cleaning this new filter monthly rather than weekly compared to my internal filter. I also added in some Limnophila aromatic and Vallisneria spiralis rubra a few weeks back which sadly haven't taken off as well as I'd hoped. Out of 7 stems of the Limnophila, only 3 remain and barely any new leaves from the Val have come up. I believe lighting may have been the issue as the duckweed and other floating plants covered the back 1/3 of the tank which is where these plants were located. Hopefully with the majority of floating plants gone they have access to more light. Another new thing I started last week was using liquid ferts! Something I've not used since my TOTM back in December. Hoping it will improve growth! Pics now

 

[MattW]

Forgot to mention the liquid fertilizer I am using is Aquadip's Plant Food +

 

[MattW]

Background Changes​

I thought I'd change up the background on this tank to black. It looks a lot better than when it had a frost background IMO. In person, this tank looks a lot better now since the internal filter got ditched, and the duckweed got removed. My eBay order of new stem plants didn't arrive on Saturday, a day after it was due. So Tuesday is the next available day as it's a bank holiday weekend. Expecting half-dead plants . I would like to achieve a dense bushy group of stems along the left of the back wall to get the intended look I was after when I set up this tank.

Quick question to algae experts, What sort of algae is on the Crinum in the second picture? I've been dealing with it for months and started to give up manually removing it. It has gone away naturally before then it came back a few times.

 

[MaloK]

It look's like

Algae.

 

[The Aquarium Home]

I thought I'd change up the background

Just read through your whole journey and your tank has come a long way! It's amazing how much it's grown in. The algae looks like black beard algae - it's stubborn but not as annoying as hair algae.

Also it sucks that your plants are stuck in the mail. I hate it when that happens.

It looks awesome - keep it up.