Badger's Tea Garden

[jaylach]

Did the weekly massive water change yesterday.

Two good newses and a bad news. Good: The danios are starting to come out in the open to feed, even when I'm sitting right in front of the tank.
Also good: They are beautiful fish! Like many danios, they aren't across-the-room stunners. You have to get close up. But if you do? Wow. Their colors and patterns are just amazing, and I strongly suspect they aren't even colored up yet.
Bad: I think there are only four of them left. Out of sixteen. What's worse is that I still have no idea why. I should probably get more, as they'll be a lot happier in a big group. But I'm a little afraid to.

This is a sad thought but I MUST ask... When you built your water manifold did you make sure that the PVC glue was aquarium safe?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

This is a sad thought but I MUST ask... When you built your water manifold did you make sure that the PVC glue was aquarium safe?

Yep, the glue is potable-grade. So is the pipe. I checked.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Did the weekly massive water change yesterday.

Two good newses and a bad news. Good: The danios are starting to come out in the open to feed, even when I'm sitting right in front of the tank.
Also good: They are beautiful fish! Like many danios, they aren't across-the-room stunners. You have to get close up. But if you do? Wow. Their colors and patterns are just amazing, and I strongly suspect they aren't even colored up yet.
Bad: I think there are only four of them left. Out of sixteen. What's worse is that I still have no idea why. I should probably get more, as they'll be a lot happier in a big group. But I'm a little afraid to.

Also: There is a fairly healthy snail population developing. This is a good thing in this tank. Three ramshorns, all different colors, a blue, a red, and a brown, and several pond/bladder snails. I saw a live scud this morning foraging along the river stones. And I added springtails and isopods to the land area a couple days ago.

Plants are sorting themselves out. Terrestrial mosses are flourishing, and aquatic mosses are starting to get going. The dwarf rushes have pretty much died out, but the tea plants look good--surprise!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

New fish should be here Thursday: A school of padamya barbs (I think the name "odessa barbs" is silly, and padamya is more fun to say anyway), some reticulated hillstream loaches, which I hope will be a bit more robust and easy to watch than the borneo suckers, and six Nemacheilus corica, a very obscure and extremely cute stone loach from the Darjeeling foothills.

I have five remaining choprae danios, and I would love a few more, but they are usually only sold in large numbers which would give me too many, so I'm going to hold off for now. They have finally learned to associate me with food, so they're always out in the open now, despite their low numbers. I'll try to pick up a few next time I see some locally. The Badgerling has been throwing in some wingless fruit flies, and they show themselves to be wild-caught fish. So fun to watch.

I seem to be down to only one borneo sucker. He's kind of cute and I hope the Sewellias don't eat him. I know others on here have had great results from Aquahuna, but I don't plan on ordering from them again.

 

[Rocky998]

New fish should be here Thursday: A school of padamya barbs (I think the name "odessa barbs" is silly, and padamya is more fun to say anyway), some reticulated hillstream loaches, which I hope will be a bit more robust and easy to watch than the borneo suckers, and six Nemacheilus corica, a very obscure and extremely cute stone loach from the Darjeeling foothills.

I have five remaining choprae danios, and I would love a few more, but they are usually only sold in large numbers which would give me too many, so I'm going to hold off for now. They have finally learned to associate me with food, so they're always out in the open now, despite their low numbers. I'll try to pick up a few next time I see some locally. The Badgerling has been throwing in some wingless fruit flies, and they show themselves to be wild-caught fish. So fun to watch.

I seem to be down to only one borneo sucker. He's kind of cute and I hope the Sewellias don't eat him. I know others on here have had great results from Aquahuna, but I don't plan on ordering from them again.

Ooo! Could I see a photo of your choprae danios?? How colorful are they? Do they school really well?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Ooo! Could I see a photo of your choprae danios?? How colorful are they? Do they school really well?

They stick really close together most of the time. Their colors are subtle, and I think they aren't colored up yet, but very striking up close. They're hard to photograph because they have typical danio hyperactivity. I'll see what I can do but don't expect much.

 

[jaylach]

They stick really close together most of the time. Their colors are subtle, and I think they aren't colored up yet, but very striking up close. They're hard to photograph because they have typical danio hyperactivity. I'll see what I can do but don't expect much.

If your camera/phone has video abilities take a video. After that there two things that you can do.
1) Post the video to a site such as YouTube and post a link here.
2) Play the video and pause on a good shot and do a screenshot of the shown frame of the video then post the image here.

 

[Rocky998]

They stick really close together most of the time. Their colors are subtle, and I think they aren't colored up yet, but very striking up close. They're hard to photograph because they have typical danio hyperactivity. I'll see what I can do but don't expect much.

Oh ok! I'd still like to see them if possible but that's ok if you cant...
Thanks!

 

[TheLavenderBadger]

@Rocky998 This was my best effort at a non-blurry photo.

 

[Rocky998]

@Rocky998 This was my best effort at a non-blurry photo.
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Wow! What a stunning little fish!
I'm bouncing in-between getting them or doing brilliant rasboras (the red tailed ones) in the 40g... Any inputs?

Choprae are definitely super colorful and active fish from what I've seen!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Well, all the new fish arrived without a single DOA. This is why I love TWS, folks...anyway. Six Pethia padamya (common name Odessa barbs; I'm going to call them Padamya barbs because that's more fun, it actually describes them, and I'm a rebel), four Sewellia lineolata hillstream loaches, and six Nemacheilus corica, an extremely cool little sand loach from the Himilayan foothills. The padamya barbs and hillstream loaches are mostly hiding out, which is OK. Once they learn to associate us with food, this is going to be a VERY active tank.

I spent several minutes of my life this morning attempting to get some good pictures of the choprae danios for @Rocky998 . The more I get to know them the more I dislike the common name "glowlight danios." (Wow, this is getting to be an ongoing theme, isn't it? ) It's clever marketing I suppose, but they really don't "glow" like many tetras and microrasboras. Still, amazingly beautiful little fish, and really fun personalities. They really act like mini trout. When I throw in some brine shrimp, or even crumbled flakes, they go crazy, sometimes jumping out of the water hitting a morsel on the surface. Anyway. Here are my best attempts, Rocky. A bit blurry but show their colors.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

The corica loaches are really cute. They come from the Darjeeling area, which is fun and fits my theme. They have cool little loach mustaches. They seem to stay out in the open, and they are enjoying this morning's brine shrimp.

 

[Rocky998]

Well, all the new fish arrived without a single DOA. This is why I love TWS, folks...anyway. Six Pethia padamya (common name Odessa barbs; I'm going to call them Padamya barbs because that's more fun, it actually describes them, and I'm a rebel), four Sewellia lineolata hillstream loaches, and six Nemacheilus corica, an extremely cool little sand loach from the Himilayan foothills. The padamya barbs and hillstream loaches are mostly hiding out, which is OK. Once they learn to associate us with food, this is going to be a VERY active tank.

I spent several minutes of my life this morning attempting to get some good pictures of the choprae danios for @Rocky998 . The more I get to know them the more I dislike the common name "glowlight danios." (Wow, this is getting to be an ongoing theme, isn't it? ) It's clever marketing I suppose, but they really don't "glow" like many tetras and microrasboras. Still, amazingly beautiful little fish, and really fun personalities. They really act like mini trout. When I throw in some brine shrimp, or even crumbled flakes, they go crazy, sometimes jumping out of the water hitting a morsel on the surface. Anyway. Here are my best attempts, Rocky. A bit blurry but show their colors.

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Beautiful photos!! Thank you so much for trying to get pics of them! I know it's pretty hard I'm sure!

I'm almost thinking of replacing the blue eye rainbowfish with these guys and they can swim up top with the brilliant rasboras...

Do yours stay close to the top for the most part?

Again, thank you for taking photos. I know it can be tricky lol

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Beautiful photos!! Thank you so much for trying to get pics of them! I know it's pretty hard I'm sure!

I'm almost thinking of replacing the blue eye rainbowfish with these guys and they can swim up top with the brilliant rasboras...

Do yours stay close to the top for the most part?

Again, thank you for taking photos. I know it can be tricky lol

Well, my tank is only about 12" deep, but they're all over the place, not really seeming to prefer one area of the tank over another. They do tend to stick together and school closely, though.

The thing you have to remember about their colors is that you have to get up close to see them. From more than a few feet away, they look like rather nondescript, grayish fish with an orange tinge.

 

[Rocky998]

Well, my tank is only about 12" deep, but they're all over the place, not really seeming to prefer one area of the tank over another. They do tend to stick together and school closely, though.

The thing you have to remember about their colors is that you have to get up close to see them. From more than a few feet away, they look like rather nondescript, grayish fish with an orange tinge.

Oh ok... I will keep that in mind when deciding! Thanks!
I'm going to be having a black background if that makes any of a difference