Exciting Times - Planning new tanks & new fish .... YAY

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hadn't run our of declor after all! I'd just moved the big container to other fishstand cupboard at some point and forgotten. When it wasn't in its usual spot, I figured I'd run out and forgotten to add to to shopping list/order more.

But when looking for my test kit, I found a nearly full, huge tub of declor So that's a relief.

Doing tests and any W/Cs now

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Shocked how well the canister filter and live plants are handling the 22g QT set up!

Tested very carefully with API masterkit
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
Nitrates somewhere between 20 and 40.

That's even with one of the hillstreams sadly passing away and being in the tank overnight.

I'd been worrying about when and what to feed.. since it contains the large hoplo, six tiny pygmy cories, and three teeny plecos. They're so small, want to give them small amounts of food regularly, but also not push the tank too hard when it's a new set up.

Ended up using a mix of frozen cyclops and daphnia, great for the pygmy cories, and dropped a Sera Wels nature chip in there. One of the pleco sellers was selling them.

Might also make some repashy later. Have spare pleco caves that I could coat, all of the tanks I've had have gone wild for it, and should suit the plecs.

Gave the shrimp a tiny amount of food, but they're also happily grazing on algae/mossy coconut hut and wood piece I swiped from my established tanks, so there's food on those, and it's only six little shrimp.

Betta was a bit picky, but think he already has the idea of when he's being fed. No interest in the tiny amount of cyclops & daphnia I tried on him, rejected the betta pellet, but did go for some bloodworms! Now patrolling his tank, looking as if he's hunting. Have a feeling he'll love live food. Might be time to start culturing microworms, most of the fish love them, and some of the bloodworms were too big for betta mouth, and I know they're low in nutrition and only for a treat. Just glad he was tempted to eat!

He really is a beauty. Really must get photos, but making sure tanks are all good first and listing what I need to go get is more urgent.

So they'll all get a syphon cleaning today, then a top up/large water change, depending.

Sad about that hillstream loach being DOA, feel bad like I must have done something wrong.The sellers all had insulated boxes they moved their stock in. I just had an insulated shopping bag, so setting the bag down, even though I carefully lifted and positioned them all - but then had to move them to car, get home.. could have easily got squished or trapped in a corner somehow.

Want to get an insulated box before the next event now! Especially if I'm going to bring fish to sell myself.

But glad other fish and the tanks themselves seem to be doing well, *touch wood!!*

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Update on new fish!

I'll be getting a male L181 Ancistrus at the weekend! I have two adult females I raised from juveniles, and have a load of pleco caves. He'll join the fish currently in the 22g QT tank, plenty of room for him.


He wouldn't pose a threat to the teeny green dragon and snowball plecs, would he? @TwoTankAmin @CassCats ? Should imagine he'll be fine with my cheeky and adorable Megalechis thoracata?

I'll add more pleco caves, set up more hidey areas with wood and slate first!

Also going to be moving the QT tank, likely tonight, since it's easier pretty baking hot in the daytime here right now, and finding doing physical stuff easier in the evenings when it's cooled off a bit. Shifting a solid pine chest of drawers downstairs to go on the other side of the room that the 22g QT tank will fit on and I'm sure can hold its weight.

Shame to put the fish through that so soon, but I'll prep properly. I'm pretty good at calmly netting and moving fish, if I do say myself So It'll be a gentle lowering of the water level, popping them into a bucket of their current tank water, then moving the tank and refilling, then popping them back in.

I didn't plan it out well, I think because I honestly believed I'd chicken out of actually going. So put the 22g in the corner I plan to have the 240L Roma permanent tank, which has been prepped to be decorated but still needs painting! So tank has to be moved, and it also makes sense to do it before adding more substrate, heavy slate and actually planting the plants in there!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Bluey Betta Boy seems to like Bug Bites! It's new for me to feed an individual fish rather than a group or a tank as a whole, so target feeding this little fella and watching him eat is a new pleasure.

22G QT tank - the hoplo that isn't really technically a hoplo is a wizzard! He hid away on day one, but by the second day was out in the open far more. Seems to enjoy hanging near the surface among the mass of plants, or gliding around the glass with the occasional zoom across the tank.

Never had anything like him before, so not quite sure what behaviour to expect, but several times he's sat perched on the glass in the corner, head up and closest to me, and doesn't appear shy! Just eyeballs me right back...

However, he's a whizz at hiding, and I'm still trying to find what foods he'll like and take. It's so strange, he's the largest fish in there by a country mile. Around four inches. But when I'm doing a head-count (which I find myself doing about 6 -10 times per 24 hours - I'm being an anxious mother hen about them! With the pygmy cories and baby plecos being so tiny especially, I find myself checking them a lot. They seem well! Not forgetting the remaining hillstream loach.

But Hoplo (still looking for names for him, if anyone has a good one! @Naughts I also keep thinking "Levi" when I check on my betta now! ) seems to slip into another dimension when he wants to hide! It's so strange when it's a QT tank without too much stuff in it yet, plants just floating, but he's almost always the last one I find. Can even count each tiny pygmy first! Snowball pleco baby is very active and all over the glass walls usually, as is the hillstream, although both visit the bottom too, especially at feeding time. The two Green Dragon long fin babies are often near each other, and tend to stay on the bottom, often sitting alongside the pleco cave that the hoplo also likes to hide in.

 

[CassCats]

You'd not have issues with hoplo and ancistrus

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

You'd not have issues with hoplo and ancistrus

Awesome, thank you!

I'm really excited to get the main tanks set up, scaped and with the fish added!

I know I won't be able to make anything nearly as stunning as you do yet, but we've all got to start somewhere, and hopefully it'll come with practice!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Have moved and set up the 22g QT with most of my new babies! Thankfully the transfer seemed to go well! Hoplo/not a hoplo boy was inside his pleco cave after I'd dropped the water level, so I just grabbed the cave, tilted it slightly upward and covered the entrance with my hand and transferred him straight to the bucket of their tankwater. No worries! Same for transferring him back once it was set up properly where I wanted.

The other littles - hillstream loach, six tiny pygmy cories, & tiny plecos were a little trickier, but not too bad.

Carefully checked temps of the first 22g set up they were in, then the bucket they were in - the heater hasn't been kicking on anyhow, weather has been warm enough that the bucket they were temporarily in stayed the same temp! Then I just had to add a little more warm water to the now moved 22g to temp match it. I set up the substrate, equipment, hardscape and plants before popping the fish into their upgraded QT tank.

Very easy since both Hoplo and snowball plec were inside the plec cave, so did the same hand covering and moving trick. I chose the bucket I did because it fits perfectly inside that tank, so I only had to tilt and dip it into the tank, and they swam down into the tank. Hillstream loach and one of the green dragon plecs needed a litte encouragement since they suckered on, but only briefly.

Only disaster was while refilling the tank, I slipping and poured half of a 15L bucket of water onto the floor...
Can't do anything major with tanks without at least one panic moment! I'm just glad it wasn't a panic moment with the fish.

Will do my best to take some pics now, hopefully they can be tempted to come out to eat.

 

[MattW]

Only disaster was while refilling the tank, I slipping and poured half of a 15L bucket of water onto the floor...

Done that far too many times... The carpet turned into a swamp

 

[Sparx]

Only disaster was while refilling the tank, I slipping and poured half of a 15L bucket of water onto the floor...

Done that far too many times... The carpet turned into a swamp

Haha, me too! Luckily I have laminate flooring

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Haha, me too! Luckily I have laminate flooring

Yep, same boat! Lucky it's laminate. I just didn't want to spend the time mopping while I was trying to get these fish into their new set up!

But as disasters go, it's a very, very minor one, so not complaining. Much!

I have drenched carpet before as well though, so I feel your pain, @MattW !

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

My new male L181 plec just arrived!!! He's gorgeous!

Temp acclimating to QT tank right now, but then will pop him into a container to get some pics before I release him.


Unusually for me, the perfect name for him came to me just minutes after I got him! When I got my two girls as juveniles they were labelled as L183 "Starlight" plecos. L181 "Peppermint" and L183 fry and juveniles have the same colour markings, it's only when they mature that the difference is obvious, unless you do things like count dorsal spines.

So thinking they were Starlights, I named them Ziggy and Stardust. Names have stuck despite maturing into L181s. So this male has to named Bowie! Just has to be!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Rainbow shiners?
Anyone kept these before? I know nothing about them yet, just saw a short that had some, thought they were stunning, putting the name here to remind me to look them up!

 

[CassCats]

Rainbow shiners?
Anyone kept these before? I know nothing about them yet, just saw a short that had some, thought they were stunning, putting the name here to remind me to look them up!

Need a fairly large tank, starting at 5 feet length. They get a decent size for a fish but are mega active so need lots of space.

Cooler water fish, so room temperatures best. They're temperate fish.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Wanted to watch a video with some rainbow shiners, just to see them after I'd been doing some reading about them, and found this lovely little video:

Linking it here not so much for the rainbow shiners (although I am now thinking they might be a good tankmate for the eventual botiid loach tank I'd like to have, that will be more stony/current, and fish that can cope with a group of 6-7 yoyo sized loaches, since they have a wide temperature range and should cope fine with cooler temp too...! So that's a fish to consider for the future.

But, I also like a lot of things about his scape here, @MattW this is similar to how I mean when I talk about mixing the substrates, even though I'd likely go heavier on the sand and wood, less stone, and leaf litter, more plants along the back, for my hoped for cory/hoplo/pseudos tank!

And an aside, he makes it look so easy to just make your own tank! I'm sure it's not nearly as easy as an edited video and voiceover makes it look, but wow, still impressive! I'd have used a clear silicone though, given the choice.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Loving these too!

Was watching his one about cultivating mosses (in case I do an emerging piece of wood/section on one of the large tanks) and this one came up. Very appealing! But knowing me, every time I used the lamp I'd be spotting something I wanted to change/add/remove, and would constantly be fiddling with it.