First Planted Tank; 46 Gallon Bow-Front

[Channti]

I ripped out all the fake plants. They were driving me bonkers.
Hit up one of my favourite pet stores today (its about a 2 hour drive). While they didn't have any of the plants I wanted, I did leave with a cute foreground plant and my top dwellers.

The new additions to the tank:
-3 African Butterflyfish. I know I was only going to add two, but the third only costed me an extra $4.00, and the woman who was getting my stuff for me has kept five together in a tank slightly smaller than mine with no injury for years. They're about 2.5" long each. They've completely snubbed my flake food, and all that has been offered to the tank, so I'm going to head up to a more local store and buy them some crickets.
-10 of this plant... sag something or other. Going to post on the plant section and get it ID'd. They were "3 bundles for $11.00" so I grabbed three bundles. They came highly recommended and if they don't work in this tank, I'll move them to my higher light 5 gallon. I'm going shopping again tomorrow to try to find some more plants, and then again on Thursday likely. If I can't find what i need by Friday morning, I'm going to order more online.

Notes;
The Hygro is driving me nuts. Loaches keep beaking it. It's going to be slowly removed and relocated to a 5 gallon and 10 gallon. I've put flourish tabs under the Wisteria, two groups of "unidentified plant" and under the crypts.

Two of my angels were found dead in the past 24 hours, I'm thinking it's just weak stock as my water is fine, and the last waterchange was only a few days ago. Two more angels have gone "MIA". I believe they died in the back of the tank and were eaten by the loaches before I could find them. I'm going to head up to the store I got them at and talk to the manager. He'll replace the two that I have bodies for, and if I take him pictures of my tank and a water sample, I'm pretty sure I can get him to replace the other two that died. One of the two survivors is totally healthy and social, the other is constantly hiding with the loaches. I've inspected the hide-r for signs of illness, but I'm coming up with nothing. COuld be that there's just not enough plants in the tank for it to feel comfortable.

Stocking in the tank is now:
3 african butterflyfish
1 neon tetra
12 serpae tetra
2 angelfish
4 yoyo loaches.

PICTURES!:

..Apparently I uploaded these, but never posted them. These are the pix that go with my last post:

..And today's pix!

I know the water looks gross in that last picture. I promise it's just dirty glass, coupled with bad flash and reflection, along with filter outflow bubbles.!

And the Plant to ID: Sold as sag something or other...

 

[Biulu]

It looks like sagittaria platophylla. I also have it in my tank and grows like crazy! It will quickly start to establish runners.

 

[Carlovel1]

So my Cabomba started dying off slowly over the past couple days. I was expecting it to.... Last night I lost my temper with it. Arms went into the tank, and 20 minutes later, any trace of Cabomba in the tank had been ripped out and thrown out. I've thrown in 3 silk plants and a plastic plant just to give the loaches and the neons some cover from the Serpaes until I can expand their school. They're fairly aggressive at the moment. I think the Wisteria is going to have to go too... It grows great, and then once it reaches about 10" tall or so, the stalk starts rotting.

The reshipment of Anubias arrived yesterday, dead. I called the company and they gave me a full refund on them. I'm going to order some more crypts from them instead and then just bite the bullet and pay 3x what they charged at a local store for some anubias.

The Tropica Crypts are about an inch tall, each with 3-5 leaves. Looking very healthy.

I've been looking at other plants that the company stocks (as anything that is shipped without leaves (like crypts) or things that ship flat (like java fern) ship fine), and the following caught my attention:
-Cryptocoryne balansae
-Cryptocoryne lucens
-Cryptocoryne spiralis
-echinodorus horemanii red
-echinodorus uruguayensis
-aponogeton capuronii

Planning to do a bit of research into the requirements of these plants (light and fertilization wise mainly) and probably end up making another order off the company in a week or two. If anyone has any info they can provide though, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I removed the otocinclus and the corys from the 46 gallon due to Serpaes nipping at them. After consulting the Loach forum here, I decided on yoyo loaches as they're supposed to be more "semi-aggressive" than the zebra striatas and therefore less likely to be picked on by my unusually aggressive serpaes. I added 3 yoyo loaches (and have another three I'm picking up next friday).

One of the yoyos has been nicknamed "G-Ray" after the Green Moray Eel. I saw one of these in an public aquarium down in Florida last year. It spent most of the day hiding in a rock, poking it's head out of the holes. G-Ray found a hole in the piece of driftwood on the right that apparently has a big enough hollow spot in it that he can fit his entire body in it. As I was feeding the fish (4 shrimp pellets and some flake yesterday), G-Ray poked his head out of the hole in the wood just far enough to grab a shrimp pellet, and then disappeared again!. He reminded me so much of the Green Moray Eel that I had to name him. The loaches are all about 2-2.5" long.

I'm planning to hit up the pet store on Thursday (fish day) to get another 5-6 serpae tetras to try to decrease the aggression in my group.

Stocking-Plan-In-Progress:
6 Angelfish (until 2 pair off, then rehome 4)
12-13 Serpae Tetras (already have 7)
6 yoyo loaches
1 pleco-as-of-yet-to-be-decided


The only thing I'm missing from my stocking is a top-dweller of some description. Originally I had thought about Hatchets, but have been told that they are incompatible with Angelfish. I was recommended killifish, but personally, I find them either ugly or very expensive. What else would work as a top-dweller in this tank?.

And now; The pix!

The loaches are surprisingly not shy. They're constantly out and swimming around, playing in the filter current, dashing between plant leaves, searching for new caves in the driftwood (they've found more holes in my driftwood than I thought existed!), etc. Last night after lights out, they were all over the tank, and this morning they've continued to be out despite lights being back on.

Oh I never saw the Yoyos in the tank! They are so cute!
They look the same as mine. Have they got bigger since you bought them?

If youre thinking about getting a pleco, have a look at Leopard Frog Pleco. Somehow they do look like frogs and the are adorable.
LOOK

 

[Channti]

Yeah; The yoyos are super active. I see them all day and all night now. They love wiggling through my driftwood.

They've fattened up a little, getting a little stockier. No increase in length, but they're definintely chunkier.

As for a plec, I want something that I'm going to see, and something that will eat my algae. As ugly as I think they are, I think I'm going to go for the basic Bristle-Nose Pleco (or two!)

I want to pick up some smaller driftwood pieces and make a few more caves aound the tank as I don't think I have enough hiding places to add a pleco yet.

Went back to my LFS today with the 3 dead angels. Talked to the manager and explained that 5 died, 2 were eaten by loaches before I could find them, 3 I had bodies for. He broke store policy by giving me store credit for all 5 angels, and an extended warranty of my final angel of 1 week longer.

Fed my African Butterflies their first live food in my tank today. 1 dozen crickets, gone in less than 10 minutes.

&&
Saw this plant in the LFS. I'd love it for the front left corner if it'll work in my tank. He said it was some kind of Crypt. Can someone ID it for me for sure though? (will also post in the planted tanks section).

 

[Carlovel1]

Yeah; The yoyos are super active. I see them all day and all night now. They love wiggling through my driftwood.

They've fattened up a little, getting a little stockier. No increase in length, but they're definintely chunkier.

As for a plec, I want something that I'm going to see, and something that will eat my algae. As ugly as I think they are, I think I'm going to go for the basic Bristle-Nose Pleco (or two!)

I want to pick up some smaller driftwood pieces and make a few more caves aound the tank as I don't think I have enough hiding places to add a pleco yet.

Went back to my LFS today with the 3 dead angels. Talked to the manager and explained that 5 died, 2 were eaten by loaches before I could find them, 3 I had bodies for. He broke store policy by giving me store credit for all 5 angels, and an extended warranty of my final angel of 1 week longer.

Fed my African Butterflies their first live food in my tank today. 1 dozen crickets, gone in less than 10 minutes.

&&
Saw this plant in the LFS. I'd love it for the front left corner if it'll work in my tank. He said it was some kind of Crypt. Can someone ID it for me for sure though? (will also post in the planted tanks section).

Ive lost a Yoyo loach because it got stuck in a hole in the bogwood

 

[Carlovel1]

Yeah; The yoyos are super active. I see them all day and all night now. They love wiggling through my driftwood.

They've fattened up a little, getting a little stockier. No increase in length, but they're definintely chunkier.

As for a plec, I want something that I'm going to see, and something that will eat my algae. As ugly as I think they are, I think I'm going to go for the basic Bristle-Nose Pleco (or two!)

I want to pick up some smaller driftwood pieces and make a few more caves aound the tank as I don't think I have enough hiding places to add a pleco yet.

Went back to my LFS today with the 3 dead angels. Talked to the manager and explained that 5 died, 2 were eaten by loaches before I could find them, 3 I had bodies for. He broke store policy by giving me store credit for all 5 angels, and an extended warranty of my final angel of 1 week longer.

Fed my African Butterflies their first live food in my tank today. 1 dozen crickets, gone in less than 10 minutes.

&&
Saw this plant in the LFS. I'd love it for the front left corner if it'll work in my tank. He said it was some kind of Crypt. Can someone ID it for me for sure though? (will also post in the planted tanks section).

Ive lost a Yoyo loach because it got stuck in a hole in the bogwood

 

[Biulu]

&&
Saw this plant in the LFS. I'd love it for the front left corner if it'll work in my tank. He said it was some kind of Crypt. Can someone ID it for me for sure though? (will also post in the planted tanks section).

I answered you on this one in the planted tanks section.

 

[Channti]

&&
Saw this plant in the LFS. I'd love it for the front left corner if it'll work in my tank. He said it was some kind of Crypt. Can someone ID it for me for sure though? (will also post in the planted tanks section).

I answered you on this one in the planted tanks section.

Thanks for that by the way!.

============================================================

Ordered 3 more yoyo loaches for my tank from the same place as I got the others. The manager laughed when I walked in, dropped what he was doing, and came right over to see what I needed. I love that store!

Hit up a petsmart on the way home from work today too. Figured I'd check out their plants. After highly irritating the Petsmart employee by picking up and examining the tags in ALL of their "assorted potted plants", and then making him take out all of the corkscrew vals because only half of it had decent roots and he was trying to sell me rotten stuff, I left with the following:
3 Corkscrew Vals (in the front left corner in front of the driftwood for now)
1 cryptocoryne spiralis (in front of the driftwood on the right to give the driftwood cave a little more cover)
1 water sprite (Front right corner; again giving the driftwood cave a little more cover)

I also pulled out all of the hygrophila polysperma. It's driving me nuts. It just doesn't look right in the tank anymore. I cut it all apart, planted half of it back in the tank, and the other half is moving to a high-light betta tank I've planted to grow some epic roots so I can use it at the end of August in a 15 gallon planted I'm going to be setting up. Just 2 weeks in the betta tank and any plant will grow epic roots. It's great!

Half of the last neon was found today, floating in the tank. Looks like he died, floated, and the African Butterflyfish had him for Lunch while I was at work. He smelled something awful. Plan to do a waterchange first thing in the morning and test the water.

My local pet store is supposed to be getting a huge shipment of plants tomorrow with their fish shipment. I'm going to go down and check it out to see what they've got in. I need a background plant for this tank.... The wisteria is great in the right corner, but I'm going to have nothing in the left corner or middle of the tank. While I'm there I plant to spend some of that store credit I've got and buy the Wendtii Crypt they have (provided it's still there).

As I type this; a yoyo loach is chewing the petsmart algae off of the watersprite., another is cleaning the new crypt, and the other two are playing what looks like "tag" over in and around the driftwood. I think I may have ended up with all the same sex ABF's. Going to post somewhere and see if someone can sex them for me.

 

[Channti]

It's been a while since I posted... Figured I should give an update. I left for University at the beginning of september, leaving the tank in the care of my parents. They had strict water-change and filter cleaning instructions, but despite their best efforts, when I returned in October, my Wisteria was all dead. My second return home this weekend was much more depressing. My tank had a severe case of brown-algae caused by a nearby window that was left uncovered, as well as what looks to be BBA on my driftwood (although it is something like a cross between brown algae and BBA as it's VERY easily removed.. but the texture of BBA).

Almost all of my plants were COVERED in the brown algae. I ripped the entire tank apart, cleaning each plant leaf individually, scrubbed the walls of the tank, and plan to do the filters tomorrow. I'm afraid to pull out the driftwood to clean it as my loaches have taken up residence in it.

While at university, I've been experimenting with a 15 gallon (long) planted, with CFL bulbs (about 1.5 watts/gallon) and a planted 5 gallon betta tank with just basic incandescent bulbs. I found that in my 15 gallon, things grew best with a higher bioload (tank houses 6 female bettas, 7 cories, 2 otocinclus).

I wish I'd taken a BEFORE picture of the bowfront before I ripped out the plants. I was so angry when I saw it that I ripped everything out and sat swearing under my breath on the carpet, cleaning each plant.

My mother managed to basically kill my plants. Ive gotta basically start from scratch with my plants.

When I left in September....
Plants:
-Hygrophila Polysperma
-Wisteria
-Corkscrew Vals
-Frill
-Water Sprite
-Cryptocoryne Spiralis
-Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Tropica"
-Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Red"
-Sagittaria Platyphylla

When I returned:
-Cryptocoryne wendtii "Tropica" and "Red", but most of the leaves are damaged
-Cryptocoryne Spiralis, but the leaves are all damaged, Hoping for some new growth
-1 corkscrew vallis
-hygrophila polysperma, most of the leaves dead or damaged
-Sag leaves almost rotted from algae
-EVERYTHING ELSE: Dead.

Now:
-Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Tropica" (x too many)
-Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Red" (x too many)
-Cryptocoryne Spiralis (x4)
-Corkscrew Vallis (x11)
-Hygrophila Polysperma (Will be removed in a few weeks once I get more new plants)
-Amazon Swords (x 3)
-Sa (dead leaves, but the roots still look healthy. I broke off the leaves, leaving stubs, hoping that I'll get SOME growth on them.)

Also, to complicate things, the Angel who had "adjusted well" to the tank is frequently attacking one of my ABFs. Therefore, I need to find some floating plants, pronto, and maybe rehome the Angel. It's all to-be-determined at this point. I've got half of the tank filled with fake plants, and a few live ones left, but right now, this tank needs some serious TLC. For now, I've got a bunch of silk and plastic plants suction cupped to the side of the tank near the top to provide some cover for the ABFs. If the nipping decreases now that they have cover, I'm going to get some more realistic-looking silk plants that I can attach to the side of the tank about 3" from the top, as well as some real floating plants to provide some more cover for them. If this doesnt work, I will look into who will be rehomed.

The fish stocking now is:
-5 yoyo loaches
-11 Serpae Tetras
-1 Angel Fish (1.5" from nose to tail!. He's gotten big!)
-2 African Butterflyfish (~4" nose to tail)

-I plan to add a school of Gold Barbs in the future (once I get my plant situation worked out). The tank is getting 20% water changes every other week. The ABFs are finally eating flake food readily. Crickets are now a once-in-a-while food item (Thank goodness! Live foods creeped me out!).

PLANTS: THE PLAN
-Remove fake plants
-Mirror the right side on the left side (with the amazon swords and vallis)
-Fill in the back center with amazon swords
-Crypt of some description in front of left wood (where fake plant is now)
-Group Crypt "Tropica" closer to left corner
-Move some Sag in front of left driftwood cave
-Find some floating plants (looking for water lettuce right now actually)


...
And NOW!
The PICTURES!
.............

After it was ripped out... Before I replanted the "still alive" plants...

After I replanted everything...

The Angelfish

Yoyo Loach! This guy has spent the past two days in the driftwood cave, digging out all the sand, forming mountains at the cave entrance. Really interesting behaviour to watch.

The Serpaes.