Micro planted tank

[thrujenseyes]

So exciting! Maybe once he realizes there are tiny moving delicious treats everywhere he'll go bananas

 

[Demeter32]

I changed some of the plants, hopefully for the last time. I took out a lot of the ludwigia, all but one jungle val and added in a crypt that will hopefully fill up the left side.

Vitya still hasn't eaten any of the shrimp, maybe some babies but all the adults are accounted for. Out of all the babies there seems to be only 2 red ones... I've been moving out the brown/clear ones to other tanks. Otabek is not as nice as Vitya, pretty sure he's eaten a few.

 

[NickAu]

Well I see you have a sonic screwdriver and as we know you can fix anything with that.

And I love the tank.

 

[Demeter32]

Ah yes a fellow whovian. A friend from church gifted the sonic screwdriver to me after I gave them a painting. As we know, the screwdriver does not do wood. Good thing there's no wood in the tank.

 

[thrujenseyes]

Vitya still hasn't eaten any of the shrimp

what a sweet little fish

 

[Demeter32]

Funny tail development. If you look back at his other pictures you can see where the notch begins on the lower end of his tail. Hopefully more water changes and almond leafs will fix it.

Not sure if Vitya discovered the deliciousness of shrimp or if something was wrong with the water. It all started the day after a water change and I added some Oak leaf juice extract (boiled oak leafs and let cool to room temp). I noticed one red female acting odd, just really slow and lethargic. Also noticed a white area on the back of a brown female. Did a heat count and found I was missing a red female and possible found either a molted skin or her remains. Woke up the next morning to find the snails eating the now dead red female and the brown one MIA. Vitya looked no fatter than usual though? Did a larger than normal water change and moved the remaining shrimp to a different 10gal (not Otabek's). I couldn't have all my reds killed off, looks like 2 females and 2 males left.

Now one of the reds is berried, unfortunately they're in with a bunch of browns so her shrimplets will likely be all brown. I think I will try catching all the browns and put them with Otabek, either that or confine all the reds to a small section of the tank via a divider and let them go at it. The other red girl has a saddle so I will need to do something soon.

 

[NickAu]

Who's a pretty boy?

 

[Demeter32]

Vitya is the most photogenic boy I have. He isn't a terrible beggar like all the others and comes to the front when I tap the glass

 

[thrujenseyes]

Funny tail development. If you look back at his other pictures you can see where the notch begins on the lower end of his tail. Hopefully more water changes and almond leafs will fix it.

Not sure if Vitya discovered the deliciousness of shrimp or if something was wrong with the water. It all started the day after a water change and I added some Oak leaf juice extract (boiled oak leafs and let cool to room temp). I noticed one red female acting odd, just really slow and lethargic. Also noticed a white area on the back of a brown female. Did a heat count and found I was missing a red female and possible found either a molted skin or her remains. Woke up the next morning to find the snails eating the now dead red female and the brown one MIA. Vitya looked no fatter than usual though? Did a larger than normal water change and moved the remaining shrimp to a different 10gal (not Otabek's). I couldn't have all my reds killed off, looks like 2 females and 2 males left.

Now one of the reds is berried, unfortunately they're in with a bunch of browns so her shrimplets will likely be all brown. I think I will try catching all the browns and put them with Otabek, either that or confine all the reds to a small section of the tank via a divider and let them go at it. The other red girl has a saddle so I will need to do something soon.

Did you ever find out if it was Vitya or something else?!
I'm curious

 

[Ch4rlie]

This is a nice little set up

Looks like everything is going pretty well and sure hope the plants grow out and give some nice coverage.

Just hope that the LED light does the job, as I know baby tears and certain rotalas are pretty demanding for lighting.

I am pretty bad when comes to LED lighting as know precious little about those so can’t really advise about that.

Though wanted to ask if you’re dosing on any ferts for the plants?

Good job

 

[Demeter32]

Did you ever find out if it was Vitya or something else?!
I'm curious

After doing a bit of researching I think it was the sudden addition of tannin from when I boiled oak leaves. Odd though, the shrimp in Otabek's 10gal weren't affected but maybe that is due to the larger volume of water. The shrimp I removed are all doing well in the other 10gal, both red females have bred, one already had her eggs hatch. The 2nd generation of my little colony is well on its way. Once they get a bit larger I think I'll try putting some back in this tank, but only the brown ones this time

I suppose it's about time for an updated photo of the plant growth.

Though wanted to ask if you’re dosing on any ferts for the plants?

I've been dosing .25ml of Seachem Flourish, probably not as often as I should though. I'd like to be doing it twice a week but between leaving the bottle upstairs with the other planted tanks or misplacing the pipette, it doesn't happen as such. I've also just added a few chunks of clay near the bases of the crypts as I feel they are growing a bit slow. We'll see how that goes.

The baby tears are pretty much no more. The Rotala decided to grow horizontally and spread over to their corner, effectively smothering it. I can see a few bits between the stems but it isn't doing so hot.

 

[Ch4rlie]

The baby tears are pretty much no more. The Rotala decided to grow horizontally and spread over to their corner, effectively smothering it. I can see a few bits between the stems but it isn't doing so hot.

That’s a shame. Probably most likely down to the lights really, or more likely yet a combination of both the lights and not enough ferts.

Baby tears are very hard to grow. I had limited success with baby tears a few years ago and gave up on those after a while.

But tank is look pretty good though

 

[NickAu]

Try Monte Carlo instead of Baby tears.

 

[thrujenseyes]

Hum...
If the other tank has more water and maybe more plants then possibly the inhabitants weren't as bothered? Shrimp are pretty delicate little creatures.
Looks great though! That fishy sure is handsome!

After doing a bit of researching I think it was the sudden addition of tannin from when I boiled oak leaves. Odd though, the shrimp in Otabek's 10gal weren't affected but maybe that is due to the larger volume of water. The shrimp I removed are all doing well in the other 10gal, both red females have bred, one already had her eggs hatch. The 2nd generation of my little colony is well on its way. Once they get a bit larger I think I'll try putting some back in this tank, but only the brown ones this time

 

[Demeter32]

I haven't been updating much but Vitya was doing rather poorly after I got back from a week long vacation. I had moved him to the 10gal Grey was in a while back and that is where he stayed till the end. The 3.4gal is now home to Otabek Jr. who still needs a proper name. This is the Jr. that jumped about a month or so ago. His tank was becoming a jungle so I did a bit of a make over and added a piece of wood. He seems to like it, made a big bubble nest and everything.

Before trim

After trim, it looks better now as this was taken about 10 days ago.