Tanks With Plants And Corys

[Cory_Dad]

Ohhhhhh, that orange stripe is so beautiful!

Instead of adding CO2 you could try adding Flourish along with Flourish Excel. I'm adding that to my 4 tanks now as an experiment (and also to get rid of of black hair algae in my 20).

Seems to help quite a bit.

 

[jollysue]

The tabs are convenient ferts also.

The orange are very nice, but the green stripe is still more striking.

My simulatus spawned happily again, and I collected a nice group of eggs. They are so tiny! I have read now that the simulatus male can get aggressive at spawning time. Nevertheless, these are a hardy troup, and my tribe has doubled, mostly from eggs surviving to hatch and fry hiding in the moss with no assistance from me.

 

[ICEEGRL]

Hey. Sorry it has taken me so long to get here. I think tff has been mad at me. It wouldn't let me on here. I have been getting an error message for a good while every time I tried...

Don't ever use excel in your tanks that have the egeria densa in it. It will melt it quickly. You won't have any left alive. It will all be brown slime. I forgot and put some in a tank that had some in it... The next day... no green egeria... it had all started turning brown. I tried to save it, but it was too late.
Flourish is good. The plants would like that. Just don't use a full dose unless you want a ton of algae. Without co2 for faster growth you don't want to add much ferts. I would only do maybe 1/4 of recommended dose. The flourite substrate and fish should handle most of what they need.

The plants that she has in there that are easy that grow tall are rotalla rotundifolia, giant hygro, egeria densa, alternanthera reineckii, bolbitus, crinum t., and ludwigia repense which is supposed to be easy. It grows great for some and others it doesn't. It likes her, but me... not so much...
Oh... also the little one is pygmy val. It is very easy and stays small. Pretty much all vals are easy.
The skimpy looking stems are rotalla that stayed in a bucket for too long before shipping. The leaves will come back soon. They will be nice when they fill out.

Did that cover everything?

The tank is looking nice. Can't wait to see it all filled out.

 

[racegoer]

I need some real floating plants other than the moss, so the little guys can rest in something besides plastic. All the blacks rest in the floating plastic. So do my peppers. Maybe it keeps them from getting blown around from the filter

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but the line about corys being blown about prompted this
I am new to having Peppered Corys --actually any Corys --- but in my 90litre tank with lots of resting places and hidey holes the 6 Corys spend about 75% of their time lining up to get in the filter stream and be shot across the tank I have also noticed my outdoor goldfish do the same thing, so do fish just like to have fun?

Lynda

 

[jollysue]

Some fish like to have water slide fun! Most Corys seem to. In this tank there is a larger size AquaClear filter (I overfilter everything) It creates a great water movement and the Corys (blacks, orange stripe and undulatus) all spend day and night riding the waves. The 2 common Plecs not so much.

Even though the substrate is not sand and rather heavy and rough, these Corys seem to be enjoying the accommodations.

I am delighted with the plants and fish in this tank. ICEEGRL sent me enough to plant the whole tank! with some left over for additions in 2 others.

 

[ICEEGRL]

I am now collecting more plants to have more variety in my tanks. When I get them planted and growing I plan to have a tank for growing cuttings. Then I can share some more...
Eventually we will both have all our tanks fully planted.

 

[ICEEGRL]

I have a plan
I will send you plants and You can send me fish...
I just have to wait for them to breed.

 

[Cory_Dad]

Thanks for the heads up on using Flourish Excel with egeria densa or rather not to use it. But it certainly seems to help with the black hair algae. It doesn't completely get rid of it but it seems to control it.

 

[Bozza]

Thats a very nice tank you got Sue. Love the blacks.

 

[jollysue]

Coming from you that is quite nice, Bozza.

It is filling out some already and I moved the red plants to their own showy spot. one of the stem plants is already showing purple. I guess I must learn the names, so some folks will know what I am talking about.

The blacks look very nice in it. It is the perfect background for them. They don't show up well on much. I just checked with Ian and he said he thought if the tribes were complete with males and females, it might work to put the Peru green stripe in with the orange stripe. It should then be really striking.

I have two new tanks to set up. I plan to plant them first this time before I add the fish.

 

[jollysue]

Speaking of blacks:

One of my blacks from Frank stopped to pose in the ICEEGRL tank

Edited/lightened to see more clearly

One of the 2 new tanks ready to set up. I will have some happy Corys.
The one on the bottom is the one with the blacks, orange stripe, undulatus, ICEEGRL plants, and I am going to add the green stripe
There are 2 on double racks next to each other. Glass 29s on the bottom, acrylic 29s on top

Rack in the corner with a 20 and 2x 20L. The 20L's will have the juvies in them. There were 2 x 10 there, but I moved them to be the fry net hatcheries and the fry growouts.

 

[ICEEGRL]

I can't wait to see all the tanks up and running. I know they will be great.
Maybe I will be able to share more plants soon. They will have to do some growing first though. As soon as I have enough cuttings worth sending... I will send you some.

 

[Bozza]

Damn you got a huge setup there Sue

 

[jollysue]

That is not even half the tanks, Bozza, It is one small bedroom that is tanks on all 4 walls and a group in the middle.

 

[ICEEGRL]

You should take a pic of each wall and the middle. I know you can't get the whole room in one pic. Then you can just go ahead and put people into full shock. (until mts gets them too)

When I got my 29g I thought I had a "big" tank and was really doing something...
Now... It is kind of lumped in my group of little tanks. Mts can be really hard to fight. It gets you before you even know what is happening. Before it gets you... it is just something people joak about. Then one day you look around and notice that somehow you have become one of them! Those people that were always "needing another tank" for something. There is always a good reason why it really is necessary, and it is just one more tank... One tank isn't that big of a deal... right? Until you look around and find you have a lot more than one tank... you are up in the double digits!
Then you start to think maybe I do have too many. So you start thinking about how you can condense things a little so you can take down a few tanks... Or build on a room so they fit... NO... NO... You must scale down! (just a little...) The problem is then, if you do manage to empty a tank, you will always find some new fish or plants or some reason that you must use that tank... Then something gets sick, but you don't have a quarantine tank. Now you need another tank. When the fish is well... you have an empty tank. You see something you can't resist, and you do have that empty tank. So now it isn't empty, and you need another quaranteen tank incase something gets sick... and it never stops. It gets worse! Now you have fish that either need a larger tank, because they bred or they need to be in schools so they will be happy. You do want your fish happy. Now you need larger tanks! That is just one of the ways mts gets you. We joak and kid about mts, but I have come to realize that it is not just a joak. It is real, and it is impossible to fight for most people. The up side is that it is really fun, and you learn lots of new things. They even say that it can be good for your health! So... Have fun and enjoy!

Anything new with your tanks? How are your little ones doing?
Are the little ones I sent you doing ok?