Thinking About ...

[Zante]

From what I'm seeing online they are a colour morph of the normal Trigonostigma heteromorpha, the classic harlequin (which bodes well for any breeding attempts Akasha), but the info online is very scarce. Mine is a rather educated guess, but a guess nonetheless.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yes. Color morph of T. heteromorpha.

 

[Akasha72]

okay thanks for that.
 
I'm starting to see the male-female differences in the new guys and it's seems I've got a good mix. I've decided to leave them in this Q tank a little longer to see if I can get them to spawn in there. If I can see eggs I'll remove the adults and see if I can get the eggs to hatch

 

[Akasha72]

I've just netted out another dead harlequin from my main tank. 
 
I noticed yesterday one had what looked like a cyst like the other one had. Then last night I saw the same bloody looking 'hole' in it's side then this morning I see it dead in a plant.
Something is going on so I think I need to look at putting in an external parasite med this week.
 
I'm actually seriously considering bringing in my 110 litre tank, setting it up, moving in the new babies and then trying to catch curviceps. He's not a happy fish at the moment and I'm starting to think the big tank is just too boisterous for my harlequins and curviceps

 

[Akasha72]

okay, I've made a decision today...
 
Seen as my little 'Q' tank has been up and running for months with baby fish and eggs I've decided it's time to make it look 'pretty'.
 
I've got out my spare bucketful of sand and I've bought an altnanthera plant. I've also dug out some wood for decor. Tomorrow I'll water change it and remove the lil harley's for a bit and then get this little tank scaped up with decor and plants. 
 
I've also noticed the lil harley's having a bicker from time to time so by adding some plants it'll provide a chill out space for them. If anyone is interested I can post up some pictures 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

No one here is ever interested in pics...
 
 

 

[Akasha72]

I was going to leave it til tomorrow but I've made a start tonight. I've got the sand in but it's not deep enough to keep the plants in so tomorrow I'll add a handful of soft pebble gravel I have around the base of the plants until they get rooted in.
 
The piece of wood I was going to put in won't fit so it's either cut it down or get a new piece - might have a look at the lfs tomorrow. They do small bits for a few quid. 
 
Once I'm happy with it I'll post some pics seen as no one is interested

 

[PepperjacksMama]

Careful it's a slippery slope, scaping your quarantine tank.
Surprised more folks haven't seen the purple Harleys. My local fish only shop gets them regularly, call them midnight Harleys.

 

[Akasha72]

my fish store calls the midnight rasboras too PJM. I was there on Thursday and he said he was going to keep them in stock now as they are so popular

 

[Akasha72]

so the 'Q' tank hasn't moved on any further other than the addition of a plant. I went looking for my bag of pea gravel and it's right at the back of the shed behind something heavy and can't get to it without hurting my poorly back further. It's just a no go area.
 
I think I might have messed up with the plant. The label says it'll reach 50cm in height. The tank is no more than 20cm high .... didn't think of that!! Bum
 
I have considered removing the plant and planting it in my main tank as it'll add a different colour (it's a red altnanthera plant and all my other plants are mostly green) Then I could go and get a few stems of cabomba - red if I can get it (love red cabomba) which will probably be better for this little fry tank. 
 
What I'm aiming for is a fry tank with lots of cover so that when I get more cory eggs I have a better set up for them and I just might get some survivors for a change!
 
An update on the baby rasboras:
They're growing!! They're good little eaters too and now there's a plant in there they've gone from huddling together to moving around independently. I'm starting to see some chasing. From what I can see there's at least 3 obvious female's as they're definitely deeper in the body. Some are still a little young to sex so I can't say for certain yet what the male-female ratio is.
They're colouring up nicely now too. I just need them to get growing some more and then they can go and meet the adults in the big tank!

 

[Akasha72]

an update on the little 30 litre tank.
 
The little harley's havn't done much growing so it looks like this is their home for much longer. I've now got 18 cory eggs in this tank too, they are suspended in a little plastic food storer with an airstone bubbling away. 
 
As for the tank. Well there's some red altnanthera plant stems in and some cabomba too. I've bought a small piece of wood that's been soaking in a bucket for about 4 or 5 days now. I'm changing the water in the bucket daily for boiling water but the wood isn't leeching anything much. There's no sign of any fungus on it either. This is not what I'm used to. I've given it a scrub with a scrubbing brush and that didn't bring much off of it either. It would seem to be clean. Any thoughts on when it's safe to risk it in the tank? 
If I can get it in the tank then I can tie some micro anubias leaves that I've got to it and some java fern cuttings too. These will provide cover for the baby cories when they hatch but I want to make sure it's safe to go in the tank first. Help!

 

[PepperjacksMama]

What type of wood? Never had fungus.

 

[Akasha72]

Hi PJM, it's what I class as a standard bog wood
 

 

[PepperjacksMama]

Nice.
I normally just rinse it off and pop it in, but I don't mind the tannins.

 

[Akasha72]

I like tannins too but this piece doesn't seem to be leeching anything at all. I'd normally soak in boiling water for about 2 weeks and in that time I see lots of tannins and some slight fungus but this is doing nothing so I'm gonna get it in the tank today and hope for the best