When the sleeper wakes...

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

The black neons have settled in nicely and I'm playing that game of There's Always One...
You count the fish and the first five are easy, but finding the sixth is/was a bit of a challenge...and it's never the same fish. Of course, I could cheat and simply count them, come feeding time, but where's the fun in that?
Seems they like to hang around as a shoal every now and then, especially at Feeding Frenzy time*, but then also split up into smaller groups of two and three, with one 'elsewhere'.
There's a reasonable bit of flow in the tank, provided by two air stones and my Juwel filter, but there are also lots of quiet areas, provided by the larger plants and bogwood.
If this was a bigger tank, they'd probably shoal/school all the time, but my 20 gallon is small enough for them to stay in touch with each other without having to do so.

Given the static nature of my water parameters, I grew distrustful of the sticks I was using for KH, GH, pH, Nitrite and Nitrate, so I'm now using liquid tests for the last two, alongside a liquid test for ammonia. After all that, the results remain static at;

Ammonia at 0.
GH 60mg/L
KH 40mg/L
pH 7.0
NO2 Nitrite 0mg/L
NO3 Nitrate 0mg/L

I did keep finding one Zebra nerite, belly-up, at the foot of my heater. Paying close attention, I found that this particular snail likes to warm its foot on the heater and I imagine it drops off whenever the heater switches on and it gets a tad warm. The fact that these snails seem incapable of righting themselves does not make my life, (or theirs), easier. Thick, or what? I've since moved it to the far side of the tank and hope that it'll find better feeding grounds, before it works its way back.

Glowlights next.

*I'm feeding them twice at day, but deliberately not the same time every day. As far as I know, food never follows a tight schedule in the wild and, whilst I accept that these are farm-bred fish, a little variety provides stimulation. That said, they already seem to know I'm 'something of interest' and they certainly enjoyed the frozen (defrosted) bloodworm I gave them. (Who says only Oscars will eat out of your fingers?)

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

The black neons have settled in nicely and I'm playing that game of There's Always One...
You count the fish and the first five are easy, but finding the sixth is/was a bit of a challenge...and it's never the same fish. Of course, I could cheat and simply count them, come feeding time, but where's the fun in that?
Seems they like to hang around as a shoal every now and then, especially at Feeding Frenzy time*, but then also split up into smaller groups of two and three, with one 'elsewhere'.
There's a reasonable bit of flow in the tank, provided by two air stones and my Juwel filter, but there are also lots of quiet areas, provided by the larger plants and bogwood.
If this was a bigger tank, they'd probably shoal/school all the time, but my 20 gallon is small enough for them to stay in touch with each other without having to do so.

Given the static nature of my water parameters, I grew distrustful of the sticks I was using for KH, GH, pH, Nitrite and Nitrate, so I'm now using liquid tests for the last two, alongside a liquid test for ammonia. After all that, the results remain static at;

Ammonia at 0.
GH 60mg/L
KH 40mg/L
pH 7.0
NO2 Nitrite 0mg/L
NO3 Nitrate 0mg/L

I did keep finding one Zebra nerite, belly-up, at the foot of my heater. Paying close attention, I found that this particular snail likes to warm its foot on the heater and I imagine it drops off whenever the heater switches on and it gets a tad warm. The fact that these snails seem incapable of righting themselves does not make my life, (or theirs), easier. Thick, or what? I've since moved it to the far side of the tank and hope that it'll find better feeding grounds, before it works its way back.

Glowlights next.

*I'm feeding them twice at day, but deliberately not the same time every day. As far as I know, food never follows a tight schedule in the wild and, whilst I accept that these are farm-bred fish, a little variety provides stimulation. That said, they already seem to know I'm 'something of interest' and they certainly enjoyed the frozen (defrosted) bloodworm I gave them. (Who says only Oscars will eat out of your fingers?)

I forget to add that every time I test the water, I change 16l of it, (two bucket's worth).

 

[Tacocat]

Nice! Can we see a picture?

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Nice! Can we see a picture?

Currently practising!
I'm challenged by the issue of reflections, but when it's all dark outside, (minimising reflections), it's also dark in the tank, 'cos that's how I've set it up. I intend to change this regime in a few weeks, so that I can view the tank during the hours of darkness, but currently there's not many of these.

Meanwhile, as my parameters have remained strangely constant, I've added half a dozen Glowlight Tetra, Hemigrammus erythrozonus, and these have immediately chosen to shoal with the Black Neons.

I'll be doing some aqua-gardening over the rest of the week and will continue to monitor parameters daily.
My spare 'Quarantine' tank is now ready and available and I've gathered all of my spare equipment, should anything fail.
Add to that my small supply of 'Emergencies Only' chemicals and a variety of foods, including frozen, is now complete.

I've also spent too long lurking in a couple of fish shops and next, it'll be Golden Pencils joining the gang.

Looking ahead and with the spectre of MTS looming, I've found two potential sites for a larger tank...or is that two larger tanks?
I had central heating fitted to my new home, which leaves a couple of fireplaces redundant, once I dispose of the resident gas and electric fires installed.
Looks like I'll have room for a 50 gallon and a 55 gallon tank.

EDIT: Plants and animals in bold text.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

So I've been playing with the camera...

Some closer-ups...
This end of the tank gets sunlight, as you might discern by the leaning plants.

This end of the tank has my beach, intended for the Pygmy Corydoras, (the rest of the substrate is rounded river gravel);

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Now for some tentative livestock shots, starting off with something relatively slow;
A Red-spotted Nerite;

A Zebra Nerite;

Black Neon Tetras;

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Finally, some Glowlight Tetra;

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

A tad more practice required, methinks.

 

[Slaphppy7]

A tad more practice required, methinks.

They look good to me...

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

They look good to me...

Thank you, but I'm aware they're not as sharp as they could be.

Water parameters remain static, so I've now added half a dozen Golden Pencilfish, Nannostomus beckfordi.
.
These immediately started doing what they do best, namely pecking at anything and everything and, in particular, my one Java Fern with a healthy coat of green algae. Seems they've found wee critters in there and I watched two of them demolish a clutch of teeny-tiny snail eggs, stuck to the glass.

I've dropped the temperature down to 26ºC, particularly to suit my incoming Pygmy Corydoras, but also for the rest of the gang.

EDIT: Plants and animals in bold text.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

More pictures, including my Golden Pencilfish, of which I am particularly fond;

Nannostomus

Not-so nannostomus...

 

[Tez_20]

I had these beautiful tetra and they did get fat and Red tipped rasbora are nice but hard to get i have one left out of 2 after moving them from my boyu to the Roma.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

"I have a bad feeling about this"
Not that there's anything apparently going wrong, nothing ominous and the fish all seem fine and dandy...but tht's just the point.
This is the first time ever, in my multitank experience, that I haven't had to manage some chemical imbalance or other.

Ammonia at 0.
GH 60mg/L
KH 40mg/L
pH 7.0
NO2 Nitrite 0mg/L
NO3 Nitrate <2.5mg/L

Temperature 26°C - Reduced from 27℃, to more closely match fish requirements.

All I can put it down to is my use of the Microbe-Lift bacterial products and the Tropica Premium Nutrition liquid plant food...plus a 20% water change, every other day.

Perhaps I should just enjoy it.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Oh dear.
Got me a larger tank off eBay.
I'm thinking of an Asian theme; chain loach, cherry barbs, harlequins and honey gourami.

MTS?
I can stop whenever I want...honest!

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Meanwhile, a new addition to the tank in the form of a young Bristlenose Ancistrus Cirrhosus.

It's not very big at this moment in time;

EDIT: Plants and animals in bold text.