McTurtle

There are 4 puctatus & 2 black. 2 punctatus school together & the other 2 sometimes hide out with the blacks & sometimes school with the first 2 & sometimes wander as individuals.

So my CPDs have turned dark grey/black. I hope that means they're happy/growing up. I need to take new pictures. Their spots really pop now. Hopefully they start getting red fins soon. I finished the 50% water change last night. I think the algae growth rate is slowing down. I spotted one of the black corys out in "the day". The corys seem to like the Northfin Kelp wafers. but the Hikari wafers are more popular and don't fall apart as quickly. The CPDs like chasing down microworms but have ignored any other food I've put in the tank. I was supposed to start the brine shrimp hatchery this week but I've been lazy so it's going to have to wait until next weekend. The guppies will eat anything. My ramshorns (grand total of 2) are huge, but I haven't seen any baby snails yet. I've been dosing 30mL of ferts each with each 50% water change. I hope the Prime I'm adding isn't binding to many of the micronutrients, but the plants are growing and seem to be doing well. Side note - I rehomed the spixi from my 10 gallon and my plants are starting to recover. I can't believe how much of the plants that one snail mowed out of my tank. The other spixi is living with a betta. The only problem is that the betta is making himself fat eating the wafer I put in for the snail...

Hello & welcome to the forum.

I have 4 punctatus (at least that's what I ordered) & 2 black guys (colour variant of C. schultzei?). They're all about the same size. The black guys are very very shy. The only time I see them is when the main lights are off and the blue LEDs come on. Even then I have to sneak into the room to catch them out and about. I'm hoping they'll relax a bit with time. They're not bothering the pearl danios so maybe they'll leave smaller corys alone too. I'm not adding anything else to this tank for a while, but I'm still scheming.

Looks great to me! It seems very serene.

The air pump is surprisingly quiet. Nothing like the ones I had as a kid. It makes far less noise than the canister, though I'm thinking the canister might need a new impeller. The 2213 I have upstairs is so quiet I don't even know it's running. The 2217 downstairs makes a steady thrum. All the fish occupants seem to be doing well. I'm doing 50% water changes every other day and ~ 20% on the off days for now just in case there is an ammonia/ nitrite spike. I think my API master kit has had the bun. I don't remember when I bought it, but I get different readings on the same water. I rinse the tubes out twice with vigorous shaking before I do the test. Last night one tube said my nitrites were zero and the other said that there was a nitrite spike (one shade darker, I can't remember the ppm of the top). My nitrates keep reading just over zero despite the fact that I'm EI doing. I'm going to have to take some of my tank water into the LFS and compare my results to theirs, but that will have to wait until the weekend. I'm getting really sick of brown algae. My christmas moss is struggling because the netting keeps getting covered in brown algae. The roots of the Java fern are also collecting it. It wasn't a problem when I was dosing with Excel, but that will melt a bunch of the new plants. The 2 ramshorn snails that are in there have almost doubled in size. I'm hoping the snail population will expand on its own. Once I'm sure the tank is stable I'm going to add some ottos & cherry shrimp and hope they will eat some of it too. I bought a small siphon which helps remove some of the algae, but if I get any of the small substrate into it, it just sucks it up instead of washing it and dropping it down again. So I'm going to have to be careful to avoid the substrate and any plants that aren't firmly anchored. Next purchase has got to be a comfy chair to watch the tank. Lying on the floor or sitting on step stool both fail for extended periods of fish watching. Question: Can pygmy corys be kept with larger corys? Will the larger corys "play nice" or scare the little guys?

Congratulations or your new additions. Couches are overrated.

So one of my cherry shrimp is finally berried. I only have 5 shrimp so I'm very excited to have a few more! I just don't know if any of the 5 shrimp are male. At least 3 are female because they have/had saddles. I'm assuming if she's carrying her eggs around and hasn't just dropped them in the last week, that they were fertilized.I've ready it takes almost a month for the eggs to hatch and I can't see any eye spots on the eggs yet. Now time to wait... Note: further reading - eggs won't be laid (stuck under her tail) until they are fertilized. Sounds like good news. Can anyone confirm this?

I don't have airation in most of my small tanks and if I use even 1ml per 2.5 gallon tank that's a x4 dose, They were probably getting between 4x and 8x which was causing the problem. Now I just dilute the Prime and go from there. I'm going to get an eye dropper so I can skip the dilution.

Thanks! So I put in an air stone at the opposite end of the tank from the spray bar. I've read conflicting reports of how much oxygen it will add. Most sources say not much and that it will cause CO2 loss. I like that its forcing air into the system since I have a covered tank. It also adds a little upward flow and I like the bubbles. I'm changing the normal airstone for a bubble bar tonight. The fish are much happier with the reduced flow of the Eheim canister but I don't know how the plants at the bottom will fare. Cory cats = scaredy cats?? If I move at all they all dive for cover and won't come out until I've been sitting motionless for at least 10 minutes... Blew through another $100 on "fish stuff" at the lfs. Gotta stop the spending.... Way over budget in this tank! I decided to try and hatch brine shrimp for the CPDs & bettas. Yet another project.... Must stop and vacuum house... do chores that are not aquarium related..

Corkscrew val? I think they look neat.

I feed them every other day or every 3rd day. They get 2-3 bloodworms or 2 pellets. It's not a constipation issue. I wouldn't have thought Prime an issue, the company says that a five x dose is still safe, but I definitely see a dose dependent response to it with my some of my fish. It's very strange. There has to be something underlying that is making them sensitive.

I've had 2 bettas with what appeared to be swim bladder issues. They weren't constipated and I couldn't figure out why it developed. They'd just float at the top of the tank and stuggle to swim. It was very sad and frustrating. It only happened with the "fancy" bettas. The $5 veil tail rescue never had a problem and it didn't occur in all of my bettas. The issue seems to be that I was overdosing Prime. It's difficult to add a small enough amount for a 2.5 gallon tank. I've started just adding a drop or two witb 100% water change and my betta is now swimming normally. When I went back to the previous amount the floating behavior returned. I never suspected the dechlorinator would be the culprit. Anyone else heard of/ experience this?

OK, time for new pictures. Today has been pretty rough. I found the nerite, he had died. I have no idea why I cared so much about that snail I have been in a pretty awful mood tonight. I got in the rest of my plants today. I had to remove 2 pieces of driftwood with the attached anubis/ java fern to fit in the new stuff. I don't know if I like the new set up better or not. I might see if I can sneak the smaller piece back in, especially since the corys seem bent on up rooting as much of the dwarf baby tears as they possibly can. I've heard mixed reviews of housing amanos with CPDs. I think I'm just going to have to re-home the 2 that I have. OK, pictures! Last picture New pictures

I love this tank!!! (Sorry I have to share here since my enthusiasm totally baffles my husband and my co-workers can't really be expected to listen to me talk about fish for extended periods of time...) I added 14 celestial danios and 6 Corydoras punctatus (my Spencer Jack order) last night. They all seem to be doing great. The corys are hilarious. I love watching them wander around. I have one "Lone Ranger" cory who likes to wander off on his own. His place is filled in by the larger guppy. I think the guppy is having an identity crisis... she thinks she's a cory. :rofl: I put in a Hikari Algae wafer last night and the corys and guppies were all over it and it was gone this morning. I assume the danios are eating the algae and the bits of wafer that flew off into the water. The celestial danios are super cute, but their colours aren't very intense. I'm hoping if I start adding some live food into their diet they'll brighten up a bit. They don't seem to be having an issue with the current, so that's a relief. Nerite is still missing - I think I'm going to give up hope soon. The rest of my plants are arriving today. I don't know how I'm going to fit them all in. I might need to remove some java fern and a piece of driftwood from the right hand side. I wanted to get the dwarf baby tears in before the corys arrived, but it just didn't work out that way. I'll just have to work something out so the corys can't uproot them. I'm thinking of moving my two amano shrimp from my 10 gallon into the 65 gallon. There's a lot of algae for them to eat in the 65 gallon and not much in the 10 gallon. I'm going to wait until I'm sure there'll be no ammonia spikes in the 65 gallon from all the fish I've already added. I'm just wondering if the amanos will go after the danios. The amanos are probably 1.5 - 2". They're kind of bossy and steal all the food from the cherry shrimp. I haven't found anything reporting amanos eating live danios but the danios are so small that I worry.

I got home yesterday after 5 days of camping to find a lot of brown algae. I think maybe the light cycle is too long. Anyhow, it wasn't too hard to clean up. At least the brown stuff just brushes off. I added a 1/2 dose of Excel to hopefully rid myself of the algae. I did a 50% water change and then dosed with ferts. My ammonia level is closer to 0.25 than 0, but I'm going to have to do water changes frequently for a bit anyway as I'm adding in my fish (hopefully) tonight. Most of the plants have recovered now, hopefully the small dose of Excel doesn't melt them again. I can't find my nerite. I hope he's OK. I don't think he could have escaped and I checked around the room just to be sure. I worry that he fell over and couldn't right himself. I'll look again tonight. The ramshorn snail is cruising around just fine. Big moment last night - I added in the first fish! Two female guppies. It's hilarious because, though they both have black tails, one is at least 3 times the size of the other. They don't seem to care and are buddies anyway. I had to dial back the current from my filter. I liked having the stronger current but it seemed the guppies were struggling to swim and the celestial danios I'll be adding come from pools so probably also won't like a strong current. The guppies seem quite content to be upgraded from the 5 gallon they were in. The smaller on spent a good few hours chasing bubbles.

Great photos! Those are some gorgeous fish.

Beautiful tanks. I think the first one is my favorite, just something about it. I'd really love to see what your green laser cory looks like. I'm imagining a cory with a tiny green light saber. Somehow I'm probably way off base...

They had them at Big Al's. I'm trying to rehome one now. Not worth the gas $ to get my $5 back.

Welcome. +1 vote for pictures.

Sounds like it will be a beautiful tank and lots of fun to watch. Way to go for rescuing the poor rams.

The hydras seem to be fewer. I lost one cherry shrimp yesterday. :cry: I came home to find an amano munching on him. I had to chase the amano away to get the deceased out of the tank. I don't know if it was a hydra related death or if maybe he had an issue molting. I checked the water parameters and my ammonia was 0, nitrate 0, pH ~8 which is normal for my tank. I did a partial water change just to make sure. It's ridiculous how sad losing one cherry shrimp made me. Hopefully the rest will be safe as the spixi munches up the hydras.

Great ideas! I have a pond pump that I was using for my automated tomato seedling watering system I had going last year. It was exposed to tomato fertilizers but I can probably rinse it out well enough to use it for water transfer into my tank. I love the powerbar idea to switch it on/off. I need to invest into some short pieces of garden hose and a y connector. I'm using the water that normally goes into my washing machine so hot and cold are separate. To get the temperature right I have to mix it in a bucket. Still, being able to pump it out of the buckets instead of ladling it in manually will be a lot easier. Micro rasboras look amazing. Does anyone stock them in Edmonton or know of a good online source? How difficult are they to keep happy? I saw some ember tetras at AC last time and was pretty impressed by them but by the time I actually get around to stocking my tank they'll probably be sold out. Is it better to stick with one type of cory or mix them? I was thinking of starting with a school of ~10.

I'm thinking tetras, corys and ottos as stock. I think I'll be ok for temperature. First 50% water change today. The Eheim drains the tank nicely. I just turned off the power, closed the valves, switched the output with an output with enough tubing to reach the drain and then opened the valves, no power required. Getting the fresh water in was more tedious. I'm filling 5 gallon buckets and then scooping it in with a 1L jar. 6 buckets and I'm done. There has got to be an easier way... Plants are growing! I have a bit of a collection of brown algae but it just brushes away. I put my nerite in today so maybe he'll eat some of it. I've got black fabric to hang as a backdrop. I didn't have time to put it up today. When I get it put up I'll post another photo.

My tops are made out of acrylic. DH cut them for me in about 5 minutes . I think it works well for smaller areas. Two pieces for the 65 gallon & one for the 10 gallon. Tiny bit of bowing but doesn't interfere with use and I can't shatter them if I drop them.