Well, back again for another update. The festivus in the 37-gallon DID spawn for me, and in a big way. There must have been 200 babies. Note in the photo the clamped fins and stress bars - the parenting thing really taxes the resources of these fish, apparently. They are very nervous, and prone to attack anything, including the Mag Float algae scraper, siphon hose, my hand, whatever. This is serious business.
The rummynose, which I have determined to be H. bleheri , were moved down to the 150 and are very, very happy there. They school with the cardinals and all is well. I very much like the visual interest their markings add to the tank, especially in contrast to the vivid deep colors of the cardinals. It has now been 3 months or so and I have not lost a single one of them, and have not lost any cardinals, either, which is unusual for me!
Back to the festivus. The babies grew, and the parents became more and more nervous as they spread out, in spite of the adults' efforts to keep them corralled. I don't know if I mentioned that also residing in the 37 is a Chaetostoma sp., whom I have named Chet, and I'm baffled as to why I purchased him! He's adorable, that's for sure, but it was an impulse buy, and anyone who has been in the hobby for any length of time knows that impulse buys are doomed to failure, in most cases. Chet would prefer cool waters with lots and lots of current, and though there is a lot of water movement in this tank the temperature is a bit high. However, I needed it so for the babies, which will grow faster and reach sale size more quickly.
Things were rolling along like this for a good while until the adult festivus, whom I dubbed "The Thugs" (I am not fond of these fish, having a thick, pugnacious appearance and aggressive personalities) spawned again. This caused confusion, and they started eating some of their first spawn in response to the arrival of their new batch of wigglers. No biggie, I thought, since there were WAY too many babies to grow out in this tank anyway, and I wanted to see what would happen. I did not have another tank to move the babies into, and no time to raise fry myself - if I was going to keep a breeding pair I require them to raise the babies, like the angels, Agnes & Frank, did so well.
Well, they ate the second spawn, and over time, perhaps several weeks, I began to lose more and more fry from the first spawn. At this point I was rather disgusted. Not only with these fish, which I did not particularly like (I DO, however, very much like the festivus that remains in the 150 with the wild angels, as I believe that fish is a different species and has a lovely, graceful appearance and a peaceful personality), but also with the tank itself, which had become overrun with algae of every description, and finally cyanobacteria. I have to blame the 24/7 lighting and the excessive waste in the tank due to the feeding of so many fry. You wind up putting a lot more food in the tank so all the babies will get access to it, and even with frequent PWCs you could tell there were way too many nutrients. I got some anacharis (not one of my favorite plants but in the right conditions grows like a weed and sucks up a ton of nutrients from the water column) to hopefully help with the algae and provide cover for the fry. This was left floating, and worked pretty well, thriving on the lighting and the abundant nutrients.
Also, pretty much the minute The Thugs spawned the first time they terrorized Chet, driving him into his cave network just about 100% of the time. I dropped food back there and he was eating, and after about a week of debating what other tank he could go in, I decided to just leave him be and see how he fared, and keep him there until I decided what to do. He adapted well and seemed to do fine. He was not a good choice for these cichlids, though I thought he'd make a perfectly fine tankmate for them.
Next, the cyanobacteria began taking over, and the tank looked a wreck. It was getting too hard to keep things under control. I made a big decision: I would take The Thugs in to the LFS for cash or credit, raise whatever babies were left, and then turn the tank into a goldfish tank. Raising fry seems profitable to me, as I did get good money for the large spawn of the angelfish Agnes & Frank, but I think it is a wash in the end after you consider the cost of food and increased PWCs. It's fun, but I don't really have the time, and I basically need my tanks to run themselves.
I thought I'd try to leave the anacharis and anubias in the tank (goldfish are notorious plant eaters but may leave these species alone), remove the driftwood, which was decaying and contributing in a big way to the excess DOCs in this tank, and switch to black sand. There is a black background, and I thought this would be a nice contrast to whatever goldfish I wind up getting. I can then lower the tank temperature to better suit Chet, and hopefully he can dwell with a couple three fancy goldfish in peace.
I caught The Thugs without difficulty and took them in. I am fortunate to have three LFS that will take my fish just about anytime, so that was done, and I was glad to be shed of these two. Sometimes certain fish just don't make me happy, and these two were those fish. I returned to the tank to assess how many babies were left, and was surprised to see I had only three left! Oh well. What now. Do I keep this tank going and raise the three? Get rid of them (they are about 5 mm long), OR...... put them in the 40-gallon angel tank?
Now, about that tank. I am sad to say that I lost Frank last week, apparently suffering from dropsy or something similar. The conditions in this tank are pristine, with very heavy plantings and a rigorous maintenance schedule, but for whatever reason he got sick and died. I could have removed him to a hospital tank and medicated him, but I have not had success in the past doing this, and you have to consider the stress of moving him combined with the cost of medications and time and energy, and..... oh well. He gave me one fabulous spawn with Agnes and that was a great experience. I still have one of their progeny in the 150 with the angels, and he is now about as big as the leopoldi. He's a very handsome fish and I'm proud of him.
Anyway, I thought I'd take Agnes in as well and completely restock the 40, but then I decided that she's such a nice fish (very attractive, IMO) that I'd just get her some schooling fish, maybe some type of catfish, and create a mixed community around her. The plants are doing very well in this tank and I hated to redo anything. SO, to make a long story longer, I decided to put the three festivus babies in with Agnes and hope for the best. The plants are so dense that I am hoping at least one will survive, and maybe I can keep one in there. This is depending on the plant-eating tendency of the fish, however. In the 150 the festivus has caused a great deal of damage to the "red rubin" sword plant that is a centerpiece of the tank, and there are holes in most of the other plants. They also tend to be snail-eaters, and the 40-gallon continues to be a snail farm for my dear figure-8 puffer, Otis. This may or may not work out, but we've got plenty of time to see what happens.
Well, above is what we have in the 37-gallon today. The Estes black sand is down, Chet's cairn/cave is augmented, and I added a piece of solid glass that is about the size of a football. This is waste glass from a glass factory, and is quite interesting. It is very sharp and jagged, but looks like ice in the tank. Chet seems to be holding his own after the redecorating and I am now ready for a couple of small fantail goldfish, I think. I hope they leave the plants alone but I'm ready if they don't. I have some pieces of slate that I thought I'd add, but when I put them in there I just don't like they way they look - even though they are broken they are too uniform looking and do not have an organic appearance, so I took them out. If the plants are wiped out I may need to rethink things, but we'll try it like this for now. I cut the temperature back to 76-78.
Above is the 40-gallon today. Agnes is somewhere in there, lol, but I just turned the lights on for the photo and she was still in the sword plant where she sleeps. I know it is very much overgrown but I like it. I might get some sort of schooling fish next - not sure - but for the time being it will remain Agnes' domain.As for the 150, I wound up taking out both Ancistrus, since the male was too, too aggressive, charging at all of the other fish in the tank and keeping all of the cories in hiding. It was quite unusual behavior for this species, from what I understand. I then added another half-dozen C. sterbai since I had a credit at the LFS and they had some on hand. They are lovely little things.
Here is a short video (I was trying to capture the aggression of the bristlenose) of the 150, and in it you can see the red rubin sword in the back to the right, which is full of HOLES! It is a horror, but I can't bring myself to get rid of that lovely festivus, which is otherwise a perfect citizen in this tank. Note the difference in his appearance compared with The Thugs. Night and day.
