The orange head Tapajos Geophagus are doing great in the 150, and growing nicely. Some have the orange head color coming in, and they are all getting the fin coloration that I've been looking forward to. They get along great with one another and honestly if I could keep them all I would, but the time is coming to sell some of them off. They might do better if I thinned the herd and allowed them to settle into pairs or whatever they may want to do. Right now they are still a frantic cluster of fish, absolutely insane with the need to be fed anytime someone enters the room. I never feel like I feed them enough!
Some are small, and some are much larger, so I think they must be females and males, respectively, but I'm not sure if this is an accurate way to sex them, or if some are better at getting the food and are growing more rapidly. I do still wish to obtain some wild angels so I need to sell some geos to raise the funds, which could be significant.
My H. bentosi, the "peppermint tetra" mentioned in prior postings, are really looking good, with great color and active behavior. Some are developing a small black splotch on their dorsals, and some do not. I obtained 7 more specimens from PetSmart, but they are much, much smaller than the ones I have and are in quarantine (45 gallon with black neons) to get more size on them. All of these have black splotches, and I think I've got "rosy tetras," H. rosaceus. These are very close relatives of the H. bentosi, though PetSmart had them labeled bentosi. I don't really mind, though the solid pink fish with white fin tips is striking in the tank. I look forward to putting all of them together but I need to wait a bit.
I've been having some difficulty with diatom algae in the 150, as in all my tanks, and I decided phosphate was the culprit. I measured the phosphate to be higher than 2 ppm in the tank and out of the tap (!!!) and promptly added a phosphate removing resin to my filter (PhosBan). This dropped the PO4 to ZERO in a day or two, and is holding it there, but after a month I've got no change in diatoms covering everything. I obtained a couple of juvenile bristlenose plecostamus from Cichlid Solutions and put them in the 45 Q-tank for a couple of weeks. They hid for quite a while and I was worried about them, but I finally located them happily hanging out in a tangle of driftwood high in the center of the tank, rather than in the rocks where I thought they were.
Now comes the tricky part - getting one or both moved over to the 150. I was loath to tear the 45 down to accomplish this, but anyone who has tried to catch a pleco, especially a very young one, knows how difficult it can be, requiring removal of all of the decor and lowering the water level drastically. Since they were in the upper strata of the tank where a couple of pieces of driftwood cross, I decided to try to lift the wood out and hold a net underneath the center in case they made a break for the rocks. Unbelievably (this has almost never happened to me) I got one on the first try. I started to lift the wood out and held a giant 8" net under the center of the wood tangle, and as I got to the surface the pleco simply slid into my net off the wood. It was a good thing, because I have a hood and a center brace on this narrow 45 gallon tall tank, and there's not much maneuvering space. This is a small pleco and simply laid flat in the net, supported by a shallow plastic tray, and lowered into the 150 without it becoming snagged in the net. I do not like to use nets with catfish but this time it worked out okay.
The 150 has identical parameters and is maintained in the same way as the 45, with the same sand, driftwood, rocks and almond leaves, and the same PWC schedule. The pleco immediately claimed the tall narrow calvus breeding cave I left behind in a back corner after I changed the tank over from a Tanganyikan setup to a SA setup. I figured something might want to hide out or spawn in that cave, and the pleco is a BIG fan of this structure. It is very narrow and may even be too small, eventually, for an adult BN to fit, but the fish seems happy currently. I'm hoping it will dine on the diatoms and other algae I have going on in the tank.
I am usually not a fan of bringing in new fish to handle "cleanup," since oftentimes no cleanup is required if care is taken not to overfeed and excess nutrients are kept to a minimum, but this time I think this is my best bet. New fish simply add waste and nutrients to the water, so sometimes this strategy can work against the fishkeeper, but I'm not really sure what the diatoms are thriving on. It certainly isn't phosphate or nitrate. I do like these little catfish and we'll just have to see what happens. I'll have to feed it separately, which I can do at night with zucchini and sinking algae wafers. I have also cut back the light on the tank by half, which may have been the problem all along!
Now I just need to fatten up the pink tetras so I can add them to the 150 display, and work on selling some geophagus. They are wonderful, active cichlids that are just about the most peaceful I've ever seen, so they'd make a great addition to any community setup, as long as there are no aggressive species to bully them. The species I've got don't get as large as some other geophagines, so they are more practical for many setups, and they'll have great burgundy and white stripes when they're full grown. I'm also very much looking forward to some wild angels to reside in the mid and upper areas of the tank. My lone leopoldi angel gets along great with the geos currently, but I know he'd feel more secure with more like him. I am impressed at how the geos have brought the angel out of hiding, so that now he comes up to be fed like they do - that's something he'd never have done before I got the geos.
I have my trio of fantail goldfish in the kitchen that are doing great too, and Otis the F8 puffer is happy as ever, though I'm struggling to produce enough snails for him. I was having trouble with my last snail setup, since I was not producing the numbers I needed to keep Otis going. I decided to remove the substrate completely so I can keep the tank cleaner, and hope that will help speed up the process. I've planted a couple of snails in all of the other tanks so I hopefully won't ever be out, but Otis has a voracious appetite!
We also have a couple of bettas at home now, one for each of the twins, and they are doing fine too.
At work I've got a 5-gallon setup planted with C. walkerii and Anubias nana. The crypts are very, very happy in this tank. It used to have small swords as well but I took those out and stuck with crypts, which was a good choice. The betta, Rufus, enjoys poking around through the stems, and sleeps on the leaves. There is no filtration in this tank and I change at least 50% of the water weekly.
Quite honestly, this is an aquarium in a patient waiting room where there is no TV or other visual distractions, and the bubbles and the active fish provide something to look at. The patients really enjoy it. The goldfish occupy all areas of the tank so there is no shortage of movement, and the bubbles wind their way through the tank from left to right, front to back (36" flexible bubble wand) so it is somewhat like watching a fire in a fireplace. Always something for the eye to follow. I know it sounds like too much bubbles but it isn't - the bubbles are small and gentle in an "S" pattern in the tank, and I have the pump turned down low so it isn't too much. Can you tell I'm worried its too much? Lol. This is truly a poor picture of the tank - it looks really nice in person. There is a silk ficus tree behind the tank, with no background, so it gives depth and dimension to the tank. There are 5 young fantail goldies in residence.
