Had a nice little trip out to my LFS on Saturday - I am now the proud keeper of 6 Rosy Barbs

These guys are fantastic! It's a shame they didn't have any females in, but the males seem to be happy enough for now. I will be adding some females at some point - once these guys settle in. At this point, I'm thinking of getting 6 girlies, to bring them up to 12. After that, we shall see

The obligatory pics... (quality isn't great, I took them on my phone)

My name is Simon and I am a fish-o-holic. It has now been 3 weeks since my last confession…

On a serious note – I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since I had a random natter on here! So here you go…

Since my last post, Amazonia has been a bit eventful. I’ve had at least 2 batches of Apiso eggs. I say at least 2 – I only saw two clusters, but the 3rd Apisto girl was acting like the other 2, but in a corner that I can’t see. Anyway, a couple of weeks on and I’ve seen no little fry, so I guess that their first try didn’t make it. To be honest, I wasn’t really geared up for fry, so I’m not surprised. Next time, I’ll have my QT out ready, and move the mum and eggs over.

It must have been randy season in the tank though – on Tuesday last week 1 of the corys decided it was her time to be a mum too. She didn’t look like she had many eggs, but I enjoyed watching the eggs on the glass. Again, they look to have all hatched now, but I can’t see any miniature Corys about the place.

I posted last week about my new bargain – I’ve now decided what I’m stocking. I think it might have to be called Rainbowfish Island… 3 Flame Red Dwarf Gourami, 3 Blue Dwarf Gourami (Each 1 boy to 2 girls), 6 Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish, 6 Forktail Rainbowfish and 2 Bristlenose Pleco. I might go for more RBF and less Gourami - still on the fence on that... I’m just doing the overnight pH test, and will re-test tonight, but it looks like my tap water pH is actually lower than I originally thought. Straight from the tap it looks to be about 7.6, so I am hoping it drops a bit more after 24 hours. Oh, and I think I’ll be popping in some assassins from the outset this time.

I kind of promised my OH that I’d finish off some of the DIY before I set this one up – bribery seems to work… At least it’s giving the new filter media a chance to mature

Anyway, enough for now. I’m sure I’ll be back with another update soon – and then I’ll follow with pics

It looks like Andr� has been a busy boy. As I posted yeterday, Steffi was being very broody and I came home to find she has laid a load of eggs on the side of the cave.

Anyway, came down this morning and I wondered what Andr� was doing at the other end of the tank - one of the other Agassizi has also laid eggs! Andr� has had a very randy 24 hours!

So I've not got 2 batches of eggs at either end of the tank. The poor corys don't know where to go - they keep getting chased away.

I did a quick bit of reading last night and it looks like if all goes well, they could hatch between 2 and 4 days after being laid.

I was thinking of trying to get the eggs out now, but I have since changed my mind - I'm going to let nature take it's course with this batch and see what happens. Maybe next time I'll be better prepared with a seperate fry tank already set up - better read up on that as well I guess!

Anyway, I may be offering some Apistogramma Agassizi to good homes at some point in the future - fingers crossed

Mum with Eggs:

One of my female Agassizi has been causing mischief all weekend. She’s been chasing the poor corys every time they came down “her” end of the tank. Poor little corys had no idea what was up. Anyway, I think I now know why – I came down this morning to find her tucked in the bend of the cave. Not on the inside of the cave – on the outside. Dozy fishie. Anyway, she looks to be giving the sides a good clean and André is hovering “displaying” about an inch or 2 outside of her little patch. Looks like they may be getting ready to have some fishie fun. I’ll try and get some pics when I get home.

On another note, I have now spotted about 6 little Assassin snail babies in the tank – they are so cute at that size! They can only be 1 or 2 mm in size.

Anyway, must get on with some work – maybe more later on André and his romantic intentions towards “Steffi”

I wanted to take a couple of minutes to introduce my latest tank mates – I have been thinking about getting some Dwarf Cichlids for my Amazonian tank since before it was first set up. This weekend I finally went ahead and got some. I was on the fence. First I wanted Rams, then electric blue Rams, then Apistogramma Borellii. I’ve been back and forth quite a bit over the last month and at one point had even decided not to get any. After talking with LFS guy – he's been really helpful over the last 4 months – he suggested the ones I’ve now gone for… The condition was that I took the 1 male and the 3 females that were with him as a group.

So now I’ve got 1 male and 3 female Apistogramma Agassizi. I’ve already decided on a name for the male – he had to be André (that would be André Agassizi in full – couldn’t resist!)

So far, Andre has been pretty shy. I’ve got a cave that he has already adopted as his – much to the annoyance of my Corys that used to love to have a snuffle in it. You never know where there might be food… I was happy to see that by the end of last night he was out investigating the tank a bit. I’ll admit that to start with I was a bit worried that I’d just picked a very pretty fishie that would spend all day hiding. The three girlies – André’s harem are already happy to go be nosey and see what’s going on around the tank. And anyway, André proved he was made of sterner stuff, as this morning, I spotted him investigating the thermometer for its edibility… I think he was a bit disappointed to be honest he he

I’ve taken a couple of pics - one of André and one of his girls. They are pretty in their own right as well – more interesting than some of the other female Cichlids I’d seen. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be putting up more of André’s antics going forward – I think he’s going to be a right character.

Oh, and how could I forget that I’ve now also got 2 more Otos as well…

Well, lets just say I wouldn't want to repeat a weekend like that again in a hurry. I'm not going back over the details but I lost 7 pencilfish on Sunday and I think the last 2 are not looking great. So far they've not eaten since the episode.

Anyway, after a lot of me being upset and thinking maybe I've got in to the wrong hobby, I've decided to keep going. I'll just put it down to being unlucky and not let that stop me enjoying the fish I still have and planning for the future for my little friends. I was lucky I'd got a QT for my Prestella with the bump on it's nose or I'd have 0 pencils now. Prestella is still in the main tank - looks like it is a cyst or growth of some kind. He is still swimming around happily and has no symptoms of it being a parasite or NTD, so I guess I'll let him by until it stops him swimming or eating. He's now been nicknamed as Pinocchio...

Anyway, I've decided to go ahead and get some Otos as I was planning. And I may then get the Apistos I was toying with before getting the pencils. Maybe I should have listened to myself! Anyway, more pics will follow if I do get some new additions.

And on a different note - having had the QT set up in the lounge, OH has agreed that there is room for a 2nd tank after all - but I've been set a weight loss goal to get it. I might keep track of progress on here - a bit more motivation and all that - 2 stone to lose - well, 26 lbs as of this morning and counting...

Guess what - fish tank update time

I can't believe how quickly the last 3 months have gone! I've now got lots of little fishie friends happily swimming around at home.

I thought I'd pop on and give a quick update with some more recent pics - just in case you had a spare 5 mins and felt like being nosey

I've now got 6 Prestella tetra, 6 3-lined pencilfish, 12 Cardinal Tetra and 6 Sterbai Corys. Oh, and I "think" I currently have 6 Blood Red cherry Shrimp in there somewhere, but as I only ever see a couple at any one time and the rest insist on hiding in the plants, I'm not 100% on how many of the little mites I now have. One of the downsides of having lots of nice plants I guess

On the plus side, my Nitrates only ever get as high as 15 in a fortnight, so the plants are certainly helping on that front. Oh, and of course, they look nice and give the fishies something to play in

I'm a bit worried about 1 of my pencilfish though - as previously posted, it looks like they do a bit of "Sparing" to decide who is top fish. One of them now looks to have a bit of rubbing on his sides - but he is keeping away from the others, still eating and seems to be ok otherwise. Keeping an eye on him in case he needs to be re-homed, but for now, it looks like the pecking order is being agreed. They are fantastic fish to watch and very fast. I've got a pic or two of them sizing up and they only have a go at each other and leave all the other fishies alone - exepct to be nosey at what the Cardinals are up to. it's funny watching the cardinals in a group of 3 or 4 and a pencilfish come tanking up to them. You can almost here the "what are you lot up to? Is it food?" question being asked

Anyway enough natter, and here's some pics...


Pencilfish:








Cory:


Prestella:






My tank with night lighting:


And I just couldn't resist - he found himself a nicy cosy spot to snuggle... My little boy Chino

Time for another tank update

I am now the proud “dad” of 6 3-lined pencil fish. These little guys are amazing! They quietly sit anywhere from the middle to the top of the tank, just being nosey and watching the world go by. Then, all of a sudden, they have a complete burst of life. They will have a nose at everything! I agree with the comments on my forum thread – I believe I have 3 males that are being a bit territorial. They don’t seem to be causing any mischief, so I will let them be. It’s so funny watching them tear up to one of the Cardinals, only to have the cardinal give them a “whatever” look, and swim off. The Corys just watch them with contempt he he

I’ve already started planning tank number two (MTS strikes again). I think I will move the Xray tetra and the shrimps out of my Amazon tank, and in to a more general tank. My OH would love some Guppies, and as the Prestella are more tolerant of a high pH (and aren’t as pretty as the rest of the Amazon tank) I think they would be the best to move home. For my Amazon tank, I want to get some Otos (FishFins fault! They should take over from the Shrimps nicely) and then maybe a pair of Blue Rams. Removing the Xrays and Shrimps should help the bio-load on the filter (lucky I’m really over filtering – thank you MHA for suggesting swapping the filter that comes with the tank for a much bigger external one) so I think I should still be okay for levels.

But enough rambling for now – I’m sure I’ll be back to update on tank plans before you know it…

I may get round to taking some more pics soon

Thought I'd pop on and provide a little update on my little pride and joy...

Where do I start - it's been a good 2 weeks so far this year. I've got a very nice selection of fishies now (or at least I think so) and am happy with how the tank is looking. I'm making some plant changes - I had 2 plastic "grasses" at the front. The idea being that there was plenty of live plants at the sides and back, so having something I could remove for maintenance was a good thing. Although I may have made a "little" mistake cleaning a few days ago... Apparently, the plastic is not very heat resistant - took it out to wash off some snails and left it under the hot water. As you may have guessed, I came back to find a lot of "flat" grass it doesn't stand up anymore. Anyone that has used a plastic stirrer in a hot tea pot will know what I mean.
Oh well - on to plants alive for some mini Amazon sword it is then

The only other issue is Algae - I've not got a huge amount and it's still ok to maintain, but it's still more than I'd like! I was trying to keep the tank a black water stream biotope, but that now looks to mean no algae eaters The only shrimp that lives in the area is the Amazon Glass Shrimp - but I can't find them anywhere

My new plan:

I'm thinking of getting some Cherry shrimp - will kind of detract from the biotope look, but should get the algae under control. I was then thinking of starting a 2nd small shrimp tank. Once the algae is gone, re-home them in the new tank. Then, maybe once a month add them back to my main tank for some clean up for a few days. It might work...

On the marine tank front, there doesn't seem to be any movement on getting "house" approval. I think OH is interested, but I still can't quite convince her that it will fit in the lounge anywhere... I still don't see the problem with moving one of the sofas upstairs or removing the chimney

Anyway, happy fish keeping people

Happy new year!

As I’ve been away off line for nearly 2 weeks, I thought I’d post a little tank update. I’ve now got some Cardinals for my Amazonian tank (6 just before xmas and another 6 yesterday). They have settled in really well (touch wood) and seem to be very happy. Unfortunately, they do make my Prestella tetra look a bit dull now – but don’t tell them I said that

The plants are now all very well established and I’m having to do twice weekly pruning – I need some kind of water proof lawn mower

I did manage to water the floor a little – apparently, when using the siphon, I should watch the water level, and not watch the fishes… Thankfully I noticed what I was doing before I got too much everywhere

Well, I’ve got a big choice coming up soon – trying to decide what my last fish for the tank should be. Currently, I thinking of one of the following 3 options:
2 Blue Rams (1 Female, 1 Male)
3 Cockatoo (2 Female, 1 Male)
6 Black Neon tetra
6 Penguin Tetra

I’m open to suggestions! My tank pH is currently 7.6, but I’m using RO with discus minerals, to gradually bring that down to about 6.5. Ammonia, Nitrites are 0 and Nitrates are 10.

What ever I choose, it will not be for at least another month (longer if I go for one of the Cichlid options) - I'm heading towards the Black Neons as my reasearch suggests they would like the middle and top of the tank - my other fish seem to prefer the lower half. I'm also not sure I'm up to keeping the Cichlids just yet...

Anyway, guess I better get back to work now