Barramundi
21st September 2008, 05:41 PM
Hi there,
My name is Steve, I have had a fish tank for about 4 months now. Freshwater Tropicals. 220L tank. Current population 9 Cardinal Tetras, 8 Black Widow Tetras, 4 Peppered Corydoras and 3 Swordtails. Tank is heavily planted with live plants. Mostly wisteria, banana lillies and long grassy plants ( forget their name ). Plants are going gangbusters - I run the light 10 hours a day. Fish seem happy. One 2 fatalities so far, one Cardinal disappeared very early on and one Swordtail also vanished - presumed dead.
The pepper cats have been spawning now for about a month. But fry don't last long in the main tank even though there are lots of hiddy holes. I have attempted to get the eggs into a little nursery tank ( sits in main tank ) with some success. Best method so far is to put pieces of glass where they lay eggs then transfer glass to nursery. This mostly works by so far the 2 fry we have had this way die in a day or so. Dunno why yet. First one seemed to be trying to swim up and out of the nursery instead of hide, which was odd. The nursery in behind the thickest clump of wisteria, so it not too brightly lit.
Snails are sh1tting me. Had pond snails only for a while, which I seemed to be mostly on top off. Then after feeding bloodworm (tubifex?) got an infestation of red ramshorn snails. These little buggers are now *EVERYWHERE*. Without exaggeration there would be well over a thousand in there!
After feeding tubifex a few times I now seem to have a large permanent population in the gravel. The fish try to eat them, but mostly miss. However, I have seen one of the Swordtails succeed once. Since the tubifex worms moved in I have noticed that the fish don't seem very interested in their fish food ( Tropical Crisps ) very much. They eat some - slowly. But most sinks. Which the snails happily eat and their population exploded!
I have been backing off the food, which seems to help keep the snails down a bit. But it is still a problem even though I don't have to clean the glass any more. I remove as many as I can physically during my weekly tank maintenance, but it's fair to say the snails are winning. I think I will get 3 Dwarf Loaches next week. They're quite expensive, but if they help with the snail problem then they're worth it. Even though this does wreck my "South American" theme. Oh well, as long as they play nice with the other fishies.
I am finding this hobby very absorbing and rewarding. My philosophy with the aquarium to aim for as natural a look as possible. I just have river stones and gravel in there. With a background made from small river pebbles struck to sheets of acrylic using aquarium-safe silicon. No kitsch ornaments like pirate ships or snapping sharks mouths for me. Only regular maintenance is a 10% water change ( aged tap water ) once a week, and a once a month filter clean. And some gardening - that wisteria grows very very fast! The only additional thing I'd like to add is maybe some driftwood and a Java fern.
I look forward to discussing fish with you guys!
My name is Steve, I have had a fish tank for about 4 months now. Freshwater Tropicals. 220L tank. Current population 9 Cardinal Tetras, 8 Black Widow Tetras, 4 Peppered Corydoras and 3 Swordtails. Tank is heavily planted with live plants. Mostly wisteria, banana lillies and long grassy plants ( forget their name ). Plants are going gangbusters - I run the light 10 hours a day. Fish seem happy. One 2 fatalities so far, one Cardinal disappeared very early on and one Swordtail also vanished - presumed dead.
The pepper cats have been spawning now for about a month. But fry don't last long in the main tank even though there are lots of hiddy holes. I have attempted to get the eggs into a little nursery tank ( sits in main tank ) with some success. Best method so far is to put pieces of glass where they lay eggs then transfer glass to nursery. This mostly works by so far the 2 fry we have had this way die in a day or so. Dunno why yet. First one seemed to be trying to swim up and out of the nursery instead of hide, which was odd. The nursery in behind the thickest clump of wisteria, so it not too brightly lit.
Snails are sh1tting me. Had pond snails only for a while, which I seemed to be mostly on top off. Then after feeding bloodworm (tubifex?) got an infestation of red ramshorn snails. These little buggers are now *EVERYWHERE*. Without exaggeration there would be well over a thousand in there!
After feeding tubifex a few times I now seem to have a large permanent population in the gravel. The fish try to eat them, but mostly miss. However, I have seen one of the Swordtails succeed once. Since the tubifex worms moved in I have noticed that the fish don't seem very interested in their fish food ( Tropical Crisps ) very much. They eat some - slowly. But most sinks. Which the snails happily eat and their population exploded!
I have been backing off the food, which seems to help keep the snails down a bit. But it is still a problem even though I don't have to clean the glass any more. I remove as many as I can physically during my weekly tank maintenance, but it's fair to say the snails are winning. I think I will get 3 Dwarf Loaches next week. They're quite expensive, but if they help with the snail problem then they're worth it. Even though this does wreck my "South American" theme. Oh well, as long as they play nice with the other fishies.
I am finding this hobby very absorbing and rewarding. My philosophy with the aquarium to aim for as natural a look as possible. I just have river stones and gravel in there. With a background made from small river pebbles struck to sheets of acrylic using aquarium-safe silicon. No kitsch ornaments like pirate ships or snapping sharks mouths for me. Only regular maintenance is a 10% water change ( aged tap water ) once a week, and a once a month filter clean. And some gardening - that wisteria grows very very fast! The only additional thing I'd like to add is maybe some driftwood and a Java fern.
I look forward to discussing fish with you guys!