South American Biotope: Part 2

Hello there! This is Part 2 of my South American Biotope "journal".

So the daily water changes are going pretty well, I'll post the stats for all of them when I'm done!
A few of my plants are being ordered soon!
My new plant list:
Amazon Swords
Green Cabomba
Duckweed
Watersprite
Christmas moss

I still need the Duckweed, and the Christmas moss, but the others I have, or are going to be ordered.
I also changed my stocking list, as much as I love the L444 Plecos they just won't work in my setup... Most of the fish I want come from slow moving streams, and the L444's come from fast moving streams, so that won't work.  Here's my stocking plan:
10 Glowlight Tetras
8 Black Widow Tetras
10 Albino Cories
8 Bandit Cories
4 German Blue Rams
3 Guppies
4 Platys

I think this stocking might be pushing it a little... So I may just get the bandit cories, and leave out the albino, or bring the albino numbers down to 8.  The glowlight tetras numbers have to be 10, because somebody I know is giving me 7, and they are apparently nipping, the more I have the less they nip, or so I've read.  The black widow tetras could be taken out, but they're my favorite kind of tetra, so... 4 GBRs might be tough, but with enough hiding places I should be able to swing it.  Unless I can find a store to buy them.  The guppies, and platys I already have, so I can't take those off the list.

So that's my new plan! Hopefully I won't change it too much more. :)

Starting over...(South American Biotope)

Well apparently I'm starting over with my 55 gallon tank...

What happened was I missed a water change one week, and wasn't able to do it until the next week.  Meaning my NitrAtes were getting out of control.  Then my guppies started dying.  I was keeping up with water changes again by then, but it wasn't enough to get the Nitrates down far enough, and keep them there. So my guppies continued dying.  Then last week, Zip died (RIP!), and I got the advice to start doing daily water changes to bring down the Nitrates.  The last four or five days I haven't been able to, so yesterday I lost a guppy (Yuki), a platy (Elena), and Muddy.  Today all I have left: 3 guppies, 4 platys, and my sister's 3 snails.

I've decided that I'm going to re-model, and do a biotope.  Meaning I'm going to try and make my tank as much like the fish's natural habitat as possible.  I'm doing a South American Rio Meta, and Orinoco rivers biotope.  My current stocking list is:
1-2 L444 Pleco(s)
6-8 Bandit Corys (A.K.A. Rio Meta Corys!)
8-10 Glowlight Tetras (if my sister decides to get rid of them), or 10-12 Cardinal Tetras
Malaysian Trumpet snails (though not from South America...)
And I also want a "center piece" fish, but I'm not sure what yet.
If I can get away with it I'm thinking about (for more exact stocking):
1 L444 Pleco
8 Bandit Corys
8 Glowlight Tetras
10 Cardinal Tetras
1 "Center piece" fish (possibly some kind of South American Cichlid)

So far plants I'm using are:
Red Cabomba
Duckweed
Amazon Swords
Christmas moss

Other decorations I'm using are:
Rocks, I want more, and I want some different ones.  I'm probably going to get some redish ones, and some more dark grey ones, but I don't really like the lighter ones I have.
Wood.  I'm going to try and find an oak log, and hollow it out before treating it, if I can.  I might hollow it after, but I want a hollow log for them!

Other than the dead fish my fish are doing good.  I've decided to remodel Damien's tank again, but I'm going to do a South Asian biotope with him! Though the shark is staying... :)

(This was part 1 of my South American biotope journal)

Damien's upgrade! (LOTS OF PICTURES)

Hi there! 

Today I took a trip to the pet store to buy sand, and plants for Damien Shadowe's tank upgrade to the 6.6 gallon.  All the pictures have tons of bubbles because I took them right after I finished filling it up, and adding Damien!

I got a beautiful sand color.  It's more white than it looks in this picture.  Because of the pale color it goes really nicely with all the blue decorations! Like this archway.  The lighting also helps with that.

I've seen this statue a few times, and I've wanted to get it for a while.  It says "No Fishing", my favorite animals are sharks, and my favorite aquarium fish are Bettas (which is the reason behind my fish forums username Betta_Shark5678) so why not have them both in one tank?  Sort of anyway.  Also blue, I didn't notice the blue thing until I finished setting up the tank.  Damien is black, and blue though, so it's perfect!

These are my Cryptocornye Wendtii green plants, and a pile of polished blue stones.  Another thing in my blue theme.  I wanted red Wendtii, but the pet store only sells green.  It goes better anyways.

This is the other side of the tank.  Java fern is on the rock in the left corner, and the plants in the middle of the picture are Water Wisteria.

This is a piece of wood I originally was going to put in my big tank.  I have three pieces I'm going to put in a little tipi over the amazon swords, then one longer piece in the sand on one side, and on the rocks on the other.  This was an extra piece, and I didn't know what to do with it, so I decided to use it in Damien's tank.

Here's Damien when he first got in his tank.  He's swimming away from the picture... You can't see them, but there are rips in his fins, and under the (annoying) lighting in his old tank I couldn't see the rips until a few days ago! Luckily I got a gift card for a pet store for Christmas that I hadn't spent yet.







Anyways, maybe I'll enter the fish forum's Tank of the Month contest with this tank when the plants grow a little! :)

Future 55 Gallon tank

The only reason I got my 12 new fish is because pretty soon I'm getting a 55 Gallon tank, and I'm putting them all into the big tank! This is my plan for it.  I'm hoping to get it this week.

Substrate: Play Sand

Plants: Java Fern, Amazon Swords, Green Cabomba, Wendtii Red/Brown, Sunset Hygrophila, and Anubias petite nana.


Fish: 1 Golden Gourami, 8 Platys (7:1 female:male ratio is what I have!), 9 Guppies (2:1 female:male ratio), 2 Striped Rubbernose Plecos (have 1 already, and I think I'd like another), and 6-8 Kuhli Loaches.


First, I'm going to add the sand, decorations, and plants.  It depends on how the plants need to be planted.  Ones that need to go in the sand are planted before decorations go in.  Others go in after.  After I add sand I add some water, before anything else.  Then I fill it with water, and add the first fish.

I plan to add in the fish a few at a time so the filter can handle the waste load.  The order:
1. Gourami will go in as soon as I get the tank set up, he comes with the tank.
2. A week later I'll put the two biggest platys in, the next day I'll put the next two, the next day the same, then the smallest, and the male the next day!
3. A week after the first platys go in the male guppies go in, then a few days later the females.
4. The Kuhli Loaches are next, I'll probably add them in all at once.
5. The Plecos are last! I might end up getting some snails too, but I don't know yet, I'll decide that later.

For the 6.6 Gallon tank I'm going to get sand, and live plants, but leave it empty as a quarantine tank.

The 3.5 Gallon is going to be a lot of fun.  It's going to be a Halloween themed Betta tank! I'm going to get black, and orange gravel (I'm going to put it over a layer of sand to put plants in), live plants (only colored plants that match the gravel!), and Halloween themed decorations.  I have plastic pumpkins that I'm going to cut up so my future Betta can swim through it, maybe I'll get a Skull decoration, and a shark.  I'm not sure of the specific decor yet, but by Christmas I'll have a Halloween themed Betta tank I hope :)  Then I'm going to see if I can find either I black and orange, black and red, red, black (maybe with dark blue), or purple Betta to go in it!  If I can find a full Halfmoon in one of the colors I just listed it would be even better.

That's my tank plan!

Fish update:
Muddy the Pleco has been holding onto the bottom of the rock in the cave I gave him, and then falling off, freaking me out, and moving just as I start to really panic.  I believe that Muddy is in fact a he.  Kathrine still has not given birth.  Tara is getting close to giving birth too! Lexi is still pretty far behind.  Elijah continues his sulking, and refuses to eat.  Stefan, and Damon are still friends and got really excited when I turned the filter on this morning.  I fed Emmett a pea, so if he did have a swim bladder problem hopefully I managed to clear it up.  If not, well, he ate something for the first time I saw.  Toph is still tiny, and loves swimming up, and down next to the wall of the tank.  It's a little weird... Elena, Rosalie, and Scarlet play together, I'd never seen fish play until I got guppies, and platys, my female Bettas used to play in the filter bubbles for two seconds until they saw the other females, then went into attack mode.  When Zoey was the only Betta in the tank she hated the filter.

Well, that's enough for now.

Zoey's Tank Remodeling: Part 1

I have decided to completely remodel my fish tanks! First I'm going to start with Zoey's (I'd like to upgrade Jack's).  Part one is decision making.

First I had to decide the kind of substrate I want in the bottom of my tank.  (Gravel, or sand)
I was told I can use a certain kind of blasting media that won't harm the fish, so that is what I will be using.  It's called "Black Diamond", it's black sand.

Second I had to decide between the plastic plants I currently have, getting new silk plants, or trying to grow live plants.  I decided on live plants.

Third I had to decide what kinds of plants, and I had to think about what kind of conditions each of these plants need.  Here are the plants I've decided on for my 3.5 Gallon tank.

Java Fern - These plants need to have their roots exposed in the water, it's best to have them on a rock or piece of wood.  They will attach their roots to the wood, or rock.  They are a low-medium light plant.  They don't need any kind of fertilizer or anything like that, but they do grow better with it.  All of these things together make it a good beginner's plant, which is good because I've never had live aquarium plants.  My favorite aquarium plant.

Green Cabomba - These plants can have their roots planted in the substrate (sand in this case).  Green Cabomba grows very tall, very fast, so you will need to cut it back often.  This plant requires medium-high light.  They also require no fertilizer, but grow better with it.  This plant is another beginner's plant, I have a black plastic version of it, and I'm very excited to get the real thing!

Java Moss - A low light plant.  This moss also needs to be attached to a log, or a rock.  I am going to get a rock (that looks like wood), attach one Java fern on each side, and Java moss in the middle.  Java moss actually needs to be attached to the rock, or wood until the roots take hold.  Like the others they require no fertilizer.  Also like the others it is a beginner plant

Anubias Petite Nana - I keep changing the type of Anubias I want, but this one is small so I think it's my best bet! Another low light plant.  With all the same requirement as the other three.  Also a beginners plant. 

So now you know my plan, I just have to put it in action! Keep watching for Zoey's Tank Remodeling: Part 2 (buying the supplies).  I will be posting in between parts, so if part two isn't my next post don't worry! It's coming! :)