South American Biotope: part 6

First pictures today!

 This is the picture of the whole tank, and I'm soo happy with how it looks so far!  Once the "Cabomba forest", and the Amazon Swords grow a bit it'll be perfect.  I'm going to be adding a few (small) pieces of wood laying down in the "Forest", and a hollowed out log next to the bigger sword.  Maybe another hollowed out log at an angle between the two swords?

 These are the two Amazon Swords.  They both have a lot of growing to do, especially little one in the corner.

This is the "Cabomba Forest", and the first piece of wood I've added.  I really can't wait for the Cabomba to fill out a little more!

Here's my rock caves! I'm going to add more rocks before I finish stocking.  The Cories, and Plecos will appreciate it, I hope.

And these are my new Glowlight Tetras! They were given to me by someone who didn't want them anymore.  I currently have 7, tomorrow I'm going to get 3 more.

Well that's my tank so far! I'm super excited to finish it! Tomorrow more Glowlights, and maybe 6 neons?  Probably not, but you never know! :) Anyways, that's it for now! 

South American Biotope: Part 5

Hello!

Stocking is set, though I need to choose exact numbers of each species.  That's going to mostly depend on size, I'll be figuring that out after this post because...

...This post is about my plants! The plants I ordered came in.  Woo-hoo! I'm really excited.  I got 10 Green Cabomba, and 1 potted Watersprite.  Actually, I got 2 Watersprite, I got a bonus baby plant.  :)

I don't have any pictures of my "Cabomba forest", or watersprite yet, because I have a bunch of plants (Ferns, Anubias, and Crypts) to take out.  My giant Java fern, and one of the green Crypt Wendtii are going into my Betta's tank.  Now I just need the Duckweed, and the Christmas Moss and my South American Biotope is done been planted! Yay!

I need more rocks, and more wood, but once I get all that I'm going to really plan stocking ORDER.  I'm probably getting the Glowlight tetras (7 of them) today.  I'll get 3 more Sunday.  Then I'll concentrate on the Decor, then finish stocking! :) So excited...

That's it for now! Pictures later today, or tomorrow.

South American Biotope: part 4

Hi!

Okay, this is the FINAL DRAFT of my stocking plan! Woo! It's finally set.

• 10 Glowlight Tetras
• 10-12 Neon Tetras
• 8-10 False Bandit Cories
• 2 Albino Bristlenose Plecostomus
• 1+ Angel fish
• 4 Platys
• 2 Guppies

I'm finally happy with this stocking, and I'm pretty sure that it's not overstocked now.  Plants are the same as before, and I've decided not to add anymore.  Now I've just got to start.  More rocks, and wood are both needed right now.

Wish me luck!

South American Biotope: Part 3

Part 3 is here!

You'll never believe it, but I changed my stocking plan.  Crazy, right?  Unexpected?  Probably not... Here is the new stocking, and the reasons for the changes.

• 10 Glowlight Tetras - not changed.
• 2-4 German Blue Rams - not changed.
• 8-10 False Bandit Cories - why the change?  I found these at a local pet store! Cheaper than $40 for 6 of them!
• 1-2 Albino Bristlenose Plecos - why?  I saw them at my lps (Local Pet Store), and fell in love! These are instead of the Albino Cories that I was thinking about.
• 4 Platys - already have these 4!  
• 2 Guppies - Lost another guppies today :( Niklaus died sometime last night.  Though he was completely fine during the water change I did last night!

So that's my stocking list now.  Why did I take the Black Widow Tetras (my favorite tetra) off?  Because they get huge.  Two inches or so long, and tall! That's a little bigger than I thought, so I'm thinking about doing some other kind of tetra, or even just making the Glowlight's school bigger.  I'm not sure yet.
The plants I'm getting I'm pretty sure are the same, but I'll put them here anyways.

• Duckweed - floats on the top of the tank
• Green Cabomba - I wanted red, but couldn't find it anywhere! So I'm settling with green... It's a frilly plant, good for fry.
• Amazon Swords - I hear these get big, mine are currently 2-4" tall, they've got a little more growing to do...
• Watersprite - A somewhat frilly plant, not as frilly as the cabomba though.  
• Christmas Moss - I'm going to plant this a little in the sand, and on some of the wood!

I'll probably find a few more plants eventually, but for now that's it!

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. :)

Betta's Biotope

Along with the South American Biotope I talked about in my last post I've decided to do a South Asian Biotope for my betta! Since bettas are from South Asia (Siamese fighting fish) I'm using plants from south Asia, and I'd like to get some shrimp, too! I want 2-4 Cherry shrimp to go with Damien.  The plants/decorations I'm going to have (so far):
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green
Java fern
Java moss
my small pile of  blue rocks (though I may add a little cave)
The blue archway (I'm not removing the blue decorations!)
The shark with a "no fishing" sign (favorite decoration!)
Piece of wood (may add more)

And I'm going to be adding more plants, I just don't know what yet! :)

Well that's it for now!

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)

Guppy trouble...

Hola, been a little while.

So current events in my tanks.
My platys, pleco, and gourami are crazy tough, and are currently living through my guppy issues.  The issues with my guppies are that they keep dying.  First Amberlyn died the day after I got her, she was going to give birth within a week I thought.  Then Damon disappeared, and I later find him in the filter intake (with an eyeball hanging out *gags*).  Then today Velvet, and Finn both disappeared! Guess where I found them... Finn was inside the intake, while Velvet was attached to the side.  After a water test I found really high nitrates, which I'll be bringing down with a big water change on Sunday.  That's probably why the males died, though the fact that they both ended up in the filter intake in the same place is weird.  The females may have died for the same reason, but with Velvet something else may have also happened.  Two weeks ago I thought she'd be giving birth any day (I've been right with all the others!) but she just kept getting bigger.  Today her stomach was literally starting to burst open, as if she held the fry too long, and they got too big.  So I''m not sure what's going on with my guppies! I hope the two today were the last two for a while...

Damien is doing very well in his new tank.  He has a few missing scales since I moved him, but on Sunday I'll do water changes in both tanks, hopefully fresh water will help him heal up faster.  He's also got algae on his beautiful sand... I'm thinking about some shrimp friends?

Other than that nothing going on in my tanks.  I did get two mice a little over a month ago, and one of the killed the other late last Tuesday night.  :( R.I.P. Ren...

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! :)

My new Gupplings

Hello there!

I haven't updated in a few months, but I'm very excited to say that my 55 Gallon tank is up and running, and now has fish in it!

My fishless cycle took about a month and a half, but I wasn't able to add fish until three weeks later.  One morning Rosalie started looking really sick, just all of a sudden, and Elena's stomach had become a weird shape.  I knew I had to get them into a bigger tank soon, but I hadn't done the big water change to get rid of extra Nitrates in the tank yet! That day I changed 75% or more of the water in my 55 Gallon tank, and it took a very long time.  This is the tank before I finished changing the water, and adding fish.  (I also added some rocks and a Java Fern that day.)

And here's the tank today a week and two days after adding fish, rocks, and Java fern.  You can sort of see some of my Guppies, and Zip on the mostly empty side of the tank.  Speaking of Guppies.

Today a friend of mine who is overrun with Guppies brought me six females, and two males! The females (Name - tail color - body color)

Velvet - Black - Half black

Yuki - Black - Half black

Amberlyn - Yellow with black spots - Tanish

Ruka - Gold - Gold

Alice - Yellow - Yellow/Transparent

Pearl - Black spots - Currently grey/Transparent, but she's a baby still! She's small enough that Zip could eat her if he wanted to.

The males

(Same as females)

Finn - Black and orange (double tail) - Half black

Niklaus (Klaus for short) - Red/Orange and black - Half red/orange.

Then there are Stefan, and Damon, which are both red.

So those are my new Gupplings :)