Eva's Aquariums

End-of-month

evasakvarier — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:11:44 +0000

Since I’ve recently started up with keeping aquariums again, a lot has happened in December. I started up a 128 l for my Flagcichlids, started up a 63 l for a group of glass catfish (tank and fish both sort of impulse buys), started up a small 32 l with shell dwellers for my desktop (they need to move soon now that they’ve spawned). And last but not least, I’ve started to research Diana Walstad’s method of using soil in the aquarium. So far I’ve set up a small 15 l in my window sill and now a 63 l as well. Her book Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist is highly recommended, also if you are ‘only’ interested in aquarium plant biology and chemistry on a more general level.
A couple of Walstad links:
Setting up a Walstad Natural Planted Tank. By Betty Harris
125 gallon Walstad Natural Planted Tank
Aquatic Plant Central – El Natural Forum

Fry!

evasakvarier — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:46:14 +0000

… in the ‘multi’ tank (Neolamprologus multifasciatus). Two females with fry. I hope some survive, as I don’t have appropriate food for them at the moment. They’ll certainly spawn again, so I’m not too worried

New inhabitant

evasakvarier — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:44:06 +0000

I’ve gotten a new inhabitant for the tank with the glass catfishes, a Dwarf Gourami, (Colisa lalia) var. “powder blue”. I felt the tank needed ‘something’ beside the catfishes, but not too much. This one is perfect. Gives more activity and colour wothout stealing the show completely.

New fish

evasakvarier — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:46:50 +0000

I picked up eight Rasbora maculata Saturday. They’re small. Less hy than expected, and luckily they take flake food. I’m going to start up a dafnia culture after Christmas though. I’m sure the other fish will like that, too.

I’ve been looking for Jordanella floridae (American-flag fish) for some time (it’s rare here), and Sunday I got a tip that they had them in another city – not too far away. So today I made the trip and picked up eleven (5.6). And they even had three wild- type guppies, which I’ve been looking a little for. One male, one female, and one that is so far indeterminate. They’re all young and only just about sexually mature, so I guess the third one may still go either way…

First picture of the flagfish – after five minutes, they started working on the brown algae.

New shells and another moving day

evasakvarier — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:44:10 +0000

Yesterday, I finally picked up the package with the 33 Neothauma shells I’d bought for the Tanganyika shell-dweller aquarium. They look great (photo to come), and with a little shifting back and forth, I got all but one of the old shells out of the aquarium without the fish. The last one still has a squatter that guards it and it’ll have to come out at a later date.

Then I moved the White Clouds to the 63 l, as I’ve bought a small group of Rasbora maculata that needs their old aquarium – I’m picking them up tomorrow. I think it was high time, I moved the White Clouds, their old aquarium really was too small and it’ll fit the rasboras much better.

Finally, I bought a few Limnobium laevigatum – a small, floating plant. Put them in three different tanks – now I hope they’ll like the conditions in at least one of them

New light

evasakvarier — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:16:32 +0000

Got new flouroscent strips, 18 W, as replacement for the old ones I had lying around. I bought Philips TLD 84, as I prefer the colour (4000 K). Not too blue or yellow.

Water change

evasakvarier — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:14:15 +0000

128 l: 40 l
63 l: 10 l
32 l: 5 l
32 l tan: 10 l

Moving day

evasakvarier — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:26:09 +0000

Yesterday was moving day for both the Glass catfish – which were moving into their own tank (63 l) – and the Flag cichlids then moved into the 128l, which is my ‘new’ South America tank.

Water change

evasakvarier — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:55:36 +0000

32 l: 10 l
32 l tan: 10 l
63 l: 20 l cold (not icy)
128 l: 30 l cold

Temp. in both 63 og 128 fell from 24/25 to 22 C

Hungry fish!

evasakvarier — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:29:16 +0000

I started to move some decoration from the 90 l into the 128 l tank Thursday, and yesterday I moved the Flag cichlids as well. Apparently they needed their veggies, because several of the plants had gotten quite new edges and holes in them by this morning Now I’ve given them a couple of plant chips to nibble on, but perhaps I should consider making salad a part of their diet.