My freshwater planted nano tank project
Discussion
They look like the females of the most common species round here, the males being bright blue.
http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/species/comm...
http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/species/comm...
I've received my fish!
The shrimps are also nice and active, and there are in fact 9 of them.
Unfortunately the chili rasboras have not traveled at all well. All but 2 are completely torpid and stiff, not moving at all and look well on the way to being dead.
I am floating their bag and have put an air stone in there as well - the six torpid ones are swirling around in the water flow, but only 2 of the fish are actually swimming. I've tested their water, and there's no ammonia or nitrite although the nitrate is about 100 mg/l, which is very high indeed. The pH is at least 7.5, which is very much not ideal. I fear the shock of the change to my tank water (20 mg/l nitrate, pH 6.5) might finish off even the 2 that are swimming.
I will give them until later this afternoon, and then contact the fish shop. I'm inclined to drive up there tomorrow to collect my replacements rather than subject them to an overnight courier journey - I can get them home in less than three hours. I'll probably fish out the two good ones and release them, but keep floating the bag overnight with the air stone in it in case there's a miracle and some of the others do revive.
My first experience of live fish by mail order has not been especially great.
- 8 chili rasbora (Boraras brigittae)
- 8 blue phantom cherry shrimp
- 3 otocinclus (not sure which species, they might be macrospilus but not sure)
The shrimps are also nice and active, and there are in fact 9 of them.
Unfortunately the chili rasboras have not traveled at all well. All but 2 are completely torpid and stiff, not moving at all and look well on the way to being dead.
I am floating their bag and have put an air stone in there as well - the six torpid ones are swirling around in the water flow, but only 2 of the fish are actually swimming. I've tested their water, and there's no ammonia or nitrite although the nitrate is about 100 mg/l, which is very high indeed. The pH is at least 7.5, which is very much not ideal. I fear the shock of the change to my tank water (20 mg/l nitrate, pH 6.5) might finish off even the 2 that are swimming.I will give them until later this afternoon, and then contact the fish shop. I'm inclined to drive up there tomorrow to collect my replacements rather than subject them to an overnight courier journey - I can get them home in less than three hours. I'll probably fish out the two good ones and release them, but keep floating the bag overnight with the air stone in it in case there's a miracle and some of the others do revive.
My first experience of live fish by mail order has not been especially great.
Some pictures. Apologies for the poor focus - I think I might need to treat myself to a proper digital camera when I get myself a new job!
Shrimp on wood...
Oto and shrimp...
A shrimp takes a stroll through the oxygen bubbles exuded by the Hemianthus. Hopefully they'll eat some of the brownish cotton-wool algae (a filamentous diatom called Synedra, I believe, and a common bloom in new tanks)...
I gave up on the chili rasboras and flushed them away. There were no signs of life by late afternoon. Unfortunately the shop is now out-of-stock, and I can't find anywhere else with them.
The one survivor is patrolling the tank and has been eating, so that's a good sign.
Shrimp on wood...
Oto and shrimp...
A shrimp takes a stroll through the oxygen bubbles exuded by the Hemianthus. Hopefully they'll eat some of the brownish cotton-wool algae (a filamentous diatom called Synedra, I believe, and a common bloom in new tanks)...
I gave up on the chili rasboras and flushed them away. There were no signs of life by late afternoon. Unfortunately the shop is now out-of-stock, and I can't find anywhere else with them.
The one survivor is patrolling the tank and has been eating, so that's a good sign.
Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Saturday 9th January 09:12
Love the oto and shrimp photo!
I would have thought the weather is too cold to post tropical fish. Surely they must have been subjected to near freezing temperatures being in transport Thursday night. I scraped ice off my car Friday morning.
I bought some marbled hatchet fish from the same place as you got your Chili Rasboras from. I collected mine as it is only an hour and a half drive from where I live. My tank came down with ich a few days later and I lost half my fish. On the other hand, the Practical Fishkeeping website says "wild hatchet fish are known for being carriers of many pathogens and one study of wild collections found a 100% infection rate in fish". So I don't know how much blame I can place on the shop.
If you go on to google maps and zoom out to encompass say, the whole of the M25 and a little of the surrounding area, type in "aquarium shop" you will find loads of shops you can phone to see if they have any Chilis in stock. I think I may have spotted some in Wetpets in Romford last week, but I'm not sure.
I would have thought the weather is too cold to post tropical fish. Surely they must have been subjected to near freezing temperatures being in transport Thursday night. I scraped ice off my car Friday morning.
I bought some marbled hatchet fish from the same place as you got your Chili Rasboras from. I collected mine as it is only an hour and a half drive from where I live. My tank came down with ich a few days later and I lost half my fish. On the other hand, the Practical Fishkeeping website says "wild hatchet fish are known for being carriers of many pathogens and one study of wild collections found a 100% infection rate in fish". So I don't know how much blame I can place on the shop.
If you go on to google maps and zoom out to encompass say, the whole of the M25 and a little of the surrounding area, type in "aquarium shop" you will find loads of shops you can phone to see if they have any Chilis in stock. I think I may have spotted some in Wetpets in Romford last week, but I'm not sure.
AlexC1981 said:
Love the oto and shrimp photo!
It's the only one that's properly in focus! 
I may well have a phone round on Monday to see if I can find some chilli rasboras reasonably nearby. I found a mail order supplier in Guildford that claims to have them, but I'm sceptical because the accompanying picture is of Boraras merah (Phoenix rasbora), which is similar but not quite as intensely coloured. I've emailed to ask if I can take a look before I buy, because I'm in Woking so it would be easy to collect. Mind you, the one surviving chilli rasbora might learn to shoal with some Phoenix rasboras, in the same way that Corydoras shoal in mixed-species groups even in the wild.
The shrimps are great fun. You can see their front legs/pincers doing a constant little dance when they're standing on something, presumably picking up little fragments of potential food and shovelling it into their mouth. When they swim, their back legs beat the water for propulsion - but they also do random, explosive jumping movements. Lord knows how they can leap so suddenly through the water - how do they overcome water reisistance? One of them seems a little more reclusive and may be carrying eggs, so maybe I'll soon have more than nine, which would be good.
Good recommendation! I went today, and it's a great little shop. No chilli rasboras, though.
I called into a shop in Knaphill on the way home. Likewise, no chilli rasboras, so I consoled myself by buying this rather cool bamboo shrimp instead. It's quite elusive so this is the best picture I can manage...
I called into a shop in Knaphill on the way home. Likewise, no chilli rasboras, so I consoled myself by buying this rather cool bamboo shrimp instead. It's quite elusive so this is the best picture I can manage...
Yay!! I found a shop with chilli rasboras.
I did a search for mail-order suppliers, and found Sweet Knowle Aquatics, whose site said that they had chillies in stock. They're up near Stratford-Upon-Avon, so a bit of a trek for me but not as bad as Ipswich.
Now, I've visited hundreds of fish shops over the last three decades, but this one has a real wow factor. The fish are without doubt the highest quality aquarium fish I've ever seen on sale, by a country mile. Every tank looks healthy, and amongst the first fish to catch my eye were the best-quality blue Rams I have ever seen on sale. Further down the line were the biggest, healthiest-looking cardinals I've ever seen on sale. I believe it was feeding time, because when I stepped into the room housing the African cichlids and stood in front of some tanks, the fish went absolutely berserk - the water boiling with fish trying to elbow each other out of the way for the best spot to grab the food they thought they were about to receive. I have never seen such energy and vitality in fish-shop specimens. Every fish in every tank looked "right".
About the only criticism is that they don't really have any freshwater crustaceans to speak of, and it didn't strike me as having much marine either (but I wasn't really looking for that, so perhaps I simply failed to notice). But for freshwater tropical fish, this place is hard to beat on quality and value for money. They also had some big specimen fish on display that looked very healthy and active.
Seriously, this place is worth a visit. It's in the middle of nowhere on a farm. If you navigate to the post code you have to look out for their brown tourist attraction sign, then follow the signs through the farm. Beware the gang of Guinea fowl that will mob your car!
I'll try to take a picture of my new shoal of chilli rasboras when I've acclimatised and released them. I went for just six; I can always add more if necessary - they must have had a hundred or more.
If you live anywhere within 100 miles, this place is worth a visit: Sweet Knowle Aquatics CV37 8NR.
Slightly oddly, they're closed on Saturdays.
I did a search for mail-order suppliers, and found Sweet Knowle Aquatics, whose site said that they had chillies in stock. They're up near Stratford-Upon-Avon, so a bit of a trek for me but not as bad as Ipswich.
Now, I've visited hundreds of fish shops over the last three decades, but this one has a real wow factor. The fish are without doubt the highest quality aquarium fish I've ever seen on sale, by a country mile. Every tank looks healthy, and amongst the first fish to catch my eye were the best-quality blue Rams I have ever seen on sale. Further down the line were the biggest, healthiest-looking cardinals I've ever seen on sale. I believe it was feeding time, because when I stepped into the room housing the African cichlids and stood in front of some tanks, the fish went absolutely berserk - the water boiling with fish trying to elbow each other out of the way for the best spot to grab the food they thought they were about to receive. I have never seen such energy and vitality in fish-shop specimens. Every fish in every tank looked "right".
About the only criticism is that they don't really have any freshwater crustaceans to speak of, and it didn't strike me as having much marine either (but I wasn't really looking for that, so perhaps I simply failed to notice). But for freshwater tropical fish, this place is hard to beat on quality and value for money. They also had some big specimen fish on display that looked very healthy and active.
Seriously, this place is worth a visit. It's in the middle of nowhere on a farm. If you navigate to the post code you have to look out for their brown tourist attraction sign, then follow the signs through the farm. Beware the gang of Guinea fowl that will mob your car!
I'll try to take a picture of my new shoal of chilli rasboras when I've acclimatised and released them. I went for just six; I can always add more if necessary - they must have had a hundred or more.
If you live anywhere within 100 miles, this place is worth a visit: Sweet Knowle Aquatics CV37 8NR.
Slightly oddly, they're closed on Saturdays.
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
I believe it was feeding time, because when I stepped into the room housing the African cichlids and stood in front of some tanks, the fish went absolutely berserk - the water boiling with fish trying to elbow each other out of the way for the best spot to grab the food they thought they were about to receive.
They all do that sir.... 
I only have to get up off the sofa and my lot are in frenzy mode.
Glad you got the new fish sorted.
Turn7 said:
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
I believe it was feeding time, because when I stepped into the room housing the African cichlids and stood in front of some tanks, the fish went absolutely berserk - the water boiling with fish trying to elbow each other out of the way for the best spot to grab the food they thought they were about to receive.
They all do that sir.... I only have to get up off the sofa and my lot are in frenzy mode.
Glad you got the new fish sorted.
I decided the tank needed more shrimps, so I took a trip to Sharnbrook Shrimps to get some more. So I've added a dozen of these guys:
They're much better genetic quality than the first batch - these ones are all uniformly blue.
An algae wafer prompted an Otocinclus feeding frenzy, and the shrimp seem to like it too:
They're much better genetic quality than the first batch - these ones are all uniformly blue.
An algae wafer prompted an Otocinclus feeding frenzy, and the shrimp seem to like it too:
It has been a while since I updated this thread. Here's what the tank is currently looking like:
I'm very pleased with how the carpet plants (HC foreground left, and Glossostigma foreground right) have filled in and become established.
Since the last update I've added a dozen more chilli rasboras, although they're rather camera-shy in the above picture. I've had problems with them being rather nervous, and I felt that a larger group might solve the problem. The tank seems to be coping with the extra bioload without issues. You can see that I've allowed the hornwort to grow a lot in order to provide some surface cover. I also at one stage experimented with making 'decoy' fish out of pieces of red neoprene rubber - I think I may need psychiatric help:
Here are the chillies looking a bit more gregarious:
And judging by his colour, this guy has obviously decided he's the dominant male:
I have also added an LED controller, which allows me to limit the overall brightness of the lights and to ramp them up and down at the ends of the photoperiod. And I have incorporated a temperature controller to act as a second line of defence in case my rather over-powered 200W inline heater should fail in the "on" state. Here's what it's looking like underneath the tank now (yes, it is a faintly ridiculous amount of technology for a silly little tank):
I'm not sure whether I've lost some shrimps, or whether they're just very elusive. There are, however, at least two 'pregnant' females carrying eggs, and I'm sure I've seen a baby as well. Here's a female carrying eggs (the green mass underneath her abdomen):
And finally, the Otocinclus are doing great. My only worry about putting three of them in such a small tank is whether they'd get enough food, but their plump bellies belie that concern. So here they are in close formation, the world-famous Otocinclus display team - "The Red Otos"...
Edited to add: In some of my earlier pictures, you can see that the tank was suffering a bloom of brown cotton wool algae. That has now packed its bags and disappeared entirely, at around the same time that I started dosing plant fertiliser much more generously. I'm using TNC Complete, and I was dosing 2 ml every week - but I'm now dosing 1 ml every day to give an approximation of EI dosing. The lack of algae under this regime is extraordinary, and really buries the old-skool thinking that algae are caused by excessive nutrients.
Edited again: I'm actually thinking of applying EI-like dosing principles to my garden wildlife pond. The plants there are mostly emersed, so have as much CO₂ as they want - so they're probably nutrient limited and will grow much more strongly if I give a high dose of nutrients. This, I reckon, will keep the algae at bay despite traditional thinking that algae is caused by nutrients. I now believe that algae is prevented by nutrients and strong plant growth.
I'm very pleased with how the carpet plants (HC foreground left, and Glossostigma foreground right) have filled in and become established.
Since the last update I've added a dozen more chilli rasboras, although they're rather camera-shy in the above picture. I've had problems with them being rather nervous, and I felt that a larger group might solve the problem. The tank seems to be coping with the extra bioload without issues. You can see that I've allowed the hornwort to grow a lot in order to provide some surface cover. I also at one stage experimented with making 'decoy' fish out of pieces of red neoprene rubber - I think I may need psychiatric help:
Here are the chillies looking a bit more gregarious:
And judging by his colour, this guy has obviously decided he's the dominant male:
I have also added an LED controller, which allows me to limit the overall brightness of the lights and to ramp them up and down at the ends of the photoperiod. And I have incorporated a temperature controller to act as a second line of defence in case my rather over-powered 200W inline heater should fail in the "on" state. Here's what it's looking like underneath the tank now (yes, it is a faintly ridiculous amount of technology for a silly little tank):
I'm not sure whether I've lost some shrimps, or whether they're just very elusive. There are, however, at least two 'pregnant' females carrying eggs, and I'm sure I've seen a baby as well. Here's a female carrying eggs (the green mass underneath her abdomen):
And finally, the Otocinclus are doing great. My only worry about putting three of them in such a small tank is whether they'd get enough food, but their plump bellies belie that concern. So here they are in close formation, the world-famous Otocinclus display team - "The Red Otos"...
Edited to add: In some of my earlier pictures, you can see that the tank was suffering a bloom of brown cotton wool algae. That has now packed its bags and disappeared entirely, at around the same time that I started dosing plant fertiliser much more generously. I'm using TNC Complete, and I was dosing 2 ml every week - but I'm now dosing 1 ml every day to give an approximation of EI dosing. The lack of algae under this regime is extraordinary, and really buries the old-skool thinking that algae are caused by excessive nutrients.
Edited again: I'm actually thinking of applying EI-like dosing principles to my garden wildlife pond. The plants there are mostly emersed, so have as much CO₂ as they want - so they're probably nutrient limited and will grow much more strongly if I give a high dose of nutrients. This, I reckon, will keep the algae at bay despite traditional thinking that algae is caused by nutrients. I now believe that algae is prevented by nutrients and strong plant growth.
Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Friday 19th February 17:47
Alas, out of the eight chilli rasboras I ordered, six were virtually dead on arrival and could not be revived. One was slightly better but still didn't make it. One survived. I couldn't work out what had killed them: ammonia and nitrite were both zero in their water; nitrate was very high but that wouldn't have killed them if they were acclimatised to it; maybe it was the cold temperature during the night they were shipped. The shrimps and otocinclus in the same shipment were in great shape and are still doing well after six weeks or so. So my experience of fish by mail order has been mixed! I did get a full refund for the chillies though.
My not-so-nano freshwater planted tank - I've moved the cichlids out of the Vision 260, and decided to set it up as a planted tank. I have a small planted cube with CO2 which I have allowed to get very overgrown to provide some plants. I've transferred the CO2 system (fire extinguisher, regulator, solenoid, diffuser) to the new system and harvested a good bucketful of Java moss to tie to the bogwood and an anubias which still needs positioning properly. Still some stuff I want in the other tank, and then it's a shopping trip for more plants. I've replaced the Juwel's own lighting with an LED Arcadia Classica over tank luminaire, which seems to put out enough light for such a deep tank. My drop tester is staying resolutely blue, however much I crank up the CO2, so I've got an inline CO2 reactor arriving today.
Once I've got it established, I'm going for amano shrimp and otocinclus for algae control and then a mixture of South East Asian species - glass catfish, rainbowfish, barbs, perhaps some botia species or gouramis.
Once I've got it established, I'm going for amano shrimp and otocinclus for algae control and then a mixture of South East Asian species - glass catfish, rainbowfish, barbs, perhaps some botia species or gouramis.
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