A rather large Oto has been added to the swamp tank family from one the “garden” tanks I keep in the basement for growing additional plants.
6 Von Rio (Flame) Tetras have also been added.
Prior to above additions I discovered that the largest (and oldest) of my female Albino Corys had died. I’ve had her for several years and she was the mother of almost all of the other Albino Corys I have.
I started adding Seachem Flourish once a week after each water change. I’m curious to see if it makes any noticable difference.
As much as I liked the look of the sand in this tank, it had to go. The corys were doing a bit too much landscaping of their own as they foraged for food. The Java Moss that lined the border between the sand and Eco Complete substrate was also growing out of control. So, it was time for a cory-proof overhaul.
The seemingly impossible task of removing the sand, plants, rocks, and driftwood without disturbing the rest of the substrate turned out to be quite simple, thanks to a simple syphon.
The first step was to syphon out every last bit of sand. Fortunately I had used large river rocks along the seperation of the substrates to keep the mounds of Eco Complete from sliding down on top of the sand. This minimized the amount of substrate that was removed with the sand.
All of the plants were then removed as well as the two large pieces of driftwood. The existing Java Moss that was tied to the driftwood was removed and discarded due to some algae growth. I have more Java Moss than I know what to do with so it made sense to start over with fresh, algae-free moss when the driftwood pieces were returned to the tank.
The void left by removing the sand was replaced with more Eco Complete.
The majority of the existing plants were discarded. The Sag. grew much too fast and occupied far too much of the ground for the number of corys I had swimming around in there. The primary goal of this overhaul was to make the layout more cory-friendly by providing more swimming room and more hiding/shady places for them to rest.
Plants:
Amazon Sword (Echinodorus amazonicus)
Ozelot Amazon Sword (Echinodorus x. ‘Ozelot’)
Cryp. Wendtii “Bronze”
Cryp. Wendtii “Green”
Dwarf Hairgrass
Java Moss
Java Fern
Rotala Wallichii - Added 11/06/06
Rotala Magenta - Added 11/05/06
Glossostigma
Jungle Val.
Sag. Subulata
The photo above was taken shortly after the existing plants I had for this tank were added. The Albino Corys (back left) were not pleased with all the disruptions.
At this point the tank is starting to fill in. The Hairgrass has been planted along with some Glosso in the front. The Whorly Rotala (Rotala Wallichii) can also be seen in the background. The glass is in desperate need of some Windex.
