Fishumentaryâ„¢

Day two and all is well in the minnow tank. All 6 fish are very active which made getting a clear photo of them a bit difficult. My camera has a tough time with the bright white wall behind the tank but it does help to show off the beautiful reds and yellow-greens of their fins.

I did a small water change today and have been feeding them a combination of freeze-dried bloodworms and flake food. I swear these fish would eat all day long if they could. Every time I pass by the tank they all swarm at the surface thinking I’m there to feed them.

There has been a significant behavior improvement in the Cherry Barbs in the breeding tank. Since the additional female was added a few days ago all three fish are much more active. They’ve also started coming to the surface to feed which none of the fish had done previously, at least while I was in the room. I don’t know if the additional female will affect the chances of a spawning taking place but at least the fish appear to be more comfortable.

I did a small water change today and lowed the water level by about an inch. I have been feeding the Cherry Barbs the same combination of freeze-dried bloodworms and flake food as the White Clouds. Now that the barbs are eating at the surface I may try feeding them frozen bloodworms. I have avoided feeding them frozen bloodworms up until now because I couldn’t be sure that they would be eaten and didn’t want any leftovers to foul the water.

Since one of the two breeding tanks I have setup is now vacant I now have room to begin breeding White Cloud Mountain Minnows. White Clouds are one of my favorite community fish and based on some research they sound fairly easy to breed. I’ve added a group of six White Clouds to the available breeding tank. The plastic mesh has been removed from the bottom of the tank but everything else has been left the same. I have a hard time throwing plants away, even trimmings, so I added some Cabomba from the 55 gallon (on the right) when I couldn’t find anywhere else for it to go.

From the photo above it’s obvious that things are looking much better in the 55 gallon. I’ve been doing 25% water changes each day and the lighting has been kept at 130W. At the rate the water is clearing up it should only be a few more days before I can return to the normal water change schedule.

I removed all of the Rotala Wallichii from the Swamp tank. It didn’t appear to be dying, it just wasn’t doing as well as I had hoped. For the first couple of weeks it really took off and then for whatever reason it just stopped growing. I wasn’t too disappointed, the plant was purchased whim with no real long term expectations for it. It has been replaced with a group of Rotala Indica trimmings from the 55 gallon tank. I also added a few Ludwigia Repens trimmings to see how they do.

Just for fun the remaining Ludwigia Repens trimmings were placed in the Grass tank. The Yellow and Pink coloring of the Ludwigia contrasts beautifully with the intense greens of the Java Moss and Glossostigma.

The “Swamp” tank is undergoing some long overdue pruning. The Jungle Vallisneria had grown much too tall for this tank so I decided to trim each of the longer leaves to around 2 feet, long enough so that they still float on the surface a little. The longest leaf measured in at 6 feet from tip to gravel before being trimmed.

The heater in this tank, a 100W Rena Cal Top Light, has been replaced with a 150W Visi-Therm Stealth Heater. The Rena Cal didn’t seem to be maintaining the temperature I was after when the house cooled down at night.

The photo above shows one of the many gorgeous Von Rio Tetras that call this aquarium home.