The fishy room.

I cannot believe how long it has been. At this pace, my next update will be in December 2022.

So let us start. I had a lot of success on breeding Danios, was a very interesting experience. I raised a few and now this week I will breed again to get new blood into the bloodline. Will document it if you will be interested.

The dwarf gourami bred and I got 15 adults without any assistance from me. Was very interesting to see how it took place. I got a new female and put her in with one of my males and within 2 day a new bubbles nest started to form. I am leaving them to see what will happen.

My RCS population just exploded… I have them everywhere without knowing it lol. I have 2 x1.5 meter tanks just for them at this stage and I did an experiment and left a 150 liter tub outside with Hornwort, added 10 shrimps this happened in April. I did forget about them and when I checked they made it through the winter , just to say once again I do live in Rustenburg and the tub gets sun 5-6 hours a day .Will also update once I move them to me new project.

I have a few projects running at once at this stage, the most imported one, is one did a lot of people has done before with success and with huge disappointment also. I used organic potting soil for a planted tank. I saw this has been discuses on the form several times and I tested it out as I always wondered.

I took a 1.2 meter and prepped the soil and added it to the tank, I did cap it off with sand. I planted my plants ( home grown), I used my amazon as it is making runners like crazy, at this stage and put 10 of them inside the 1.2 meter I also added normal vallis, about 10 plants also. The tank itself is next to my window in the fish room and get a lot of natural sunlight. So one will think natural sunlight with potting soil equals and algae bloom of doom… Therefore, I put up the tank fill it up and waited, I added Hornwort to suck up as much nutrients at the beginning as it can. After 1 month the vallis just exploded, the rate of growth is something I never saw before, at this stage I did see some algae starting to form on the glass but it was expected, I continued with water changes and all my parameters stayed in check without any issues. I added RCS, Neon’s, and the dwarf gourami’s. The Gourami’s are spawning now and the tank has been running for 3 month and the entire tank is covered with vallis and the amazon is just growing like made. It was such a success that I am now doing 2 x 1,8 meters with potting soil .The first one has been planted and filled and the next one will be planted this week. This one I will document as I did not document the other 2. Also I did not have any Algae blooms, looks like the shrimps is also assisting in this area.

Lastly, my main tank in the house, my discus, my black marble angels and my altum angels all bred within a month so it was chaos in the 1.8. I had to remove the altum angels and manage to raise a few fry and then I lost them except one due to a heater fault. Sit have the pair in a breeding tank. The black marble raised 35 inside the 1.8 with all the fish around them on their first go, the discus were not so lucky due to the marble angel male being a beast in protecting his young and eating others.

That is the update for now. Will try to add more photos this week.

 

The Babies in the 1.8.

The size om my Amazon Sword leaves, it has two runners at this stage.

The bubble nest in the Potting soil tank.

The main tank, looks like a different tank from the one i posted a few months ago. The beast male will be on the right side of the photo.


A bad photo but the only one i have for the potting soil tank from the side. This was after 1 and pit month.

 

It has been a while.

It felt like I never left, I managed to keep one eye on the forums every now and again. The amount of progress that is being made by the members here is just inspiring.

My last update was in Aug 9 2020. A lot have changed in this time.

It is just insane how much one can learn as you continue with this hobby.

A few things that I have done since I was gone.

· Raised all my angel fish and sold a few also, gave a few away. I am left with about 20 still. Looking super in my 1.8m comminity tank. The size of fully-grown angels is something to behold.

· I lost my female blue discus, I had them for a while and knew the time was close for her. The male is still a beast and living his life in the community tank. Discus can be super chill fish.

· I sold almost all my fish in the fish room and only kept a few. At the Hight of the fish room I had 80+ corrys, 60 bristlenose, to many convicts to sell and gave them all away to loving homes. More shrimp then one can have in a life time. Plants everywhere and still have hornwort everywhere (I think one cannot destroy this plant, I have buckets of them and gave large amounts away, still have 2 500l tubs full)

· I build a proper pond and filtration, tried to breed Comets. I was able to unlock the achievement and then once again had to give them away as I just had to much of them (still do). I still have all my breeding pairs. Added Japanese Koi to my pond. Saw how a few died unfortnilty. Resolved the issue and still have 1 left with 3 random koi’s and like 30 huge comets.

· Bred some angles again. Bred gourmis in tubs. Bred danios and had a large number of them for a while. Bred minnows, guppys, cherry barb tetras, neon tetras, and shrimps in tubs and a few pearl danios.

· Learned few new ticks, especially for pond breeding and the correct plant to make it just easier.

· Then I shut down all my tanks. I only have a few bristlenose, 10 guppys, swordtails, mollies, a few neon’s, platies, 6 pearl danios and a few shrimps left.

But after all of this I am ready to go fullout again. I have started to condition my fish and moved them around to prep my other tanks. Looking to do a proper job from the beginning and to take my time for conditioning of the fish. Also, looking for new species to breed and to assist where I can. Also looking to changing the layout of the fish room again. So, a few things again. I will keep this thread going again.

 

How exciting, following along