Shut down

Yesterday I shut down the tank.

My first experience was all in all quite good, no big problems with the fish, that clearly had priority, so the environment was chosen according to the hard water we have here in DK. Less happy with the plants. Of course, fertilizing would make the whole difference, but since I never fully got rid of diatoms I did it in really small amounts. Crypts eventually proved a decent choice.

Mangroves: same stuff, clearly suffering from low nutrients. One of the reached over 50 cm, which forced me to expand vertically the tank with a plexiglas box. Not bad at ll, if it wasn't for the fact that the archers kept it costantly dirty, by spitting all the time. But that's their job, after all. :-)

Fish given back to shop, with a voucher for next purchase. In January, a new start. Either entering the marine world, or - if that proves too complicate - a riparium-terrarium.

I cannot believe that, just by opening the blog to check how long this tank had lasted, I discovered that it was exactly 4 years: I had started the cycle on October 10, 2011! :-)

With this, I close this project. Thanks for all the visit the blog keeps receiving, it means it may be useful, to some of you.

Maurizio

Nasty archers, and sad neritinae

Well, thanks to all who've been visiting and watching, I'm glad the videos have been appreciated.

Here's another one, fresh of editing. This time it appears to be more about archers' aggressiveness than shooting ability. The reason is due to the choice of prey (crickets) and the tank setup. Crickets don't move much compared to flies, and as a result they slowly move out of their little box, when entering the tank. Therefore, the archers spend quite some time waiting below the single entry spot, and therefore they fight, with the main character clearly bullying the others. With flies it's more of a hunting experience around the tank, which avoids competition within the same spot. Also, many flies are usually available at the same time, unlike crickets, and therefore the archers spread around the tank.

I also managed to shoot some decent pics of the main male Rainbow:

What appears to have problems, instead, is the snails: after coming back from some travels, resulting in about 2-3 weeks without water changes, I saw some algae on the glass, but I assumed it was the result of the recent addition of fertilizers. Only a few days ago I realized that the snails were not eating at all, and actually they were nowhere to be seen. The only one visible one remained in the same spot, on the sand, for some three days, before I decided to check it out, and realized it was dead. I had then to physically search for the others, which were hidden in the most secluded corners of the mangrove roots, not moving. I took them all out, put them on the sand at the tank front and watched them quicly move away, and hide again. Only one spent some time on the glass, eating a bit before disappearing. What's happening? To my knowledge, no chemicals have entered the tank, except the fertilizers I've put in myself. There may be an issue with NO3 and NO2, though: the Tetra stripes say everything is fine, the liquid tests show too low values of nitrates (lower than tap water), and apparently 0.05 mg/l of NO2.

Mangrove status

About ten days ago I moved the "best" mangrove in a more shadowed area, hoping that, if the black spots on the leafs are caused by excess of light, this will reduce the impact. At the same time, I set into the ground the only root, which shows today a marked increase in diameter. I added a fragment of fertilizer tablet in the vicinity. The gem with the next two leaves is on its way, so let's hope for the best.

The second best, still without leaves after the last couple fell, is however still alive, as I can see from the roots, which have clearly taken grip in the ground, and from the tip, which, covered with the last dead cuticule, shows inside a tiny gem.

The "bad" mangrove, showing no sign of life whatsoever, and planted in the substrate as a last chance a number of weeks ago: today I dared to move the sand a bit to check the roots, and they are alive!

What is a good mangrove?

Two of the mangrove seedlings I collected in Brazil, in two different locations, are doing acceptably well. The first one exhibits a lovely crown of 6 leaves, grown very close to each other vertically, which I believe has to do with the light (too much? The plant is indeed very close to my 2x38 W 6500 K. Or too less?). The roots, however, appear underdeveloped in comparison, with one extremely long branch only, whereas all the others are likely dead. Just today I saw a new one appearing, though!.

Nice crown of leaves. Very close to each other, though, and I don't know if this implies light problems. The bad news are, the oldest starts showing black spots (clearly visible on the lowest, to the left).

 

Strange root development? One more branche spotted today!

The second one shows a great crown of roots (but only a couple are really alive), which I recently decided to have touch ground, in the hope this would help developing the leaves: these had started growing quite well initially (as I recall, a first pair, that fell soon, then a second pair, which went down even sooner, and a third, which lasted nothing), but at the moment are as below. Note that the new gem is once again darkening.

One can count at least three accrretion rings, corresponding to as many couples of leaves. Notice the distance between them, showing that the leaves came down faster and faster. The new gem is already blackening.

Video session!

An archer show in my tank, but also a show of the great opportunism of the rainbows, who are able to run to the fallen fly much faster than the archers.

 

Less action here, but I love the performance of one of the rainbow females, at 01:37, darting from the depths and able to dead-stop before hitting the surface; the following slow-motion repetition shows some details of her ability of using the fins. Enjoy! 

Photo session

It's been quite some time, so today, taking "advantage" of the pictures I had to take to document the swollen gills of one of the rainbows, and of some flies I haver just bought for the archers, I've decided it was time to take some shots. Sure enough, a movie is the only way to do them the right credit (and I will hopefully do that in the next few days, so stay tuned!), but that's what I got today.

Aiming.... But the rainbows are ready to get the prey!

Swollen gill

One of the rainbow females has had this for quite some time. I thought it was due to the little spike of nitrites I discovered weeks ago, and hoped it would heel after NO₂ would disappear, but I'm afraid it's actually worsening. Otherwise she's doing fine, and today even manage to jump first after the archers shot a fly, and got it!She kept it in her mouth for minutes, chewing it but being unable to swallow it (fortunately!), until one of the males took over when she spitted it for a second.