Among my mangroves



Yawn!!



Diatoms everywhere...

The diatoms are blooming at high rate now. In 48 hours after every water change, they're again covering a large part of the bottom, and some spots on the glass.

It's strange how almost everybody on the net says diatoms need low light, and recommend to increase the lighting period to control them; but my experience here is that they grow almost only under direct light: all spots under the roots are clear. So, I keep my lighting period at 8 h/day.

The main problem for me is that they're heavily affecting the plants: both Ceratophyllum and Java moss are badly covered with this brown mold, and clearly appear to suffer from that. Particularly the moss, all its new "stems" grow vertically towards the light, but without "leaves", since they get covered by the diatoms.

I can't find in town a test for silicates, which are usually considered one of the sources of diatom blooms, so I'll have to order online. For the time being, I got 8 Neritina Natalensis, and they got at work immediately. 50% water change yesterday, and plant pruning; let's see what happens.

I'm considering adding some fertilizer to try and help the plants...

Here they are!

Parambassis ranga!

Yesterday the Indian Glassfish arrived. Geez, they're ssssmall!! About two cm total length. I believe they'd comfortably fit in the archers' mouth, so I bought a hatchery to keep them separated, as long as I can. I also bought an Amano shrimp, with not much hope to see it surviving: just wanted to be sure that this option is a no go, with the archers around. Unfortunately, after setting them in yesterday evening, being at work today I couldn't witness how exactly the archers welcomed the new guy. Sure enough, I cannot find him this evening in the tank... :-(

Took some decent pictures, but they need postprocessing before being posted. Tomorrow, I guess.

A suicidal cricket

I'm experimenting the best ways to enter the crickets in the tank.

Today the first attempt of recording a movie simply didn't succeed due to the speed of fishes in knocking down the insect. The second trial actually featured a suicidal cricket, which was reasonably tired of my way of treating its kind, and decided to accelerate its own demise:

Feeding experience

Sorted by achieved success so far:

1. Shrimp By far the best choice. The archers just get totally crazy with shrimp. The attempt of sticking tiny pieces to the glass to have the fishes spit was a great success, at least with two of them. The Shy as usual has no idea of how to catch his own food, so he stays lower and grabs the leftovers. If any...

2. Bloodworms Same kind of reaction to this delicacy: frenzily going at it.

3. Multifit natural food for water turtles is a mix of tiny dried shrimp and crustaceans. So far the only readily accepted dry food. They go for it, but not with particular enthusiasm... I counted on this for my one-week Xmas vacation, but I'll surely have to find something more suitable. It makes them shit white! :-)

4. Tetra Cichlid Sticks Hardly seen as food. These sticks are just too big. It helps breaking them in small pieces, but still they won't be eaten for hours. When the fishes realize that nothing else is coming, and the sticks are eventually soft enough, then they are tasted and eventually enjoyed.

5. Hikari Cichlid Gold strongly recommended by others having the same fishes. Totally ignored so far. But again, I should give them probably a second chance, and keep them in the water for a few hours.

In another category stand crickets. I tried to buy them as small as possible, they're max 1 cm, and yet big enough for my juvenile T. Microlepis. A big success in terms of spitting behaviour, when I manage to introduce one in the tank and have it grab and stay among the aerial leaves: then the hunt is open, and it's better than going to cinema! As soon as I can I'll post some videos. I still have to figure out an easy way to introduce the critters and have them reach the leaves, since that the tank is covered.
The backside is, these creatures smell quite a bit, they do need some care (I managed to loose already 3-4 out of 20 in two days, not sure what's missing...), and frankly handling them is not far from having a little cockroach between your fingers, so all in all not the most pleasant feeling I ever had. Geez, I'm getting old....

My first algae

Just back from Xmas holidays, not sure the feeder worked fully all time. It was filled with dry little shrimp. The fishes appeared very happy to be treated with a cube of bloodworms.

Found also my first algae. They should be diatoms, in a few spots on the glass and the sand. I cleaned the glass and vacuumed the sand. As soon as I can, I'll get the planned Neritinae.

Chemistry appears in order, pH around 7.8. Changed 60 l of water, and added the usual 3.5 g/l of marine salts. With next addition I should reach SG 1.001, which is halfway to final density. After water change, NO3 at 50 mg/l.

The aerial plants are suffering from lack of ventilation, so far the two smallest Tillandsiae didn't make it. Also, the largest orchid lost all its flower stems, which were growing steadily before moving it into the tank. I've also removed the mangrove seedlings, not in good conditions from the time of collection in Brazil: they got covered with mold, and then started rotting. Hopefully I'll get better specimens next time, perhaps in a few weeks.

Mold on the mangroves propagulae and (wooden!) supporting sticks.