56G Column Zenscape Deux - "Rise of the Agassizi" (56K)

[zenche]

So, my first go at a planted tank did not work out so well. First it was algae with the flora, then it was ich with the fauna. if you care to see it, it's here

this time around, i'm changing just about everything. different hardscape, flora, and fauna. the mountain idea isn't good with a column tank...requires much bigger single slab stones IMO - raising with gravel, etc, takes up too much room as you have to build a wide base, wasting space.

so with that said, here's part 2 of my aquascaping journey.

SPECS:
56 gallon column tank
30" x 18" x 24"
Fluval G6 Filter
Hydor Eth-300 heater - tank is kept at ~78F
2x Aquatic life 2x24w lights. I tend to use only one of them on the timer, and will use the second when I'm admiring the tank. the one on the timer is with a 6700K and an actinic bulb. the other one is 6700K+10000K.
substrate is mixed organic topsoil covered with regular ole' black gravel.
dosing excel, macros and micros. gonna need to get into the habit of doing the excel daily, and the nutrients every other day.

FLORA:
Rotala Colorata
Echinodorus Angustifolia
Alternanthera Reineckii
Pogostemon erectum
Java Fern
Tiger Lotus
Red Rotala macrandra
Hygrophila polysperma
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Red
Bacopa Monnieri

expected this package to come on thursday. i'm afraid USPS has struck again and they'll all be dead by the time they arrive, if they ever do will have to work something out with badren for a refund. was counting on that package to provide me with a E. Tennelus foreground

FAUNA:
i went to my first swap meet today. was quite an experience. i picked up what i pre-ordered beforehand, and picked up some juvie plecos afterwards. was too overwhelming to stay longer :P and i didn't want to tempt myself and get carried away. so all my fauna was picked up today, sans the 7 amano shrimps.

7 amano shrimps
7 apistogramma aggasizzi fire reds
25 green neons
6 L144 Blue-eye Albino Bristlenose Plecos

FOTOS:
[4/17]
FTS


Closer up


Cave constructed with 3 pieces of seiryu stones


L144 Juvies



Agassizi Juvies



as you can see, my Agassizi's are of two colorings it seems - one is much paler while the other is a nice rich yellow color.

[zenche]

reserved for photo updates

Update 5/8
I was in the area, so stopped by the LFS and as usual, couldn't walk out empty-handed. Meet the newest addition to the tank - Kohala! named after the oldest Hawaiian volcano.



Update 5/7
Couple weeks ago, a plant package I bought from badren finally showed up - USPS had lost it and it showed up 9 days later, box was beat up and marked damaged. Needless to say, most of the plants were dead. Saved about half of the E. Tennelus, and the plants (java fern?) on the driftwood survived. But both were in bad shape, and also had BBA (which goes to show, BBA must be able to grow in very low light/no light since it was in a dark box for so long, and the plants were clean when badren shipped them).

I've also since gotten my Co2 setup vs the SNS as well. Last week, picked up 13 harlequin rasbora's to add some more color to the tank, and also cuz i wanted some top water schoolers. my green neons tend to stay in coverage. Put the rasbora's in today - couldn't keep them in the quarantine tank any longer...too impatient. hope I don't regret this. they've thus far seem very happy in the big boy tank, and they also seem to energize my neons who've been swimming closer to the top all day as a result.

FTS update -


Also, looks like my Amano's are doing the wild shrimp dance. Which, isn't much of a dance...they just swam the female and they don't do much but sit atop her it seems.


You can see that the E. Tennelus is still recovering...torn and yellow bits in every plant still. BBA is still around on some leaves too, but it doesn't seem to be spreading at least.

[BradC]

All your plants look really healthy.. This will look awesome once everything grows in.

Good luck!

[zenche]

and yes, when they mature, i will be naming the agassizi. and one of them will be "Andre Agassizi" :p

thanks Brad. They should be healthy, just got half of them today from the swap :P

[daverock1337]

subscribed. very nice looking plants. let me know what you find out about the apistos lol

[zenche]

hey dave, looks like they're a match with these 'fire reds' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXiqFY-jbc

my fear right now is that all 7 of mine are females

[daverock1337]

i believe you are correct. my agassizi is either a double red or a super red (not sure of the difference if there is one), not a fire red, which is why they were not yellow as juvies. i hope it turns out you have a male, they can be hard to figure out when they are small. but it shouldn't take too long for them to show.

i may be getting some agasizzi's in about two to three weeks. they may not be fire reds, probably just double reds like mine. i'll probably set up a small tank to raise them in and when i can sex them i will take 2 females and possibly one more male (especially if they are a different variation) and the rest will go to a local fish store.

but if they are fire reds and i have males (don't know what a double red male and fire red female would do) i would be glad to send one to you for the cost of shipping.

i'm going to find out about mixing the variations right now lol.

[zenche]

thanks! we'll keep each other updated with how our agassizis do i'm pretty sure they will mate with each other re: double + fires. would be interesting to see what the offspring look like.

[daverock1337]

from what i have read agasizzi's have all the color variation genes. it said some of them won;t mate with ones that don;t look like they do, but a lot of them will interbreed, with a possibility to get either one or the other variation, with a slight chance to get a completely different one. not sure how much of it i understood correctly, i'm not so up to date on genetics lol.

[zenche]

wow, that would be interesting if you got that right. to get a complete different one would be crazy..male: "wtf? you don't look like my son...damn woman's been sleeping around!"

[rj55021]

Have you had luck in repro your Appistos?

[zenche]

haven't even been able to accurately sex all of them yet, so no, no breeding yet.

also...i swear..sometimes i count 8 of them.....

[rj55021]

Cool,

I just returned from my favorite fish store in Montreal, aquariusweb.qc.ca, with a couple of triple red. So happy
But I was so excited to have them then I forgot to buy the food for them . I do have have some flakes for betta, and I believe wont be the best food source for them, and reading some articles I am decided to do a brine shrimp diet for them.
What do you think??

What do you feed your Apisto ???

Thanks

[zenche]

i feed them a mix of things. two types of high protein flakes, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen blood worms.

take pics of yours? would love to see your males :P

[rj55021]

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