55 Gallon Blackwater

[Lfisher]

Some updates of the tank after adding crypts and larger duckweed from my 33 gallon (sorry about the water line). I also pretty excited, I just sold a bunch of plants from that same tank and made my first profit from this hobby ever!



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[Neatfish]

Pretty cool. The fish look like cardinals not neons

[Lfisher]

Originally Posted by Neatfish

Pretty cool. The fish look like cardinals not neons

Thanks ! The fish are Paracheirodon simulans, but my lfs calls them green neons.

[kwheeler91]

Young neons have bright colors like cardinals that fade a little as they grow.

Good job on this! I like the spotlight effect on both sides of the tank.

Do you plan getting any swords or other SA plants to go full out biotope?
Or maybe asian fish to go with the asian plants instead of neons?

[A.D.D.i.c.t.]

Love the wood pieces! Great effect with them. Planning to add any moss to grow on them?

the addiction continues...

[Lfisher]

Originally Posted by kwheeler91

Young neons have bright colors like cardinals that fade a little as they grow.

Good job on this! I like the spotlight effect on both sides of the tank.

Do you plan getting any swords or other SA plants to go full out biotope?
Or maybe asian fish to go with the asian plants instead of neons?

Thanks a lot! I guess in my mind I did picture this being sort of SA biotope, (I even had a moment, in my planting bliss, where I thought that crypts were native to SA.. Thanks for bursting my bubble! :P). I have such an abundance though, and they do so well in low light that it's hard not to use them.. I was also toying with the idea of keeping Sphaerichthys osphromenoides, so that would kind of defeat the idea of keeping it to one location.
Just for my own reference, the current stock list is:
Plants:
Heteranthera zosterifolia
Aponogeton natans
Nufar stellata (came attached with the a. natans)
Cryptocoryne (not sure which species)
Mix of large & small duckweed

Fish:
6 ramshorn snails
6 Corydoras habrosus
10 Paracheirodon simulans
*considering*
6 Nannostomus rubrocaudatus
6 Poecilocharax weitzmani
6 Sphaerichthys osphromenoides
1-2 Bunocephalus coracoideus
Some undecided smaller SA pleco

(thinking about adding Eleocharis acicularis)

[Lfisher]

Originally Posted by A.D.D.i.c.t.

Love the wood pieces! Great effect with them. Planning to add any moss to grow on them?

the addiction continues...

Thank you! I'm starting to think I should get more branches like these for my next tank
I do have some xmas moss that I've been wanting to use, but I kind of like the look of the wood as it is now... On the other hand we just got back from a drive up through the Mt Baker National Forest (which has AMAZING mossy trees) and now I'm thinking about setting up a new tank to imitate that landscape.

[izabella87]

superbe set-up, I like how you chose to make a specific type of planted tank instead of just planting plants in substrate n watch them grow

[mitchfish9]

It will look incredible with more plants!

[Lfisher]

Bad news.. I've watching my tank the last few days and noticed a couple of the cories scratching their gills on the tank decor. I've had several encounters with a very resistant strain of gill flukes from my lfs and still somehow decided to forgo quarantining my new livestock before adding it to my tank

I pulled the snails and added curpamine to the 55 and my 33 gallon as it's the only med that I've been able to successfully eradicate the flukes with. I realize that gill scratching can be cause by any number of things (my rams will sometimes flash for a little while after I perform a water change) but I'd rather play it safe this time around.

[Lfisher]

Originally Posted by izabella87

superbe set-up, I like how you chose to make a specific type of planted tank instead of just planting plants in substrate n watch them grow

Originally Posted by mitchfish9

It will look incredible with more plants!

Thank you for the positive comments, hopefully the tank will still look decent after treatment.

[kwheeler91]

I also suffer from multiple continental tanks