30g Journal LOTS of new PICS 10/7 (!56k)

[Karackle]

Thanks Zoo!!! Yeah it's really grown in a ton, and I can't believe the growth on the flame moss since the last set of pics ~3 weeks earlier!!! Not bad for ~.75wpg eh? lol
I don't know if it's perfect but I certainly appreciate the compliment! I like it and I'm quite proud of it if truth be told. Now I just need to get my 5.5g back into shape and i'll be happy, it has lots of growth but no scape. ah well. now that my 30 is doing well, i can re-focus on the 5, that's the whole game right? get one the way you like it, work on another, realize you're bored with the old ones and start again!

As for the endler's they do have stunning color, i'm often blown away by their brightness when I'm looking at the tank. I have nothing to compare them to though, they're the only endler's i've seen other than in pictures, so I don't know if they're bright even for endlers or if they're standard. I am going to breed some hybrids so i'll let you know if they just look like pale endlers though!

[Karackle]

Was playing with the camera last night and took a few pics so I thought I'd post them

Some plant shots first
Flame moss is starting to grow in on the flat rock:


Look how pretty the red on the underside of my Crypts is! :


And a cool angled up shot of the right side of the tank:


And some Red Cherry Shrimpy pics
The ladies:




SUPER berried female:




Best shot I've gotten of a male:


Magical male standing on the glass (this shot probably would have been good if my glass wasn't in serious need of cleaning.....how embarassing!):


Enjoy! As always any feedback is more than welcome!

ALSO

QUESTION:
Do I have room for a few more CPDs in this tank? I only have one and I want to get him friends. Should I put them in here or in my 5.5g with my betta?

I'd love input!

as always, thanks in advance!

[Complexity]

Wonderful growth! It's looking lush with all the plants. Your RCS are amazingly red! Where did you get them? Mine aren't anywhere near that pretty.

You've made me want some bamboo shrimp now. So far, I've skipped them in favor of my amanos (I just counted, I have 55 amanos in my 75g!), but a few bamboo shrimp would be really cool in the tank. Yours are red? Is that normal? I always thought they were brown.

Your tank is really coming along.

[revernance]

Wow, I've always been a big fan of sparkling gouramis!
And very cute little shrimpies :-P

Are you planning on posting your flame moss on SNS soon ?

[Karackle]

Vicki - Thanks! It is finally starting to look lush which I'm really excited about, so thanks! Thanks, yeah I'm surprised at how red they are too to be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be that red! The females are far brighter than the males, but they're all lovely! I got them right here in the SnS from Revernance (thanks again!) oddly enough since he posted just below you! weird coincidence! heeheehee Also, I highly suggest bamboo shrimp, they're really neat little critters! heehee Yeah, they get nice and red when they're happy and well fed The brown ones in the pet stores tend not to be as happy/well fed, though my guy certainly doesn't appear to be lacking for food, he's always sitting in the current fans open but some days he is browner than others. I've noticed he seems to get particularly bright red for a week or so before he molts (sheds?). Can you tell I like him? from what i've read if your tank is well established, you shouldn't need to specially feed the bamboos, but I tend to put a little bit of fry food once or twice a week (like hikari first bites, any of the powdery kinds....i actually have a mix of different fry foods and algae powder, i could send you some if you wanted) he'll also pop down off his feeding posts and pick at algae wafers occasionally well i've babbled enough about my little friend

reverance - Thanks for the kind words! Sparkling gouramis are great little fish, i enjoy them as well! Glad you think the little shrimp are cute thank you again for them, they're doing great! Haha I'll probably be posting some flame moss in the SnS pretty soon, but not just yet, it is getting time for a trim but the first trim will get dumped into my guppy rearing tank because most of what was in there was being held for my boy, so that went to his tank the other day. Next trim though! Want me to let you know before I post it that it's available

[Karackle]

hahahaha i just realized I use a lot of smilies in my posts!!

[ZooTycoonMaster]

13, if you don't count the one in your signature

Very nice! What camera do you use, and what settings?

EDIT: Forgot to ask, how do you find a moment when your Endler's are still enough for you to take a picture? Mine just run away when they see the camera

[Complexity]

13 smilies? I'd say you're feeling pretty happy at the moment! And with good reason.

Thanks for the info on the coloration of the Bamboo shrimp. I never knew any of that! While my tank isn't matured at this point, I think the jump start with the bacteria should work pretty fast so by the time I get around to getting Bamboo shrimp, my tank should be ready. I can already envision the shrimp standing on my driftwood right in front of my two spray bars, eating their little hearts out! While the Amanos will scoot them about as they clean the driftwood the Bamboos are standing on! That ought to be a funny sight!

My are you a bad influence on me. First, I'm wanting to breed my guppies again, and now I can't wait for bamboo shrimp! Please tell me you won't convince me to get anything real expensive, okay?

[Karackle]

Hahahaha I know I like the smilies, but I think that last post that made me realize it was a record breaker!

Thanks for the compliment! I use a Nikon Coolpix 5200, couple years old now. I use the fluorescent white balance setting with no flash or the "dusk" setting for the FT shots, I put the camera on something stable (i have a system set up with a stool, a 5g bucket and some 2x4s....i lack a tripod ) focus the shot, put the camera on the timer, hit the button and then step back so i don't bump it. For the close-ups I use my macro setting (i think that's what it's called...the one that's usually depicted as a flower). If it's a close-up of a plant, i'll turn off the flash and set it up like I do with the full tank shots. If it's a fish, i usually put the flash on or else it gets blurry because they move too fast! hahaha And then I'm mostly patient, sometimes I have to sit for a while and snap a load of shots before i get one or two good ones. The shrimp are easier, they sit still better.....most of the time Sitting for a while with the camera up and ready sometimes helps because the fish get used to see you there so you don't scare them by moving too much.

Hope that helps!

[Karackle]

Vicki - yeah, definitely in a good mood....tanks are doing well plus it's the weekend! And I find that it's easier to tell someone's tone if you throw in a certain smiley, especially with all the fun ones now! But 13 was a bit excessive! heehee (<-- that's my favorite one) Anyway, yeah, I did a lot of reading before I got the bamboo shrimp, I wanted to make sure they'd be happy in my tank, and i'm glad it was helpful to someone else as well! The tank doesn't need to be established in terms of cycling as much as there being enough floating debris for them to eat, but supplementing with fry powder food seems to work really well, frozen baby brine shrimp and/or daphnia seem to go over well too. And they'll pick out little particles when you feed the other fish, and pick out any bits of algae wafer/bottom feeder food that float into the water as well, so they're not too picky. I've backed off on the supplementing as my tank has gotten more established and I see him sitting in front of the filter or hanging upside down over the bubble wall all the time.

Sorry to be a bad influence! But you don't have to worry about me influencing you into anything really expensive, I don't have the $$ for anything really expensive, the bamboo and my order of B. brigittae and ember tetras was a serious indulgence! and I'm waffling on my CPD decision because they're price is pretty steep for my wallet (and I'm not sure which tank they would do best in) but i had to buy the one because he was all alone with bigger fish, and now I feel bad that he's all alone, but at least he has fish his own size to school with, and he does hang out with the embers ...hahahaha ANYWAY like I said, you don't have to worry about me influencing you to get anything more expensive than a bamboo shrimp

[Complexity]

Yeah, yeah... that's what they all say. But then, when you least expect it, they getcha with some newfangled thing that you just have to have!

I'm sure my tank has enough food hanging around to feed some bamboos. I regularly feed things like frozen baby brine shrimp, frozen daphnia, and a whole host of small foods. I've even used a pestle to grind foods up really fine. I mix these smaller foods in with larger foods so there's always a variety. I figure this way all of the fish get fed one way or the other.

I've even stared using pepper mills to grind up larger foods, such as algae wafers that the amanos love to carry off! This way, with 55 amanos, each can find a small piece of algae wafer to pick up and run off with. They just love to do that! And this then leaves a full size algae wafer for my pleco.

Oh, the things we do for our fish and inverts!

[Karackle]

Hahahahaha well then I'll TRY not to get anything cool and expensive......for both our sakes!

Wow, it surely does sound like they'd find plenty to eat in your tank! I might have to try that peppermill idea! I have 6 pigmy cories, 3 otos, 3 amanos and some RCS that enjoy picking at algae wafers, that sounds like a great way to make sure it's evenly distributed! Thanks for the tip! And on another note, where do you find a mortar and pestal? My roomate has a GIGANTIC one that he uses for cooking, but where would you find a nice small, fish food grinding sized one if you don't mind me asking?

[Complexity]

There's a store close by called World Market that sells a lot of kitchen gadgets. I just happened to stumble into the tiny mortar and pestle and knew it was a perfect size for grinding up fish food.

They don't show it on their website, but the very same mortar and pestle is available on AquariumPlants.com.

http://www.aquariumplants.com/3_Diam..._p/fert763.htm

Of course, the inside of the mortar and head of the pestle is roughened up so the fish food doesn't go flying all the time. And it grinds things up really well. It's cheap, too!

[Complexity]

Well, so much for the cheap part. I hadn't noticed the price AquariumPlants.com wants for it. I think I paid something like $5 for mine.

I found another place with either the same or a similar one for a much better price. The only question is how much the shipping might be.

http://wirewhiskonline.com/Mortar-an...source=froogle

If nothing else, this gives you some idea of what to look for in the stores.

As far as grinders go, I buy the cheapest I can find. I just bought two more that I found at Walgreens. They were $3 for a salt and pepper mill. Now that is cheap!

[Complexity]

Here's another really small one that's pretty cheap:

http://wirewhiskonline.com/White-Por...B000IKBJA2.htm