[Triport]

Yeah the lineage 1 Corydoras which have long snouts the males can get quite aggressive. They aren't that common in the hobby though. I imagine most regular LFS wouldn't even carry them. The Wet Spot gets them in but now that I know about this issue I won't have them again. I believe the lineage 8 ones which also sometimes have long snouts are not as aggressive. Scleromystax supposedly can be as well but I haven't seen it yet in my tank except when they are breeding he sometimes chases away other fish.

The sand in this tank is ADA La Plata. I also added some ADA La Plata gravel which was a mistake because it keeps getting infested with BBA so I have been siphoning it out every time I do a water change. Right to the left of the Corydoras you can see a chunk with BBA on it.

The rest of my tanks I am using Buce Plants Natural sand. Pretty good stuff. In my old tanks I was also using Caribsea sands and even though they are good for Corydoras because they are so fine I didn't like them because they are so powdery the sand sometimes sticks to the fish and I would always think that they had Ich.

 

[Discusluv]

Oh okay! Im going to try that La Plata sand next time set up an aquarium-- I really like the look of it.
Ive used the Buceplant sand in my 5.4 gallon shrimp tank. But, I like the look of the La Plata even better.

 

[Triport]

ADA has one called Colorado that I like too. It is more of a beige color. In Japan and Europe they have a dark brown one called Congo that I would literally KILL for. It is so pretty. But it isn't available in the us. So sad.

 

[Triport]

The bowfront. Waterchange and hunt for BBA today. Scraped some tiny bits of it off the glass and removed a few old leaves with some on the edges but overall looking pretty good. I think there is some on the filter intake strainers so at some point I will have to remove them and clean them off with bleach. It is as under control as it will ever be I guess.

46 gallon bowfront aquarium by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

I read that Cryptocoryne usteriana is supposed to be a hard water plant but this my GH and KH are not especially high in this tank and it is doing quite well. Same with the C. balansae in the other tank.

Cryptocoryne usteriana by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

 

[Triport]

Day 122! Ugh. I lost another zebra Oto. Just one left now. No idea why. One day it was fine the next day dead.

Otherwise the Crypts have been slowly growing and the tank is looking good. May have to get some regular Otos for this tank though if any Algae starts coming back. At least the Amano shrimp are still looking good.

45 gallon planted aquarium Day 122 by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

My red line tetras (Hyphessobrycon amapaensis) in the 46 bowfront are the hardiest fish I have ever owned. A dozen of them lasted 4 years before I even lost one. And now right around the five year anniversary of buying them I lost another. His spine was bent and he was struggling the other day. Now I am left with 10. All of them over 5 years old and quite geriatric. They all have some cloudy scales, some have bent spines but most are looking to be in pretty good health overall. Much tougher than the diamond and candy cane tetras they have shared the tank with all this time who are down to the final 2 each.

46 Gallon Bowfront by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

 

[Triport]

Got a nice shot of my male keyhole cichlid last night. His fin extensions are so long and beautiful. I've had him for four and a half years now and he is blind in one eye. A few other people in a Facebook group I belong to mentioned that they also have keyhole cichlids with eye problems so maybe it is an issue for farm raised fish. But he seems otherwise healthy for his age.

Male Cleithracara maronii (keyhole cichlid) by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

 

[Triport]

Day 129 of the 45 gallon. I am overall happy with the growth on the Crypts in this tank. It has been over 4 months now. I'm just wondering if I should maybe do a tiny bit of a rescape. The C. parva along the front are looking beautiful, growing well, no algae, but they are basically still 10 little clumps in a row looking like hair plugs. Their rate of growth is so slow even for Crypts it would probably take 10 years for them to merge together and look at all natural. Wondering if I should pull them up and try planting them closer together and maybe add a few small rocks to the scape. Or if that will set them back or cause them harm and maybe at some point they will actually take off and start spreading a bit if I just leave them alone.

45 gallon planted aquarium Day 129 by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

Cryptocoryne parva. Look how beautiful they are up close. This tank has been pretty much perfectly algae free since I introduced the fish and shrimp. Just a bit of green dust algae on the glass at most. The last time I tried C. parva in my original 29 gallon they got BBA and I ended up pulling them out.

Cryptocoryne parva by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

And for those who are fans of the bowfront here it is. Plants are doing great. There is some BBA on the strainers of the filter intakes. I will have to remove the and give them a bleach rinse and scrub at some point. The plants seem OK though.

46 gallon aquarium by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

 

[Matt69]

Day 129 of the 45 gallon. I am overall happy with the growth on the Crypts in this tank. It has been over 4 months now. I'm just wondering if I should maybe do a tiny bit of a rescape. The C. parva along the front are looking beautiful, growing well, no algae, but they are basically still 10 little clumps in a row looking like hair plugs. Their rate of growth is so slow even for Crypts it would probably take 10 years for them to merge together and look at all natural. Wondering if I should pull them up and try planting them closer together and maybe add a few small rocks to the scape. Or if that will set them back or cause them harm and maybe at some point they will actually take off and start spreading a bit if I just leave them alone.



45 gallon planted aquarium Day 129 by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr



Cryptocoryne parva. Look how beautiful they are up close. This tank has been pretty much perfectly algae free since I introduced the fish and shrimp. Just a bit of green dust algae on the glass at most. The last time I tried C. parva in my original 29 gallon they got BBA and I ended up pulling them out.



Cryptocoryne parva by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr



And for those who are fans of the bowfront here it is. Plants are doing great. There is some BBA on the strainers of the filter intakes. I will have to remove the and give them a bleach rinse and scrub at some point. The plants seem OK though.



46 gallon aquarium by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

Love the crypt aquariums, I tried Parva once and believe it got BBA also and pulled it out, hopefully it takes of soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Squisher]

Always a fan of the bowfront.:wink2:

Tanks are looking good!

 

[Triport]

Thought I would do something different this week and post a short video clip of both tanks together.

 

[Triport]

The 45.

45 gallon planted aquarium Day 136 by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

And a closeup of C. nurri. I can't wait for this to take off.

Cryptocoryne nurri by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

 

[Triport]

This is probably the smallest amount of change between weeks on the 45 gallon. I am almost tempted to stop doing weekly photos and just start up again in 6 months because I think it will be dramatically different by then.

45 gallon planted aquarium Day 143 by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

The 46 bowfront. I have to angle the photos from the left side now because otherwise the new 120 reflects in the photos because of the curve of the tank. Works out OK as this is the best angle to photograph this tank because of how stunning the C. usteriana is. Really my favorite plant at this point.

46 gallon bowfront by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

And a shot of this side of the fish room with the new 120 gallon. Shows off the big space between where I have room for a 180 some day.

120, 46, and 45 gallon aquariums by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

As far as the 46 bowfront goes it is my furthest along in terms of plants because they were already established from my old tanks before I moved and have had the longest time to recuperate (I started this tank back in August shortly after I moved). So the plants are looking great.

The fish are a different story. I have been slowly losing fish over time in this tank. Partially because they are geriatric I think. Many of the fish are between 4 and 5 years old. The female bettas are all about 2 years old and one currently has dropsy and will probably die soon. A kuhli loach is looking very lethargic and like it is on the way out. I've lost a few tetras recently. I lost 3 or 4 of the regular Otos in the past few months. The red line tetra are the oldest and have had milky scales for a while and some have spine deformities. The remaining candy cane tetra and both keyhole cichlids are all blind in one eye (a common problem with the candy cane tetras over the years and apparently a common issue with tank raised keyhole cichlids). I don't particularly think there are any current water quality problems or the fish are afflicted with anything. I think they are just old and starting to decline. And older water quality issues may have taken a toll on their overall health. I probably won't add any fish to this tank until the majority are gone (which could be quite a while).

 

[Triport]

Day 150! Instead of the day 150 picture I'm posting a comparison of day 7 vs. day 150. Huge difference but you can see that the C. parva in the foreground really have not changed that much in overall size and 5 months in really most of the plants aren't giving the full representation of what a fully grown Cryptocoryne can look like.

45 Gallon Cryptocoryne Aquarium Day 7 vs. Day 150 by Kaveh Maguire, on Flickr

 

[vervatic]

Hi, how are the crypts doing now?

 

[Triport]

I haven't posted anything on these tanks since February because they pretty much bore me. But I did a video a few months ago discussing the a bit.