[Quint]

One more video for now. This one from today. Looking better but still ways to go. Going to forgo videos after a while because may have my old nikon 40D up and running soon. Its older tech but takes pretty good photos and is much easier to focus and capture then using the cell phone.

Pretty sure those olive drab shrimp are from the chocolate emeralds and CRS crossing. I would say about half my shrimp are wild colors now, a few medium quality left, and several painted red if you will (all females I think). Cant really cull them because the CPDs and Ember tetras take out most of the babies so just happy they are reproducing enough to maintain a population going.

 

[H82LOS3]

Very nice community tank! Hows the betta fish and shrimps getting along? Im thinking of doing the same thing but Im afraid that the betta will feed on the shrimps lol. I see that you have plenty of hiding spaces such as plants and decoration for shrimps to hide

 

[Quint]

Very nice community tank! Hows the betta fish and shrimps getting along? Im thinking of doing the same thing but Im afraid that the betta will feed on the shrimps lol. I see that you have plenty of hiding spaces such as plants and decoration for shrimps to hide

My betta is in my 10g. He shares that with about 5 golden pencilfish, a few false amanos, some snails.



The betta originally did OK with the red RCS however I tried introducing some chocolate emeralds and he took after them like they were betta pellets. No idea why. I eventually moved all the small shrimp to the 40B and left the false amanos in his tank as he totally ignores them. Thanks

 

[H82LOS3]

My betta is in my 10g. He shares that with about 5 golden pencilfish, a few false amanos, some snails.



The betta originally did OK with the red RCS however I tried introducing some chocolate emeralds and he took after them like they were betta pellets. No idea why. I eventually moved all the small shrimp to the 40B and left the false amanos in his tank as he totally ignores them. Thanks

I see, thank you for sharing your story. I guess Ill just stick with my original plan with betta only

 

[Quint]

I see, thank you for sharing your story. I guess Ill just stick with my original plan with betta only

Just remember all bettas have there own personality. My other betta I originally had in the 40B which is no longer with us was probably the most docile fish Id scene in a while. That one never touched any of the shrimp or other fish but would try to fight with any other betta obviously. Just be mindful when putting other stuff in with them.

Now the one female I had for a while was a serious monster, she would beat up any male she was with and continually chased the other fish and would hunt all small shrimp except for the false amanos. She is now living at a coworkers house.

Good luck.

 

[Quint]

Added a couple plants, got rid of the few carpeting ones that werent doing anything. Trimmed one of my moss monsters back alot. Kind of felt like I was killing off a bunch of unscene babies (juliis, shrimp, maybe others dont know) but it had to get done.

I need to trim a few leaves off the anubus and buce due to the GBA. The shrimp and OTOs seem to like it though. I know it needs to go. Wish we had some way of controlling it because it actually looks nice IMHO. I just know its bad for the plants.

One of my nerites cleaning the glass below the substrate. The sand really slows it down lol

 

[Quint]

Not much to update. Thinking of rehoming my golden pencilfish. After they got home and colors formed found out I have 4 males and 1 female. Weird little guys. The males fight all day for the most part then at night they all sleep in a little group together. They need a bigger tank then the 10G they are in. May look at getting a either a longer tank (little bigger) or taking them back just dont like taking them back but probably better. Maybe they will get to live in the plant tank or something.

and the 40B

Found out the 100W heater wasnt enough or it is malfunctioning. Went to do a water change and it felt cold and the temp ended up being 71F, keep it at 76F usually except summer when it gets up to 80F. Got a new heater 150W, hopefully that will do the trick. Everyone seemed fine, still active. CPDs had a little darker color but not sure if that was temp or something else. Presume temp. Bunch of fish but most were hiding or foraging in the plants when I took pic.

 

[Leeatl]

Nice tanks . What type of floaters do you have in that 10 ? Mine never get roots like that....lol

 

[Quint]

@Leeatl they are just dwarf water lettuce. For some reason in that tank they grow like crazy. I usually take out half every thursday or friday water change, this last thursday I took out about 3/4 of them. By this thursday they will probably cover twice as much area as they do now.

As for the big roots I think a big part is the lower flow in that tank, the roots are kind of fragile. I keep the flow down because of the betta. Its a AQ50 but turned down with alot of stuff in the filter box that I clean only once in a great while. The golden pencilfish dont mind the low flow either.

Bump: I really should have painted the back of the 10 black to hide all that stuff.

 

[Leeatl]

Thanks , all I have are Salvinia and Duckweed and they don't get roots near like that....lol

 

[Quint]

Not much to update. Took out a few rocks, planted some more trimmings and java fern shoots. CPDs are recovering from the sickness my tank had. Lost all but 2 of the embers and lost 2 of the CPDs (thought I had lost more but a couple came out of the forest). They are doing better but still moving odd compared to how they use to. Shrimp and catfish are doing great.

Im watching you .....

Feeding time

No shots of the 10g. Currently battling some algae outbreak among other things. Really would like to upgrade that tank. Bought a 20 long today for $20. Would like to have gotten a Landen but for $20 ....

 

[Quint]

Couple of pics of both 40B and 10G. Not much new, everything seems to be doing decently well. Still some algae but not too bad considering low tech and not alot of time to mess with it.

 

[Quint]

Been a little bit since updating. Not too much to update. Plants are growing, shrimps are still breeding. Cory cats still lay alot of eggs but havnt scene a new one in a while, think since rearranging a few plants I lost a little hiding area where they could grow big enough to not get eaten.

Little false julii hanging out front

The ten gallon, pulled a piece of wood out of 40B. Need to replant the java fern and probably rearrange a few things. Swords are doing pretty good I think. The buce is growing pretty good as well IMHO.

5 min video of the critters, already fed them once but threw in carnivore pellet for the cats.

Oh and the oldest daughter got a venus fly trap setup for christmas (early) so we are starting that process.

 

[Quint]

Not sure if I made a mistake or not but its done. Pulled all the java moss out of my 40B. Sure the shrimp population will take a nose dive (probably took out several with it) but it was getting so intertwined with all the java fern and was growing up the side of the glass and harboring a odd green hair type algae that I could get rid of everywhere else. I still have the big windelov java ferns so hopefully the shrimp babies will make it in there. Will see.

Thinking of slowly doing some more arranging later on.May try and get a good base to glue a bunch of the large java fern to in order to give it some height. It grows really well just its a shorter style. The anubias now has some room to breath lol, had to trim a few roots that were going bad but rhizomes were in good shape for most part.

Crummy picture and just did water change.

 

[Quint]

Finally got most of the rearranging of the 40b done for now. Found a large piece of mopani wood (lucked out and got it for $10) to go with the other small piece. Rinsed it off and soaked for a day, glued most of the large java ferns to it. The wood is still leaching tannins which is ok as far as I am concerned but it does mess with the camera big time. The Cory cats like it.

Also got a potted wendtii bronze which once I separated it out turned out to be about 6 or 7 individual plants. Hoping these only get to about 5-6" height but will deal with it if it decides to go nuts. Only been in there for about 4 days now.

Took out a bunch of stuff, did a little trimming and replanting and thinned things out a bit. Tried to glue the rest of the buce to the smaller wood, one (the larger one) came off so will try again later or just let it keep rooting into the sand. All the ones I pulled up had pretty extensive roots attaching to clumps of sand.

 

[Amphiprion1]

Looks really good! I love low tech tanks and contrary to what I often hear, in my experience, it takes a bit more skill and much more patience to keep them going compared to high tech systems.

 

[Quint]

Thanks Amphiprion1. Patience is definitely the key with these guys (guess that goes for every planted tank). With the plants generally growing much slower it is a hurry up and wait not to mention working with finding the right plants that will do "well" low tech. Ive narrowed it down now to ones that seem to grow without issue with my dosing schedule/water parameters/and no CO2. The only plants I havent tested out in this tank are the crypts which I just planted. Interested to see how they do over the next couple of months.

 

[Quint]

Not much going on, joys of low tech. Surprised the crypts didnt drop a bunch of leaves, they are growing new ones which are lighter and more green but the original darker leaves are still looking pretty good. From everything I read they would usually melt when being added to the tank (shrugs).

Added a few fresh leaves, this one didnt even have time to sink before a shrimp latched on.

 

[Quint]

My oldest daughter spotted this new addition to the group today....

 

[GMYukonon24s]

Congrats that's a nice new addition.