220g New Start

Sy229 said:
Ok, tonight was fun. For the third time we had to net fish out from behind the background. For those of you thinking about getting a 3D background, invest enough time during installation making sure it's well sealed front to back! I found just the smallest of possible crevices and passageways, but apparently they were enough to allow two of the Tiger Barbs and a tiny Cory to slip past.

While the fish are relatively easy to catch from the main area and bring back to the front, tonight was a more interesting challenge when the Bristlenose Pleco made his (her?) way into one of the overflows. :wall: It took two nets and a flashlight to finally nab him.

But all is well again, and hopefully we've found and covered the last of the escape routes...
:look:
Click to expand...

Hahaha... reminds me of when I had my clown loaches. I had 2 fake tree branch decorations in my tank, each of which was hollow. They had several small openings (some small enough that my pinkie finger barely fit in them) that I never even once considered a fish trying to get through. Well... one evening, I noticed that all 3 of my clown loaches disappeared. Wtf... did scottie beam them up? (haha, sorry, had to make the nerdy joke :p:) As it turns out, all 3 made it inside one of the branch decorations... and did NOT want to come out. I spent 2 hours rescuing them from the darned thing, and another half hour filling it with filter floss to keep them out of it. (Man that stuff REEKS after being submerged for a few months... found that out when I switched over to real driftwood) Mind you, I noticed this at 2am as I was heading to bed... and I had to be up at 5am for class. I ended up not sleeping that night. -__-
 
Got home tonight and had a 100% fish count - Good news no more fish sneaking behind the background.

But I also noticed that one of the two new live plants was gone. Behind the background?? No. Floating all over the surface. I'm guessing the Pleco or Featherfin got a little assertive when I was out. Anyway, are lead wraps still the best way to anchor them down (this bunch came with a plastic tie, and the plants are practically root-less), or are there better methods?

Also did another water test, same results: .25 ammonia, 0/0 nitrite/nitrate. It's been two weeks, shouldn't I see some movement by now?
 
It's been awhile since my last post here, but gunther's thread in the General Freshwater forum got my attention recently. He's provided some excellent info on his successes with breeding Tiger Barbs. I'm going to give his method a try and see what happens.

Aside from that the fish all seem to be thriving, no further losses after the first sickly Tiger that disappeared. I've found that the Tin Foils are voracious eaters and I have to provide two broken-up algae wafers to occupy them so that the others have a reasonable chance to catch lunch. After 5 weeks the water parameters remain unchanged..if anything the ammonia rate may now be closer to 0 than .25, otherwise flatline.

With the combination of the homemade base, tank stand, and canopy, getting to the top of the tank for feeding requires a small step stool. At first we used a metal one, but we spotted these little kid stools at Target and brought one home. I sanded it down and my wife stained it to match. It also makes a nice place to store their meals.

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I found a new lfs today across town that has a great stock of fish and supplies. So along with the "necessities" (lead weights for the live plants and a small net-tank to isolate the Tiger Barb pair) I ended up with a few more goodies. The tank now has a handsome driftwood centerpiece and a couple of fiddler crabs crawling about.

Unfortunately the crabs quickly worked their way to the top of the background and may now be in the back :silly:

Anyway, a shot of the driftwood and another of the Foils and Silvers in a cross-tank race..Note how the algae is beginning to grow nicely on the rocks - Really gives it a more natural look.

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Sad lesson-learned today as the new female fiddler crab was made a midnight snack last night. :uhoh: I'm not sure who did her in, but the bala sharks were nibbling the remains this morning.

The male's survival instincts led him to crawl up to the top of the background, where he's remained for the entire day. But I'm afraid I'll have to find another container for him since its probably just a matter of time before the hunter(s) locate him.

hmm...maybe just the excuse I need to set up another tank...
 
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