Rivercats 55g Planted

[11bkd]

I'm loving the pics! Today I started my 'real' planted tank and if it looks something like yours I'll be happy. ( I'm still at the plant it in and hope for the best stage)

In the pic Tank 2 you have a red tipped plant on the left, could you tell me what it is please? I've not seen it in any of the lfs books and it's so lovely I want one

I'm looking forward to the next pics

Sarah X

 

[Mumma.of.two]

You always have the most beautiful tanks!

 

[Rivercats]

I'm loving the pics! Today I started my 'real' planted tank and if it looks something like yours I'll be happy. ( I'm still at the plant it in and hope for the best stage)

In the pic Tank 2 you have a red tipped plant on the left, could you tell me what it is please? I've not seen it in any of the lfs books and it's so lovely I want one

I'm looking forward to the next pics

Sarah X

Thank you! There are two red plants on the left. One is Limnophila hippuroides and the other is Rotala Macrandra. Remember this tank has tannins in the water so the color looks different from what it looks like in clear water. Here is a picture of how Limnophila looks in non tannin water... Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - Rivercats's Album: RIVERCATS 220G Transformation - Picture. This tank is in its earliest stages and will look much better once all the plants grow and fill in.

Thanks Mumma!

 

[Kimlafeiet]

Beautiful tank! I love the nano fish idea. Are the clown Killi's the little ones that look like little rocketships? I saw some at a local LFS, and I wanted soooo badly to get them, but I did not have a suitable tank for them at the time.......and of course, I have never seen them again.

 

[azmodan]

Hey Janis are you worried much about the clown killies taking the leap of faith out of the tank? Can't tell if there's a cover or not but I know you said you prefer open tops. I gave my recent clown killies some floating plants to hopefully deter the jumping but I also don't want to block too much light going to my plants. Just crossing my fingers for now!

 

[Rivercats]

Yes those are the ones they call Rocket killi's also but with those black and white stripes they look more like little jail birds!

They actually tell you to put lids on the tanks as they can be jumpers but I do have an open top. The water level is dropped a couple inches and I have water hyacinths floating over the tank back were the DW and all the lower light plants are. That way it is leaving the ends of the tank open for bright light over the higher light plants, most of which are non-green. The 10 I have seem very calm and have not shown any signs of being jumpers.

 

[azmodan]

Nice. Let us know if they start spawning!

 

[Rivercats]

Nice. Let us know if they start spawning!

How big were yours when you got them? Mine are less than a 1/2 inch so they have some growing to do. But I did get a good number of males to females 3m to 7f.

 

[azmodan]

Yeah same for me, about half an inch. I have a ton of HM growing up to the top of the surface that they seem to enjoy hanging out in. Is the sexing mainly done based on the tail color? If so I think I have 2 males and 4 females.

 

[Rivercats]

Yeah the males have the color and the females are just black and white.

 

[Rivercats]

Time for a little update... I got the CO2 hooked up the other day and would you believe my Aquatek regulator is defective! The psi needle won't settle. You set it at 50psi and it bounces back and forth between 50 and 40 the entire time it's plugged in. I had a bit of an issue with Aquatek but they finally sent me the info to send it back under warranty, which is 90 days from purchase. Kind of makes me mad I have to wait until they receive and inspect it before sending out a new one because the plants are growing really well. I've even had to trim the Ambulia, Rotala Macrandra, and Limnophila hippuroides. Will take a couple pic's in a couple more weeks once the plants get taller.

All the stock has adjusted really well but just wish the Scarlet Badis would come out more. You'd never know there was 13 of them in there! I'm still considering adding one more type of fish and was thinking along the lines of Neon Rasbora's (blue variety) since red is the predominant color in the tank.

 

[azmodan]

How are the clown killies doing? I upped my count from 6 to 12 and they seem quite a bit more social now. I also noticed that while they definitely prefer the surface they also swim all over the tank (all strata) now that they're a bit more comfortable.

 

[Rivercats]

How are the clown killies doing? I upped my count from 6 to 12 and they seem quite a bit more social now. I also noticed that while they definitely prefer the surface they also swim all over the tank (all strata) now that they're a bit more comfortable.

Mine are all doing great. No shyness from them! And mine also use the entire tank at times but tend to prefer the surface. I can't decide if I'm going to up the group size. I think I'm going to wait and see how they top out size wise.