Stocking a 16 Widescreen

[Nils]

She looks LOADED with eggs!!
You should have eggs by tomorrow IMO...

Showing some behavior of spawning, and the area where the tube is has turned a little black. Eggs soon????

Second flower coming up from the bus, pretty cool to see. Growing super fast, 1/2 inch in an hour.

 

[coralbandit]

She looked loaded with eggs to me.
Couldshe be constipated?
What are you feeding?
If you have frozen brine shrimp feed them for a day or two.
Daphnia could be used also.
If you see the vent she will probably lay eggs.
Most wild creatures birth... at night as their eggs(not birthing I know) will also hatch at night .
Hopefully eggs tomorrow?

 

[Nils]

She looked loaded with eggs to me.
Couldshe be constipated?
What are you feeding?
If you have frozen brine shrimp feed them for a day or two.
Daphnia could be used also.
If you see the vent she will probably lay eggs.
Most wild creatures birth... at night as their eggs(not birthing I know) will also hatch at night .
Hopefully eggs tomorrow?

Unfortunately, I thought this was the same thing. It's hard reaching them to get them to eat. Male is super over protective of everything, he just nips at the tweezers and she's still a bit scared. I did throw in some bloodworms, they had a bit of that, but that was 4-5 days ago. I had some flake that I put in yesterday that they pecked at. The problem with such a deep tank is reaching the fish. I do have some frozen baby brine shrimp I could try if it would help. Another thing I've noticed is that she has some longish poop every now and then, whitish brown in color. Normally only a couple centimeters long though. Male is just fine though.

 

[coralbandit]

What ever I feed to the rams they all do better if I wet the food and pour it into the water column.
This may help the food get to them easier.
They seem to get excited with the movement of food if it catches water flow.

 

[Nils]

CoralBrandit, you are a guru! Was walking out the door to meet up with some friends, saw them pecking at the a amazon sword and thought nothing of it. I come back, and like magic at least 30 eggs right by the front glass on an amazon sword leaf! She's still laying some, male is doing low passes at them, looks like fertilizing to me. Hope they're still here by morning. Pics in next post.

 

[Nils]

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[coralbandit]

^SWEET^
This makes Steven and myself very happy!
I am thinking Steven is more happy though?
Eitherway glad you are enjoying also!

 

[Brookster123]

Dad knows best

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Double quote!

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[Nils]

Double quote!

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Lol a very happy dad indeed!

A very happy owner of the dad as well! (Me!)
So he does like her
Some baby assassin snails on the eggs, male hasn't noticed them yet. Do the snails eat eggs? With my luck they do

 

[Ricky 1]

Good luck Nils, I assume you know if they stay white they are not fertile, they need to turn opaque........

 

[Nils]

Good luck Nils, I assume you know if they stay white they are not fertile, they need to turn opaque........

I still waited to see if they would fertilize them, were still white this morning until they started feasting on the eggs. Snails helped out too.

Not too concerned, as I've read it happens a few times before they get it right. Don't know how many times they've actually laid, maybe once or twice? Got some live black worms for the puffs today, maybe this can help the rams get going quicker.

 

[Ricky 1]

It's always disappointing at first, you may have to put them in a separate tank to be successful.....

 

[Nils]

It's always disappointing at first, you may have to put them in a separate tank to be successful.....

Yeah, I don't have a separate tank.......lol.

The point of the pair wasn't really to do hard core breeding, it was just so my male wasn't lonely, plus it's nice to have more than 1 fish in the tank. I guess if I get a spawn it's just a bonus. I'll let nature take its course.

Ok, here's something other than rams. This is a very low tech tank, with stock lighting, some API Root Tabs and API Co2 Booster when I can remember to add it. Low tech plants still do great. I've tried some blyxa in here a couple times, but it really doesn't do as well as in the 5.5 Bacopa caroliniana does really well in here though. I actually have 10-12 floating stems it that I'll be shipping in the next couple weeks (I"ll be posting an RAOK in the Classifieds so keep an eye out for that!) Blyxa is really the only high tech plant I've tried that grows in here, except for DHG which surprisingly does pretty good.
Just so you guys have an idea of what's going on, plant wise. I'll post some pics soon, sometime this week.

 

[Ricky 1]

That's the way to look at Nils, good post.....

 

[Brookster123]

Nils... i remember when you first came on looking for stocking Advice, 18 pages later and nothing had been decided you've done an excellent job with this tank! You should be proud man!

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[Nils]

Nils... i remember when you first came on looking for stocking Advice, 18 pages later and nothing had been decided you've done an excellent job with this tank! You should be proud man!

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Yeah.....those weren't very good times
I'm definitely proud, after all, I only have 2 tanks to brag about!

Trimmed some plants today, mostly in the 5.5. Took out the big java fern that was in the middle here, I'm going to be sending that and all the other plants to the winner of the RAOK. If you want in, check the Classifieds, post for a chance to win! (I feel like one of those infomercial narrators) But wait, there's more! Just kidding, had to put that in there though because now I'm a full time infomercialer.

Not really anything new, I'll post if something changes!

 

[Nils]

So it's been about a week.......time to update.

No eggs from the rams, feeding the female live worms, male doesn't seem interested. They are cleaning off some spots and I saw the tube exposed a couple times....whatever, we'll see. Plants were trimmed and sent, it was just the bacopa and an anubias that got trimmed. Moved the java fern in the middle over to the cholla, wasn't doing that great on the substrate and hope it roots onto the cholla.
I need to pick up some root tabs for the tanks. Some sword leaves have some holes and you can see the fibers, it's not like the plant is dying, just guessing that the ferts should be replenished soon. I've got lots of crypts now, the big mother plant has been sending out babies for a while now and I probably have 4-5 small crypts with 3-4 leaves each. Same with the 5.5, the more ferts the better!

Other than that nothing has changed. Still lots of snails, my group of 4 amanos are doing good. I actually really like these guys, they've been in this tank for a while. Always having out together on one side of the tank, it's kind of weird because they never go over to the other side where the crypts are. Farthest they go is on the substrate in front of the sword. They keep the tank nice and clean and one of the females is always berried. I think this is a sign that they're doing good. Anyway, I'll try and get some pics up sometime this week, if not today

 

[Nils]

Yep, breeding tube never lies. Got a pretty big spawn this evening. Still finishing laying some. Still white though, not sure if they'll get fertilized. I'll do a PWC soon because that might be the problem? Nitrates are at <10, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite. Doubt it's water quality related. I'll keep an eye on them.

 

[coralbandit]

Good Luck and enjoy!

 

[Nils]

Haven't updated this in a while.......

They ate their last spawn that I posted about, I have a feeling that they were fertilized though. Hopefully they'll get it right this time.

Male is going after the female and doesn't really "chase" her, just makes bluff charges when she's in his sights. May result in a rough spawn? Her anal area has a black tinge to it, just like the other times before they spawned, breeding tube isn't showing yet but soon? No torn fins or anything, just some charges.

Plant wise everything is perfect. The bulbs I moved about a month ago have made a full comeback and are sending up flowers like crazy. New leaves and everything too. Crypt babies have grown lots of new leaves, starting to become their own individual plants. I have some small plant like pods up at the front glass, have small bulb like leaves growing, were free tumbling a few days ago and now they've settled and grown some roots. I'll attach some pics. Probably just some bulbs. Sword is still huge, the size of this thing is ridiculous. Surprised I haven't seen any runners from it, if I did that would be great. All plants I trimmed a while back have also made a full recovery.

So yeah, nothing much to say. Just waiting on that one successful batch of ram eggs. Pics to follow.