Fishies

'if they don't eat than you should'

 

 

 

 

 

If your flag fish don't work for you may I recomend:

FLAG FISH SOUFLLE
INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 pounds fish fillets
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoons melted butter
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest

stop freaking out

I just talked to the fish-nerds at the store where I got my flag fish at, turns out they need 7-10 days to get used to the tank, and it might take a little longer for them to actually realize there is a lot to eat in their environment. So I just need to be patient, in the mean time I'm going to trim down that algae cloud, I doubt they'll eat really long strands. Also the fish-nerd said that I should add some spirulina or some shrimp to encourage them to start eating.

Who's hungry?

O.k, so this is what my algae looks like now, those florida flag's have not touched anything. They just float and once in while play in the current. It's been a week? Am I being too impatient? I need a serious algae eating army soon before I have an algae tank.

Micranthermum micranthemoides (aka Babytears)

Ahhh babytears, yes indeed.
This plant has an amazing green color.. very bright kind oof green. My lights are all 6500K if that helps you understand what you're looking at. Babytears spreads by shooting out horizontally. You'll see in one of the pictures how it actually crawls along the gravel.

pearling is so cool

Today I came home. And My Riccia is pearling !
I'm psyched. I hope you are too.

Feeding Time in the 55 gallon

Its Brine Shrimp Fest in the 55 gallon this weekend. Tiger Barbs eat the most out of all these fish. Its pretty crazy how fast they are compared to everyone else.. trick is to feed on both sides the tank.. harder to control. Over and out.

Clearly I'm a Beginner... chill out algae.

It’s now been 2 months...

I never did solve the algae problem, the staghorn grew really long till it had to be removed by hand. It grew back, and has successfully spread all over most of the other plants too. Is it possible that rubbing the algae off the leaves spread the spores more?

It’s the same colour as the staghorn I had earlier, only now its more dense and closer together... Sort of like fuzz algae but instead mini staghorns...

I added 2 pencilfish, I should get 3 more because the male is bored and picking on all the other fish. Although, last night, I saw him get along with one of the otto’s. It’s quite suspensful.

They haven’t touched my algae, and its been close to two weeks now.
I just recently added an extra 24 watts of light, so now i have 54w... which is about 2.5w/gallon. I notice now streams of oxygen shooting out of the plants. I thought I’d try groing riccia too now with the added light.

I also added 3 Florida Flag Fish, hoping they will get to work and that algae, they’re pretty weird. So far they hang out by the red plants at the very surface of the tank and just sit there. I don’t know... they look good though.

I also added 5 more amano shrimp, which makes a total of 7 shrimp in my tank, they’re nut cases, they just go at it all day, but they’re not touching the ugly looking algae.

Why?

I think I’m going to start eating the algae, maybe they’ll all follow along. Or I’ll bottle it and sell it along with all that other expensive blue-green algae health weirdo stuff.

55 gallon Planted Tank

This is our 55 gallon planted tank. Set up late summer 2005. We started with 130 watts of power compact flourescent light and 2 DIY CO2 reactors and had pretty nice results. Then upgraded the lighting to 260 watts and noticed a dramatic improvements in growth of leaves, rooot systems and of course algae. You can see a couple blue colored fish in the center.. those guys are called Florida Flag Fish. Florida Flag Fish basically rid the tank completely of hair algae in a matter of a week. Once the hair algae was gone they started munching on other plants. We had 8 originally but got rid of 6 of them because in a big group they tend to gang up on select plants. Now with just two left they leave all the other plants alone but still take care of any hair algae they find. The more fish food you feed the less hair algae they eat, so when you run out algae, start feeding them twice a day so they keep off your other plants.

This is a mid tank view. I add like 2ml - 4ml of potassium and iron every week. I do about a 30% water change every week as well. Its great for the plants, they love it, but that much water change is bad for the fish. So to make up for stripping stuff from their water every week, I feed them frozen food which has been soaked in vitamins (like Zoe) overnight. I'm not just geeking out, I lost a bunch of fish before and couldn't figure out why, I tried this vitamin formula and the fish are all strong and very active.

The aquatic clovers in the foreground are called Marsilea Minuta and the larger ones are called Marsilea Quadrifolia. These are the only foreground cover plants I've had any luck with.. they took off like a week after I planted them. Everyday there are a few new leaves. I tried riccia fluitans, but I think i didn't have enough light.. also the thread I used to tie the plant down into a mesh with kept disolving or someone was eating it. I have some bits of Pellia still kickin around as well and Glostima, which I managed to kill like 6 bunches of. These clovers never even had a down time or acclimation period.

The plant coming out of the tank is Water Sprite. Interesting plant, super easy to grow, you can plant it, let it float, whatever you like. I personally love seeing the roots come from the surface down into the tank. I have a team of Siamese Algae Eaters that spend most the day in the roots nibbling, so I'm not the only one who likes it. The leaves change over time depending on how you trim the plant, and how much light its getting. The leaves became needles when I up-ed the light from 130 to 260 watts.. All in all this plant is great at covering the less attractive "under construction" areas of the tank.

In the foreground, Sarah's Fuzzy Green Ball (Marimo Balls). In the distance Christmas Moss.