Nano tank report, @ ~5 months
As promised, the impressive stuff! Upon finding out that I have a cubicle and personal desk at work, I decided right away that I wanted a little tank for it. However, our department didn't get "settled" into our permanent location until about a month ago, so I had this thing running and establishing itself at home for a few months, which is a good thing when it comes to my impatience :P Now it's sitting next to my computer as a terrible nice distraction.
Waaay more photos this time, and all hand-taken! Be prepared so that you don't get BLOWN AWAY.
Tank specs:
A glass cube of 7.5 inches on each side, which Google tells me is about 1.8 gallons. Slightly unfortunate because I had originally thought it was 3 gallons, which led to a bit of overstocking (as you'll see below), but I'm happy that I've made it work out so well regardless. Kevin did the initial layout and I've been maintaining it ever since.
Substrate: ADA Amazonia II, the fancy stuff. I think it's actually a bit excessively rich because there are some pockets of blue-green algae (ick) beneath the surface. Oh well, better than too barren.
Fishhhhh:
Dwarf spotted rasbora (Boraras maculatus) x3
Phoenix rasbora (Boraras merah) x3
Great little nano fish, best described as "fearless" - when you stick things like tweezers or eyedroppers into the tank to do maintanance, these guys come up to investigate instead of running away. One of them died last week from unknown reasons. Prior to the move to work, there was one rasbora I called "the retard fish" because it seemed to suffer from some kind of condition where it would always sit in a corner and twitch, didn't eat, and looked to be on the verge of starving to death. However for some reason all of a sudden it started eating and swimming normally a couple of weeks before I moved the tank, and was looking indistinguishably healthy from the others ever since. I don't know if he was the one who died, but I'm kind of hoping he was just so that the remaining fish are all certifiably healthy.
Scarlet badis (Dario dario) x1
Irresistably cute and pretty (and camera shy), like teeny tiny gouramis! I started out with three of these guys, which was evidently too many for the tank size, because one died and the other one hasn't been seen since I moved the tank (surely also dead). This one remaining guy was the reddest and healthiest, though, and he's looking pretty happy now that he has the place to himself. Kind of prissy, never actively eats when I put food in the tank, except during the period when I cultured and fed microworms. I often see him "stalk" something for a few seconds, then dart in and take a nip, but I can never see what he's actually eating. Well, whatever it is, it's doing great for him. I want to get a lady friend for him but female dario darios are hard to come by because they're plainly colored.
Dwarf otocinclus (Otocinclus mariae) x1
I had two of these guys for a while but the other one died. There's probably not enough algae in here to sustain two of them - in fact, I kind of worry about this little guy because its belly is not always rounded like a well-fed plump little oto should have. Well, all I can do is put in algae tabs all the time and hope that he takes a bite now and then instead of letting the shrimps eat it all.
Red cherry shrimp (Neocaridina denticulata sinensis) x10-20
The healthiest part of the tank! I'm always watching these guys crawling around and cleaning food/debris off something. A lot went in, a lot died, but some survived and have hatched at least two batches of babies who have all grown up. Right now at least two or three females are berried (carrying eggs under her, like this one is) and there's a few more whose ovaries are visible and ready, so more baby shrimps soon!
Plants:
Willow moss - Fills out well, but kind of annoying to prune/maintain/work with in a tiny tank, B++++ wouldn't use for aquascaping again.
Glossostigma - Works much like the baby's tears I planted in the 10 gallon tank, but baby's tears are way tinier. Not that these things are big, mind you. I didn't know how to plant them properly when I got them, so it was rather a mess for quite a while. Now that the pieces are better-planted they just kind of sit there and not die and occasionally complain if they don't get enough light by growing taller and skinnier (right), except for this one piece in the corner that's properly sending out runners like crazy (left). Unfortunately it's running towards the BACK of the tank instead of across the front. Oh well.
Dwarf hairgrass - For a while it was planted at the back of the tank and wouldn't root well, but now it's starting to pop up everywhere. Is clearly scheming to take over the whole place - we'll see whether the end result is pleasant or will require a mass lawn-mowing.
Anubias nana petite - Have a couple of these things to highlight the hardscape (wood/rocks), just like in the other tank. They are supposed to be super-slow growers so I'm happy that they actually have had new growth at all and that all the leaves are healthy.
Micro crypt (Cryptocoryne petchii) - Don't really pay attention to it, fishes use it sometimes for shade. At first it had some leaves melt off but now seems to be doing pretty good.
Nesaea crassicaulis - Not doing well :( It's supposed to look something like this. It's bound to be missing some nutrient or other but damned if I'm going to bother testing the water for each trace mineral for its DISTINGUISHED PALATTE.
Extra pictures!
From the side! Hmm, kind of overgrown needs cleanup.
From the other side! This side is next to my computer monitor so the green spot algae (all those green specks) never gets scraped off. Maybe I should turn it around 90 degrees.
It's a snail! In background: fishes loving algae wafer to pieces.
A young female shrimp. The yellow-green patch behind her head on her back is known as the "saddle", where the eggs are kept. Once they are fertilized, she carries them under her belly. I have no idea how that transition works.
Male shrimp on his way to harass a big female. Actually it looks like this one might be a female too.
Clear view of shrimp butt eggs!
YES. Comment with your screen resolution if you want wallpaper-sized.
And finally:
Hmmmm.
Waaay more photos this time, and all hand-taken! Be prepared so that you don't get BLOWN AWAY.
Tank specs:
A glass cube of 7.5 inches on each side, which Google tells me is about 1.8 gallons. Slightly unfortunate because I had originally thought it was 3 gallons, which led to a bit of overstocking (as you'll see below), but I'm happy that I've made it work out so well regardless. Kevin did the initial layout and I've been maintaining it ever since.
Substrate: ADA Amazonia II, the fancy stuff. I think it's actually a bit excessively rich because there are some pockets of blue-green algae (ick) beneath the surface. Oh well, better than too barren.
Fishhhhh:
Dwarf spotted rasbora (Boraras maculatus) x3
Phoenix rasbora (Boraras merah) x3
Great little nano fish, best described as "fearless" - when you stick things like tweezers or eyedroppers into the tank to do maintanance, these guys come up to investigate instead of running away. One of them died last week from unknown reasons. Prior to the move to work, there was one rasbora I called "the retard fish" because it seemed to suffer from some kind of condition where it would always sit in a corner and twitch, didn't eat, and looked to be on the verge of starving to death. However for some reason all of a sudden it started eating and swimming normally a couple of weeks before I moved the tank, and was looking indistinguishably healthy from the others ever since. I don't know if he was the one who died, but I'm kind of hoping he was just so that the remaining fish are all certifiably healthy.
Scarlet badis (Dario dario) x1
Irresistably cute and pretty (and camera shy), like teeny tiny gouramis! I started out with three of these guys, which was evidently too many for the tank size, because one died and the other one hasn't been seen since I moved the tank (surely also dead). This one remaining guy was the reddest and healthiest, though, and he's looking pretty happy now that he has the place to himself. Kind of prissy, never actively eats when I put food in the tank, except during the period when I cultured and fed microworms. I often see him "stalk" something for a few seconds, then dart in and take a nip, but I can never see what he's actually eating. Well, whatever it is, it's doing great for him. I want to get a lady friend for him but female dario darios are hard to come by because they're plainly colored.
Dwarf otocinclus (Otocinclus mariae) x1
I had two of these guys for a while but the other one died. There's probably not enough algae in here to sustain two of them - in fact, I kind of worry about this little guy because its belly is not always rounded like a well-fed plump little oto should have. Well, all I can do is put in algae tabs all the time and hope that he takes a bite now and then instead of letting the shrimps eat it all.
Red cherry shrimp (Neocaridina denticulata sinensis) x10-20
The healthiest part of the tank! I'm always watching these guys crawling around and cleaning food/debris off something. A lot went in, a lot died, but some survived and have hatched at least two batches of babies who have all grown up. Right now at least two or three females are berried (carrying eggs under her, like this one is) and there's a few more whose ovaries are visible and ready, so more baby shrimps soon!
Plants:
Willow moss - Fills out well, but kind of annoying to prune/maintain/work with in a tiny tank, B++++ wouldn't use for aquascaping again.
Glossostigma - Works much like the baby's tears I planted in the 10 gallon tank, but baby's tears are way tinier. Not that these things are big, mind you. I didn't know how to plant them properly when I got them, so it was rather a mess for quite a while. Now that the pieces are better-planted they just kind of sit there and not die and occasionally complain if they don't get enough light by growing taller and skinnier (right), except for this one piece in the corner that's properly sending out runners like crazy (left). Unfortunately it's running towards the BACK of the tank instead of across the front. Oh well.
Dwarf hairgrass - For a while it was planted at the back of the tank and wouldn't root well, but now it's starting to pop up everywhere. Is clearly scheming to take over the whole place - we'll see whether the end result is pleasant or will require a mass lawn-mowing.
Anubias nana petite - Have a couple of these things to highlight the hardscape (wood/rocks), just like in the other tank. They are supposed to be super-slow growers so I'm happy that they actually have had new growth at all and that all the leaves are healthy.
Micro crypt (Cryptocoryne petchii) - Don't really pay attention to it, fishes use it sometimes for shade. At first it had some leaves melt off but now seems to be doing pretty good.
Nesaea crassicaulis - Not doing well :( It's supposed to look something like this. It's bound to be missing some nutrient or other but damned if I'm going to bother testing the water for each trace mineral for its DISTINGUISHED PALATTE.
Extra pictures!
From the side! Hmm, kind of overgrown needs cleanup.
From the other side! This side is next to my computer monitor so the green spot algae (all those green specks) never gets scraped off. Maybe I should turn it around 90 degrees.
It's a snail! In background: fishes loving algae wafer to pieces.
A young female shrimp. The yellow-green patch behind her head on her back is known as the "saddle", where the eggs are kept. Once they are fertilized, she carries them under her belly. I have no idea how that transition works.
Male shrimp on his way to harass a big female. Actually it looks like this one might be a female too.
Clear view of shrimp butt eggs!
YES. Comment with your screen resolution if you want wallpaper-sized.
And finally:
Hmmmm.