Sterbai Eggs

Today, my two corys started spawning.
Luckily I caught them early enough to save the eggs from becoming tetra lunch.

I scraped the eggs off the glass with a razor. (I also find you can do it with your finger if you have a really light touch and they stick on). It's also best to wait a bit for the eggs to harden.

I put the eggs in a net for the meantime. Since I am moving the fish out of this tank to the new big tank anyways, I will keep the 10 gallon as a fry only tank.

Hopefully they will hatch and survive.
I am currently looking into the best ways to feed and care for them.

The parents

Preparing to stick the eggs on the glass.

Eggs!

*Update: Looks like the eggs didn't hatch. The couple have laid a couple more batches since this first one but none seem to be hatching. Not sure if it is a problem with fertilization. I will have to read up on that a bit more.

36 Gallon Bowfront

This last weekend I purchased my first big tank, a 36 gallon bowfront.

There are a few fish that I have really wanted for a while, mainly a pair of Rams which of course wouldn't fit in my little 10 gallon or shrimp tanks.

So I got the tank all set up. I bought a couple pieces of mopani wood. It looks really good but apparently for the first little while it leaches tannins and sap which turns your water red.
At first it freaked me out a bit because I woke up the next morning and the water was all dark and there was this strange white cloudiness around the wood, but after looking it up, that seems to be normal.

The tank. July 3, 2011

Setup with wood and some plants.

Coming along.

I have decided to move the fish from my 10 gallon into the big tank. That frees up my 10 gallon for something else. I am also going to try moving the Celestial Pearl Danios over as well.

Shrimp Tank

A while back, I was at the fish store and I noticed the little nano shrimp. Right away I thought 'wow I have to get these'. So, I decided to create a shrimp tank.
I had seen a nice little nano cube shrimp kit so I decided to get it.

The tank is a 30L Fluval nano shrimp tank. (Comes with all of the things you will need to get started) Here's my initial setup. April 15, 2011

Adding the shrimp! I bought a bunch of crystal reds. I only got 5 at first but then added another 5 later. May 1, 2011

I later added some Celestial Pearl Danios. Very cute little fish but also very shy and often hiding. And some Panda Corys.
June 21, 2011

Plants: Java Fern, Java Moss, Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Mi Oya', Valisneria Asiatica, Marimo ball, Hornwort, Pondweed/Egeria densa
Fish: 10x Crystal Red Shrimp, 3x Panda Cory Cats, 5x Celestial Pearl Danio, 2x Oto Cats

African Dwarf Frogs

This all started when I was given two African dwarf frogs as a present. (Around Feb 2010) Originally I had them in a tiny glass container but soon found that it was really annoying to keep clean.
My friend had an extra 5 gallon tank sitting around so I set that up, threw a filter on it, added a heater, bubbler and some live plants. This was a much better habitat for the frogs and way easier to maintain.

So, since I had a bit of space to work with, I figured I’d add some fish.
My dad always had fish tanks when I was little, so I knew a bit about them but I hadn't set up my own tank before.
I had the tank running for a while with the frogs so it was cycled. I ended up adding some Neon tetras and a couple Sterbai cory cats and a snail.

May 2010

Over the next year, I switched up the tank a bit. I swapped the 5 gallon for an 8.
I also added some Oto cats and Nerite snails to the tank for algae control and a Crowntail betta.
I always feel sorry for bettas, they never look very good in the stores or in tiny tanks. But if you give them a bit bigger aquarium with a heater and filter, they are so active. Mine is just like a dog, he always comes up when I come over to the tank. He also likes to pig out. Even though I have betta food specifically for him, he eats everything else as well; flakes, algae wafers...

Initially I hadn't known much about aquatic plants. I figured they just needed light and got their nutrients out of the water and that was it. So, after killing two or three different types including the ones above, I read up on them and found out that different varieties have very different needs. (High lighting, CO2 injection, ferts)

I wanted to keep this a low tech tank, so I looked for some easy to grow plants. I ended up with Anubias, which does well in low lighting. I also added some Pondweed/Egeria densa which is a bit finicky; it grows like mad sometimes, doesn't like to stay planted, easily gets taken out by algae. I won't be getting more once my last bit dies off.

April 2011

Plants: Java moss, 2x Anubias barteri - angustifolia, Pondweed/Egeria densa
Fish: 7x Neon Tetras, 2x Corydoras Sterbai, 3x Oto cats, 2x African Dwarf Frog, 1x Crowntail Betta, 3x Nerite Snails


In just over a year I have learned a ton with this tank. Mainly, I learned to do research first. You can find everything you need on the internet.

New aquarium!

Alright, so I'm just setting up an aquarium log. This is mainly for me to see the progress of my tanks, but who knows; maybe someone out there will get something useful out of it.