Here’s an updated photo of my 2.5G. As you can see, the Crassula helmsii is really starting to take off — maybe too much so. The downoi is looking good, and I’ve removed the Blyxa japonica from the back right. I’m debating whether or not it needs something back there or not. Let me know what you think! 🙂

Here’s an updated shot of the 2.5G aquascape I’m working on for the GWAPA contest. The foreground is finally starting to fill in a little bit, and I like the squirrelly look of it, but I’m not that impressed by the Blyxa japonica in the back right. It looks too contrived I think. I may just opt to pull it out entirely, but any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I recently spent a long weekend at the beach, and when I returned home, two of the Jewel Cichlids that I had collected while in Florida had paired up, spawned, and were now rearing a some cloud of fry. Before I left, two of the four fish were obviously pairing up. They started showing magnificent coloration, guarded a cave under a large manzanita root, and were making life hell for the other two Jewels in the 20G high that they were in.

I spent the better part of 3 evenings before I left attempting to fish out the two other Jewel cichlids. I successfully netted one of them, and he now occupies a tank by himself. The other one was far too quick for me, but unfortunately, not quick enough for the pair, as when I returned, they had sealed the loner’s fate. Having the tank to themselves, the male and female take turns guarding their fry. But they still have no qualms leaving their babies when I feed them black worms, as they nearly jump from the water to snatch the worms.

It’s nearly impossible to count how many fry are present, but extrapolating from what I was able to count, I’d estimate that I have 100-150. If even half of that number survive, I’m going to be flooding the market with some very pretty Jewel Cichlids at CCA meetings later this year. So far, I’ve been relatively satisfied with their interactions with plants in the tank. A few sprigs of Blyxa japonica have been uprooted, but those were right next to their spawning site. Otherwise, they haven’t caused too much damage.

GWAPA’s aquascaping contest is currently underway after we handed out the equipment at our May meeting. So, what did I do? I went straight home, filled my tank with aquasoil, popped in some new bulbs into my old fixture, and setup the aquascape below.

Obviously, this is a mound style of aquascape, using the downoi and blyxa japonica to highlight the rocks. In the middle is anubias barterii nana var. ‘petite’ with crassula helmsii in the foreground. I have a little bit of ranalisma rostrata in the back right to transition to a better height from the blyxa japonica. I’m still deciding how much I like this scape, but I hope to have it grow in with enough time to take a picture and try another scape before the October deadline. Hopefully that’s allowed. 😉

RIP apistogramma viejit

As posted a couple days ago, I rescaped my 20G high tank with some fresh Amazonia aquasoil and manzanita wood. I’ve rescaped a number of tanks in the past with aquasoil, and I’ll usually add the soil, plant and scape the tank, fill with water, allow to cycle for a few hours, and then add in the fish. Most times, the filters are preexisting, or some of the plants/hardscape come from other tanks, so the biological filter should be largely pre-established. I’ve never had any problems with fish loss using this method.

Now I’ve read and heard about other folks experiences about how new aquasoil temporarily causes the pH to crash. Since my methods above have always worked, I’ve never paid them much heed. True, the pH does drop, but never to an extreme degree that the fish couldn’t adjust to. So, with this 20G setup, I followed my same methodologies. I removed the apistogramma viejitas that were in there, placed them in a bucket with airstone, and proceeded with the change. A few hours after setup, I moved the apistogramma back into the tank. I was actually hoping that the pH would drop down a fair amount and induce spawning since I haven’t been able to get them to breed at a 6.5 CO2 induced pH. They seemed happy enough that night. Morning came, and they were still swimming around, not looking distressed. Then, I get home from work, and one is on the floor, and the other is upside-down in the tank. What changed?

Well, I’m not sure. This is the first tank I’ve setup with fresh wood in a long time. Is it possible that the tannins from the new manzanita dropped the pH further in conjunction with the aquasoil-induced drop? I don’t know. In any case, I think I’ll let my fish spend an extra day or two in an aerated/filtered bucket next time I redo a tank with aquasoil. Rest in peace apistogramma viejita.