Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping => Gallery Showcase => Topic started by: Sue on May 19, 2017, 09:46:57 AM

Title: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 19, 2017, 09:46:57 AM
After losing the dominant male stiphodon to the filter bracket incident (I squashed him  :-[ ) I have been waiting for one of the other three to take over the #1 position. For a few weeks now there has been no new dominant male. Then yesterday afternoon I looked in the tank and saw a dark blue male. There is now a new dominant male.
So of course I had to take some photos, and some of the other fish as well. The ricefish were the worst as they won't keep still. I finally got some by dropping an algae wafer at the front of the tank.
I've also included one of the whole tank.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 19, 2017, 09:48:10 AM
More photos  :)
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Littlefish on May 19, 2017, 11:19:49 AM
Great photos @Sue and lovely to see the whole tank.  8)
I have a massive soft spot for stiphodons.  :)
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: fcmf on May 19, 2017, 07:53:16 PM
Great pics, Sue, and thanks - wow, what a contrast in colour between dominant and subordinate males.

How lush your tank is - and you're always saying that you can't keep plants. It is very impressive.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 19, 2017, 08:13:12 PM
All three of them were pale until yesterday then all of a sudden, one of them changed overnight. Maybe it was the daphnia they had for dinner the day before.

I know stiphodons do change colour with mood, but the colour change overnight was dramatic, and he's been the same darker colour again today.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Matt on May 19, 2017, 10:44:57 PM
I have a massive soft spot for stiphodons.  :)

Me too!

@Sue your tank is looking fantastic! The colour of my Rams can change very quickly indeed and from stripes to spots... fascinating to watch.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Littlefish on May 20, 2017, 08:49:54 AM
One of my gold stripe cories was so pale after the water change today I thought it was dead. With much disappointment I went to get the forceps to retrieve the body, and as the forceps touched the fish it swam away.
 :o   :)
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: MarquisMirage on May 20, 2017, 01:25:36 PM
The stiphodons look great.  :D  All your fishies look happy and you've created a lovely habitat for them.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: TrenchyLs on May 21, 2017, 12:38:40 PM
That's a lovely tank, and after a quick Google, I must say that the Stiphodons are a fascinating fish.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 21, 2017, 12:49:36 PM
Thank you all for your kind comments  :)

I should have added to the first post that the tank is a custom build by ND Aquatics. It is 107 cm wide x 45 cm deep by 45 cm tall. The odd length is because they worked in inches and the sizes convert to 42 x 18 x 18 inches.
I measured the water in and it took 188 litres though I have added more wood since then so I call it 180 litres.
Plants include Java fern, both ordinary and Wendelov, several different species of anubias and bolbitis all attached to wood; hornwort wound round the branches of a piece of wood; floating water spirite (Ceratopteris cornuta) and Bucephalandra maia attached to a couple of stones.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Matt on May 21, 2017, 02:15:32 PM
@Sue how is your bolbitis doing?  I've heard mixed reviews which has always put me off... interested to hear your views on its hardiness...
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 21, 2017, 02:48:40 PM
I have it both tanks, on a big piece of wood in the 180 and a tiny piece in the betta's tank. It is doing well in both tanks. It has grown black brush/beard algae in the past but the floating plants have reduced that so the problem was probably too much light.
If you look at a big view of the whole tank photo, the bolbitis is the plant at the bottom end of the heater behind a clump of anubias. You can also see it in the last photo of the rasboras (with a couple of bits of Java moss sticking out of it). And I've also noticed the dominant male stiphodon at the bottom of this photo.

The plant at the front left of the whole tank photo in front of the filter is the Wendelov Java fern, Microsorum pteropus Wendelov, (with Anubias barteri var. coffeefolia on the same piece of wood) which does create a similar effect to the bolbitis.

At the back left is Anubias barteri barteri, there is a tiny bit of Anubias barteris var. nana bonzai out of sight, the one at the far right is A. lanceolata and the one more of less in the middle is A. hastifolia.

These are all slow growing, low light plants so they do take a while to achieve bushiness.




I should add that there is a decorative background on the tank. There is a fair amount of algae on the back wall which I can't reach to scrape off so it dulls the colours down somewhat. But the picture is rocks at the top, brown and brown/white stripey, and at the bottom lots of those plants that look a bit like grass. Any plant that looks like it is growng in the substrate is just the background  :)
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 26, 2017, 07:31:34 PM
I hadn't seen any stiphodons today until I was about to feed the fish this evening. i now have two dark blue males....  :o
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Littlefish on May 28, 2017, 07:54:34 AM
2 dark males, wow  8)

They are lovely looking fish.

As for bolbitis, I bought one a while back, with plans to put it in the river tank when set up, so put it in my plant storage tank. The leaves died back and I thought I'd killed it, but looking at it more recently it has grown all new leaves (slowly) and looks great.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 28, 2017, 11:07:04 AM
Bolbitis is classed as a slow growing plant and according to Tropica does best in soft acidic water. My tap water isn't acidic but it is on the soft side. Mine did take a while to get bushy.

It is one of the few plants that are grown attached to decor. It makes a nice change from Java fern and anubias even if it does take a while to make an impact  :)
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on May 29, 2017, 02:27:41 PM
@Matt  Here is a photo of my Bolbitis so you can see that is doing fine in my tank. However I will admit that it is a slow growing plant and this is a few years old.
The advantage of plants that grow on decor is that you can move them round whenever you feel like it.

I moved the Bolbitis to the front during Wednesday's water change, and it was two days later that I noticed 2 dark blue stiphodons. I wonder if rearranging the tank was the cause?
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Matt on May 29, 2017, 08:41:19 PM
Nice!!

I'll add it to the list of plants to try alongside buce and java fern.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Helen on July 24, 2017, 10:30:39 PM
Wow, Sue that looks great! Are all your plants attached to decor? (I remember when you had plastic plants in your tank!  :P )
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: fcmf on July 24, 2017, 11:05:22 PM
Sue's much better at keeping plants than she gives herself credit for. Her tank does indeed have luscious plant growth. (Following her post about bolbitis, I got some myself but it died very suddenly overnight after only having had it for a fortnight.)
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on July 25, 2017, 11:12:22 AM
Helen knows my reputation from the old forum. I killed every plant I put in the tank back then  :-[


All my plants are attached to wood except the bucephelandra which is attached to rocks, and the water sprite which is floating on the surface.
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Helen on July 25, 2017, 07:38:06 PM
But that is clearly behind you now. Your tank looks lush. (In the proper sense!) 😉
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: Sue on July 25, 2017, 07:42:38 PM
Thank you  :)
Title: Re: Sue's fish May 2017
Post by: TopCookie on May 02, 2018, 10:58:07 AM
Love the Stiphodons Sue...!!! 

Peacocks look great too...!!!  Great pics...  :)