Think Fish Keepers Daily News. [2016-2019]

At least it wasn't fish on the menu tonight, that was last night's dinner 




I've just been entering my new fish in the CC, substituting slender harleqins for the hengelis, Axelrods rasboras for the ricefish and otos for the stiphodons. It says I'm 55% stocked. With the tank lights out, those 36 x 1 cm long baby fish make the tank look full after two and a half months of no fish.
And why do I have to get fish that aren't in the profiles? The only ones there are the gudgeons......

Are referring to more tanks or more fish? Sometimes it's hard to tell @Littlefish 

Congratulations on the new fish Sue, we are most excited to see them in a pic soon 

Wee update on my Electric Blue Rams... They seem to be coping well in their new home. They seem to spend an equal amount of time exploring solo and swimming as a pair... They have definitely managed to grab some food among the frenzy of the other shoals who know exactly what is coming and when.

Feeding time has been quite interesting as I am now using a mix of flake and micro-pellets. I chose to do this since the rams had been fed on flake in the LFS and I just simply had to buy a wee pot of flake in case they didn't like the pellets. So I've been feeding less pellets than normal then taking a half cup of tank water and adding some finely crushed flake to it until it submerges, then aiming and pouring it down towards the rams. They have rarely been up past the mid-point of the tank so doing this ensured they managed to get some grub. The other fish saw the flake descending and it looked like they kinda went "Uh, what the hell..." But then quickly cottoned on that it was food and proceeded to decimate it before it could even reach the bottom third of the tank 

Today though, they were holding their own very well at evening feed (i've done two half-feeds today instead of two full feeds so basically still a half-day ration) and managed to grab some pellets and they looked to enjoy them 

Off now to add a few algae wafers for the plec now the lights have been off for a while. Buenos noches, amigos 

@Paddyc I would recommend splitting the algea wafers into 2 as the rams will also go nuts for them (they're omnivorous and so need a bit in their diet). This will avoid any tank bottom arguments 

The Bolivian rams I had a few years ago were reluctant feeders at first - I had to buy some sinking tablets to get them to eat. But before long they were feeding at the surface along with the other fish 




It's such a dismal day that I can't see into the tank properly, and with 2 lots of 18 a head count is impossible anyway. Once the light comes on a lunchtime I'll be able to search the bottom of the tank for any casualties, which I always expect with tiny fish.
On the plus side, I have zero ammonia and nitrite this morning. I was a bit concerned as nitrite never dropped to zero in 24 hours after adding 3 ppm ammonia, it was taking ~30 hours.

Maybe room for a few more fish.

Music to everyone's ears. The developments in your tank are great.

The next addition will be 4 more stiphodons when the shop gets some more in. And if all four gudgeons turn out to be females, I'll need at least one, maybe two males. That would take me to 72%, or 75% depending if I got 1 or 2 more gudgeons.
That's a bit much for another species, so maybe a few more of the ones I already have.

I would love a trio of honey gouramis but with two internals, which allow me to use 'oversized internal' in the CC, the current is a bit strong for them. If I remove one internal, that means 'internal' instead of 'oversized internal' and the extra stiphs would put me at 89%. Decisions, decisions 

Wow - exciting times at ThinkFish Towers. Congrats to one and all!

We've got a couple of eggs from our new chickens... which is equally exciting for us. That's breakfast sorted tomorrow morning.

@Sue lovely fish. You have a great mix of species in the tank. I have a soft spot for the stiphodons as they have such cute little faces. I hope that we will see lots of pictures of the fish as they settle in. 

@ColinB Yummy. I hpe that you enjoy your breakfast.

@Paddyc you may have won the battle, but not the war. Those little buggers are in it for the long term. Good to know the algae wafer & net works quite well though.

Take a jar with a screw top lid. Punch holes in the lid from the outside so the spikes this leaves point into the jar. The holes should be big enough for the snails to get through but small enough so the fish can't get in. Place the snails' favourite food inside the jar, place in the tank just before going to bed and next morning it will hopefully be full of snails that can find their way in but can't get out again thanks to those spikes.

 

Sue, bloody genius! I'm doing this TONIGHT