eeek - Snakes!!!! Venomous ones??? Don't your cats keep them away? I know nothing about snakes as you can probably tell.
One of (actually - the only) resons that I don't have panda cories in my current tank is that Thames Water supply me with 25ppm Nitrates right out of the tap. I use RO water in a mix of 2:3 RO:tap and this brings the water hardness down to 10
o and the added Nirates down to 15ppm, but I'm still looking for a suitable plant selection to bring the Nitrates down further.
Hygrophillia polysperma looks like it may be the one, but I'm trying a few different ideas. I don't seem to be able to grow plants very well so it looks like Corydoras, Anubias and Java Fern are going to be the main contenders, but what I don't want is both tanks to have the same mix of plants in them - I want them to look different, hence my continual experimentation. I'm going to have a play with the Pygmy Chain Sword (
Echinodorus tenellus) next to see if that'll grow.
My plan for the next tank (40cm cube; 55litres;
Click here) would be 6 panda cories and my two male salt'n'peppar platies (one of whom is in my hospital tank to isolate them as, contrary to all I'd read up about in my pretty extensive research, male platies
don't get on together after they mature
) along with 5 female salt'n'peppar platies to keep the boys distracted from beating hell out of each other. ( A bit like teenagers, really
) After a few months of seeing how that goes I'll either keep it as is, add numbers to the existing stock or introduce Checkered Barbs as they'll fit in well with the water parameters, cooler temperature and chosen swimming zone (plus I really like barbs
)
I hope your back's easing up and that you have a good and fishy day today.