Lee_K - Gravel River Tank

[Andys temperate tank]

How territorial are they Lee?

My angels crash into the glass and bottom sometimes they are so aggressive. Especialy the male.

[Lee_k]

There not too bad tbh Andy! - i mean, there cichlids so even tho all the people online who have never kept them will tell you they sit showing off and looking pretty all day... then actually spend alot of time showing each other whos in charge.

But these pair more "escort" other fish away if they get near as oppose to constantly attack them!

The lights arent on yet but from what I can see it looks like all the eggs have gone today - maybe some hungry tetras...maybe the parents! Im sure they'll have another go!

[BigBen]

How territorial are they Lee?

My angels crash into the glass and bottom sometimes they are so aggressive. Especialy the male.

I've never seen what I would consider proper aggression with mine, just nips. The nipping is regular but it never results in persistent chasing and they've no interest in the other fish.

[Lee_k]

Yeah same with these Ben - they'll all be around one another with the odd movement towards to show whos boss but nothing "aggressive"

Cant see any eggs today tho!

[Lee_k]

Well 2 months later, thought I'd do a update!

Cant believe its now been 18 months since the Discus were added! - Meaning there probably around 21 months old so probably all but fully grown now (bar the Santarem that I've had for around 6 months now so likely around 9 month old)

The snow leopard with the suspected tumour is still doing well, its never grown like the others but it still seems to be happy.

The BBA battle and work etc had been getting in the way of the tank, the BBA was never that bad - was just on a few leaves around the outside and I'd cut it away but it'd just come back. I tried liquid CO2 which seemed take it down...then it just comes back (guess you'd expect that with chemical treatments), tried less injected co2, more injected co2, turned the lights right down, reduced light period, added floating plants to the point where they completely took over the top!, tried a extra water change a week, added the FX4 too add flow (flow seems to make it worse/spread more...) so I pretty much gave up and just started to think cutting it out during the water changes would now be part of the maintenance.

Tried one last thing....

Enter the exterminators,



They were finally added to the tank 9 days ago and the difference in the first few days was just unreal! Further to that it continues to improve, the red stem plant and the 53b always seemed to get it the worst and I'd end up cutting big chunks out - today they look like:



And this is after just 9 days!

Now I have no doubt this isn't a "fix" and when the fish start to realise the beef heart is nicer it'll no doubt come back until somehow its balanced itself in the meantime but it certainly seems a better fix than the chemicals with the bounce reaction when its taken away - and everything else I tried didn't work anyway!

The discus have spawned a few more times since but never made it past egg stage, the 4 sterbai corys I had however are now at least 8 although its had to count!

Discus update why i'm here:
















And finally a overall tank shot, plants starting to look a little wilder now and hopefully without the BBA the 53B will reach the top without constantly being cut!

I've even got confident to the point where i've turned the lights back up copying a setup from Bentley Pascoe where for a hour or 2 the lights on 100% (which i've never used before!) So either that will mean the algae outruns the siamese or the plants will bloom and grow like mad helping use up the nutrients in the water and give the siamese less work do! - Time will tell!!





Lee

[Stephen]

And finally a overall tank shot, plants starting to look a little wilder now and hopefully without the BBA the 53B will reach the top without constantly being cut!

I've even got confident to the point where i've turned the lights back up copying a setup from Bentley Pascoe where for a hour or 2 the lights on 100% (which i've never used before!) So either that will mean the algae outruns the siamese or the plants will bloom and grow like mad helping use up the nutrients in the water and give the siamese less work do! - Time will tell!!





Lee

Looking great Lee

[Netsu]

Absolutely stunning!

[Lee_k]

Been a really long time since a update, but in the interest of honesty! - This update isnt a good one.

The tank had been going brilliantly - the plants suddenly gone nuts in terms of growth and was starting to look the best it ever has.

Then disaster - the blue diamond discus stopped eating, tried all meds I could get - extra water changes, live food the lot but it just wont eat and is now starting to look pinched.

Anyway as treatments are ongoing the wife suddenly said the other day "whats your fish doing" - and my favourite of them all (the german wonder) was swimming horizontally. I sent some videos and pictures to the guy that owns my LFS (Justfinns) and he was straight back with advice etc despite it being late at night.

My first thought was to test the water, it was a bit of a formality as i'd only tested it the day before when I did the water change...but this time, purely by chance I grabbed my NTLABS nitrite test no the API one... disaster! - it went bright pink, nitrite was at least 2ppm. The ammonia looked off yellow too which i'd almost got used too and ignored thinking it'd always been like this - checked the box and its showing 0.25ppm.

The tank must of crashed.

Maybe the meds? (all claimed to be filter safe but maybe as there was so many different ones of the past month it just overwhelmed the filter?) if not, i've no idea whats caused it but its definately crashed and cycling again...but with fish in!

I retested that night with the API nitirte.... nice clear blue (0) - again NTLABS showing 2... the API kit is old now but well within its BBD still, maybe it goes off with age once opened?. - I've binned it now.

Unfortunately the expected happened and the following morning my 2 year old nice 16-17cm German wonder discus was dead.

Add to that some other problems that some fish have now got i'm guessing from Ammonia/Nitrite poisening / stress such as the blue diamond still not eating and now the marlborough getting pop eye i'm in a fight to save as many other fish as I can - daily water changes. Dosing benefical bacteria etc.

If anyone has any other ideas why the tank would suddenly just crash i'd be happy to rule it out as im at a complete loss as too why this would happen after near 2 years now and its never missed a weekly water change either (often gets 2 per week)

My worry at the moment is that of my 7 discus - 1 is gone, the marlborough has pop eye (which alot of sites suggest water (and mines now cycling again), the blue diamond is looking pinched and the albino snow has had the tumour since months old - I could quickly find myself down to 4 discus if I get no other problems which then would likely cause them stress from low numbers. But theres no way i'm adding anymore until the tank is settled and returning constant 0's (and the fish health is looking much better).

Interestingly all the other fish have been fine.

Lee

[Gingerlove05]

Sorry for your loss Lee
You haven’t lost any of the other fish that may have caused a spike if the body has gone unnoticed?
Otherwise i would suspect the combination of the meds may have caused issues with the filter.
What conditioner and beneficial bacteria are you using? As tetra safe start doesn’t work with seachem prime (for example) as prime binds the food source of the bacteria in the tetra safe start. Obviously seachems own bacteria in a bottle (Stability) works with prime

[plankton]

Sorry to hear Lee.
All I would do is daily water changes, they don't have to be massive, just to put fresh in until everyone hopefully recovers.
The Stability/Safestart/whatever will help, but check the filter isn't blocked (to slow/stop the flow through the media) or anything weird. Also keep your eye on the temperature to make sure that's not fluctuating.