Staffylover's Two 200s (Pantanal/Catfish kingdom)

[Staffylover]

Had to move my Glowlight Tetra today as the 200 tank they were in before that I originally called Catfish Kingdom is now home to 2 types of livebearer's I also moved the porthole catfish out to save overloading the filter so the only Catfish left in now are a pair of BN and a few cory cats,
The Glowlights are now in the Pantanal theme tank I'm not sure if they occur there but they are at least from S.America and it was the best place for them, Since going in they have been great to watch, sticking tight together and much braver than I thought exploring all over the tank, it's quite a dark feel tank with the black sand and overgrown grasses so they show up really well, it's not often that a fish move works as well as this, often it doesn't go how I expect so it's really nice that this time it seems to be for the best

[FishBubs]

Looking lovely. I find the schooling of smaller tetras are great to watch. My black neons are great when they do it. Like you my tank is dark because of the wood and plants, my sand is light. But the black neons with their blue green stripe is just awesome.

What is the lovely looking orange fish at the front of your bottom tank?

[Staffylover]

@FishBubs Should think it's a Serpae Tetra, they are bold and brightly coloured but they each like their own space so you don't get the nice shoaling effect that you get with certain others, I also have black phantoms in there the females are a lovely red with a bit of sparkle more subtle than the Serpae but still lovely, they are too shy for this tank though, I usually only see them when the food goes in.

[Stephen]

The Glowlights are now in the Pantanal theme tank I'm not sure if they occur there but they are at least from S.America and it was the best place for them

The Glowlight tetra are from the Rio Essequibo in Guyana and not in the Pantanal.
A lovely tetra from the Pantanal is the Broken-line Tetra (Hemigrammus ulreyi).

[Staffylover]

@Stephen I have a few of these broken line tetra in there, they are amazing fish but hardly ever available which is such a shame, the Glowlights don't have anywhere else suitable I can put them at the moment but when that changes which I expect it will with the amount of times I change my tanks around I will hopefully be able to move them out again, hope your lovely tank is doing ok and hope you are feeling ok.

[Staffylover]

Following on from my last post about having to move the Glowlight Tetra out of the Fluval 200, I have got around to taking some pics of the tank they vacated as it is now,
It looks much the same but I am trying to add some cover for the fry higher up, I tried gluing some more Anubias but that didn't work so well although a few bits have taken, so I took the back lid off and stuffed some houseplants in, hopefully the roots will grow into the water and provide some cover, even as it is now the fry can get into the plant containers and the adults can't, the flow in the tank is strong, so floating plants are out,

The tank is primarily for livebearers, 2 types, A.Toweri with the blue in the tail of the males, one can be seen in the centre of the tank in the pic, and X.Captivus, 2 juveniles shown in pic, these have a much deeper body shape, both types seem to be doing well so far,
For a change I was able to get hold of a decent sized group to start with and I'm sure that makes a difference, often I can only get low numbers maybe only 1 pair, I am finding out this makes things very difficult, often it's a very shaky start or even downright failure, of course some will be more difficult than others to breed perhaps that's why they are less available!

[FishBubs]

Than looks tidy and nice to look at. For plants you need higher up (but not floaters) i use suction cups with what i would call veggie clips or i have bought some wood that comes with a sucker fixed on the end. I pop a right good size java fern on it or bolbitis which fish love to nuzzle in








Although i do take out the clip and pop it in a fluval black sucker just because black does hide the sucker from view, the i just clip an epiphyte in it

[Staffylover]

@FishBubs Thanks for this idea, I might be able to use it in another tank, I think the flow would be too strong in this one, although Anubias might work, I am surprised the sucker is strong enough to hold up a piece of wood, it's the first time I've seen this idea I might give it a try, always nice to have something different in a tank

[FishBubs]

Hi Staffy,

I have had my piece of wood for over a year and the sucker is still strong. Would definitely recommend. One of my java ferns is in a right heavy flow and doing great.

Both Aquaessentials and proshrimp do the floating wood in case you are looking for them.