Making Space For The Gold Apple Snails

There's no eggs from the gold apple snails yet, but one is looking very uncomfortable and not moving around much in the day (although other one is hiding & asleep). At night it makes it's way up to the surface.

It does look stuffed! So I was wondering whether it just can't find anywhere to lay it's eggs. I've read anything from 2 inches as bare minimum, to 3 to 6 inches of tank above the water line.

The tank wasn't up to the maximum level - losing water through evaporation and throwing it out as new fish go in. There was about an inch and a half of space, so just under all of the minimums. Therefore, tonight I removed 8 litres of water to give at least 3 inches of tank side if the snails want to lay eggs. Will replace it in the morning, maybe removing more again tomorrow if nothing happens overnight.

A Red Crab

We were a bit further afield today and I popped into an aquarium shop to see what they had in stock. I saw an attractive red crab, eating through what turned out to be sweet potato.

I asked the guy behind the question a few questions - is it suitable for a totally freshwater tank and do they need to be able to leave the water? Yes and no were the answers, so I bought the cute little guy.

It was only when we got him home - away from his meal, that I noticed he only had a single large pincer and not the full complement of 8 legs - a couple are missing! Maybe he'd been attacked by his companions.

But also I looked him up on the internet and at least one person says that red crabs are suitable for totally freshwater tanks and that they need some easy access to land to 'explore'.

Really annoyed with that shop. Not the cost - he was only a couple of pounds - just being sold an animal that I don't have the facilities to care for.

Hopefully he'll molt soon, now he's got less food competition and a cleaner and bigger tank. That's when, with luck, he'll grow back one or more of his missing claws. Until then, the poor guy!

If he can regrow his missing claws then maybe I can give him something to climb up and an "island" at the top of the tank = need to think that now. For now, there are plenty of plants to climb and if he discovers the oxygenating weed, which he's hiding under, that will take him to the surface.

Good luck to our new friend Henry - I hope the molt is not long off - I read they can be every 2 to 6 months.

Bristlenose Catfish

Latest addition to the tank is a cute looking Bristlenose Catfish. Apparently these guys grow to around 8+ cm, mines currently around 15mm. Tiny and cute little guy, he's (or she's) already been trying to clean the sides of the tank. Now currently hiding behind a rock for the night.

I have heard they can have rather a grumpy attitude when they get bigger - we'll find out!

The Shrimps Are Back In Town

After being very elusive for a few days the Ghost Shrimps suddenly both made an appearance a few minutes ago.

For a couple of days I've only ever had a glance of one of them, hiding in or on the cave. To be honest, I've seen so little that I did think one had died and at times they have hidden for so long, I assumed both were gone.

But then suddenly both Ghost Shrimps made an appearance on more obvious rocks and there's one (or is it both taking turns) scurrying around the water like they were when they first went in a week ago? Maybe they have both simultaneously molted or something, but their behaviours have changed in the last 10 minutes.

Gold Apple Snails Attempting To Breed?

Found the two Gold Apple Snails locked together for a while tonight and one's been climbing to the top of the tank frequently, although that seems to be the male. It goes to the top, then just before it gets there it turns and heads down. Maybe he looking for algae on the glass!

But apparently I need 3, up to 6, inches of tank space above the water level for the female to lay eggs, if that Gold Apple Snail is indeed female and ready to lay eggs. But there's only about an inch there.

It's very tempting to remove a few inches of water to see if they will lay eggs, but do I want to risk upsetting the balance of the water and do I really want hundreds of gold apple snails hatching, when there are only 5 neon tetras in the tank - and they leave the other baby snails alone.

Ghost Shrimps At Home

I just happened to look into the tank this afternoon, after only seeing the elusive ghist shrimps coming out of hiding once early morming, and I saw one of the shrimps heading towards a hiding hole.

I've got a 'rock' ornament at the back of the tank, under the filter and heater. Quite often if the shrimps are out they are on this piece. There are a few entrances holes into it and it was into the uppermost of these holes that I just happened to see a shrimp slowly retreating.

The Ghost Shrimps are at best to see. When hiding in a 'cave' they may as well not exist. I've not found anything that says how much fish space they effectively take up, but I'm sure 2 won't be taking up much. Am tempted to get a few more as the Ghost Shrimps are hard to spot at the best of times. But no idea how many Ghost Shrimps there should / can be in a community.

A Puffer Fish???

The fish are settling in, but the readings are still all staying impossibly on zero, even using a different type test kit to cross check.

Didn't see the glass shrimps until very late in the day - no idea where they have been hiding as I moved their favourite plants around as I wasn't happy with the arrangment. This did cause a load of sediment that had settled on some plants (presumably the frozen daphnia that's not been eaten) to scatter. It settled in seconds, just wish something would eat it!

I did see in the shop a nice looking Leopard Puffer Fish. These Puffer fish look harmless and quite friendly, and aren't massively big for the tank, so I did some research on them. First thing I found was a video of one eating live ghost shrimps, so I won't be getting a Puffer Fish! Can't have it eating the residents that are already established. My daughter would be devasted if 'Shrimpy' or 'Narky' were eaten.

Neon Tetras Behaviour Developing

The pattern of the day is becoming established for the little Neon Tetras. Fight in the morning, then accept food a little while after the lights have gone on. And they are seeming to take an interest in there is someone in the room with them.

The shoaling isn't as obvious - most of the day there's been at least 1 on it's own, usually never to be found. Only occasionally have all 5 made an appearance together, and then quite often that's in 2 or 3 groups.

Even with the addition of 5 Neon Tetras there's no ammonia or nitrate showing in the tank. Spoke to the manager of a pet shop and he said just to leave it a week then add in 5 or 6 fish - presumably very small ones at that number! But he recons that the plants are consuming most of the ammonia and anything that is being produced is cycling and the resulting nitrite being consumed.

So cycling could be a longer process than usual, but it's being done at very low levels, which is ideal for the fish. Another good sign is that the hardness of the water has come down, with the PH staying the same. So it does look as though the plants are cleaning the water. Given the tap water is harder and I have in the past detected nitrates in the tap water, then I'm best leaving the plants to it and changing only when I absolutely have to.

Neons Settling In

Quite a bit of aggression between the Neons this morning - in 1s and 2s instead of a shoal. Eventually 4 did calm down and shoal, still looking for the 5th fish.

Poured in some frozen daphnia and the Yamato Shrimps and Green Apple Snails appeared for feed time. The Neon Tetras tried some if the food, but not much. Too busy chasing each other around the tank. There are 2 noticably different colour patterns between the Neons today - some are blues (and red) whilst on others they are more green. Trying to work out whether the greeny Neons are the ones doing the chasing.

I have read today that it is normal for the Neons to chase each other more prior to the lights coming on, so maybe this is to be expected.

Water levels are still showing absolutely no ammonia in the tank. Reading up about this and it could be the large number of plants are consuming it all. Might need another hardy fish later in the week.

Just spotted the other tetra on it's own in their favourite hiding place whilst the others are mid water. Maybe the move has triggered spawning behaviour of something. Lights are still only on for 3 hours per day - so will come on later.

Neon Tetras

Still no changes in the water quality. Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite staying at zero. Whereas this is excellent for the snails and shrimps, it does mean the cycling isn't starting.

So went back to the shop and, with their advice, bought 5 neon tetras. Settled them into the tank and prepared 16 litres of water for a water change tomorrow if the levels go mad overnight.

The Neons are shoaling well, but very difficult to get them to take food. A couple did finally spot the flakes at the surface, but the Neons seem to prefer the bottom of the tank, in with the 18 plants! One did get an entire flake into it's mouth and then try to eat it - so the others then started to try to steal the rest of the flagk from it. Eventually they did break off most of the flake, leaving just a tube of flake in the fish's mouth - it looked gormless with it's mouth stuck open.

Later 3 of them looked quite fat from the foor, the other 2 looked skinny still. Tried a couple of flakes later, but still no feeding.

A slightly bit of agro between one of the Yamato Shrimps against a couple of the tetras, but only slight positioning. Neither hurt!

Occupants settling in

Apart from only now finding one of the surprise 'Malaysian Twist Snails' (maybe I've crushed one - I moved an ornament around where they were seen), the rest of the tank is settling in.

Still no ammonia forming - snails aren't doing their job of poluting the water! A few plants are showing a bit of decay - so I've increased the lighting to 3 hours per day (will be a slow weekly increase).

The Yamato shrimps are hiding and it took most of the night to confirm that there were still 2 alive in there! The Gold Apple Snails are equally unadventurous, and hiding around the back. Made the mistake of switching the room light on in the evening and they both virtually ran to the back of the tank!

Dropped some food in and the shrimps went mad! One did eventually settle onto the filter and appear to give that a good grooming. That one seems to be slightly more aggressive than it's hungrier counterpart.

Interesting to watch both Green Apple Snails climb to the top of the tank (quite quickly) together. There are also a few other small snails about - how many were on that first batch of plants?

Yamato Shrimp, Gold Apple Snail

Had to pop home for a few hours to get the heating fixed. The plants are growing well and I checked the readings and as per those since the plants went in, ammonia, nitrates and nitraites are all zero, water is hard and ph 7.0. The bubbles have cleared from the side of the tank and the temperature is showing 21.5c. So I bought a couple of new occupants to try to get the tank cycling.

I was recommended (by the shop) a pair of Gold Apple Snails and also 2 Yamato Shrimps (glass shrimps). Amazingly interesting watching them in the tank at first!

Once I'd gone through the usual introduction process, I tried to gently introduce these to the tank. But the net wasn't quite long enough and the shrimps swam off, but the snail fell out in mid water and slowly drifted to the bottom, bounced and curled up.

After a few minutes the snails recovered, righted themsleves and moved off, mainly to find hiding places. One landed itself on a small plant, which looks like it's already died. The other mounted a 'rock structure'.

The shrimps are mad - buzzing from side to side of the tank and hiding. I tried feeding them 3 flakes of food, but they didn't notice it, so the food dropped to the bottom for later.

Fascinating to watch, really distracted me from the work I was trying to do!

More plants

I don't want to look obsessive about this, but abother 8 plants have been added to the 10 already in the 80 litres of water in the Roma 90 tank.

The 2 larger snails are still about and a smaller snail has also appeared. There are less bubbles on the side of the tank.

Away for a few days from this afternoon, so I'll need to leave it all alone!

Settling the tank in...

The water is settling and cleared nicely. A slight scum cleared off the surface - stones mustn't have been clean enough. But the insides of the glass of the new tank are covered in millions of tiny bubbles. Set the lighting tubes to come on for 2 hours per day.

10 plants went in at lunch time and a further 9 litres of water to fill it up to the maximum mark. Rearranged the ornaments slightly (some rock type structures). Heater is on minimum at first, increased to 22c as it warmed up.

Found two snails in the tank later in the day - I forgot to wash the plants! Looked them up and they appear to be harmless - possibly Malaysian Twist Snails, which only eat dead matter.

Thermometer is showing a steady 22c after the heater being on for under 8 hours.

Putting it in place

The new carpet is down - and covered with off cuts to protect it whilst I fill the tank! Counting each jug of water as I walked from bathroom to study, 70 litres of water went into the Roma 90 and there's still space at the top of the tank.

But it's absolutely icey! Had to put my hand in to rearrange the gravel slightly as that had been battered about. The gravel was just 'yellow river gravel' - washed in a bucket in the bath with a shower hose to get rid of the grit. Used about three quarters of the 10kg bag - so about 7 - 8 litres.

Added to the water the prescribed quantities of cycle & aqua plus additives to settle it down and an optional carbon pad to the standard Fluval heater - trying to get the tank clear!

Tested the water as a base. Strangely, showing 0.5ppm ammonia - must be from the gravel, surely our water isn't that bad! Quite hard water (180), ph 7.0 and no nitrite / nitrate.

I've Finally Done It

Well, I've finally done it - I've been out and bought a nice new tank for my first attempt at a tropical aquarium. I've already got one solitarty goldfish in a cold water tank, so I'm putting the tropical tank in my study - where I work most days of the week!

The new tank is a Roma 90 - a 60cm / 2 foot tank that's quite tall. It's displacement is 90 litres, I just need to get the room decorated and the new carpets down and then the tank can go in...