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.

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?

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...