The "Dream Tank" is becoming a reality!!!

[Kannan Fodder]

Tested tonight, negligible ammonia and zero nitrite. I say "negligible" because the vial isn't clearly bright yellow. Which is weird because I moved my 3 large Dennison's, my larger bichir, and my clown pleco into the tank yesterday evening. I thought I'd see an increase in ammonia, not a decrease! "Weird" indeed!

The clown pleco is only about 3 inches, but I've had it forever - 15 to 20 years. Not sure if this is ancient for one of these.

 

[rufioman]

Wow, that's an old clown pleco. Like, really old.

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Figured as much. I don't know the longevity of all fish, but my monster tinfoil is up there in years too. I've had it well over 10 years at this point. It's the reason for the 180g and why tinfoils are on my stock list. And now that I added the rest of the school, I remember why I like them so much. However, they aren't taking any attitude from the sunfish!

 

[rufioman]

Wow, they're holding up to the sunfish? Sunfish are freaking mean, dude. We had a bunch of bluegill (AZ sunfish, lol) harass us for food the other weekend while kayaking. They were angry with each other and nobody wanted to give in.

EDIT: saw that you added the rest of the school, duh. They'll show that sunfish who's boss.

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Currently in the tank are 4 tinfoils, 3 pictus cats, 3 Denninson's barbs, 2 Sengal bichirs, 1 clown pleco, 1 green sunfish, and about a dozen or so rosy reds. I have not added Skippy yet, because he's freakin HUGE and I wanted the other tinfoils to grow a bit first. There may or may not be a small bristlenose in the tank.

The tinfoils hold their own against the sunfish, and they seem to actually intimidate it at times. They do chase it when it gets food, and half the time they seem to be doing it just for sport. Which is kinda funny because Sunshine used to harass the smaller bichir when it had food.

Now I'm seeing the 2 bichirs acting like they're bonding. They are investigating each other, but I don't see any aggression.

 

[rufioman]

"There may or may not be a small bristlenose in the tank."

LOL

 

[Kannan Fodder]

"There may or may not be a small bristlenose in the tank."

LOL

I added some small BNs, which promptly scattered into the wood. Lost 2, another made its way into the sump and I lost it when I cleaned the tank (didn't know it was in the filter box), and the 4th is unaccounted for. I'm hoping it's hiding out among all the wood, with my ancient clown pleco.

The pictus cats hide most of the time too, but I see their whiskers sticking out. One of the pictus cats looked "iffy", and my CADM didn't want to sell it because she was sure it wasn't going to survive. I took it anyway so I'd have 3, and it looked ok to me - just stressed from shipping. 2 weeks later all three are still with me.

The tinfoils have totally taken over, and the Dennison's follow their lead. They charge around the tank like it's the Daytona 500, and everything else scatters and steers clear. Gotta say, this is a pretty entertaining tank!

 

[rufioman]

Super cool that your roselines are taking to the tinfoils. Must be very exciting any chance on a vid of the tank, bud?

 

[Kannan Fodder]

I'll try a video after I clean the algae and do another big water change. I forgot how quickly real wood discolors the water, and it's got this weird tea color thing going on, which looks really weird because of the obnoxious green wall behind the tank. LOL!

Fish are healthy and happy, and I swear the 2 bichirs pal around. I thought they were supposed to be aggressive toward each other, but that may be the personality of the ornate bichir. Mine are sengals. Picts are making more of an appearance, usually in response to food, but there's still 3 of them.

I'm having a serious algae problem, and am debating on moving Lana and Archer (my BN pair) from the 29g. They are doing the courtship thing, and I'd hate to have them breed in a tank full of predators.

 

[rufioman]

Yeah, algae is a bad one. MTS do a good job for me, but I have thousands of them. I don't mind looking at them, really. The tea color, oh man. I have had a new log in my 100g for over a month now, and it still discolors the tank every 8 days haha.