Recently following a heavy rain one of the residual current breakers (RCD) on the main breaker box of the house tripped and could not be reset which took down half of the lighting and almost all of the wall sockets. I strung up a network of extension leads to the one remaining live socket (for the cooker) to keep power to the fridge/freezer and the boiler. What about the critters? I strung another lead through to power on the Shrimphaus to keep the new caridina shrimp happy with water flow, oxygenation and light. So far so good – call the electrician. Meanwhile, lets get the internet back on (check) and probably good to sort the Fireplace Aquarium as well. Connecting the powerbar for the Fireplace Aquarium immediately trips the RCD on the cooker socket circuit, taking down most of the rest of the power to the house.
Category: Fireplace aquarium
It’s been a challenge to find an epiphyte that looks good on the mountain. I tried Anubias nana ‘Snow White’ which failed to grow, and the similar Anubias nana ‘Pinto’ which grew fine but looked too big for the nanotank. Also in the mix was Bucephalandra caterina which grew well and kind of resembled a sombrero hat after it really got going, and Anubias barteri nana ‘Pangolino’ which was more rhizome than decorative leaves. Now I’m having a go with Anubias Barteri ‘Mini Coin’ which I sourced from Java Plants (a new vendor for me). After the great epiphyte tear-out of last year there was prime epiphyte real estate available on the mountain. Continue reading “Planting Anubias barteri ‘Mini Coin’”
I have been using 600 g disposable CO2 cylinders to provide CO2 gas to the Fireplace Aquarium and that has been pretty good. One cylinder lasts two or three months and they are a reasonably unobtrusive size. Recently though I have been going big. Welder’s Warehouse has a two extra-large cylinders combo deal. Each cylinder holds 1300 g of CO2. Surprisingly, the larger cylinders are not much taller than the 600 g cylinders I have been using so they don’t take up massively more space. The other nice feature is they come with a flat bottomed plastic collar base and stand stably upright on their own. The smaller cylinders just have the round bottom and so need to lean up against something which is always a bit of a worry.
I like the look of the Cryptocoryne nevelli and the Schismatoglottis prietoi as well, but it seemed like they were on the wrong sides of the tank. The C. nevelli got larger than I thought it would so blocked the view of the Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’ and the recently re-attempted Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’. (Must… get… Alternanthera… to work!) Meanwhile the shorter S. Prietoi left a lot of empty vertical space on the right side.
before rescape
cleaned out
rescaped
excess biomass
A good amount of the original biOrb ceramic filter media was pulled out by the roots of the plants being extracted. I replaced the lost volume with aquasoil. Pulling up major amounts of plant mass like this always releases lots of fine debris and it took several large water changes and repeated cycles with the portable filter to get these particulates cleared up.
Ember tetras are a great little fish with lots of colour and activity. They are a ‘shoaling’ fish which means they like to stay together in a loose group – this is different from ‘schooling’ fish which exhibit a tight formation with highly synchronised movements. Filed under “there’s always one”, we have this one ember, named ‘Jerry’, who does not shoal with the other embers and instead hangs out by him(her?)self on the opposite side of the tank. The shoaling embers are generally in the upper left of the Fireplace Aquarium, whilst Jerry is inevitably on the middle/upper right side. Why Jerry doesn’t go along with the group is a mystery but it’s very consistent behaviour and always from the same fish, and if I’m honest, it’s not without its charm.
The embers replaced chili rasboras in the Fireplace Aquarium. The embers are big enough not to get eaten by the rummys or the barbs – this was less true for the slightly smaller chilis.
Sold by Tropica in a tissue culture cup as ‘Cryptocoryne nurii‘, this small crypt is doing very well in the Fireplace Aquarium. Unlike the smaller bright green leaves in the tissue culture form, the new growth submersed form leaves are larger and have a very pretty mottled dark green and dusky rose colouration. Sometimes this plant is sold under the name ‘Rose Maiden’ which does seem suitable.
I was hoping for a cryptocoryne with some red colouration but after the disappointment of pretty much no red at all on Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘flamingo’ , and a prominent striped light and dark green pattern but no actual pink on Cryptocoryne petchii pink confidence was not very high…
Well crap! I had high hopes for the chili rasboras. When I purchased the initial 8 of them I specifically asked the person at the local fish store whether rummy nosed tetras would eat the chili rasboras and was assured that they would not. Then I put the chilis in and only counted 7. I picked up 6 more from Riverpark Aquatics (mail order from Scotland!) to boost up the numbers a bit, so 13 altogether, but then after a few more days, back down to 6. No sign of any bodies anywhere. Then after what seemed like a particularly frenzied fish flake feeding session a few days later, down to just 2 chilis and I see… hanging out of the face of one of the rummys… the back half of a chili!
After some struggles the rummy couldn’t seem to finish the job and barfed up the now-deceased chili. That body also subsequently went missing. As a desperation measure, I fished out the last two chilis and transferred them to the Shrimphaus. One of the last two seemed poorly and now I only see the one left.
I also later discovered a deceased rummy… perhaps an over-sized chili meal did it in? That body also subsequently disappeared – pretty sure torn apart and eaten.
To be fair, I think the juvenile chilis are just slightly larger than proper eating size and maybe if they had grown up together with juvenile rummys things could have worked out better. Seems fully adult rummys and juvenile chilis together is not a good idea. Peaceful community tank, my ass! It’s a savage world in there.
Hopefully slightly larger alternative fish…
I’m trying ember tetras now as a replacement for the chilis. The embers are quite a lot stouter than the chilis were and so far neither the rummys nor the barbs have gone after them in a food-like manner. Fingers crossed…
Chili rasboras
There’s a new addition to the Fireplace Aquarium – chili rasboras! I’ve been thinking there’s room for some more fish residents and the chili rasboras at LFS seemed to tick all the right boxes.
Two months after the massive pruning of the Bucephalandra caterina and the Anubias nana ‘Pinto’ in an effort to control the black beard algae (BBA) that was colonising them, the battle is lost. Further, inspection showed the BBA had thoroughly colonised the Cryptocoryne parva as well.
BBA on B. caterina
BBA on C. parva
I have come around to thinking of BBA as a symptom rather than a problem – in other words the BBA indicates something is wrong that needs to be addressed. In this case I believe it is a build-up of organic waste in the aquarium, and also perhaps the natural life cycle of some of the plants. The caterina was planted 2.5 years ago and the parva 2 years ago where a gradual loss of fitness means they have a hard time fighting off algae.
The last massive epiphyte trim was nearly 10 months ago, so time to go at it again. I didn’t actually mind the overgrown appearance and the fish seemed to like hanging out under the middle layer of Anubias nana ‘Pinto’. There was considerable shading of the bottom of the Fireplace Aquarium but I didn’t notice that particularly being a problem for either the Cryptocoryne petchii pink or the Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’ so that was ok. What finally pushed me to get the scissors out was the increasing amount of black beard algae that was growing on the leaves of the Bucephalandra caterina at the top of mountain on the side in the middle that gets the most light. BBA that gets established is notoriously difficult to get back under control so I figured the best way was to remove it physically altogether.