Neon Dwarf Gourami's, Amano Shrimp and a Mystery Plecostmus...

A few days after getting my plants I made my weekly visit to my LPS and found a pleco hanging out in one of the tanks. the tank wasn't marked with a price for a pleco, so I asked what it was. They weren't exactly sure, but thought it came in with the Clown Plecostomus. He sold it to me as such, but we both knew it wasn't a Clown. I've posted a few pictures below. Hopefully someone will see him and know what he is.

 

I'm so proud of myself for taking these pictures while he was still in the bag because he's impossible to catch out of hiding. Please reply to this post if you know what he might be and / or have any information about him. I'm really curious.  

The same day I got him, I got an Amano Shrimp and a pair of Neon Dwarf Gourami's. I wanted to get something to stay on top of potential algae issues on the plants and something else to add more color to the tank.

 

I really liked the Amano Shrimp, but the Neon Dwarf Gourami's kept chasing the Cherry Shrimp around and I'm convinced they took out 2 of them. I took both Gourami's back to my LPS the next day.

New plants! - Amazon Swords, Water Whisteria, Penny Wart, Ludwigia Natans, Cryptocoryne Crispatula and Star Grass

It was just before I got the Otocinclus and friends that I got some more plants for the aquarium too. I got Amazon Swords, Water Whisteria, Penny Wart, Ludwigia Natans, Cryptocoryne Crispatula and Star Grass. I ordered them online and they were mailed to me. I learned allot from that experience... If you're going to get plants in the mail, only order stalk type plants or plants with thicker or broader leaves. Most of the plants arrives just fine, but the Star Grass and the Water Whisteria were pretty much a loss. I have the Star Grass floating at the top of the tank right now to see if it will revive. The Water Whisteria disintegrated on the way. All the leaves "melted" for lack of a better word. I rinsed them in water to get all the rotted leaves off and it just left the stalk and a little bit of new growth on each stalk. I have thos floating at the top of the tank as well to see if they will do anything. The Amazon Swords, Penny Wart, Ludwigia Natans, and Cryptocoryne Crispatula all have done very well. Over all I'm happy with the plants.

 

Here are the Amazon Swords

 

Here are the Ludwigia Natans

 Here is the Penny Wart

Here is the Cryptocoryne Crispatula (furthest to the left)

I now had concerns about making sure there were enough nutrients in the water to support all my plants. I bought some Flourish by Seachem from my LPS. It seems to be working well. I just added Flourish Excel by Seachem too since I don't have a CO2 unit on the tank. I was doing some research and ran across several people talking about Flourish Excel. I've only had it in for 2 days now, so we'll see how it goes. It's supposed to help growth and color.

New Fish! - Blood Fin Tetras, Von Rio Tetras Otocinclus and Cherry Shrimp

Well, it was about 3 weeks ago I decided the tank needed something moving around a little more than the Plecostomus do. So, I went to my LPS (Pet Smith's in Bixby, OK) and looked around for a while. I took them the regular plecostomus I had to free up a little room and I got 12 Blood Fin Tetras and 3 Von Rio Tetras to help with the lack of activity in the tank.

 (sorry the pictures are a little blurry. I couldn't get them to stay still long enough for a good picture)

I also got 6 Otocinclus and 4 Cherry shrimp to make sure my plants stay clean and free from algae. My Anacharis and Java Moss had started to brown just a little and it appeared to be some algae. They seem to have taken good care of the algae issue too since the Anacharis and the java Moss have no brown left on them.

They are all happy and doing well! I know I have a clean and well balanced aquarium, but I also appreciate that I know I can get fish that have been well cared for at my LPS. I'll have to do a special blog just about them sometime, it's a great place!

It's been a while...

It's been a little longer than I wanted since I last blogged. I'll try to stay a little more current after I catch you up. Lots of things going in in the aquarium. I'll hit sime highlights and then fill in the details in specific posts...

• Got some new fish! Also removed the regular plecostomus  from the tank.
• Got some new plants! Lookin' pretty good too...
• Got some Cherry Shrimp!
• Mystery Plecostomus!
• Albino Plecostomus!
• Breeding Dwarf Bristlenose Plecostomus!
• New Exotic Plecostomus!

That ought to get me going pretty good! If I can catch you up on all of that in the next couple of days, I'll consider it a success!

Get ready for some cool pictures and very useful information...

Pictures!!! King Tiger Plecostomus ( Peckolita sp.) L-066 / L-333

This little guy is new to the aquarium. He's a King Tiger Plecostomus. He's about 2 inches long and should max out at about 6 inches. His vivid color pattern makes him one of my favorites in the tank. He's not as social as the Snowball Pleco, but he's definitely easy to spot when he does decide to come out of hiding. Here's a couple more pictures of him:

Pictures!!! White Dot Plecostomus (Snowball Plecostmus) LDA33

I had the 6 feeder goldfish and regular plecostomus in here first. the 6 feeders died off. Not sure why, but the plecostomus is just fine and has been for a couple months now. So, this was one of the first "real" fish I got for this aquarium. I got this White Dot Plecostomus with a M/F pair of Dwarf Bristlenose Plecostomus. They've been content together with the regular plecostomus for about 6 weeks now. I'll have pictures of the Dwarf Bristlenose Plecos soon.

Some of the particulars of this fish:

Common Name: LDA-33;

Adult size is between 5.5 inches and 9.5 inches

pH should vary between 6 and 8

dGH should be between 8 and 18

Temperature should be between 72°F and 80°F

Setting Up My Aquarium For The First Time, Again... Inaugural Blog

Well, this is it. This is my latest "hobby". I worked at a pet store when I was 16 and helped in the fish department. I've always loved aquariums and have had one up and going most of my life. I've taken the last 5 or 6 year off, though. But, now I'm back in and I guess you could say I'm "all-in" this time since I've decided to try my hand at live plants. I've always wanted to try live plants, but never had the courage. We'll see how it turns out.


This is a 42 gallon, bow front aquarium with 2 Penguin 400 filters on the back. It's been in the garage collecting dust for the last 5 years or so. I set it up this time with the intent on making it an African Cichlid tank for my wife. We've had africans before and loved them!


I used 6 feeder goldfish and a small, regular pleco to cycle the tank. After a couple of weeks, all 6 goldfish had died, but the pleco held on. I had the water tested and they said it was "good to go". The pleco has since doubled in size from 2.5" to close to 5".



I initially had several fake plants in here along with a large decoration that looked like the base of a tree and roots. It was a plastic / resin piece that was hollow. There were 3 holes in it to help displace air when submersing it (relevant soon). I recently got a M/F pair of Dwarf Bristlenose Plecostomas as well as a White Dot Plecostomas at a semi-local pet store called Pet Smiths in Bixby, Oklahoma. (So much for making this an African Cichlid tank). I thought it would be fun to try to breed the pair of Bristlenose Plecos as a hobby within the hobby (more on this as well). The Bristlenose both decided it would be fun to aggrivate me and hide INSIDE the fake root decoration I had in the aquarium. So, in an attempt to remedy this problem, I watched and waited until I saw them both out. Then I took some fake plants that I had and stuffed them in the holes of the decoration to keep them from going back in it. This seemed to work well and actually looked nice too.

Along with my plecostomas, I also got a small bunch of Java Moss and a couple of strands of Anacharis. Since then I acquired a couple of large bunches of Cabomba and decided it was time to go all-natural. The day I added the Cabomba, I removed the plastic / resin decoration. My aquarium was finally looking like I wanted it to...