Leaderboard

Yes, that's correct. Saddled-> moult -> mate/fertilised by male -> berried

Yet another movie. This time Blue Bolts made with GoPro cam after moding :).

Just as an alternative you can use pool sand as the base and put the pisces on the top of that. Keep the pool sand away from the glass and nobody will know it is there. I have found it to be much cleaner than play sand, no clay content, so nothing is lost when giving it a wash and cost about $23 for 20kg bags. The other advantage is that it is a rounded sand, to allow water to flow through it, so is less likely to get anaerobic build up in your deeper sections. As an added bonus you can add live black worms from your LFS and they love to go deep in the sand. This helps to aerate the sub and is a source of food for your fish as well. My shrimp tank has a grass mat of worms poking up every morning as they dont eat them but i do see some worms poking up in our angle/gorami tank every so often so i know they are still in there.

Yes that looks like a saddled shrimp. I've circled it in red here ...

Dupla ground is a great option. But if it was me I would not put the pisces sand over the top of that. The sand will fall through the small gaps and disappear. Either use one or the other. Play sand bought at bunnings is fairly neutral. At least the last batch I bought for a friend 1 year ago. This is from a Sydney store however. I hear different Bunnings in different states use different quarry suppliers. So test the sand out first if you are concerned. You can also check out "Scoria" which is basically volcanic rock, that you can get in 7mm. If Bunnings doesn't have it, don't forget to go to your local Nursery to look for sand or scoria.

looks good

I reckon 6 hours is enough for anubias and bolbitis.

Just an update.. Tank is doing really well. Removed the driftwood because it was growing all sorts of fungus. Getting some good growth in the plants!

In my tanks I just use the prebagged washed play sand. Because the sand is not really clean I give it a good wash in a bucket with hose water, but this can help you loose a fair bit of the sand since there is a lot of light floaty sand that if it went in the tank just makes the whole tank murky with tiny granules even floating in rafts on the surface. Because a thick bed of sand can cause anaerobic bacteria to flourish (and pockets of stagnant "off" air can be trapped underneath any structures you have in the tank like rocks of even timbers) I often add washed river gravel to the sand especially where I have any rooted plants. My tanks are also quite infested with MTS which are supposed to be good for turning over the sand and keeping it air rated. I find most plants have no issues growing through my sand/ gravel mix and often the roots of any plants extend to nearly the entire base of the tank. If you don't like the look of white sand in the tank (and discus can look better and be calmer with dark substrate) you could look at still doing a sand/ gravel substrate and then "top" it off with a leaf litter capping. The leaves should give you the desired pH and also make the black/ tannin water which I believe is what most discus thrive in. Leaves that could be used include good reliable IAL, tried/ dead mulberry leaves, paper bark leaves and even grevillea leaves, you could even add the nuts/ cones off she oaks for added pH. Just curious but will the tank end up being a brightly lit heavily planted biotype or a dimmer light possibly more of a spotlight affect with limited plants lots of timber structure. leaf litter and tannin stained water and just a few hardy plants that can tolerate the dimness? In PKF (Practical fish Keeping Magazine) I have seen some stunning black water biotypes using just the later setup.

? 100kg of anything will cost you heaps. What about Bunnings play sand? Bought by the ton ? You will just need to find other ways of reducing pH instead of relying on buffering substrate.

I am going to be heading down to Hedlow Creek area to see what I can find, I know there are rainbows there and good old fly specked hardy heads, but I am hoping to also stumble across Pacific Blue Eyes or my own personal holey grail of Rhadinocentrus ornatus. I may even get to go down to Byfield and some of the creeks in that general area, where the Rhads are recorded as being in residence. I am eager to actually see what the local type looks like and am hoping they are as stunning as many of the southern varieties.

My Aura Blue

Hello all fellow shrimp fans :). Another movie this time showing my shrimp during its meal :)

This is what I've found in one of my farm tanks. I think that there are few more zebras hidden somewhere out there :)