# Ropefish playground - new life



## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I've decided it's time to start my own journal. This tank is with me for more or less 10 years. Started with discus (bad idea in middle school, really). So empty big tank and then I saw ropefish. 8 years ago little 15 cm long "worms" came to my house. At that time it wasn't a nice tank. 
Year ago I decided to go planted and add some fish. Choice of fish was limited by ropefish. I needed something big enough to not get eaten, that's why I've ones of the biggest killifish and tetras. Every fish I own is from Africa. 
Probably on summer holidays I'll do a major rescape, but now I'm just trying what can be done. Long story short: here are the specs.

Size: 
120x48x60 cm (~345l)

Fauna:
5x ropefish
19x congo tetra (after weekend there will be 4 females and 8 males, now there's 11 females),
4x kribensis (tomorrow there'll be only a pair),
3x blue gularis (2 males, 1 female),
9x military helmet snail,
xxx maaany maaany other ugly mini snails.

Flora:
microsorium pteropus, narrow, windelov,
anubias barteri, nana, bonsai, gold, gigantea,
bolbitis heudelotti, compact, 
bucephanaldra of five kinds (don't know the names),
cryptocoryne undulata,
micranthemum monte carlo,
hygrophila corymbosa,
ammania gracilis,
rotala rotundifolia,
heteranthera zosterifolia,
red lotus,
crinum calamistratum,
fox moss, pheonix moss,
flame moss,
subwassertang,
hydrocotyle sp. Japan,
some dying eleocharis parvula
(and looking for mini pelia).

Filtration:
Eheim 2028,
Aquael Turbo 1000.

Light:
T5 4x39W - 2x sylvania grolux, 2x sylvania luxline 865.

Other:
2,5 kg CO2 with sera reactor 1000 (love it), 100W heater.
Currently adding only potassium, micro and excel.

Feeding:
frozen food of many kinds, krill, black mosquito larvae, brine shrimp, shrimp, dillies etc. Hikari cichlid pellets (staple, gold), micro wafers, micro pellets.

Maintanance: 
once a week 60-90 litres water change, some trimming, cleaning glass etc.
And of course photos:








































































































































I'll try to update weekly, to show how the plants and my little congo tetras are growing 

Edit: Water params of course!
pH=6.4
KH=2
GH=7
Mg=12
Ca=20
PO4=5 (probably bad tests and too much frozen food without rinsing)
NO2=0
NO3=15
Fe=0.3
K=15
Temp=25 C


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## sharkbunnie (Oct 22, 2015)

I love you rope fish & your tank. I kept a couple rope fish when I was a kid. They creeped out my mom, which I loved. Ha ha! Really nice work. Very beautiful.


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## anfield (Dec 1, 2013)

wow. How old are you again? Thats a nice tank and those killifish look aweswome. Would get some if they werent such ravenous shrimp eaters


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

They creep my grandma, it's really funny. I'm 22, but in middle school I was trying to own healthy discus... Not so easy :-D


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Beautiful, beautiful tank! Job well done!
Great fish and nice pics! I'm jealous haha 

The ropefish look fat and happy 

How long is your biggest ropefish?
Just make sure to keep the top well sealed to avoid any losses. 

Thanks for sharing!
Now you are making me want to go back to keeping "monster" fish, just when I was pretty set on only Angelfish. Hmmm...
I'm subscribed!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

The longest is around the length of side of the tank - 47 cm long. Others are smaller, around 30-35.
In 8 years none of them run from my tank, now I start to belive my lid is tight enough!


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Haha, very cool. Good news is they can survive/breathe out of water for quite some time.

You should record a video if you can. A vid of you hand feeding some bloodworms to the ropefish would be cool!

How well do the Blue Gularis get along with everyone and eachother?

Any specs on your camera set up? I like the way the ropefish pop out.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Yeah, they tend to lie on hydrocotyle in the upper right corner and "sunbath" with heads outside the water. 
About gularis - they're aggressive only when the female is ready to lay eggs, but to achieve that you need to feed many bloodworms. Did that once, have 9 little gush growing out now. Normally they aren't fighting. 
Camera - my dad took the photos, I'll ask about the specs later today and maybe he'll record a video too ;-)


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## thedudeabides (Feb 29, 2012)

Very nice, love rope fish and bichirs in planted tanks, very cool to watch their hunting behaviors that way. Also blue gularis are one of my favorites too.


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## MikeP_123 (Aug 31, 2008)

What a cool tank!

As I was scrolling down the pictures:

Oh cool a rope fish
.
.
.
Hey Look he's out again. (that is so cool he has a ropefish in there)
.
.
.
Holy $#!+ there's a bunch of rope fish hiding in those bushes!!!! AHHHHH!!!


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## EVANATOOR77 (Mar 2, 2016)

I love Blue Gularis killis. Always wanted one. They're hard to come by here, especially as adults. Also a bit too intimidated to try raising them from eggs.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Mine laid eggs and I'm rising fry right now. Not many - 9 of them, but it's pretty easy. They need small container and they eat everything small enough, even frozen food.


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## EVANATOOR77 (Mar 2, 2016)

Nice. I'll have to consider giving them a try.


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## jr125 (Mar 5, 2015)

Those ropefish would absolutely freak my wife out. Very neat. Great tank.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

About camera - it's sony nex 7 with standard lens (whatever this standard is ) I'll add video of my little fish eating - it's from my phone, so potato quality, but it's always something. I need to cut it a little and I'll show it to you tomorrow!

Edit:
Here are (potato quality) videos of my little spaghettis eating!
Ropefish feeding


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Today was a scary day. Came home to see fish lying on surface of the water - CO2 out of range. Did a water change, added some circulation - everybody fine and alive.
Better news - today some new plants arrived (so many bolbitis! Love it, wanted more), I'll be planting them tomorrow and probably will do some photos!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

So many photos I'll try to add them tomorrow. From another thread you may know I have little baby ropes, parents thought it's too little and they're working on it. Here is a short movie of mating. I need to rearrange plants a little, so many new plants, don't even know what to do with this many! It's messy now.

About fry - for now it's hard to see, if they're eating, it's even hard to see their mouths. When I gave them BBS they started to move quickly so maaaaaybe they were eating or maybe just scared, we'll see. On the other hand little blue gularis are bigger and bigger and their mouths are so enormously big, kinda like cute big smiles. They're eating like crazy, frozen food, even micro pellets. When given some live food it's madness.
For now - 8 blue gularis fry, 3 ropefish fry, hoping for the best.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Fun fact: now there're young kribensis too. Unfortunately I don't have so many free tanks so can't move them with parents (and it would be bad to move only fry). When blue gularis will become big enough to go to main tank (and to give away some of them) then I'll move adult kribensis to another tank and let them breed.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Time for photos!


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Woah! That was a bunch of new plants!
You've done it up well though. Looks more complete. I'm sure the fish and especially the newborns will love the extra cover!

Congrats on all the successful babies!
I've never looked into breeding ropefish, but if it is rare in captivity, it might be cool to document some of it, or even separate the young for guaranteed survival from predation. Share/document all your water parameters to keep as notes. If the ropefish fry are anything like Kuhli loaches, you can have a pile of rocks and the fry will use that as shelter in which only their small selves can get into, but larger fish cannot.

Wouldn't mind seeing/hearing more about the other breeding fish as well (especially the Blue Gularis).

Now after hearing yours are breeding, I am 110% certain I will be getting ropefish again 
Sucks my LFS normally only gets ones that are already pretty old/long. I like getting younger fish to raise and keep longer.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

For now there're 3 little ropefish, every has it's own little "home" (plastic container as a small tank). There might be more in the main tank, there're so many plants now it's hard to find something so small. I'm using Aquarium Logger for android to note params once a week, more or less steady:
pH 6.2-6.4
KH 3
GH 7
Temp 25 C
PO4 1.0
Fe 0.15 (need to add a little)
NO3 2.5 (need to add some too)
K 18
Mg 18
Ca 30

I believe that most important thing to be able to breed ropefish is their age. Mine are with me for 8 years and when I got them they were around 15-20 cm long. So probably more than 10 years old. Every other documented mating was with fish about 15 years old. They're maturing pretty slowly. Bad news is nobody could get them to adult. Best result was 5 months old, then dead. I'll be trying everything to keep fry alive, but it may be hard. Maybe in the main tank some will surprise me?


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Decided to do a small fry session!
Kribensis with fry - movie.

Kribensis protecting fry photos:




































Baby rope (not much to look at for now):










One of blue gularis fry (just look into his cute little eyes... and murderous smile):


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

You sir, are making me debate adding more ropes to my 75. Very nice tank and very excited to see how those fry progress.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Small journal entry:
What lives (fry):
2 out of 3 ropefish. One observation - looks like they need "dirt", sand, some moss, maybe they're eating some microorganisms from dirt? One little fry was in a "sterile" tank, same water, but without sand, plants etc. This one is dead now. Didn't add salt for now, I'm scared of experimenting on my only 2 little ropefish. They're not eating BBS for now, but started moving around more. 
8/8 blue gularis - started heating up the tank (now it's 22 C) and they're growing like crazy now. 
5/5 kribensis - it's really odd! First day I saw kribensis pair with 5 youngsters... And with all those scary fish around they're all alive! Parents are really fighting everything getting nearer than 15 cm fro the fry. 
Plants: new bolbitis browning a little, probably waited too long in a bucket, will have to cut some leaves.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Any updates?

Sucks to hear about the loss of one baby ropefish. Mature tanks definitely provide a bunch of microorganisms that fry do really well on. Not too sure how much factor a stress really is on little fry with catching and separating and all.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Today I'm doing some cleaning - CO2 bottle ended and tank was without CO2 for 3 days (weekend), some algae occurred :-/
Two young ropefish are alive and moving much, but not eating BBS... Young gularis growing like mad and so are kribensis. It's really odd, that with so many predators parents are doing such a great job!
Tomorrow I should be able to make some photos.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Get some green water from a pond or green pool, as long as it doesn't smell off, it should be good.
Lots of visible water organisms is a good sign. I don't even bother trying to feed BBS for egg born fish for at least a week generally.
They get just as fat off micro organisms. I was just checking out some of the larger peppered cory fry out earlier. It appears they already are showing signs of having their mother's long fins. She is a great fish, with lots of personality, and the only cory that comes to meet me at the glass rather than dart away.


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

OMG! This thread has me "fangirl squeeeing" hardcore!!! :::::squeeeee!!::::: Ropefish! <3 

And what a glorious tank for them! And they are breeding for you in it just takes the cake, lol. Totally am loving that tank bigtime man!


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## gregorylampron (Mar 28, 2016)

Nordic said:


> Get some green water from a pond or green pool, as long as it doesn't smell off, it should be good.
> Lots of visible water organisms is a good sign. I don't even bother trying to feed BBS for egg born fish for at least a week generally.
> They get just as fat off micro organisms. I was just checking out some of the larger peppered cory fry out earlier. It appears they already are showing signs of having their mother's long fins. She is a great fish, with lots of personality, and the only cory that comes to meet me at the glass rather than dart away.


Do you test water when you do this before you use it? Which fry have you fed like this? My bronze cories and panda molies are always having fry, so it sounds like an easy replacement for farming diatoms and brine shrimp. I have never tried, would I use mountain pond water, maybe?

Please keep hands off glass.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Nope, you can see if the water is healthy by the amounts and type of aquatic life in it... Frogs and tadpoles are a very good sign.
When they grow green water for feed they use a disk which should just barely be visible at arms length.
I always keep some level of green in my egg layer tanks, the fry are just so much healthier for it.
It must never smell off.

You should see when I feed the pink danio. I put a light in the corner then pour the water in.
After about 10 minutes all the fish are in that corner, you could scoop 50 with a net. The little water critters go after the light like BBS. I would say there are 4 stages of food for small fry. Microscopic, then things like those little stink worms and BBS, then they can go up to something larger like ground First Bites..before flakes. I sometimes use powdered livebearer food too once they can take First Bites. I like to moisten the tip of my finger put some First Bites on it, then dip it under the water quickly and shake it a bit... It goes down looking like a cloud of BBS, which draws the fishes' attention, they don't always want to take food at the surface when very small.

I plan on keeping the smaller cory fry in the breeding net with the adults for now. Shortly after feeding, the big ones go up to the net and suck all the left over food through it. So, things stay nice and clean. It is an unfiltered tank too, so there is quite a bit of microscopic life in the water.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I used green water for small blue gularis (worked like charm, never bothered with BBS), added some to ropefish fry tanks, will see what happens next. Found another 4 in the main tank, only 1 was cooperative enough to get it in smaller tank, the rest - maybe they'll live somehow on their own. It looks like ropefish are not wasting their time!


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

I love this tank. I keep coming back to this thread just to look at the pictures. The way it is planted looks like a inspiration piece for a children's books.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Right now I'm a little busy and won't be able to do photos (sorry guys!). Here is small update on everything:
- young ropefish are in greater number now, 3 are in different tank, don't know how many in main tank, but saw at least other 3. Maybe in dense cryptocoryne, where they tend to be, there is a chance to live.
- blue gularis are growing great, started to understand that seeing me means food! All alive.
- odd, but great news - all 5 kribensis alive and thriving! There is always something to nibble on. Parents are having hard time, fry is starting to be disobedient. Good news - ropefish won't even look at them, sometimes even bump into some fry and nothing happens (maybe scared of angry parents? ).
- some algae problems, got a CO2 leak and ones again had to replace the bottle, everything should be OK in a week or two.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Sadly - all little ropefish never tried eating and died as soon as yolk sack disappeared. Today adults spawned once again, so maybe this time... Well, I'm working on it and ropefish are working on it too  Blue gularis are growing more and more quickly and so are kribensis, but only four of them, one probably got eaten by gularis.
I'll try to get some photos as soon as possible!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Sorry for no updates. I'm leaving for a month on vacation and had so many things to do before it! Right now some small ropefish appear and disappear in my tank, after vacation I'll try once again to breed them and I'll be back with more regular updates. 4 young kribensis are living and growing, even though their mom is not caring for them any more. She is ready to lay more eggs, so she became a little aggressive even towards her own babies. 7 blue gularis are alive - one jumped out, now there is a lid, so the rest is safe. They're growing nicely - 4 males, 3 females (slightly disappointed, they would be happier with something around 2 males plus 5 females). Bad news is I lost adult female and male gularis - . I knew 2 males and 1 female wasn't the best proportion, but it was caused by 2 females jumping out of quarantine tank half year ago. Fact to remember: gularis jump even when happy (ropefish don't jump out when happy ). 

Do you think that if I do big water change before, restrict light (2x39W will be on for 7 hours, other 2x39W will be permanently off) and CO2 (should I leave low bps or cut it off?), no ferts for this month, food 2-3 times a week (bought pill container and this way parents will know how to feed), no water changes, no cleaning for a month. Will it work? Anybody with suggestions? Something I should do before leaving? Something I definitely shouldn't do?


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## second (Jan 31, 2005)

Do you have any youtube vids of this tank? looks awesome


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## Aenglaan (Apr 29, 2016)

That's a cool tank with some interesting livestock. Are the ropefish ever predatory towards other fish or do they just ignore everything else?


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

YES thank you for doing ropefish. Very rare to see that.

I would also like to know if they are predatory? Do you have a lid? I read they are escape artists.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I have a lid, they never tried to run away, but sometimes they jump and bump onto lid. 
About predatory - normally yes, they are. In my tank they aren't hunting, but they eat much live and frozen food. When I went on vacation for a month and they were eating once every two days, small portions... Somehow two congo tetra females disappeared... So probably it's rope's fault.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Hi guys!
I wasn't posting here for some time, well things went mad for some time. 4 weekend on vacation, later 2 weeks without CO2, 2 other weeks without half of the light... So many disasters. 

Ropefish are ok, that's most important for me. Spawning regularly too. In a month or so I should have more time and I will look more into breeding them. 

There're only 9 congo tetras - when I was on vacation some disappeared... Feeding was extremely low, so maybe one of the ropes ate them. Same goes for young blue gularis. Now there're two males and one female, waiting for my lfs to get some females. Odd thing is all kribensis are doing great. All four youngsters are growing nicely. 

I'm saving some money to get bigger tank for everybody - 200x50x50 cm would be nice. In the meantime I bought 30x30x30 cm cube - now it's in dsm phase. There will be some CPD's and probably blue velvet or yellow shrimp (for now I can't decide).

Later I'll try to do some photos, maybe some videos of both tanks


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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

nel said:


> Hi guys!
> I wasn't posting here for some time, well things went mad for some time. 4 weekend on vacation, later 2 weeks without CO2, 2 other weeks without half of the light... So many disasters.
> 
> Odd thing is all kribensis are doing great. All four youngsters are growing nicely.


Not odd at all. No self respecting krib is going to let another fish eat it! :laugh2: They can be tough little buggers.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

RWaters said:


> Not odd at all. No self respecting krib is going to let another fish eat it! :laugh2: They can be tough little buggers.


Yeah, small krib lady is biting ropefish without hesitation... Courageous fish, really.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Just a quick update - tank is alive and well, a little algae here and there, echinodorus tenellus starts filling in (it's there for 3 weeks). I'm ordering a stand for a bigger tank right now, so moving ropefish to their new paradise is getting closer (but probably won't happen quicker than in half a year). 

Photo:










Teaser photo of the new shrimp tank:










And bonus cats. Father and son (who doesn't like cats, riiiight?):




















Maybe later I'll add more photos, my friend took some, but I have to go through them and choose good ones.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Time for big portion of photos!
First - ones my friend made. Mostly she loved my young blue gularis male... Who can blame her, he's beautiful! So no ropefish photos (only some in the backgrounds).

This is how the whole tank looks a few days after cleaning, didn't have time to clean the glass before photoshoot, sorry!










Here is the school:



















And here are schooling (ok, I'm joking, only for a second they were swimming in the same direction) kribensis (they've grown in this tank from eggs!):










Young lady making her funny face:










A snail (what would I do, if he wouldn't clean the leaves!):










Hurray, there is a ropefish!










Now it's time for the star:






























Time for my own potato phone quality photos. Look at the cute little guy:










New tank is starting with algae, mold and every other problem you can think of, when starting a new tank.
Specs:
Tank: 30x30x30 cm cube
Filter: Aquael Fzn-3
Light: Aquael Decolight 2x11W (Sun+Plant)
Substrate: HELP Advanced Soil Plant
Plants: DHG, Echinodorus Tenellus, Buces (some withered when moving between tanks, some were added, so now I don't even know the names), Bolbitis Compact, fox moss, phoenix moss, cameroon moss, fissidens miroshaki - my favourite, fissidens mini taiwan, flame moss, subwassertang, mini pelia, mini weeping moss
Inhabitants: blue velvet shrimps, tangerine tiger shrimps, soon CPDs























































Can you find 3 little shrimps? (By little I mean 3-4 mm):










Bonus jarrarium from my desk:




























Ok, I did an photo update at last! Enjoy! (Some advices, critique wouldn’t be bad)


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

beautiful tanks!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Look what I've got for my 30 cm cube:









They're so teeny-tiny, shrimp size really. They're in the tank for 4 hours now and they're so actively looking around their new home. I can't get any good photo...


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

those are banjo pleco? banjo catfish? idk what they are called!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

BettaBettas said:


> those are banjo pleco? banjo catfish? idk what they are called!


Hara jerdoni - anchor catfish :-D


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## SteppingStones (Aug 8, 2014)

BettaBettas said:


> those are banjo pleco? banjo catfish? idk what they are called!


They look like Stone Catfish to me!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Today I did some testing in my main tank. It's really odd, I can't get KH up, but GH is in a nice range. I'm using remineralized RO water to KH=4, GH=8 (it's some hobbyist made remineralizer it's adding 34 ppm of Ca, 12 ppm of Mg and 1 ppm of Na, it contains CaSO4, MgSO4, NaHCO3, Ca(HCO3)2 and some Benibachi minorection powder) for water changes. I'm fertilizing with K2SO4, KNO3, KH2PO4 and Micro Plus Ingermag (with some more bonus Fe and Mn) to get weekly dose of: 5 ppm K, 3,3 ppm NO3, 0,33 ppm PO4, 0,18 ppm Fe, 0,1 ppm Mn. My parameters are:
pH=6,2 (with CO2)
dKH=2
dGH=9.8
Ca=40 ppm
Mg=18 ppm
Fe=0,15 ppm
K=25 ppm
NO3=15 ppm
PO4=1,5 ppm

I would be happy to get my KH to around 4, but it drops naturally to 2 (and stops there). Yet I don't have problems with GH (it's even higher than from remineralized water) and pH dropping horribly. Magnesium and Calcium seem high too, so what's going on with my KH? What might be causing it? 
Actually this problem exist for a long time, sometimes I'm getting KH to 3, but never higher.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Bad news - yesterday at the end of the bottle CO2 went mad. I wasn't at home, so I came back to all congo tetras dead. After night fighting only one kribensis made it. Ropefish and blue gularis didn't care, it's good to be able to breath with atmospheric O2... Today ropefish laid eggs - obviously they tend to do that after temperature swing and I've done BIG water change (well, big for me - 40%). I've been thinking about buying pH computer to control CO2, now I'm sure I have to buy one after I lost so many fish... At least my dear ropefish all made it absolutely healthy. 

Now I don't know if I want to buy congos once again or maybe some bushfish? They're more ropefish-ish... You know kinda dark ;-)

Well, I'll try to do an update once I get the mess in control. Now a last photo of my poor congos:










(Yup, blurry as hell)


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## sdwindansea (Oct 28, 2016)

So sorry to hear that. I've heard of that possibility with the C02. If I ever dive into it I will definitely be getting a dual stage regulator to help avoid the end of tank dump. I hope everything else recovers.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Well, the problem is - I have dual stage regulator... I won't believe in anything other than pH computer from now on.


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## Shan4404 (Jan 6, 2017)

Nice to see someone else with ropefish! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I'm doing a big water change once again - you know cleaning after many deaths... 15 little ropefish! I've put them in a shrimp tank, maybe they'll eat small shrimplets? We'll see. Was I saying I'm not breeding them? :-D I've got a short video of them, after cleaning I'll put it here.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

still love this tank


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Here is 10 of them:
Ropefish fry video

After that I found 5 more and later on 5 more! So 20! Let's hope for the best.

Tomorrow I'll take a photo of the whole tank, lost some plants due to sadness... Haven't refilled CO2, haven't cut lotus and echinodorus tenellus and cryptocoryne undulata nearly disappeared. Well, back on track! I'm looking for suggestions: should I put another ~15 congo tetra or 6 leopard bushfish? After loosing such beautiful and big congos I'm not sure I want to start again with them. On the other hand - they really were beauties!


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

Sorry to hear about your fish, other than a controller the only way I've found to avoid a deadly EOTD is as soon as the pressure drops change the tank out, if you are able to check the pressure everyday you shouldn't run into any issues.


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

Those fry are so awesome!!! I saw ropefish at the local fish store and they are so cool. Glad to see someone has them. How do they do with the kribs? I would think they might be small enough to be eaten.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Freemananana said:


> Those fry are so awesome!!! I saw ropefish at the local fish store and they are so cool. Glad to see someone has them. How do they do with the kribs? I would think they might be small enough to be eaten.


They're too lazy to eat them ;-) Actually the only little lady that has lived through CO2 catastrophe was in one tank with ropefish from an egg. Only five of the fry reached maturity, but with ropefish and blue gularis in a tank I think it's crazy enough. Ropefish don't seem to care about other fish, but when I left for a month and they were eating every third day I lost few smaller female congo tetras, so probably they can hunt if they need to. I believe that if ropefish are not hungry they won't hunt other fish, they just don't need to. Just in case I'm always growing out the fish in other tank before putting them with ropefish.

Remember kirbensis are insanely aggressive when with the fry. Even ropefish were running away. Imagine little lady krib biting ropefish on their barbels. So scary! ;-)


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

Sorry to hear about the EOTD and fish loss. I've always heard that dual stage setups prevented that, its seems that's not the case after all



nel said:


> I'm looking for suggestions: should I put another ~15 congo tetra or 6 leopard bushfish? After loosing such beautiful and big congos I'm not sure I want to start again with them. On the other hand - they really were beauties!


Locally, I only see folks keeping single bushfish/ctenopoma. I hear they can be aggressive toward conspecifics or look-alikes, e.g. SA leaf fish. If that's the case, 15 tetras and a bushfish should do nicely. If you've seen groups kept together, then I'd give it a try. I've heard groups, at best, will occupy different areas of the tank and not interact peacefully, but I've never seen a group of bushfish so I can't say for sure. 

To throw you a curveball, a group of 15 Emperor tetras would look awesome in your tank :wink2: As beautiful as the Congos are, you've been down that road already


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

@nel
Maybe Praecox Rainbows? I don't know if they can be eaten by the Ropefish, but they are really nice looking fish.


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## Qsilver7850 (Jun 6, 2010)

I have to say, your tank looks great and those ropefish are cute. I'd love to be able to keep them, but my girlfriend doesn't like anything eel-like. I don't even keep kuhli loaches!

Sorry about your fish loss. That's the worst.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Sorry for your losses- the congo tetras looked really cool in there. Your ropefish tank is beautiful I am so jealous of it! Do you have any pics of the fry? Today for the first time I saw ropefish in person, at my local pet shop- such cool-looking fish.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Here is a photo of little "tadpoles":









Emperor tetras are nice looking fish, but definitely food-sized. Rainbow praecox looks great, but it tends to live in harder water, I'd like to find fish which likes what I have - low pH, low KH, I like to have more or less "perfect" params for what I get.
I heard that bushfish in groups of 6+ tend to live more or less peacefully (aggression spreads evenly), but maybe I should think it over. If I would get only one of them, what else should I get? I'm looking for something tetra-like, just bigger (like congos), I don't want them to end eaten in one night ;-) Are there any big tetras? Or other big schooling fish?


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

A bit impulsive, but I've just bought 6 leopard bushfish. Cute little fish (for now). I'll have to grow them out in qt, they're snack sized beauties! 
Bought a variety of frozen food too. My ropefish eat pretty much anything, but those bushfish are picky and I'll have to teach them eating everything ;-)


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## dani123 (Oct 1, 2015)

nel said:


> Are there any big tetras? Or other big schooling fish?


What about Alestopetersius caudalis they stay in your African fish theme look like congos but are a little different then what you've already kept, even though I do have to say your tank looked perfect with those congos ( it still does but I love congos). Its made me want to set up a African theme tank based around my congos, I just need to get more time.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Bushfish are eating and growing quickly, 5 CPD's fry growing nicely, but... WHO CARES, I found out today that at least 5 ropefish are alive, it means they're 3 weeks old - they lost yolk sacks and must be eating something - maybe shrimplets, maybe some worms from detritus, I don't know, but I wasn't giving them any specific food and they are growing! They have little ropefish faces now and they're absolutely worst swimmers I've ever seen. Swims one inch, ouch, he is on his back, OK, tries again, now he runs away quickly ;-) Watch the video, look at his little fins moving like crazy, such a cutie! (I know i's hard to see anything...)

https://youtu.be/vhb0plpYbbE

And a game: "spot a ropefish"


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

So many problems... First - only 3 out of 6 bushfish are alive. They weren't so well from the beginning, the 3 alive are strong and well.
Biggest problem occurred today. I was installing new equipment - inline heater and pH/temp/light controller (basically do-everything-comp). This beauty: 










What could go wrong? My eheim 2028 is 10 years now... 










Aaaand that's a part of the broken valve. You know how much for the new one? Basically I could buy a new HW (or any other Chinese) filter for the same price... Well, ordered new valve, this eheim is too good to change it. 

At least I have installed the controller... So angry!


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

Now do controllers actually, control ph and stuff? always wondered that.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

To be exact - this controller has a temperature probe and pH probe. Now you can adjust what this controllers turns on/off and why. For example, you can program it to turn on CO2 on if pH is over 6.5 and turn it off if pH is under 6.2 (just an example). It doesn't control pH directly, but it controls the elements that can change pH. You can add an air pump and program the controller to turn it off/on if pH is too low. You can double safe your heater - it has it's internal thermostat and the other one from the controller. It's easier to control the lights too. 
Mostly I wanted to get the CO2 controlled. It killed all of my beautiful congo tetras. This way other fish are safe. Not only can I adjust CO2 by adjusting bubble count, but the controller can turn CO2 off if it goes mad.

Edit:
Here you can see what a mess broken valve creates - filter media in a bowl moved by a small filter, Eheim standing sad and empty, CO2 turned off (ouch, I see in my mind algae attacking), good thing I have this additional mechanical filter in the tank, it will do for a few days without feeding.










At least ropefish seem to not care:










Cats don't care too:


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I am really angry now - the broken part will arrive on Friday probably. One week without canister filter on 345 litre tank. Actually it's not going so bad, only I'm growing mostly algae now (no CO2, it was run through sera reactor attached to canister), but fish seem fine, parameters all clear. I think my deep sand is doing it's thing.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

@nel What is the ideal tank size of ropefish? That sucks about the filter. You could DIY some quick disconnects yourself with a couple ball valves if you wanted.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

It's not this kind of valve that you can't replace with anything else, it's a part of the filter, so I can't diy it. It's a valve and the part connecting hoses with the filter - this one:










About the size - mine is too small . It's ok for ~5 year old ropefish, but mine are getting huge. You can start with 200 litre for young fish and then upgrade to bigger and bigger tank. I wanted to get 200x50x50 cm tank, but I have only one year before I graduate university and probably I'll buy it when I'll be moving to my own apartment. 200x50x50 cm seems right for 5-6 adult ropefish (and other tankmates). The tank can be pretty shallow, even 40 cm high would do. What's important - get a group of them, they're highly social fish.


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

Those ropefish scare me lol!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Nigel95 said:


> Those ropefish scare me lol!


Come on! Their faces are sooo cute! The body is snake-ish, but their faces are absolutely like dragon's.


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## Shan4404 (Jan 6, 2017)

I love my ropefish they're so cool to watch. I worry they don't get food all the time though!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Shan4404 said:


> I love my ropefish they're so cool to watch. I worry they don't get food all the time though!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Mine learned to get food from the surface. I'm giving them frozen cubes (usually 3-4) and they grab the cubes, take them down and tear them apart. Lovely :-D 
If I want to be sure nobody else will eat I give them dillies - small fish, no other fish in my tank can swallow them in one part.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

@nel How big do ropefish actually get, and how long can they live for, you say a small one is 5 years old, do they live for almost 20?


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## Shan4404 (Jan 6, 2017)

nel said:


> Mine learned to get food from the surface. I'm giving them frozen cubes (usually 3-4) and they grab the cubes, take them down and tear them apart. Lovely :-D
> If I want to be sure nobody else will eat I give them dillies - small fish, no other fish in my tank can swallow them in one part.




Do you feed when lights are off? Usually my other fish get to food before they realize what's going on! I've thought about trying worms before. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Shan4404 (Jan 6, 2017)

I've thought about getting pvc pipe to let food sink to bottom without others noticing it and see if they eat more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I feed them one hour before the lights go off, but only half of the lights are on at that time (2x39 instead of 4x39W T5HO). Actually my ropes don't care about food soaking anymore. Before they were only getting what soaked, but now they hunt food from the surface of water. I'm giving them Hikari cichlid pellets M/L sometimes, they are great if your ropes like getting food from the ground. Those pellets are huge and go down quickly.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

@sohankpatel sorry, I didn't see there was one more post from my phone! I've heard of them living as long as 30 years, but don't know for sure. Mine are at least 10 years old and they look like healthy young fish. Their maximum size is a matter of discussion too. There were myths that they can reach 90 cm, but nowadays most sources say about 40 cm. My ropefish are from 32 to 45 cm. For quite some time they're not really growing longer, but wider. They were 15-20 cm long little noodles when they came to me 9 years ago, but now the longest is thicker than my thumb.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Yay! Valve arrived today, everything installed in place and everything works. Now we will see how my computer works. It's called elemac sa-03, it's Polish product, so you probably won't be able to read anything about it. The basic version has 6 sockets every of them programmable with many variables (time, pH, temp, etc.), pH probe and temperature probe. It greatly simplified everything for me. I had 3 timers and my CO2 was sometimes going crazy. Now it's one little box doing everything for me, so happy!


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

sounds good!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Did some deep cleaning after not having biological filter for nearly a week. By deep I mean cutting maaany leaves, even cleaning my substrate, I don't even remember when I've done that last time!
I've decided to give more space to my echinodorus aflame, it was compressed in the middle of the tank, so I got rid of some microsorium trident and put aflame and another hidden plant - lagenandra meeboldii red - in its place. It looks a little empty now, but they'll fill in.

Few potato quality after wc photos:


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

That's a great photo, of the ropefish swimming out through the crinium.


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

I love seeing photos of your aquarium!  beautiful!, plants look super lush, just wondering. How many anubias do you figure you have in there, I cant count them all lol!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

It's just a mass of anubias - barteri barteri (that's most of them, around 20 separate plants), nana (two, one of them massive), nana gold (two plants), nana petite or maybe bonsai (one plant), congensis (one plant), gigantea (one plant) I would like to get coffefolia and pinto, but I'm spending too much money on my tanks now... Later ;-)
This tank is 60 cm high, 48 cm deep and 120 cm long and this mass of plants is really mostly mass of plants (small parts of driftwood to which some of the anubias are attached, they're the base, others are tangled with them).


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

Anubias coffefolia I think is one of the most favorable anubias in the hobby. Its leaves are just So detailed!


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

I found some Ropefish at my LFS today, 3 of them, almost a foot long for $20 each. I didnt buy them though.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I've became impatient - couldn't get any blue gularis anywhere in Poland and my beautiful one is sad and alone. So I've ordered eggs from evilbay. I hope they're real and really of this kind of killi (any other is too small and will get eaten by ropes or blue gularis). 
I've been thinking about adding african butterfly fish too. Only problem I see is my light. There is plenty of dark hiding spots, but isn't it too bright just under the surface? What do you think?


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Bushfish are growing slowly, but eating like monsters.

Not many changes in the tank. A little trim here and there, moved some anubias out to give some space for the echinodorus aflame, lagenandra red and blyxa. As always a little hair algae, some spots.
If there was somebody guessing what I'm adding to my tank:
CO2 - 0,7 pH drop, enough for pearling. 
KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, micro from intermag mikro+ and additional manganese to get weekly:
K - 6,6 ppm
NO3 - 4,4 ppm
PO4 - 0,4 ppm
Fe - 0,2 ppm
Mn - 0,1 ppm
+some other micros ;-)
I'm mineralizing my water to dGH - 8, dKH - 4 with Ca of 34 ppm and Mg 12 ppm. 

Few photos:


















































































Ropes are loving tenellus.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Very nice! I am FINALLY getting my group of Ropefish by the end of this week! (My LFS or WetSpot hasn't brought them in for quite a long time now)
Already ordered a bunch of Anubias, Crypts, Swords (I need to get that Aflame Purple Knight - think it will stay a nice purple in low tech?), Buce, Lagendra, Homalomena and Microsorum, so hopefully my tank will look nearly as nice as yours and that my Ropefish will breed 

Gonna add Philippine Blue Angelfish, Rams and Apistos. Was thinking about some nice Geophagus, but they might rearrange the plants and hardscape too much  
Trying to decide on what safe-size "schooling"/dither fish to get.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Yeah, geophagus are waaay worse than ropefish with plants. Ropefish will only dig out plants like monte carlo or DHG, but tenellus is growing good even with ropes burrowing in it ;-)
Just be careful with those cichlids - they're aggressive when breeding and really aggressive eaters. You might need food bigger than their mouths so ropes will get some (dillies!).


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Today I mixed new portion of ferts, done a bit of tweaking, now will be adding weekly:
K - 7,5 ppm
NO3 - 5 ppm
PO4 - 0,5 ppm
Fe - 0,1 ppm
Mn - 0,05 ppm
+other micros from Intermag Micro Plus
I have some hair algae and a little bit of dust on front glass, so maybe balancing ferts may help. Changed my pH to 6,35-6,45 at daytime. I don't even know how much CO2 is that, but fish are doing great, plants are pearling most of the time.

Butterfly fish are in, damn, no patience at all, but I got them quite big. So grumpy and cute:




























Ropefish ignore them completely (too big to eat, too small to fight), lady krib doesn't meet them (she never swims SO high), single gentleman gularis seems like he found some new friends, doesn't fight them for territory near the surface. They're fighting a little with each other, but mostly they are together, sometimes two of them are on one end of the tank and another two on the other end. 
I've turned off CO2 for the day I've put them in and turned on day after. I remember when I've put blue gularis in with CO2 on full, he's been absolutely panicking.


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

Its so good I cant look at it *blocks eyes* I CANT


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

End of semester coming so after exams (and here it means after June) I'll be doing bigger update, maybe I'll try to scape this tank a little, I mean now it's just a jungle ;-) Now I have nearly no time to put my hands into the tank, it's a little bit messy and algae is forming here and there. I really should get a dosing pump...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I love your tank.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Tank is going without any water change or cleaning for 3 weeks now. No time, no time for nothing, but it's not that bad, just some algae. Fish are happy. Ropes learned a new trick. I'm now using some floating pellets for butterflies, never thought my noodles will learn to get those pellets before the rest... 
The biggest problem is temperature, it's getting to 28C now. Last year I was opening the front part of the hood getting it down to 26-27C (normally reaching 30C), but it reduces the light (2 bulbs are mounted to this part of hood). I should invest in some fans or it will be another summer with open tank ;-) Smaller tanks are doing better, without the hood and lights hanging from above they're not getting above 24C now.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Few days ago I've cleaned the tank and rearranged a bit. Didn't add anything new, took out some microsorium pteropus. By some I mean I have a 60l tank full of microsorium. 

Here is the tank before (god, so much algae, it was going on it's own for nearly 1,5 months, I've been only feeding fish... sometimes):











So I started cleaning... pruning EVERYTHING and here is a big surprise:










Here is the trick - this guy is 5 cm long, it means probably around 2 months! Guys, it's my new record! He is in his own tank now, but I'm starting to think they need to stay with parents... It's risky, because blue gularis loves small ropes - as a snack.

Added new friends to the tank, I think ropes like them (not as a snack!):










Last, but not least - photos of the new "scape" (I wouldn't call it a scape, more of a jungle, just divided in two):




























Of course water change means ropes breeding, as always (photo above).


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## Brian Rodgers (Oct 15, 2016)

Indeed that is a nice surprise. Your tank keeps getting better and better. Thanks for sharing.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Incredible. I loved the scape in the beginning, but keeping everything so healthy means growth and as plants grow larger I can understand that it's harder to keep a meticulous scape. I'm sure the fish love it. Either way that's an amazing set up!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Quick photo week after rescape. A little blurry, but at least you can see how it keeps going


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Sorry for the lack of updates, there's just too much work, I'm mostly writing when on move. 
Little ropefish disappeared sadly, but it's something I guessed will happen, just another try...
Today I decided to spoil my ropes a little and give them whole shrimps. Well, yesterday I did a water change and they're absolutely not interested in eating, fighting and breeding are the only things on their mind now. The smallest bushfish got his shrimp though. Nearly choked on in and got another. Cute little guy. 
Sometime in September I should have more time, so I'll try to take photos. For now - ropes are fat and happy, bushfish are growing nicely, butterflies look good and so does my single lady krib (I have to get her a man!). Actually she kind of rules the whole tank, she bites ropes, she bites bushfish or blue gularis, she's crazy! Only blue gularis isn't doing the best, he doesn't like hot water and yesterday was the first time in a few weeks when water was under 27C. It's getting colder here, so he should be better soon.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Sad alone lady krib is getting a man! He is growing in another tank now, you know, everybody could eat him... More exciting news - new pair of blue gularis! I couldn't get only ladies (they're selling them only in pairs), but better a pair than none. They're small too. All three new fish eat like a horse.
Look at this little cutie:









And a little impulse buy... ok, not really impulse, I knew they had it in the LFS ans I was thinking about getting some to hang over small tanks:










The tank is a mess, absolute, insane mess. Don't worry, next week I should have some free time, BIG water change coming!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

The tank is in the process of rescaping. All rhizome, slow growing plants are in a 90l tub going through one-two punch method. I had a horrible BBA outbreak, I have to work on my CO2/ferts balance. For now I want clean plants. In the meantime the tank is looking a little bit sad and empty. Tomorrow I'll be doing deep cleaning and filter maintaince. On Sunday the tank is going to get scaped and ready to go.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Apocalypse!











OK, only joking, I'm just rescaping the tank, see you again tomorrow with a little bit different scape (not really different, just going for a little bit cleaner look).


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## giwan (Sep 11, 2017)

Oh wow, that is one rigorous move XD
Curious to see what kind of layout you'll come up with this time ;P
I loved the jungle scape where it was split in two.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

It won't be a radical change, but all my plants were floating out of place regularly, so I bought some heavy stones and tied every single plant to them (I don't want to count them, my hands hurt sooo much after tying all the zip ties). Now I will have staying in their place plants and some new rocks! They're really nice on their own actually.

It's midnight here, time for a break, state for now:


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Whoa, scaping a tank is so scary!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

nel said:


> Whoa, scaping a tank is so scary!


Aw, that picture is kind of cute. But looks like the fishes are actually pretty freaked out by the whole operation! I didn't realize you had so many ropes- thought there were only three or four in there. Five!

Did any of your baby ropes ever grow up? I was showing my daughter a pic of one on your thread.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I won't lie, the fish were quite freaked when I was messing with the tank, but when I started to add plants they were back to normal. All fish love plants.
Not a single baby rope survived for now. I'm not trying to save them too. It's insanely time consuming, so for now I'll let them try to live on their own in the main tank. Today I saw a bunch of babies too.
I had to go before water cleared and before I got a chance to take a good photo, so here is a bad photo of cleaned tank. On Tuesday I should be able to take a better one.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

A little bit better photo. Water cleared and powerhead instead of internal filter added.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Another crappy photo of my favourite tank. Everyday I like it more.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Guys, I have a situation... When I've first started this journal 1,5 years ago, tank has been after some changes to make it more African-ish. I never thought about using only African plants, but fish are all from Africa, all of them at least sometimes appearing in Congo river. Before those changes there have been 7 Sterbai Corys there too. I moved them to the 250 litres guppy tank at work. Oldest of those Starbai are with me even longer than ropes, youngest hatched from eggs on my eyes, so I'm kinda attached to them. That's the background story.
In the next few months the tank at work is going to be terminated. I just can't decide if I should take those corys back to the Playground or give them away. Technically they'll be fine in the tank, just not African themed... I don't know... any help? I don't have other permanent tank big enough for them (only qt).


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Few new potato quality photos of all my grumpy fish here.
There is nothing interesting happening with the tank now. No algae problems, fish are eating, fighting, growing as usual ;-)

One full tank shot:


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Yesterday my ropes did the most predatory thing I ever saw them do. 
Months ago my kribensis spawned and some of the fry got to adulthood. I've lost most of them due to CO2, but one female survived. Got her a male. They spawned. Yesterday the eggs hatched. My sweet noodles raided the nest. All 5 of them together went into it and ate all the fry. Kribs were just biting their tails unable to do anything. I have to say it was somehow mesmerizing and scary view. Well, at least I won't have too many kribensis...


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Whoa!! A coordinated attack!!


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## C5rider (Dec 30, 2017)

Very interesting journal! 

Thanks for taking the time to document for us! My LFS has a few rope fish, and I've been sorely tempted to get one. I'll bet my ghost shrimp wouldn't be nearly as enthusiastic though!


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## C5rider (Dec 30, 2017)

nel said:


> Whoa, scaping a tank is so scary!


BTW, I love this shot! :thumbsup:


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

C5rider said:


> Very interesting journal!
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to document for us! My LFS has a few rope fish, and I've been sorely tempted to get one. I'll bet my ghost shrimp wouldn't be nearly as enthusiastic though!


Yeah, ghost shrimps (any shrimps) = food. Yummy. 
I will always encourage people to get a ropefish tank though ;-) They are super cute and really special fish. I'm looking for somebody who will try breeding them too.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Quick update:
end of semester so I'm doing projects, more projects, exams etc. All my tanks are overgrown and algae starts to appear, for the last 3 weeks I didn't even fertilize my tanks. After the last exam (hopefully this means next week) I'm going to clean everything, post a few photos and update you on all my fish. Sorry for the break, guys!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Update!
My echinodorus collection is growing, I have major, vesuvius, aflame and Reiner's kitty now! Other new plants: legenandra thwaitesi, some crypts (purpurea and some other).


















































Big bushfish are just the grumpiest fish ever.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Looking top notch!


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## C5rider (Dec 30, 2017)

Very nice!


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

That looks fantastic. Is that a Nigerian Red Kribensis? Everything is so lush and perfect looking!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

The Dude1 said:


> That looks fantastic. Is that a Nigerian Red Kribensis? Everything is so lush and perfect looking!


In the same shop there were some Pelvicachromis Taeniatus Nigerian Red, but those are normal Pelvicachromis Pulcher. Lady is the only survivor kribensis of my CO2 catastrophe, I've seen her being an egg. The male was bought in the shop. They are calling them "super red" there though.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

nel said:


> In the same shop there were some Pelvicachromis Taeniatus Nigerian Red, but those are normal Pelvicachromis Pulcher. Lady is the only survivor kribensis of my CO2 catastrophe, I've seen her being an egg. The male was bought in the shop. They are calling them "super red" there though.


I have normal Kribensis and Nigerian Reds and yours certainly doesn't appear to be a "normal" Kribensis to me. The picture you posted is of the male correct? The scape is fantastic and your choice of stocking is just awesome.


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## ThatFishThough (Dec 20, 2017)

I love them! They're so cool. I especially like the dragon-style spikes on their backs. If I had the room, they would for sure be on my 'need to get' list!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

The Dude1 said:


> I have normal Kribensis and Nigerian Reds and yours certainly doesn't appear to be a "normal" Kribensis to me. The picture you posted is of the male correct? The scape is fantastic and your choice of stocking is just awesome.


Yeah, the red one is the male. It's odd to me too how red he got. He started to be like that after moving him to the big tank.
Here is his lady:










Edit:
Kribs did a mess after the rescape... There is sand everywhere! And so many floating plants...


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## ThatSkrimpyboio (Mar 15, 2018)

Where did you get the kilifish?


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## ThatSkrimpyboio (Mar 15, 2018)

As I am hoping to get a couple my self


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I'm from Poland, so I don't think I can help with getting those. Also I've seen somewhere a post with your stocking ideas... I'm really worried about the idea of having ropefish together with many big aggressive cichlids.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

As my blyxa infestation is getting more and more severe echinodorus tenellus began to mix with it. So tenellus went out today. I've planted some Alternanthera reineckii mini and pogostemon helferi. Both are from tissue culture, we'll see how will they do.

News:
I've started mixing my own RO mineralizer, for 80 litres it's:
2.59 g CaCl
6.48 MgSO4 * 7H2O
3.67 CaCO3
4.10 KHCO3
It should give:
K 20 ppm 
Mg 8 ppm 
Ca 30 ppm 
GH 6
KH 4

After few weeks seems it's going well as my KH went from 0-1 to 3, GH from 10 to 7, TDS from 300 to 200. I like the results and I would use it in other tanks too, but this is my only tank with CO2 and there's no way so much CaCO3 will dissolve without CO2.

I've started using my own micro mix too, it's based on one of burr's mixes, I'm just dosing much lower, as I'm dosing my macros much lower.

I (still) have BBA. I'm quite sure it's caused by organic matter as my tank is really old and it's hard to control the mulm. I've decided to clean the filter more frequently, but I guess it's mostly what's beneath the plants, it's hard to get there without moving everything.

I have some more photos, but I'm really bad at it (and my camera is not so great), so I'll have to look through them and find decent ones.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Can't believe I never dropped in on this thread.

Tank looks great! Very, very nice work.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Right now I'm at home 3-4 days a week. So today I came home, first thing to do: let's check the tanks. The tank was *dead*. Horrible bacterial bloom, all fish dead. So after crying a lot I started breaking down everything. A little ray of hope. Four out of five ropes survived. They are now in a tiny 60 litres tank. 
For quite some time I had more and more BBA problems, I was guessing too much organics and now I think I was more right than I thought. My tank was going for ~11 years without a break. Sand was never switched, only the surface layer cleaned. After all those years there must have been a ton of organics in the substrate. It must have reached the critical mass when I wasn't home and boom everything crushed. 
I was proud of the longevity of my tank and I believed the microorganisms that started to appear after a few years were a big help in making ropefish breed. But there is an end to everything. It seems that it was too long.
I'm devastated, before I knew the 4 ropes were alive I thought that it's time to sell the tank and stay with the small ones. But the ropes are alive, so I'm going to care for them. 
The tank is absolutely empty now. Tomorrow I'm going to get clean new sand (cleaning sand from my tank completely is impossible) and start over. I will have to do a fish-in cycle, as I don't have any other tank big enough for ropes.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

That's terrible!! I'm really sorry... your tank was fantastic and one of my favorites. I really don't see how it would have just crashed like that. You developed a sustained ecosystem... something must have happened... normally bacteria bloom due to a rapid accumulation of organics. They create apoxic zones... but not without something being introduced. Regardless I'm really sorry to hear this.
Something died and had several days to decay in the tank causing the conditions??? Your fish looked crazy healthy though...


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Ohhh no, that's terrible. I'm so sorry to hear it. Was such a beautiful tank! At least you had a few survivors. I hope they fare well.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Wow I'm very sorry to hear that, sounds like a real nightmare.

I admire your fortitude getting back at it.

Good luck with the new transformation. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Wow Nel - very sorry to hear this. "My tank was going for ~11 years without a break. Sand was never switched" Never dawned on me that this could be an issue. Evidently something that can happen quickly.

A fish in cycle seems doable but I am curious of the existing bio filter is still usable? Not knowing the specifics of your setup, I could only assume the bio media in the filter may still be useful. If so, your "cycle" should be pretty short.

Hoping for the best for you and the ropes.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Immortal1 said:


> Wow Nel - very sorry to hear this. "My tank was going for ~11 years without a break. Sand was never switched" Never dawned on me that this could be an issue. Evidently something that can happen quickly.
> 
> A fish in cycle seems doable but I am curious of the existing bio filter is still usable? Not knowing the specifics of your setup, I could only assume the bio media in the filter may still be useful. If so, your "cycle" should be pretty short.
> 
> Hoping for the best for you and the ropes.


I think sand was the cause. I had a thick layer that was working great as additional biofilter. It was great, but on the other hand there ware probably many dead roots, many dead snails and other organics burrowed in the sand. The BBA was showing me there is too much organics, but I was like "well, I'll do bigger water changes and hover over the sand to get what I can"... Maybe it was just too much and it "just happened" or maybe one of the fish just died and after that everything crushed. My ropes are 11 years with me, maybe the one that died was too old. My sterbai corys were ~13 years old, so maybe one of them. The blue gularis was 2 years old and had a bent spine... There are many things that could have happened, but when I came it was just too late and everything was horrible. Plants are in a bad shape too, so restoring the tank will take some work and time.

I'm not sure how the bacteria in the filter media are doing as everything smells fishy. It's possible that good bacteria had not enough oxygen to survive when the bloom happened. I'll clean the media so it won't smell and use some media from my other tanks. They are small, but if I take a little bit from every filter it should help. 

Lesson learned, BBAis here to help me see that my tanks needs a *deep cleaning*. 

The four ropes are looking as nothing happened, eating normally, cuddling normally, just in a teeny-tiny tank. They look ridiculous in a 60 litres tank. I should be able to put them back in 2-3 days, for now 2 water changes daily. 


Thank you all for the good words! I have to say, that my ropes were always my motivation in this hobby. Everything else is kind of a bonus, noddles are my pets and the fact that 4 of them are alive is enough to fight and try again. Tomorrow I'll get some sand and maybe some scaping materials... I have an empty tank, so it's an opportunity to change something, try something new. Restocking will be a pain as I have to always grow fish in a qt, so they won't be snack sized. I don't know if I'll go again with ropefish and other odd-ball Congo friends or if I should try finding new tankmates for my noddles.


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Good to hear you are not giving up. From an experiment a few years ago, I did learn that beneficial bacteria, once established, can double in size about every 24 hours. With that said, a small amount of bio media from several tanks will give you a very good start. Assuming you can feed that bio media some ammonia around 4ppm for a few days you might be surprised how quickly you can get the system back up and running. Assuming you won't have a bunch of plants to put in the tank right away, the filter bio media will have to handle a bigger load. I honestly know nothing about rope fish - specifically home much bio waste they generate. Just judging from the pictures, I am guessing they are *not* a couple centimeters long so it is likely they do produce a bit of waste.

If you do decide to add ammonia to the big tank to kick start the cycle, I do have a nice site somewhere that will calculate how much ammonia to add to get to a specific ppm level.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Yeah, ropefish are big fish, so they should produce enough ammonia. I'm not feeding them much as they're adults, but when feeding only frozen every one of them needs around half cube every other day to be happy. This should be enough to make the cycle go. I think I'll use the filter from the qt they're in now in the main tank for some time too. It's a powerful HOB (1200 l/h on max) and it's cycled.


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## wastewater (Apr 5, 2010)

Immortal1 said:


> Good to hear you are not giving up.


The longevity (and diversity) of your tank has truly been inspirational. With your motivation, I know this tank will bounce back better than ever!


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Ropes are back in their tank, stressed, but exploring their "new" tank eagerly. I've put them back on Friday and yesterday (Saturday) I did a 100 litres water change, another tomorrow. If the ammonia goes up too much, I will do 100 litres everyday, that's the maximum I can do with my RO (my knees would be really happy if I wouldn't have to, there are stairs on the way...). I'm adding prime to keep it safe and feeding sparingly. 
My plants were hit pretty badly too, anubias are nearly non existing, it will take time for them to regrow. 
I'm inhumanly using some ugly shrimps as a quick indicator if something is going wrong. Ropefish tend to behave like nothing's happening. So I've put a breeder box with some shrimps in it into the tank and I'm observing how they behave.

Bellow are photos from quick scaping and a video of noodles exploring the tank.


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

Noodles seem happy. :grin2:


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

I'm still perplexed as to what could have happened that would also affect the plants like that. Did you find anything while draining?


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

The Dude1 said:


> I'm still perplexed as to what could have happened that would also affect the plants like that. Did you find anything while draining?


Just more dead fish, I didn't find some of the cories, so it seems they got eaten/decomposed before everything else died. I have absolutely no idea what really happened. I'm only guessing what happened to fish, but what made the plants melt so much is a mystery to me.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Today I did full water test (I really don't remember the last time I've done such a complete test!):
pH 6,7
NO3 <5 ppm
PO4 0,5 ppm
K 14 ppm
Fe 0,1 ppm
dKH 3 
dGH 5
Ca 35 ppm
Mg 18 ppm
TDS 167 ppm
NH4 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
I'm using my sister for testing. She started biotechnology this year, so it's like "hey, come here do some chemistry for me" 
Interesting thing is it seems like the filter didn't die completely... Or I'm doing more water changes than I should, as NO3 is close to 0 too. I'm dosing ~half EI for now.


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Very nice! Wish I had a sister that could do that kind of testing. As I was reading from the top and got to the Potassium (K) I thought - how the heck did you test for that???
Anyway, yes it looks like you are possibly doing more water changes than necessary. Nice to see the ammonia and nitrite at 0.0ppm - makes for happier rope fish.
The <5ppm Nitrate is going to make for some unhappy plants, unfortunately. dKH 3, dGH 5, Ca 35 ppm, Mg 18 ppm, TDS 167 ppm - these all look pretty normal.

Given the above testing information, I would be inclined to believe the bio portion of the filter is more than adequate to handle the current fish load. I would consider going back to weekly water changes and adjust your fertilizer dosing to get your NO3 levels at least up to 20ppm. For me, I try to keep the PO4 greater than 2, and typically closer to 5ppm. Not sure what has worked for you in the past.

As always, keep us posted how things are progressing


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

I have a funny test for K, you get some murky water from it and drip it into another container as long as you need to for a black dot to stop being visible... It's a bit sketchy, but just for fun I did it ;-)
For NO3 and PO4 I was really surprised to see this, usually my fish were adding so much, that I was adding only K2SO4 and a little bit KNO3, but no KH2PO4. I guess with lean feeding and starting with 100% clean water I have to add some more. Usually my PO4 is so high it's beyond the scale.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Noodles are doing good, I'm hypercautious though.
Here is a happy noodle in his new hiding.


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Was curious how the noodles are doing these days?





nel said:


> Noodles are doing good, I'm hypercautious though.
> Here is a happy noodle in his new hiding.


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## nel (Jan 23, 2016)

Immortal1 said:


> Was curious how the noodles are doing these days?



Back to normal, no breeding though. I was never sure about their sex and now I'm wondering if the biggest rope, that was the only one that didn't make it from the disaster, was the only female. Or maybe after the tank was restarted they just don't feel like breeding. Apart from that they are back to happy noodling around the tank. 

I have to admit my tanks are a bit neglected now. I'm doing water changes weekly, but I'm at home around half of every week and I don't spend much time watching my fish as I usually did. In the next few months I'll be moving from my parents to a rented apartment, wish me luck in finding one that will accept a big tank  

When I'm home I'll try to catch a few noodle photos.


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## fishboy199413 (Jan 20, 2010)

How is the tank going since the last time you updated?


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