# 10g Shrimp-Cory-Anubias Low-Tech Tank



## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

The post office messed up so they're figuring out what happened to my Finnex FugeRay; it apparently arrived but they can't find it. I'll have to wait a few more days for them to sort it out.

In the mean time, I went to Albany Aquarium today and purchased an Anubas nana and six _Corydoras habrosus_. Don't worry, I've been running a 5.5g quarantine tank, so it'll be their home until my 10g is cycled and ready. I saw the corys last week, and decided to get them now since they don't carry _C. habrosus_ very often. I'm actually not a fish guy; I was bored sick of a clownfish when I had reef tank. I very much prefer invertebrates and I studied them in college, but I've fallen for the habrosus corys since discovering them on the forums here.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

December 18, 2013









The Finnex FugeRay I ordered was lost by USPS, so a replacement is already in the mail and should arrive by Monday. The temporary CFL will run longer, but I admit the light looks better than I expected.

Cycle is coming along and diatoms are making their appearance. One thing I'm learning is the differences between cycling a freshwater planted tank and a reef tank. I underestimated how much ADA Amazonia leaches ammonia, and I had to do large water changes for several days because it was well above 2 ppm. It seems to have stabilized around 1-2 ppm, but no nitrites nor nitrates yet.

I really enjoy how the wood pieces turned out. There's a cool hole through the large piece that's visible from the side, forming a small cave:


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

_Corydoras habrosus_! All six are doing fine in the QT, feeding happily on Spectrum Water Stable Wafers. The first day I tried feeding them Spectrum's small fish pellets, but they sucked on them but couldn't swallow. I made another run to the LFS to get the wafers, which was what they had been feeding them at the store. I love watching them scurry across the bottom as they eat.

They're all just under an 1" right now, so it was really tough getting pictures of them. I'll try better next time.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

The Ranco temperature controller arrived today. I've never really done electrical work before but wiring the power cords was easy and only took a few minutes, thanks to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrBbqm79cco

Since I'm only mildly paranoid, I was concerned for a slim chance of copper in my tap water that could affect shrimp. The API copper test kit arrived today too, and and it tested zero. Whoohoo! I'm ready for shrimp, as soon as the tank finishes cycling.


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## JBeehler (Feb 25, 2013)

Looking forward to seeing this!


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

No work, no volunteering, and no holiday party today, I can finally give the habrosus corys some photographic justice. I'm used to macro shots in broad daylight, so I'm still getting the hang of flash for close-up work. The results aren't perfect, but they're much better than my previous cory photo.

One thing is that these photos were taken during the day time, while the previous cory photo was taken well after sunset, so my room had been dark for hours. Notice their lateral stripe, it is dark and thick during the day, but faded at night. I've read about night-time color changes in other fish, just never about corys before.


















_I need to clean their QT again after they finish eating._









_All six corys are sort of visible._









_The only shot not taken with flash, so it's noisier and depth-of-field is narrower since I had to widen the aperture._


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## jameshill247 (Apr 2, 2012)

Looking good!

Cory's are good to watch too


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

_With the Finnex FugeRay and Pennywort._

The FugeRay finally arrived! It's slimmer and brighter than I expected. At the suggestion from other FugeRay users (such as this one), I placed two fiberglass window screens to dampen the light for low light / low tech plants. I gotten so used to the 5000K color temperature of the CFL bulb that the 6500K FugeRay looks a little too white for me, but I think I'll get used to it. The fixture legs are rather awkward, but otherwise it's a nice light for my tank.

I also bought another plant today, a set of pennyworts. Since they'll grow tall I have them in the back behind the main piece of wood and so they won't look more dominant than the anubias. More plants are on the way in the next few days.









_Pennywort and the other side of the "cave" in the branch._


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## JBeehler (Feb 25, 2013)

It looks nice so far! Looking better and better!


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

*10g Shrimp & Cory Low-Tech Tank*










Yes, that's a towel behind the tank but it's just a temporary background to block out daylight. More importantly, I got some new plants: Java and Christmas moss, _Marsilea minuta_, Anacharis, and a petite _Anubias_. I'm still looking for a Crypt parva, which I think I've found.

This is my first time gluing moss, so of course I used too much glue, but they'll grow over it. I should also use gloves the next time too.









Marsilea minuta









_The petite _Anubias_ is even smaller than I thought._









_I like the Christmas moss much more than the Java Moss._









_Anacharis, which I'm hoping will grow taller._









_A bladder snail, the only animal currently in the tank._



JBeehler said:


> It looks nice so far! Looking better and better!


Once the moss grows over the glue, then it'll definitely be better.

Ammonia/ammonium is dropping, but still no signs of nitrite nor nitrate, so I think the plants are the main driver behind the decrease. I started adding fish food to continue the cycle and encourage the bacteria to grow.

The habrosus cory cats are still doing fine in their QT, scurrying on the bottom in their funny way. I reduced their feeding to a quarter of a Spectrum mini wafer per day to, minimize waste while still providing them with plenty. It makes cleaning easier; I do about a 10% water change everyday and I remove any excess food I find. I'm looking into other food options to occasionally mix things up a bit.

I started reading Diana Walstad's _Ecology of the Planted Aquarium_, and I can’t put it down. It's absolutely fascinating, I don't think I found a book like this back when I had my reef tank. A lot of her book I already knew, but her knowledge is so much more refined and nuanced, and it's making me rethink my approach to my tank.


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## rrastro (Jun 14, 2012)

Hi *gerbillo*!
I also have a common cory/shrimp tank and live in the Bay Area.
If you have any questions, or just want to chat, drop me a line sometime.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

rrastro said:


> Hi *gerbillo*!
> I also have a common cory/shrimp tank and live in the Bay Area.
> If you have any questions, or just want to chat, drop me a line sometime.


Good to know a local, I may have to ask you about local resources and such since I'm not far from El Cerrito. Which cory and shrimp do you have?










The legs that come with the Finnex aren't very good, they don't fit the tank right, especially with the glass top I can't secure it in place. My solution is pictured above, Velcro.


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Those are some beautiful cories!


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## rrastro (Jun 14, 2012)

gerbillo said:


> Good to know a local, I may have to ask you about local resources and such since I'm not far from El Cerrito. Which cory and shrimp do you have?


Hastatus corys, red supremes, and blue velvets all obtained locally.


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## KatherineL (Nov 8, 2013)

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see the moss grow out and the fish tossed in.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

I finally got some _Cryptocoryne parva_, from the Substrate Source. They were grown emersed, and I've read that some plants have a rough transition to submerged, so some leaves deteriorated but most of the plant seem fine now.

I also added some moneywort, _Bacopa monnieri_.

The more I read about cycling, the more I realize that it's so much more complicated in the planted tank world than cycling for a reef tank. I didn't anticipate the amount of ammonia leaching from Aquasoil, didn't plant heavily from the beginning, and other options. I dumped some fast growers (water wisteria and hornwort), started large water changes several times a week, and increased the tank temperature to 83-84ºF, which is more comfortable and efficient for the bacteria. All this is temporary to bring me closer to a silent cycle. The warmer temperature might speed up the ammonia leaching as well (ammonia/ammonium now at about 0.5 ppm).



GMYukonon24s said:


> Those are some beautiful cories!


To me, it's not so much that they are beautiful, but I enjoy their behavior and I love them scientifically. Otherwise, I'm not a fish person and so I was surprised that I ended up getting them.



rrastro said:


> Hastatus corys, red supremes, and blue velvets all obtained locally.


Hastatus corys were on my shortlist at one point.



KatherineL said:


> Looks great so far. Can't wait to see the moss grow out and the fish tossed in.


Thanks. The moss grows slower than I thought; I can't tell if they've grow at all but it is hard to tell.


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## Limming (Nov 13, 2013)

Another thing to help your tank cycle faster is to add an air stone. The added O2 in the water helps the bacteria grow.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

Limming said:


> Another thing to help your tank cycle faster is to add an air stone. The added O2 in the water helps the bacteria grow.



I don't think that'll help much now. Granted, the higher temperature reduces oxygen capacity in water, but I adjusted the spraybar to create a lot of surface agitation, and there are more plants now producing O2.

The cycle appears to be in the homestretch. I got my first nitrate detection, and ammonia is down to 0.25 ppm and zero nitrite. My three Anubias are very happy, sprouting several leaves in the past couple weeks (aren't they supposed be slow going?). I also noticed the first signs of growth in the mosses.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

Finally, finally! Tank finished cycling over two weeks ago, but I delayed an updated because I was making some major changes: I adjusted and replaced some equipment, major replantings, removed some plants, added others, and my tank unexpectedly ended up being anubias dominated. I dig the anubias, but I didn't originally set out to get so many different varieties. I added the corys and bought some red cherry shrimp several days ago:









_Full tank shot, notice the new spraybar. I forgot to clean the glass._









_An island of petite anubias, actually three different petites planted together_









_The large leaves and long petioles of Anubias barteri var. barteri towers over all my plants and get close to the surface._









_The Anubias barteri var barteri also helps hide the already stealthy Cobalt Neo-Therm._









_I like how the pennywort is growing._









_A small bundle of moneywort stashed in the corner, near the pennywort._









_Corydoras habrosus feeding on a piece of Spectrum Water Stable Wafer._









_A RCS, male I think, hanging out on a hornwort. The hornwort is temporary to help with the cycle, so I'll be removing it soon._









_A female RCS facing an Anubias barteri var. nana._









_The winter has been unseasonably warm here, but during the week or two of actual Bay Area chills in my poorly insulated apartment, I wrapped the Eheim Classic so the heater wouldn't have to work as hard._

The plant list:
_Anubias barteri_ var. _barteri_
_Anubias barteri_ var. _nana_
_Anubias barteri_ var. _petite_
Unknown _Anubias_, but looks in-between the _barteri_ and the _nana_.
Pennywort, _Hydrocotyle leucocephala_
Moneywort, _Bacopa monnieri_
_Cryptocoryne parva_
_Marsilea minuta_
Christmas moss, _Vesicularia montagne_
Hornwort (temporary)

And the animals:
Bladder snails
Possibly some ramshorn snails
5 _Corydoras habrosus_
4 _Neocaridina heteropoda_ var. _red_

I started with 5 RCS but one died the next day, so I’m a little disappointed since this is my first time keeping shrimp. I’ll continue to monitor them for the next few weeks but if they are fine and there are no other deaths, I’ll add another batch. I may add more habrosus corys, too.

I changed out the obnoxious green Eheim spraybar with a transparent grey Eheim spraybar (Installation Set 2). Expensive and bulkier than I expected, but doesn’t it stand out like the original one that came with the canister. I also like my new Cobalt Neo-Therm heater since it hides a lot better than the Jäger.


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## danbayne (May 21, 2013)

Looks really nice =) I like the insulated Eheim, smart idea.


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## Rbp917 (Dec 9, 2012)

Your layout and photography are outstanding!


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## Rock Island (May 29, 2013)

This is a really sharp looking 10gal, I love it!


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

Thanks everyone, I'm really liking the way it's turning out. It already looks better than my reef tank ever did. Even though I didn't originally intend on having so many anubias, I did intend for anubias to be the only plant to have large pinnately-veined leaves. Hence the non-anubias plants all have much smaller leaves, such as the pennywort and the moss:









My last update neglected to include a close-up of the _Cryptocoryne parva_:









I'm going to follow Tom Barr's low-tech methodology:
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/433-Non-CO2-methods

This means no water changes to stabilize CO2 levels with a careful dosing of fertilizers and trace nutrients to balance out the ones coming from the fish and shrimp.


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## EndlerGame (Oct 19, 2013)

That tank is turning out really nice. Do you have mesh over your light to reduce the intensity for your low-light plants? It's looking good, especially that A. barteri var. nana "petite". I like that plant, I once skipped the chance to buy some and have always regretted it. I do have some A. "nana" that I've had for about 7 years, it started with a 2 inch rhizome and is now around 24 inches. It is indeed a slow, but steady grower. Once established, hopefully you plants will send up flowers, they are really attractive, though it may take some time. Be sure to let us know if they do flower, it would be interesting to see what it looks like in the petite form.

Also, how are you enjoying your C. habrosus? I tried keeping them a little while back, but I couldn't keep them alive, not sure why. They were eating a couple different foods, but slowly withered away one by one. Some Endler's in the tank were fine, but maybe the ph was too high for the little cats. What are your readings and/or any secrets to success with them?


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

EndlerGame said:


> That tank is turning out really nice. Do you have mesh over your light to reduce the intensity for your low-light plants? It's looking good, especially that A. barteri var. nana "petite". I like that plant, I once skipped the chance to buy some and have always regretted it. I do have some A. "nana" that I've had for about 7 years, it started with a 2 inch rhizome and is now around 24 inches. It is indeed a slow, but steady grower. Once established, hopefully you plants will send up flowers, they are really attractive, though it may take some time. Be sure to let us know if they do flower, it would be interesting to see what it looks like in the petite form.


Yup, the mesh is to reduce the light, otherwise it's more of a medium light, based on what others have said here. I'm not interested in being an algae farmer right now.

Are petites rare where you are? They seem common here which is how I got several pieces. I'm very impressed by a 24" long nana and I would love to see that. I'm considering a small emersed setup just to grow anubias petite to a much larger size faster, probably not to 24", then resubmerge it back into my tank. My reading is that anubias are triggered to flower by a several weeks of elevated phosphate, but I'm not going to try that until they're bigger.



EndlerGame said:


> Also, how are you enjoying your C. habrosus? I tried keeping them a little while back, but I couldn't keep them alive, not sure why. They were eating a couple different foods, but slowly withered away one by one. Some Endler's in the tank were fine, but maybe the ph was too high for the little cats. What are your readings and/or any secrets to success with them?


I'm very much enjoying the C. habrosus and their bottom-feeding behaviors, which is a minor miracle because I'm not a fish person at all; I very much prefer invertebrates and I gave away a fish a few years ago when I kept a reef. I wouldn't call it a success yet since the corys have been in their new home for only a few days. I'm feeding them New Life Spectrum Water Stable Wafers (same food as when they were at the LFS), but I'm looking into other options, including cultivating my own worms. As for my parameters (API test kit) as of two days ago:

Ammonium/Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: 6.4 (daytime)
GH: 5 degrees
Temperature: 75.4-75.9 degrees F

My understanding is that they come from slightly acidic waters, but they're generally adaptable. I'm not aware of a specific sensitivity. What was your pH? Were they eating regularly? Mine have been voracious eaters.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

Good news and bad news. The good news is that I found one of my red cherry shrimp berried, fanning her yellow eggs. The bad news, I found a second dead RCS. I have three left, and hoping whatever they succumbed to was isolated, especially since I can't find anything in my water parameters that might be wrong. I started with five in case something like this might happen, so I'm hoping that the remaining ones will make it.

Time for some macro shots, starting with the berried shrimp, you can actually see the eggs on the swimmerets:









And now the non-berried shrimp:



























Snuck in for some food:









Now the corys:









You can really see the defensive spines in this pic:


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## harilp (Feb 23, 2013)

Nice wood you have!!

Sent from my Blackberry Playbook using Tapatalk2


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## cmwalker545 (Aug 25, 2012)

The tank is looking great! I've been following this to get some ideas for my 10 gallon I'm going to start. Can't wait for an update.


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## EndlerGame (Oct 19, 2013)

gerbillo said:


> Are petites rare where you are? They seem common here which is how I got several pieces.


The nearest fish store with any plant selection to speak of is an hour and a half away. The last time I saw "petites" there was two years ago and I passed them up because of the price. I will soon be ordering some online with some other plants.



> I'm very impressed by a 24" long nana and I would love to see that. I'm considering a small emersed setup just to grow anubias petite to a much larger size faster, probably not to 24", then resubmerge it back into my tank.


Unfortunately, I chopped up that anubias into 3 pieces when I rescaped my tank and got a new light. I recently saw some some anubias of various species at Shedd Aquarium that were more than twice as long as mine, they were probably well over 4 ft. I don't have a pic though.



> My reading is that anubias are triggered to flower by a several weeks of elevated phosphate, but I'm not going to try that until they're bigger.


Now that mine has been separated into several plants, at least one is flowering most of the time. I don't really do anything special, just give them time.



> My understanding is that they come from slightly acidic waters, but they're generally adaptable. I'm not aware of a specific sensitivity. What was your pH? Were they eating regularly? Mine have been voracious eaters.


ph in my area is very high. Pet stores around me have a ph of 8.0. My tanks test at 7.7-7.9. Maybe too high for those little cats? They ate for awhile, but then began to die away. I was doing every other day water changes, and they were living with 4 endler's (who like higher ph) who are still doing well, and breeding. No obvious diseases, just wasting away. I have some bigger cories in another tank who are doing well.


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## GitMoe (Aug 30, 2010)

If you take out those clear plastic screws out and remove the inner portion of the legs that light will sit better on the rim and not cause issues with your glass top. The inner flat portion comes off if you slide it horizontally. The light will then sit on the legs and not the screws...



















Just a thought. Your tank looks great. I love tanks that are heavy on anubias and other non-stem plants...


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

I'm experiencing some ups and downs with my first planted tank. The red cherry shrimp haven't been doing great, and I might be down to my last one (out of five). Here's what I think happened:

First two died within 24-48 hours after adding them to the tank, so they probably didn't acclimate well and died from the shock.
The third hasn't been seen since last week after I lifted the piece of wood near the back wall to adjust it. I may have crushed it by accident.
The fourth (berried) one hasn't been seen since a water change accidentally swung the pH to 7.6 from 6.4. I was taking precautions to avoid this, aerating the water for 30 hours then testing the pH (6.4), but it somehow happened anyway.
There's a chance that two are still hiding, but it appears that I have only one RCS left, a female. This is my first time keeping freshwater shrimp, so I'm holding off from getting more until I'm more confident that I can keep them alive, especially if my last RCS continues to live.

In contrast the habrosus corys have been doing well except for one problem that I think I solved. After an uneventful first week, they started swimming frantically, up and down the tank walls constantly. After over a day of this I knew whatever was driving them crazy wasn't dissipating anytime soon, possibly a water quality issue that they were trying to escape from. I found nothing unusual from pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and temperature. This started hours after my first fertilizing and adding alder cones. It could have been a freak coincidence but I removed the alder just in case. I also added activated carbon to the canister, and in half an hour they were swimming nearly normal, staying close to the substrate again. I made a large water change just in case (the same water change that may have affected the shrimp).

I'm going to keep the carbon running for a few more days just in case, but the corys have been swimming normal for days and they'll still eating quite a bit. I think I'm ready to add more so I'll get another five this weekend, for a grand total of ten habrosus corys.

I also noticed a third clade of snails, pond snails, adding to the bladder and ramshorn ones.



EndlerGame said:


> Unfortunately, I chopped up that anubias into 3 pieces when I rescaped my tank and got a new light. I recently saw some some anubias of various species at Shedd Aquarium that were more than twice as long as mine, they were probably well over 4 ft. I don't have a pic though.


Wow, I’ll keep that in mind when I visit the Shedd someday.



EndlerGame said:


> ph in my area is very high. Pet stores around me have a ph of 8.0. My tanks test at 7.7-7.9. Maybe too high for those little cats? They ate for awhile, but then began to die away. I was doing every other day water changes, and they were living with 4 endler's (who like higher ph) who are still doing well, and breeding. No obvious diseases, just wasting away. I have some bigger cories in another tank who are doing well.


pH straight out of the tap is high everywhere to prevent pipe erosion, but the ADA Amazonia brings it down to acidic levels in my tank. You’re probably right that the high pH and your habrosus corys, I found this discussion on PlanetCatfish:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26278



GitMoe said:


> If you take out those clear plastic screws out and remove the inner portion of the legs that light will sit better on the rim and not cause issues with your glass top. The inner flat portion comes off if you slide it horizontally. The light will then sit on the legs and not the screws...


I thought about removing the screws, but the light is a little too bright, so I kept them there to help elevate the LEDs, and I don't mind that the screws are there. It's very secure with the velcro on.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

I added five more corys last week, 10 _C. habrosus_ total in the tank. There's only eight in the picture above but they're always splitting into groups so I rarely see all ten together at once. It's fun seeing them scurry for food while I'm eating my dinner (the tank is on my dining table). I'm also doing my taxes on the table since I can just look up and see them swimming around.










I diversified their feeding. It's still mostly Spectrum wafers, but they're also getting microworms (picture above), frozen bloodworms, and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.

The lone remaining red cherry shrimp is still alive after three weeks! I'm more certain about how I accidentally killed the other shrimp, but I'm waiting a few more weeks before I get more RCS.

It finally dawned on me that most of my plants are slow growing, so I've reduced the fertilizing and testing to be sure. About 1/64 tsp KNO3 per week seems to balance out, but I haven't figured out the KH2PO4 dosing yet. I'm still seeing growth in all the plants, especially in the pennywort, but also the anubias and Christmas moss.

My unknown anubias might be a regular nana. It's been shedding its older leaves, leaving the younger ones behind which are smaller and darker like the anubias nana variety. The older leaves were from the year it was growing in only window light, which would explain the larger, paler leaves.


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## Ben94 (Dec 27, 2012)

Wow! Looks great, love the C. Habrosus. Really digging all the anubias, I think it looks wonderful.


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## Minhha2006 (Oct 14, 2014)

Im starting a Cory tank as well. Update?

Bump:


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

Minhha2006 said:


> Im starting a Cory tank as well. Update?
> 
> Bump:



Tank is still running, just haven't updated. Cory's are doing fine, and even had one fry make it into subadult with no intervention on my part. Plants could use some trimming, and having some trouble with my RCS...I think I accidentally got all females this time. I'll try to post a pic when I get home.


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