450L Tropical Tank

[Carmex]

My DH has got a 450L tank which we will begin cycling tomorrow... I know this will take ages BUT.. what would you stock it with and why??

I really love neon tetras and discus, would they live happily together?

Thanks Tree :)

Quick snap for you

Looks good! You'll find that corydoras will mix your substrate up unless you put some kind of barrier along that divide.

I've told him, he's convinced it will be ok.... i give up telling him

He likes peppered corys and i like julli corys, what do you think?

I have a breeding school of peppered. They're lovely. Always out and about and are really sweet to watch.

I also have sterbai which is a beautiful species but quite expensive. I love them but would hesitate to recommend them as they are painfully shy and spend a lot of time hiding which is a waste when they're so pretty.

Next tank/jungle plant-cutting btw will be either some day this week or at the weekend.

Wow, I love your tank Tree! I'm wavering about keeping mine or breaking it down. It's only a juwel 125l I've had for about 11 years now, but since I've had my DS I don't have the time or energy to maintain it as well as I did preciously. I love watching my fish but I fret about them! Decisions decisions.

This is mine...

That looks great and wild. It's the best way to maintain water quality for the fish if you don't have much time, let it grow!

Haha yes the plants and shrimp do more than their fair share of keeping the water quality passable! Need to get some ferts though, some of the plants are a looking a bit pale and mottled (and nibbled, lazy assassins!)

That's interesting about the sterbais, DH looked at them. They really are beautiful though.

What fish do you have in there Tricorne? It looks lovely and green!

Pretty unadventurous to be honest - cardinals, rummy nose, Pygmy corys, chocolate khuli, a ghost shrimp and cherry shrimp, a few assassins (and pest snails!). I've had celestial pearl danios and loved them too.

If the water will be under a foot deep I'd recommend African dwarf frogs, they are fantastic to watch. Armoured shrimp are very cool, mine is huge.
Clown loaches can help with the snail issue, you'll find algae eaters useful too, I have Chinese sucking loaches for that.
Corys are frisky little buggers, I have 6 and they are constantly shagging.

We've now got 2 EBR which we got about a week ago and 2 honduran red points which we got today.

The EBR chased each other at first but seem friendly now and the red points were curious about the crab and kept nudging him, he raised up at them and they've not been near him since.

Updated tank pic and pic of the EBR

Tree DH got his first runner today..

Then this happened

Ouch! Naughty crab!

The rams look great. I've always been tempted to get a pair but was worried they'd struggle in my hard water and that they'd dig everything up.

They've not dug anything up yet. They're very inquisitive but peaceful. They've obviously paired so that's nice.

We got the plants today. Thank you so much. DH is absolutely made up. He's been changing things about and planting all afternoon

Excellent, glad they got there ok. There was quite a lot to rip out of my tank so it's nice they're not just binned this time

Before trim and after trim pics attached

Looks gorgeous tree. Do you just get in there with scissors to trim it up?

Ours is looking a lot more green now, thanks again :)

Our german blue ram and electric blue ram have paired up and I think the female is going to lay eggs this evening, she looks a bit rounder, her vent is sticking out and she is cleaning a nice big Indian almond leaf like crazy... the male is helping and they are taking it in turns to shoo the other fish away.

This will be the second lot of eggs, first lot didn't make it.

I'm quite excited!

In the time it took me to write that message she laid her eggs!

Lots more eggs now. They're taking it in turns to protect them and fan them, it's quite sweet to watch. When the female is "on shift" she dashes over to the aerator and gets some bubbles in her mouth then takes them back to the eggs and blows them onto them. Do you know why she does this? Google is showing no results.

Wow, tank is looking fantastic. Excellent! Yes, trimming is just done with scissors (nail scissors are good for awkward bits).

Well I'd say that was a resounding success now your rams are breeding. Great! I've not seen them lay on a leaf before. People often give them a small earthenware pot to lay in/on.

I'm not sure about the bubbles but she might be trying to grab the most oxygenated water to fan over the eggs. Check the circulation is good all around the tank and you have no dead zones. This can encourage fungus on eggs.

I hope they hatch. Thanks for posting an update

Thanks :)

Well they made it through the night, they have been doing shift changes every 2 mins or so and have been brilliant, then all of a sudden she ate half of them.... there is half left. To be honest... they're still milky white so i don't think he's fertilized them. Possibly why she is eating them now. Or maybe only the ones she ate weren't fertilized?

Funny little things aren't they? The other fish wont even go near her now, think shes truly scared them all away

We put a pot in there for them and also a small tunnel, but they still chose a leaf. The leaf was to lower the hardness of the water. It was a bit of a bizarre place to lay eggs though

Yeah I put almond leaves in mine. You can get fairly cheap packs of them in bulk on eBay. They're rather expensive in shops. You could also try alder cones which add tannins to the water.

We got them from ebay they cost £2 for 10

She ate ALL of her eggs in the end. We'll put it down to trial and error he's not very happy with her, he was floating next to her watching and now he keeps going back to the leaf to look for them.