Exciting News

As I started cleaning the tank tonight, I noticed something small dart away from my hand. Curious, I looked around the tank and found a baby Molly. I called L to come have a look. Together we found another. I decided to catch them to prevent them from getting eaten. As I was trying to catch them L was finding more and more. In total we found 8 of them. I was able to catch 5 of them and put them in a white plastic jug, which I am floating in the water to keep the jug's water temperature as close as possible to that of the tank. I have added a Java fern leaf to give them somewhere to hide under. Tomorrow I am going to buy a breeding trap to put the 5 babies in. Hopefully a few will survive.

3 of the 5 Mollies

Strange thing is that the male Molly has been dead now for a month. An interesting fact about female Mollies is that they can store sperm for a few months, allowing them to breed without the help of a male.

Tank Update

The sick Molly is still sick. He has started eating a bit, but generally is not doing well. There are a few scales that are missing and the speckled Molly is returning the favour of chasing him around the tank. I am surprised he has lasted this long.

The Kuhli loaches are settling in and have made the gap under the bogwood their home. They can be found hiding there most of the time and only come out when the lights are off or there is a bit of food out. But they are slowly acclimatising to the tank and every now and then we see one swimming along the bottom.

I now know why they call the shrimp "Ghost Shrimp". It is not because they are see-through, but it is because you do not get to see them! Since they have entered the tank, I have only seen them a few times. They appear to like the Java fern and now and then I see both of them hanging on the leaves. Occasionally a fish will chase them around until they get away.

Last but not least, the snails have been reproducing. The total number of snails have increased and we have even seen some snail egg sacks on the Java fern's roots. They appear to live mostly on the Vallis and Java fern. I might have to invest in a fish that likes snails for dinner to start keeping the snail population under control.

I also noticed that the Vallis was starting to block out the light to the plants below, so I decided to do a bit of pruning. I thinned out the longest leaves, creating space for the new leaves. I decided to cut the leaves just as they reached the surface. Some of the off-cuts were nearly a metre long, so the total length of the leaf must have been over a metre.

Uprooted

I have been away for a few days and came back to a tank that has had most of the Cabomba uprooted. My current suspects are the Mollies as they have a habit of nibbling on plants and if those plants are not rooted down strongly, they slowly get pulled free of the substrate and end up floating.

I took some awful photos to show the effects of the uprooted plants in the tank.

The sparse location where the plants used to be.

Caught on the Java fern and Vallis

Caught on the bogwood

Replanted

More Snails

I have now counted 7 snails in the tank, consisting of 2 different species. One species is from the Physidae Family and I think they are Physa spec, otherwise known as pond snails. I have not been able to identify the other species yet as the snails are currently too small and their shells are white without any identifying features.

The Physa spec were the first snails I spotted when starting the tank and they have more than doubled in size and number. I often see them on the bogwood, glass and on some of the plants, especially the Java fern, eating the algae growing on them. I was lucky to see two either mating or fighting tonight. There is not much information out there on the Internet to suggest one or the other, but if there are a bunch of new baby snails in two to three weeks time, I will know which one it was.

Java Fern And Vallis Update

The Java fern appears to be doing very well. Loads of roots have grown onto the bogwood and seven new leaves have appeared. Also, most of the original leaves have baby plants on them. I am waiting for them to break away so that I can relocate them to other parts of the bogwood. This is a very easy plant to grow in the tank, most difficult part was tying it to the bogwood with cotton thread.

Some of the Giant Vallis plants are doing well. If you look behind the Java fern, you will see some of the 50 cm long leaves flowing in the water current caused by the pump. Most of the other Vallis plant leaves are growing slow and occasionally I find that some have broken off. This is also another easy plant to have in the tank. Its leaves are tougher than they look and can handle strong currents, though something in the tank causes them to break off occasionally.

Baby Java Ferns

When I bought my Java fern (Microsorium pteropus) and tied it to the bogwood, it looked like the picture below.

After a couple of weeks on the bogwood, some of the leaves now have little plants growing on them, see picture below. This is how the Java fern reproduces. Once the new plants have developed roots, they will break away from the mother leaf and float around in the aquarium until they find something to which they will attach. I am hoping to put a few of the new ferns into some holes in the bogwood so that they can grow from there.

Real Aquatic Plants

Out of the 7 plants species that I have bought so far, 3 are real aquatic plants. These should help the fish feel more at home than the non aquatic plants ones.

Echinodorus bleheri (Broad-leaf Amazon Sword) - This is an ideal plant to be used in the background of the tank. It is a slow grower, but when it is established it will be tall and wide and can fill a large portion of the tank. When I removed the plant from the plastic plant container, I discovered that there was a baby Amazon Sword growing next to the large adult. So I have ended up with 2 plants for the price of one, which makes up a bit for the non aquatic plants. I have planted both at the back of the tank, behind the bogwood, with the baby plant close to the adult one. I will relocate the baby one to a different location once it is bigger. 

Cabomba aquatica (Green Cabomba, Giant Cabomba) - Tall growing plant, great place for fry to hide in so that they do not get eaten by any adult fish. I have planted 3 of these close together to form a nice area for fish to hide in.

Microsorium pteropus (Java fern) - This plant is different from most aquatic plants as it can grow on rocks and bogwood. I have tied mine to the V area of my bogwood using cotton thread and hope it will form a nice centre piece.

Completed Cabinet

By Sunday night I had completed the cabinet and after cleaning the alcove L and I moved it into place. The dark wood is a bit lighter than the rest of the lounge furniture, but still matches nicely.

I have decided to put an artificial backing in the tank and am going to use the Juwel Rock 600 structured background. It is a 3 dimensional background, which is attached to the inside rear glass panel with silicone adhesive. Hopefully it will create a few crevices for the fish to hide under and a place for a few plants like Java Fern (Microsorium pteropus) to attach to. Currently I am waiting on the delivery of a second panel to the pet shop before I will be able to install them. Once the panels are in I will move the tank onto the cabinet and start the next phase of putting the gravel and water in.