2ft planted Journal

[Verminator]

Were they added all in one go? Seems alot to add at once.

Great fish though, those sparkling gourami look really interesting. I may search for some of them when i start my new planted tank. Any idea how big they get fully grown?

[PlAnTaNoOb]

Nope. Not added all at once. Added in batches from day 5 till day 16. Sparkling gouramis are small fish. If I'm not wrong, they grow to a maximum of 1.5 inch in length.

[Verminator]

Fair enough, post was unclear, thanks for clarrifying.

Those gourami's are amazing, especially for there size. Now typically when you keep gourami's usually you keep one male to a female, possibly two females. Do you know if they can be kept in groups of more? Such as you would with a shoaling fish, or are they still kept as any other species of gourami? No worries if you don't know, i'll take a trip to a LFS and enquire there.

I may have to get another tank for them if i do get some, due to my breeding pair or Opaline Gourami's in my main tank. Hmmm.

[torque6]

Great update sean.

[illumnae]

yup the pencilfish are indeed pretty i loved the intense red on their fins once they get used to the tank conditions. i like sparkling gouramis too i have a few in my apisto tank and they're really like little gemstones with character!

[valice]

i like sparkling gouramis too i have a few in my apisto tank and they're really like little gemstones with character!

And they croak too!
Heard them a couple of times, thinking what noise was coming out of my tank.

[fireblade]

and they breed like bettas..
used to have a pair in my planted tank long ago and the male make a bubblenest ..
I even saw babies, but during that time, my tank was full of guppies and the babies become food for the rest..

[Verminator]

Ok, i'm convinced. I'm definetely scouting around for atleast a pair of these beauty's!

[ethan2008]

Very nice growth you have there.. good job

[illumnae]

And they croak too!
Heard them a couple of times, thinking what noise was coming out of my tank.

haha yeah! mine are in my bedroom, so i was wondering what on earth that sound was coming out of the tank when the lights were out

[PlAnTaNoOb]

Thanks guys.

Yup. Loving the sparkling gouramis. I can't really tell the difference between a male and female, so I guess its up to luck if I were to see them breed. Haven't heard any sound so far though. Read that they were also know as "dwarf croaking gouramis".

My "The Ben" timer is a bit cranky today, after some adjustments I made to the on/off timing. Sigh... 20 bucks for it and it's giving way so soon. Maybe I should just get a 10 buck timer from the supermarket.

Dario darios refused to eat for 3 days. But I was firm and stuck to feeding frozen daphnia. Finally this morning, a few of them relented, and started "chasing" the morsels of frozen daphnia floating around. Lucky my hunger-driven method works. Won't want those cute little guys to starve.

[Verminator]

Live bloodworm and live daphnia often prove to tempting to give up i find. Especially daphnia, my tetra's go crazy for it.

[PlAnTaNoOb]

Day 21. Before Trimming. The rotala indica and green grow tall really fast! Glosso is almost out of control.



Day21. After Trimming. Decided to keep glosso. It really creeps into every available space, an gives the wild look of nature. Personally, I find HC too neat.

The rotala in the background is really growing nicely. Spent quite some time trimming glosso.

Another picture after trimming.


I think I'll change one of the tubes at the back to an Acardia Plant Pro. Hopefully that'll make the indica redder.

The crypts at the sides and midground are still adapting. The tank looks rather incomplete without them.

[mobile2007]

I think you should really consider submiting this to the ADA competition.

[torque6]

2 thumbs up for 2nd try. Though i thought you gave all your glosso away ??

[PlAnTaNoOb]

Thanks for the encouragement mobile2007. All the crypts are still not growing. Also, the flame moss has not matured yet. So I'll give it a miss.

Thanks torque6, I don't understand why you thought so. Since day 1, there has been glosso in every FTS of mine.

[PlAnTaNoOb]

Alrightly! More pictures.


FTS this afternoon, now with the rotala all opened up.


One more. This time from a bottom up perspective.


Top-down perspective.


Kissing gou-RAM-i?


A more serious shot.


The pair. Once, I assumed that the female is dull coloured and about to die. Now she's bigger and as colourful as the male. Thera A pellets


The left wendtii green gecko is starting to grow well.


At last, I finally took a proper shot of the dwarf pencil fishy! Pretty~~


One of the happy little dario dario. So cute.


The extremely hardworking/hungry otocinclus. Eating away, risking high CO2 levels. Respect.

[sfk7]

you've really come a long way bro

with such high lightings but no algae issue at all

mind sharing your lighting and fert regime?

great growth of plants there!!

[torque6]

Sean,
i saw you selling trays of glosso the other day after you harvested, was assuming its was all gone. Guess you left with a fair bit to complete the beautiful foreground

[Verminator]

hey Plantanoob, going back a bit i know. and sorry, but only just noticed.

On your intital post, its the seventh picture down. What is that big plant you used at the back. Light green with either lighter green tips or white edges. That is exactly the plant i have in my tank and i've been told its none aquatic. Wanted to know if you could shed any light on its name and/or how well it grew in your tank.

Would really appreciate any names you could give me on this. Cheers.