240g Orinoco Basin Biotope

[Oscar Mike]

Very nice account of your tank's evolution.
Nice setup, and everybody seem to be healthy and getting along (despite the cat eating a tiger SD early on).
Of course pacu will continue to grow, and probably the cat as well?

It seems one of your male tiger dollars has a small wound on its right side. Somebody got a bite off him, or it scratched itself somehow. It should heal fine with your good regime of water changes, but t is something to keep and eye on.
One suggestion you may want to consider is to add some frogbit or other floating plant (held in a floating corral), for the dollars , the prochi, and the pacu to munch on. They really like it and it is easy to replenish frequently if one grows it in a separate small container with light.

Thank you! I kept cichlids with the pacu in the past but he's not as skittish with other peaceful fish. The flagtail chases the sd's around sometimes but can't do any damage with those lips.

I'm definitely expecting them to continue growing, achara will likely get 31" and pacu will eventually reach 3ft. Fortunately the growth has slowed to less than 1" per year but hoping to get a temporary pool by next summer.

I examined the male sd's and couldn't find an injury, you're not referring to the red mark behind the gill? They have it on both sides, some of those pics are a few months old though so you may be looking at something else I didn't notice.

Ordered another striped sd from my lfs a few weeks ago and they were finally able to get it in today. Its a female like I was hoping but a bit smaller than I expected. Went right up to the group, really hoping she stays away from the achara. I think he knows they don't have enough meat to be worth going after.

I've been thinking about trying water lettuce so they can graze but also so they use the top half more. The surface flow is so strong from the spraybar everything would float to the left side which may still look nice and provide shade.

 

[Oscar Mike]

I'm worried the baby sd has ich on her tail. Really should've put her in a smaller tank for a few weeks.


Also did the stupidest thing I've ever done last night... had to leave during a WC before the tank was full and thought I turned the water off. When I got back I could hear water pouring into the downstairs hallway. Ran up the stairs so fast I tripped and scraped up my hand, dopped my soda and didn't have time to turn back for it. Opened the door to probably 50 gallons on the linoleum floor. Threw down every towel I had and got it dried up with my shop vac in less than 30 min. Somebody heard it and called the apartment manager so the maintenance guy came at 9pm and said there was no damage so everything was fine. Luckily I was gone for less than 15min and I only have garages under my unit but now Im worried about the joists and cement board underlayment. Pool might be coming sooner than expected.

 

[Oscar Mike]

Pacu wasn't using the right side of the tank so more changes had to be made. Now everything is against the back panel, not sure if I like it this way but the pacu and achara are happy so I'm happy. Not claiming to be a fish mind reader but when you keep an animal for 10 years you learn their body language. Especially a pacu, puppy dog of the Amazon. Trained them to eat from my fingers though catfish still scares me a little lol.

 

[Oscar Mike]

Pacu was still refusing to go past the middle section where the manzanita jutted outwards. I removed a branch hoping it would make him less nervous. While trying to coax him to follow my hand somehow his tail got jammed and broke off part of the top bone. I had removed all sharp edges but he got spooked and must have turned too fast. Felt horrible and immediately moved everything yet again. He started using the whole tank right away but if it continues to cause issues Im going to have to remove the wood unfortunately.

 

[Oscar Mike]

 

[phreeflow]

I'm worried the baby sd has ich on her tail. Really should've put her in a smaller tank for a few weeks.
View attachment 1428914

Also did the stupidest thing I've ever done last night... had to leave during a WC before the tank was full and thought I turned the water off. When I got back I could hear water pouring into the downstairs hallway. Ran up the stairs so fast I tripped and scraped up my hand, dopped my soda and didn't have time to turn back for it. Opened the door to probably 50 gallons on the linoleum floor. Threw down every towel I had and got it dried up with my shop vac in less than 30 min. Somebody heard it and called the apartment manager so the maintenance guy came at 9pm and said there was no damage so everything was fine. Luckily I was gone for less than 15min and I only have garages under my unit but now Im worried about the joists and cement board underlayment. Pool might be coming sooner than expected.

You’re lucky you were only gone for 15 minutes and the apartment manager didn’t make you take down the tank. Tank looks good

 

[Oscar Mike]

You’re lucky you were only gone for 15 minutes and the apartment manager didn’t make you take down the tank. Tank looks good

Thanks I nearly had a heart attack when I opened the car door and knew exactly where the sound of water was coming from. The manager kinda sorta doesn't know but my maintenance guy loves it and asks about the pacu all the time. Fortunately the only other flood I've had was a few years ago when a toilet flusher broke and overflowed for an hour so I told them thats what happened this time and they didn't question it. I can't risk another flood though so decided to take down my Chinese canister that leaks constantly and I haven't been able to fix it despite everything looking fine inside.

Went to the lake on labor day and collected some slate and quartz. Brought back twice this much but didn't want to stack them too high or take up too much room so only used the rocks with a smooth face.

 

[Oscar Mike]

Well I got tired of finding scratches on the big fish and food was getting trapped under the rocks so unfortunately most of them had to go, along with the big manzanita branch that I really liked. In hindsight slate and quartz were bad choices as they just have too many sharp edges so I may try some smooth river rocks in the future. I was really hoping the manzanita would work though but guess thats the price you pay keeping a pacu. At least the smallest branch seems to be working and they can't get hurt by the fake plants.