Forgot to add, your feeding choices are spot on.
meeki/bladen river themed tank
- Thread starter Tripping Willow 91
- Start date
Thanks
Stanzzzz7
appreciate all the advice and yes your thread was a massive help, especially with foraging for wood and botanicals. I'd not done this before so all the info from yourself and the responses within the thread were a great help. I do like the hornwort idea but I have 5 little tiger lotus' dotted about and whilst they establish I think they'll benefit from all the light they can get, plus I've got a lot of flow/surface agitation so I can see them getting whirlpooled around the place, unless I suction cupped them in place. Perhaps I'll add a few stems in amongst the pebble mounds, I think it would complement the tank well and definitely add to the biotope look
Stanzzzz7
appreciate all the advice and yes your thread was a massive help, especially with foraging for wood and botanicals. I'd not done this before so all the info from yourself and the responses within the thread were a great help. I do like the hornwort idea but I have 5 little tiger lotus' dotted about and whilst they establish I think they'll benefit from all the light they can get, plus I've got a lot of flow/surface agitation so I can see them getting whirlpooled around the place, unless I suction cupped them in place. Perhaps I'll add a few stems in amongst the pebble mounds, I think it would complement the tank well and definitely add to the biotope look5 lotus will soon fill the upper levels when they take off. Don't know if you've had these plants before but they grow rapid once they get started. I used to have to prune mine every few days.Thanks
It's going to look brilliant once they grow.
Yes I've had tiger lotus in a couple different tanks. These 5 are actually from my previous high tech tank and they all came from the same bulb, I think I've got 7 plants from that bulb so far and it's still pushing them out in this tank. In the high light co2 tank they were super bright, they didn't actually go too crazy but I never let them reach the surface and I think the high light and co2 kept them smaller and less inclined to shoot for the surface. I had one years back in low tech that was left to its own devices, it produced some huge pads on the surface and amazing flowers, when I shut the tank down the root system had covered the entire footprint and the pads covered the surface.
These were the lotus back when they were in my high tech. They died right back whilst sitting neglected in my quarantine for a couple months and 2 turned to mush but the remaining 5 are starting to bounce back since being planted in this tank
Not sure if anyone is still following this thread but I'll keep it going for now.
So yesterday I took 3 of my firemouths back to the shop, the 5 I bought from this shop all ended up looking like males and I didn't think 5 males with 3 females would be a good ratio and the guy at the shop was happy for me to swap them. Although since this
Stanzzzz7
has told me it's not actually that simple to sex these fish so I'm not actually sure what sex any of my guys are but I thought I'd still make the most of this and take my 3 dullest of the 5 back to the shop. They didn't actually have any firemouths in stock so I came out with 2 female green swords (the only 2 they had) and some cichlid pellets.
I really think I should pay more attention when buying fish because now these 2 fish are in my tank I believe them to be late developing males. These fish are large around 3" but neither of them has an obvious sword tail, what they do have is a gonopodium and on closer inspection one has what looks to be the start of a sword. In the shop I didn't pay attention to their anal fins because at this size with no swords to me they were obviously females, they were in with 3 males with the giveaway swords to their tails. Do you think these are late bloomers or are the stories I've read of swords changing sex true?
Even though it took me 2 hours to catch them, I had to drain the tank and rip it apart and I've ended up with 3 male swords, I'm actually glad I returned them, I would never have been happy with the colour of these fish. Now I have 4 good looking fish and one not so good (from the original 3), hopefully soon I'll be able to increase my good looking number to 7.
And last but not least I must have been paying attention when I bought my bristlenose as I'm now confident he's a male and that is what I was after.
So yesterday I took 3 of my firemouths back to the shop, the 5 I bought from this shop all ended up looking like males and I didn't think 5 males with 3 females would be a good ratio and the guy at the shop was happy for me to swap them. Although since this
Stanzzzz7
has told me it's not actually that simple to sex these fish so I'm not actually sure what sex any of my guys are but I thought I'd still make the most of this and take my 3 dullest of the 5 back to the shop. They didn't actually have any firemouths in stock so I came out with 2 female green swords (the only 2 they had) and some cichlid pellets.I really think I should pay more attention when buying fish because now these 2 fish are in my tank I believe them to be late developing males. These fish are large around 3" but neither of them has an obvious sword tail, what they do have is a gonopodium and on closer inspection one has what looks to be the start of a sword. In the shop I didn't pay attention to their anal fins because at this size with no swords to me they were obviously females, they were in with 3 males with the giveaway swords to their tails. Do you think these are late bloomers or are the stories I've read of swords changing sex true?
Even though it took me 2 hours to catch them, I had to drain the tank and rip it apart and I've ended up with 3 male swords, I'm actually glad I returned them, I would never have been happy with the colour of these fish. Now I have 4 good looking fish and one not so good (from the original 3), hopefully soon I'll be able to increase my good looking number to 7.
And last but not least I must have been paying attention when I bought my bristlenose as I'm now confident he's a male and that is what I was after.
Up to 7 meeki!
On the 2nd I phoned a few shops and found one with 2 meeki in stock so I went to take a look. They were around 4-5 cm and showing some nice amount of red for the size, they looked a little beaten up, their fins were a little tatty but nothing some time and good water wouldn't fix.
I'm quite happy with these fish, when I first put them in they were very light coloured, 2 weeks later and now they've settled they're the darkest of the bunch. I think with time they will show lots of reds.
On the 2nd I phoned a few shops and found one with 2 meeki in stock so I went to take a look. They were around 4-5 cm and showing some nice amount of red for the size, they looked a little beaten up, their fins were a little tatty but nothing some time and good water wouldn't fix.
I'm quite happy with these fish, when I first put them in they were very light coloured, 2 weeks later and now they've settled they're the darkest of the bunch. I think with time they will show lots of reds.
And finally 9!
Yesterday 14th march I phoned another shop and was told they had 2 meeki left, on my way home from work I stopped by. When I arrived the woman told me they actually had 4 and shown me over to them, there were 3 around 3cm and a tiny one about 2cm (this little one didn't look like a thorichthys to me, it was too slender more like a little rock dweller tang in body shape).
These fish were the smallest I'd seen so far and the cheapest at £10 for 2 but they were also the most colourful, pretty little meeki that I'd found. They weren't showing loads of red on their throats and were very light in colour but the iridescent spangling on their body and fins were far more than I'd previously on any small firemouths. When I first saw them I was skeptical as to whether they were actually meeki and not maculipinnis but after looking at them for a few mins I decided they were likely just very good looking, spangled meeki.
I had only intended on purchasing 1 bringing my total up to 8 but they were so nice I couldn't walk out with just 1, I decided I'd get the 2 with the nicest fins. One of my current fish is rather dull, if I decide when these fish mature that I've too many I will rehome this one bringing my total down to 8.
Let me know what you think of the latest additions, do you think they're meeki?
Yesterday 14th march I phoned another shop and was told they had 2 meeki left, on my way home from work I stopped by. When I arrived the woman told me they actually had 4 and shown me over to them, there were 3 around 3cm and a tiny one about 2cm (this little one didn't look like a thorichthys to me, it was too slender more like a little rock dweller tang in body shape).
These fish were the smallest I'd seen so far and the cheapest at £10 for 2 but they were also the most colourful, pretty little meeki that I'd found. They weren't showing loads of red on their throats and were very light in colour but the iridescent spangling on their body and fins were far more than I'd previously on any small firemouths. When I first saw them I was skeptical as to whether they were actually meeki and not maculipinnis but after looking at them for a few mins I decided they were likely just very good looking, spangled meeki.
I had only intended on purchasing 1 bringing my total up to 8 but they were so nice I couldn't walk out with just 1, I decided I'd get the 2 with the nicest fins. One of my current fish is rather dull, if I decide when these fish mature that I've too many I will rehome this one bringing my total down to 8.
Let me know what you think of the latest additions, do you think they're meeki?
