Tropical refit

[Andyroo]

Oscars were on the early list, but I'm trying to break up the trophic cascade: essentially the predator will be too large to eat/see as pray the colourful mosquito control fish. Thus rainbows & silver arowana. Yes, for the first 10-18 months there will be plenty of predation, but I reckon after about 18" the aros won't even see the rainbows... and they're quick as hell so the gambuzia & guppies will be the main fodder for the growing aros. We're making a kitchen scraps-brew of lobster & prawn heads blended with gelatine in the villa kitchen for the aros as well, and the place is rife with massive flying bugs & beetles (and bats & dragonflies & hummingbirds... requiring a web-cam) for alternative feed as well.
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[Andyroo]

A few quick snaps from last week. Primary fish (clown loach and silver arowana) are still awaiting import permits... what a headache.
As expected/predicted the green algae is largely gone, but the plants that are doing well have gone nuts. Papyrus, underwater filamentous & some of the small lilies are doing very well, but the larger lili and some of the smaller bog plants are essentially gone including the hyacinth. Water is extremely clear. Fish seem to be doing very well, but juv. guppies are no longer prevalent and danio & rainbow are growing and active but don't seem to be breeding- not sure how to get that process going, maybe more food. Water is also toasty warm as the backwashing is now happening but they've got other issues like keeping the depth topped up, so it gets stratified over the day, particularly where the plants are thick.

Sorry for the mistiness, these are through the underwater housing.

You can really see the excessive overrun of plants in here, but the fish seem very happy and the client loves it.

What a great place to be a little fish.

There's a rainbow in the middle-right of the pic, if you look carefully. These things are huge and active.

This rainbow took offence to the camera (or his reflection in the housing) so I got some good snaps of his displaying and/or attacking.

Any comments or suggestions welcome.
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