Our new winter pond

[Somethin' Fishy]

Wow they are lovely, thanks for the photo @Somethin' Fishy ,it's hard to tell with some pictures online as they can look slightly different depending on where you look. My tank is just about done and I will post some pictures next week.

I think maybe some of the on-line photos are enhanced...particularly on sites that offer them for sale.

 

[Tara]

I am happy to say I received my fish and they arrived healthy and happy looking. After ordering them online I could bearly contain my excitement waiting for them to arrive in the mail. Now the thing is, I called everywhere I could think of looking for white cloud minnows but no place had them, I was told by stores there was no demand,or they were hard to source, or they had a limit on how many species they stock in store etc. So I found out today that in Massachusetts white cloud minnows are illegal to sell or own. So I don't know, I could not get them here but go figure I order them online and they arrive in the mail. From what I'm told and I did look it up, Massachusetts is the only state to ban them.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

Shhhh! Don't say anything!

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

A tank update:

Crypts coming in nice and thick, LOVE the flame moss, downi here and there, dwarf baby tears nicely rooted now so the snail doesn't scrape it up, lacy java fern filling out, dwarf hair grass putting up new shoots, and placed a new clump of moss on the driftwood the other day. Still deciding what plant to hide the heater...maybe regular baby tears... Fish happy, and the shrimp are always hiding.

 

[Tara]

It looks goods @Somethin' Fishy,it seems you certainly have a good eye for planting an aquarium. I love how it has matured so much these past few weeks. Thank you for the update.

 

[addy1]

Beautiful tank!

 

[Jack B. Nimble]

Your having much better luck than me with plants. I added lights and flourish still can't get green and growing. Yours looks great. Can I ask are the baby tears just normal ones from a garden centre ?

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

Your having much better luck than me with plants. I added lights and flourish still can't get green and growing. Yours looks great. Can I ask are the baby tears just normal ones from a garden centre ?

Sorry for the late reply @Jack B. Nimble. The baby tears I got are the dwarf variety. I got them on Amazon. One as a tissue culture, and one as potted. The tissue culture was the healthiest of the two. Pain to plant each little sprout though!

I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but I'm using Fluval stratum for my substrate. It's supposed to be infused with nutrients, and the plants root well in it. I don't add any fertilizers or CO2. I have the lights on a timer, so they are on for about 8 1/2 hours per day.

 

[Tara]

Hello @Somethin' Fishy, sorry for the late update, just getting back to normal after Christmas. So my tank went thought some changes after the initial planting, so I held off on the photos for a while. It went through a bad brown algae stage, but is recovering nicely and it has cleared up. There is a lot to be said for keeping an aquarium, as I just love it. So 2018 has been such a good year to me, a new pond, an aquarium, and I happen to love having both. My fish seem to be doing fantastic and are very entertaining as I find myself watching them on and off through out the day. I have the tank on a small writing desk, and I must say it provides a lovely view when I'm doing the bills, or if I'm online. However I felt the need for a bigger tank as the minnows are extremely active little fish, so after the holidays I saw a great deal on a 40 gallon tank on a stand at the Asian fish market. So for now I keep the trimming from my plants so I can transplant into the new tank, I'm sure the minnows will love the upgrade and extra space. To sum it up, this is a very enjoyable and addictive hobby. Here is a picture of my tank a few weeks ago, I will post a picture of the new tank soon, as I hoping you maybe able to offer some advice about it and the equipment it came with.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

Hello @Somethin' Fishy, sorry for the late update, just getting back to normal after Christmas. So my tank went thought some changes after the initial planting, so I held off on the photos for a while. It went through a bad brown algae stage, but is recovering nicely and it has cleared up. There is a lot to be said for keeping an aquarium, as I just love it. So 2018 has been such a good year to me, a new pond, an aquarium, and I happen to love having both. My fish seem to be doing fantastic and are very entertaining as I find myself watching them on and off through out the day. I have the tank on a small writing desk, and I must say it provides a lovely view when I'm doing the bills, or if I'm online. However I felt the need for a bigger tank as the minnows are extremely active little fish, so after the holidays I saw a great deal on a 40 gallon tank on a stand at the Asian fish market. So for now I keep the trimming from my plants so I can transplant into the new tank, I'm sure the minnows will love the upgrade and extra space. To sum it up, this is a very enjoyable and addictive hobby. Here is a picture of my tank a few weeks ago, I will post a picture of the new tank soon, as I hoping you maybe able to offer some advice about it and the equipment it came with.

@Tara - It is absolutely beautiful! The placement of the wood and stones, the layout of the plants and the splash of reds....all awesome! Excellent work!

 

[Tara]

Thanks @Somethin' Fishy , you just made my day.

 

[Tara]

Hi, just checking in to ask how your fish are doing, things are going well here except for a lesson learned the hard way when one of my fish jumped to the floor. I was going to put my minnows in a tub outdoors this summer to spawn but sadly I think they are all males.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

Hi, just checking in to ask how your fish are doing, things are going well here except for a lesson learned the hard way when one of my fish jumped to the floor. I was going to put my minnows in a tub outdoors this summer to spawn but sadly I think they are all males.

They're doing great thanks! Sorry to hear you had a jumper. I was thinking about doing an outdoor tub this year too, and see if I could spawn some of these danios. They're constantly spawning in the tank, but the eggs are promptly eaten by the others. I haven't any space for a proper spawning tank... But I do have some overgrown raised flowerbeds that I need to dig up this Spring, and I was thinking about inserting a couple livestock feed pans and put in some sun loving water lilies.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

Tank update, since it has been awhile:

All eight CPDs still doing great. Love how the downi, hair grass, and baby's tears filled in. Flame moss is insane and has to be trimmed back all the time. Removed the x-mas moss and fava fern because I wasn't liking it.

@Tara how is your tank doing? I had one of my CPDs jump out of the tank (probably chasing one of the girls!). My dog found it on the floor, and I just thought it was a bug. So I got a tissue and kinda' squished it as I picked it off the rug, but thought it looked so shiny and weird shaped to be a bug so I looked at it in the tissue, and it was a FISH! So I chucked him back in the tank and he went under the filter outflow to pout for awhile. I thought for sure it would die, but after about 10 minutes it was no longer in the corner.... I looked around the tank to see if I would find it belly-up, but he was back swimming with the others, and back to chasing females!

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

Tank Update - Clean slate!

I discovered that apparently the black substrate can break down and go skunky after awhile... My plants started to pale, and the algae started to take over. So I ditched the substrate and went with gravel. Here's the new arrangement. I spared the downi and crypts and will see if they will recover. I have new plants on order. The fish are still doing great though. I have all but one of the originals...one of my males, that had survived a previous jump from the tank (even with the lid on), didn't survive his second leap while chasing the females.