Hello from VA - Nphocus

Fern wrote:You really really need to separate out the koi and goldfish into one tank, the African cichlids into another and the angels into another.
You are gonna have some very bad issues if you keep them mixed like that.....

I'm actually in the process of doing that. The cichlids will go into the planted tank, and the koi/goldfish in a bit more spartan tank with a few plants that they won't eat and some decorative rock bridges. They seem to like hanging out under stuff.

What's wrong with keeping the angels with the koi/goldfish?

they want way different temps, angels want 78-80 and goldys and koi are cooler water fish that dont need a heater at all.
Go with tough plants with the cichlids so they dont eat them. angels like a fully planted tank.

Angels like much higher temp water (78 to 84) goldfish like cold (68 to 72) out of these ranges they are at much higher risk of infections. Also the goldfish will grow much to big and more aggressive than angels if not attack them well out compete them for food.

Vix had submerged peace lilly's with her 6-7" oscars ... with a big ole catfish!.. Hardy plants for sure

I see everyone else already got to ya, but WELCOME!!! Have fun here and beautiful tanks and fishies!

thatbettaglo wrote:I see everyone else already got to ya, but WELCOME!!! Have fun here and beautiful tanks and fishies!

Thank you.

FishVixen wrote:Angels like much higher temp water (78 to 84) goldfish like cold (68 to 72) out of these ranges they are at much higher risk of infections. Also the goldfish will grow much to big and more aggressive than angels if not attack them well out compete them for food.

I appreciate the advice. However, my goldfish and koi are mid to bottom feeders. I give them sinking pellets for just that reason. The angels are strictly top/surface feeders and get first dibs on any flakes. I've never had any issues with infections and both of my tanks are unheated and between the lighting I use and the pumping system, both stay at a toasty 80-84 degrees. The 100 plus degree heat we've been experiencing for the past several weeks hasn't helped the situation.

Fortunately the pellets are way too big for the angel's mouths, else they would try and get those too. They are much more aggressive eaters than the koi. I've never seen any chasing or nipping or other aggressive behavior between any of the koi/goldfish/angels.

This is the 75G planted tank from the 1st page... it's been growing... notice, no pots!
















These Fry didn't stay Fry for long. Thank you Mike205.

Bobby.. is that Java Fern in the lower left?... If so, it should not be buried in the substrate. That will kill off the roots. It needs to be anchored in some manner (I use dark sewing thread) to an object.... stone, wood or allow to be free floating. After a bit of time, the root will send out anchors that will provide the anchor points. Otherwise, looking good my friend!.. Looking good. Bill in Va.

williemcd wrote:Bobby.. is that Java Fern in the lower left?... If so, it should not be buried in the substrate. That will kill off the roots. It needs to be anchored in some manner (I use dark sewing thread) to an object.... stone, wood or allow to be free floating. After a bit of time, the root will send out anchors that will provide the anchor points. Otherwise, looking good my friend!.. Looking good. Bill in Va.

I'm not sure if it's Java Fern or not, but it was anchored to a piece of drift wood and it basically refused to grow... at all.. 2 weeks ago I took it off the wood and pushed it down into the substrate and it has a TON of new growth. Before, it looked like it was just hanging in there. I will take close up pics. I haven't seen a plant sprout new growth the way this one does. It looks almost like it has new leaves growing from the bottom side of it's old leaves.

-Bobby

Kinda weird looking, isn't it?

Definitely looks like java fern. Also looks a little dark at least the older leaves do. I would just brush some of the sand off the top of the part the leaves grow off of as you shouldn't need to completely need to uproot it. I buried mine in my gravel and it did fine, but seeing as you have sand not so sure.

As long as only the roots are buried they do fine usually. To get a good root system to grow I just let them float. Java will grow almost anywhere! LOL Tank looks great. Love it that you actual experiment with different plants and fish. I give advise only to warn not to say "YOU can't do this"!!!! LOL

Thank you FishVixen. I know it comes from a good place, and I promise, that tank is going all cichlid... now if the cichlids will all play nice together... time will tell. I'm going to load it up with 10 times more rock and keep plants in among the rocks and in the foreground.

My thought is that with all of the caves and flora, there will be plenty of hiding spots for any of the more timid fish to stay out of sight, out of mind from the more aggressive ones. I'm going to hide the filter intake with a stack of rocks, do the same with the tall gray Vixen filtration container, and I'm going to have the waterfall come in on top of a wide flat rock.

Sounds great

Ok java fern tends to procreate from spores on the bottom of the leaves, that is what yours is doing. I would cut off a full leaf with the most plantlets and tie it onto something with COTTON thread, the reason for cotton is that it will eventually rot away and by the time it does that the plant is firmly rotted onto whatever you tied it onto. With a leaf like that with soooo many sprouts you will end up with a very impressive mass of java fern.
There's some java fern growing 101 for yall

Fern wrote:Ok java fern tends to procreate from spores on the bottom of the leaves, that is what yours is doing. I would cut off a full leaf with the most plantlets and tie it onto something with COTTON thread, the reason for cotton is that it will eventually rot away and by the time it does that the plant is firmly rotted onto whatever you tied it onto. With a leaf like that with soooo many sprouts you will end up with a very impressive mass of java fern.
There's some java fern growing 101 for yall

AWWWWWW You so smaaaaawwwwttt!!!

So, does that mean that the main leaf is going to die and the little plantlets fall off and become individual plants? What triggers this sort of behavior? I've tried tying this exact piece off on driftwood with thread before and it grew around it, but was never able to root into it.

Thanks for the advice though, I may have to find another interesting piece of drift wood and see about giving it another shot with the new plantlets. Do you think that the leaf can be cut up and and tied to different sections of a piece of driftwood or would it be better to tie it down to one location and just let it spread naturally?

Thanks,

Bobby

The small plantlets tend to fall off when they are ready to wander off and snag up and root somewhere. sometimes the leaf does die sometimes it dont.
Its easier to tie on the whole leaf, lots of wraps is how I do it. You could try doing the individual plants but that's a pain in the neck and I only did that one time and most didn't stay tied down. Lava rock is excellent to grow any of the rhizome plants or mosses on, its so porous that they can root very easy, yes you can use the red stuff from home depot, just soak and rinse it a few times first.

when using thread be sure it's 100% cotton {polyester does not dissolve) so it all dissolves.

Cichlid Skyrise Apartments are complete!!!








One of the shy little Nicholsi comes out to see what's new. These guys tend to stay in the deeps darkest rocks, so it's nice to see them out in general population for a change. They have some of the most beautiful fins that I've seen on a cichlid.

More pics, mostly blurry:
https://picasaweb.google.com/nphocus/CichlidEmporium?authuser=0&feat=directlink

The triple stacked Hydro sponges are still in the corner, as is the tall gray pvc filter... Both are completely concealed by rocks. I love it.

Wow An exclusive condo for them. Looks Great. Only problem is cleaning them. I used large slate to block mine if I wanted them hidden,

FishVixen wrote:Wow An exclusive condo for them. Looks Great. Only problem is cleaning them. I used large slate to block mine if I wanted them hidden,

Uhh, I think you forgot something

I don't plan on touching them. The triple stacked sponges are all extremely coarse and are just used to spread the suction from the intake that runs down the center. I have a pretty good sized mag pump connected to it and it pulls thru the sponges, thru a canister filter, and then pushes thru a DIY fluidized sand filter.

The FSF is finally cycled and the canister can come off or transition over to just water polishing... which is where I think I'm going with it... pillow fill and some semi coarse pads. It has 5 trays which gives lots of options.