Bonus post: My Blagdon Affinity Pillar Pond

Thought I'd get some pics up of my 'pond'. I was lucky enough to win this one in a competition about four months ago. It's quite small at 200l and is home to three goldfish (Bob, Bob and Bob), a few marginal plants which are doing really well (perhaps too well!), some oxygenating weed and some pond snails which I am hoping will help get rid of some of the algae. I don't mind scrubbing but the water is very cold!

I know that these have had mixed reviews but I really like it, particularly the portholes as the fish come up when you're passing and stare at you through them. It's a really nice looking addition to the decking and very calming to watch.

Saying that, I don't know what will happen through winter, it might have to come inside if it's particularly cold and that's not a job I'd relish. I should perhaps mention that I have a plan b, and if I can't look after them over winter or when they get too big they will be moving down south to my parent's large garden pond.

The LED light is a nice touch although I think there's algae on the sensor as it seems to come on quite early in the day. Ah well, a bit more scrubbing it is then...

Also I did have the waterfall feature on but it was just too loud and harsh, the fountain is less nice to look at but it won't drive you mad at night! Finally, the cover is home made because it doesn't come with anything to keep the cats, bird and foxes out. This seems to have done the trick and kept the fishes safe so far. 

Blagdon Affinity Pillar Pond

Goldfish have come to the surface to see what's what

Checking me out through the porthole!

A cable runs through the wall to power the included Blagdon pond pump which is rated for a far bigger pond.

This is my last tank...promise!

And I do mean that this time, as I have NO surfaces left!

First of all, updates on my tanks.

The loaches which I introduced in this post are clearly not YoYo loaches and I feared they were going to get much too big for the 125l so I swapped them with my peppered cories. They both went mad, the cories seem to love the darker substrate and settled down really well and the loaches are so active in my bigger tank they are almost exhausting to watch!

Unfortunately the female dwarf gourami also died so the tank is missing its centrepiece fish, the krisbensis is now behaving herself but as she is primarily a bottom dweller there is definitely something 'missing'... I'm going to think long and hard before I replace them though.

Have started dosing SeaChem flourish excel for the plants and it's made a real difference. It's likely to get expensive but not sure I'm ready for CO2 yet.

Some update pics of the 200l:

Fluval Roma 200

Two of the loaches which are too quick to photograph!

Cardinal Tetras gather at the back

And the 125:

Two Angels dominate this tank!

Fluval Roma 125

'Viv' - (s)he's the boss

Rummynose Tetras

No changes in the 65l really, that tank has never caused me problems at all . A recent picture:

And finally, my new betta tank! Well it will be once it gets a betta. At the moment it's home to two small platies and a guppy who are making sure it stays cycled. It came free with a subscription to Practical Fish Keeping magazine and is a 15l Superfish Wave tank. It's really neat as the heater and filter are hidden from view and you can change the colour and intensity of the light via buttons on the top. We've gone for a minimalist 'zen' feel to this one!

Superfish Wave 15

Will house a betta if I can find the right one!

Shrimp tank hasn't changed since the last update except there are now loads of baby shrimplets :D Too small for me to take a photo of...

That's all folks!

New pics and some bad news :(

King boffer died after a long battle with DGD.

Poor boff.

And in better news, just a couple of new pics of my 200l

As you can see, quite hot in there today, but there doesn't seem to be a lot we can do. I don't know why it holds the temperature so well, the other tanks aren't anywhere near 28 degrees. Maybe it's just because it's the biggest tank? Or maybe the external filter has something to do with it? I don't know. I've tried cooling it but the fish seem to be alright, no deaths, no illness, no flashing for a very long time. Hurrah!

The 125 is still going OK although I decided that plants, minimal lighting and loaches was a bad mix so have some vallis and java fern and a few odds and ends but that's it, moved the rest to the 200 where I am dosing flourish and everything seems to be...well... flourishing!

Over the last month we have lost another rummynose to a mystery illness which turned its body white from the inside over several months, thought it might be Neon Tetra Disease but it hasn't spread at all - Phew. All other inhabitants fine. Thinking of getting a plec for this one as the algae is everywhere and the loaches snack on any snails they come across. Maybe I will go with a slightly rarer L number this time but I'm not 100% sure yet.

Some of my newest project a few months in

Thought I should get some pics up of the most recent project, the shrimp tank in the kitchen! It's been running perhaps six weeks or two months now.

It's an Arcadia Arc 20l and we started with around ten cherry red shrimp

Here are a few of the shrimp having a 'shrimposium', I have just noticed in the top left hand corner there appears to be a shrimplet :) Unfortunately their arrival has meant it's very difficult to hoover up after them as you can see!

23rd July 2012

Ok so... Been a little while but all is going ok, thought i'd get some updated pictures up.

My 125 currently. Looking quite busy at the moment' current occupants are two angels, 11 rummynoses (lost one mysteriously, wasn't ill to my knowledge...) 6 loaches and a smattering of guppies and platies which were getting bullied in my other tank. I might re-introduce them as I am getting impatient for the perfect tank and three species is all I wanted in there.

I was sold these as yoyo loaches but I am now wondering if they might be Botia histronica?..

Any ideas??

Finally a few of my 200l, no new inhabitants and no one gone to fishy heaven. The dwarf gourami who I thought had DGD is living in my 65l with a bunch of female guppies and platies, he's not quite right - a little curved - but he feeds ok and he's no where near as bad as he was when I took him out of the 200l to treat him with anti internal bacteria meds.

Will try and take better ones but I am not a born photographer and my iPad isn't exactly an SLR... :X

A month or so on...

FINALLY, some pictures of how the tank looks now (not very good I'm afraid!!).

  

Current inhabitants:

2 x Baby Angels
6 x YoYo Loaches
12 x Rummynose tetra
2 x Platies
and a bunch of guppies who were getting bullied in the other tank.

All are getting on well so far but I'm keeping careful watch in case I need to separate anyone in future!

In other tank news, have switched to an external filter in my 200l so it looks so strange now - so much more space! Haven't altered the stocking much except we had to put in Mrs Kribbitch the moody kribensis as we needed the hospital tank for our sick dwarf gourami, he's still with us but for how long I don't know. Could be the dreaded DGD. His Mrs is fine and still in the 200l.

The kribensis has settled down now, and isn't picking on anyone; she's even getting on fine with the cories.We moved the guppies & hi-fin platies out (into the 125) because she would just rip them to shreds, and have put in two new platies to add a bit of colour. Tetras, danios, barbs and cories are all fine too, as is Mr Bristles who is getting HUGE already. Here are a few rubbish pics taken today:

Ta-da!

And last but not least, the 65l is now home to some rapidly growing platy and guppy young ladies. it's also had a wee re-scape:

:)

Long time, no update!

So what happened next??

Well...

• The twelve rummynoses settled in well and started coming out and shoaling in the open although they didn't really stand out very much against the background which is a shame as close up, they're stunning fish.
• The pentazona/five banded barbs didn't seem to like the set up however and spent their days cowering under cover, so after a while we decided to swap them into our 200l where they shoal like crazy and stand out beautifully. As it was already a bit overstocked, we moved six cardinal tetras into the 125 to add a dash of colour, however we couldn't catch the other six and when we've got a bit of time we'll get them too!
• We also moved two orange platies in there, to add a bit of colour but also because they seemed to be hiding away a lot in impossibly small spaces - possibly because they got bullied by the other platies in the 200l. In the 125l they swim out in the open most of the time which is great to watch.
• As a 'centrepiece' we got two small angelfish, a white & yellow long finned one (named Viv) and s silver and black striped shorter finned one (Bev) who are great to watch and will follow you up and down the tank and feed from your hand. I know angels aren't ideal in pairs but really we couldn't have had too many more in there and one seems very lonely! It is clear who's in charge (Viv!) but he or she doesn't do anything worse than chase the other one every now and then, she can't chase very fast as she seems to have strange fins! For the most part they are very peaceful together.we can always swap them into the 200l or 65l if they start to argue! 
• We decided the rock background was too severe (OK, my husband didn't like it!) and it took up too much space, so we spent a few hours getting it out and scraping off the silicone, all fish in buckets of course. We added a black background (just a bit of material) and lots of plants, and my husband picked out two enormous pieces of wood which have given it a murky, natural look which I love and wish was permanent!
• The two baby guppies we moved in (it was three but one was deformed and died quickly) have now developed their gonopodiums so I now have a lot more confidence in my ability to sex guppies so moved two more over. The four guppies - which although they have the same parents (I assume!) are different colours depending on when they were born -  all swim together with the two platies. It looks like the rest of my guppy babies are female, so hopefully I swapped the boys out soon enough and that will be the end of the babies - it's been nearly six months since they saw a male and for the first time they don't look like they're about to burst!
• Finally we added six yo-yo loaches over a few weeks. They're around two inches long so still juveniles and at the moment they don't seem to bother the other fish as they are the only bottom dwellers and have lots of nooks and crannies to explore. Again if they do start picking on the angels or guppies, I have a contingency plan, but at the moment it seems to be going very well indeed!

For some reason my USB port isn't recognising my camera so I will have to come and add more photos at a later date.