Plants & Fry

[Melody]

Just out of curiosity, do those of you with heavily planted tanks have fry that show up out of the blue quite often? I would think that many eggs would get scattered amongst the plants by the scatterers at least, Danios & the like. There's always lots of infusorians in heavily planted tanks so they'd be fed. It all just seems logical, yet I don't hear about it very often, so I thought I'd ask.:smile:

[Edgezilla]

Sterbai still spawn quite often in the 75g planted tank. A few used make it adult stage, but now I cut down on the feeding so the sterbais are going after the eggs and fry. There Feeding 6 to 9 tetra tablet a day in a planted tank didn't feel right. I was getting massive amount of cladophora algae from the crazy feeding. I couldn't do any gravel vacumn to remove the fish/food waste. Even with 3 tetra tablet the substrate still get a build up of junk.

I have 20 sterbai in the 75g and another 20 in a storage tank.

[Melody]

I don't see any reason why you're not sharing them with me then.....lol.

Actually, if you do ever sell any, please let me know. I lost the mate to mine so its alone and I hate to see a Cory alone. I added it ('It' because I'm not sure of the sex, but I think its the female) to a tank with other Cory's but I like for them to have a school of their own species. I also can't seem to find Pandas for my lone one, or not from a store I'd buy from anyway.

I often wondered about how you keep a heavily planted tank clean since you can't vacuum. I assume that the plants can only utilize so much. I suppose lots of janitors helps. What if you presoaked the food, put it into a shallow container/lid and slowly lowered it to the gravel? A pain, but its so crazy it just might work. :twitcy:

I should be getting the concentrated 100% Spirulina tablets that I ordered soon. They're supposed to stay stable in the water for so long that people use them as vacation feeders. The fish just keep nibbling away at them. I'll let you know how they do. I find that most algae wafers fog my water and shrimp pellets fall apart almost immediately.

[madattiver]

I actually found several red panda barb fry in my heavily planted community tank one time.. shocked the heck out of me that they actually survived in there.. but then again that javamoss has slowly taken over that tank giving lots and lots of cover for the fry to hide in. :)

[Melody]

I had to look those up...lol. Yup, there's nothing like tangles of Java Moss for a fry-saver.

[Edgezilla]

I am selling them just didn't post them on this forum yet. I have them ranging from 1" to 1.75"

I wasn't going to sell them though, but I am freeing up room to start another spawning program again.

You can't really clean a planted tank, thats why people understock fish to keep the tank cleaner. I have the case of the green water from feeding and this tank will never clear up until the tank is fully matured in about 1 year.

[Melody]

Wow, none of the usual green water solutions help? UV sterilizer? I suppose the Willow branches would take nutrients away from the plants.

I'll watch for that ad :smile: .

[Edgezilla]

Never tried them, but those won't be long term solution if I have to keep them running daily just to keep gw out.

[Melody]

You're probably right. I have mine running all the time anyway because its one of the big ones that kills algae, parasites, bacteria and mean fishies! OK, not really the latter, but I tell any bully fishies that...sssshhhh....

[Mrs.JP]

Hi, I had a little pepered cory show up after a cleaning. Scared the heck out of me. So now I am always staring at the tank looking for more or eggs.:wideeyed: I am scared of cleaning the tank now.LOL

The guppy fry have a better chance now in the planted tank too.

Jackie

[Melody]

Peppered Cory's are some of the more continual spawners amongst the Cory's, so you may just find more yet :yes: .