Not fishing but fish related

[MuskieBait]

I've been pretty busy lately and fishing took a backseat big time.

Instead of fishing, I've been spending some time setting up a 5 gallon planted tank.

Initially, I just want to keep a couple of Iowa Darters at home so I can observe their behaviour.

It started on Jul 30, 2014



The tank was pretty bare with Hornwort, some Pondweed and Frog-bit that I collected from the same habitat where the Iowa Darter lived.



But the native plants didn't do well at all. By Sep 28, I needed to get some help to eat up nutrients and control the algae. So I got some plants from the pet shop, and some shrimps. I have also added 2 Rainbow Darter for a few weeks.



Cherry Shrimp



Amano Shrimp



Unfortunately, by early October, I had to release my darters. They were maturing and they got extremely territorial. They were chasing and biting fins constantly. It was such a stressful environment for all the darters that I simply had to release them.

Since the darters were gone and my tank no longer needed to be kept at a cooler temperature, it opened a lot of options for me. I went through a phase of adding plants. In fact, I now love plants even more than the fish in my tank. The fish are there simply to generate nutrient and CO2 for my plants. I still love the shrimps because they are pretty cool to watch and they keep the plants algae free.

Here's how the tank evolved...

Oct 6, 2014



Oct 13, 2014



Oct 19, 2014



Oct 25, 2014



As of today, here are all the species in my 5 gallon tank...

Day 89 - Oct 25, 2014

Fish:

6 Red Coral Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus)
4 Pygmy Corydora (Corydoras pygmaeus)
1 Celestial Pearl Danio (Danio margaritatus)
6 Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Invertebrate:

1 Grass Shrimp (Palaemonetes spp.)
1 Amano Shrimp (Caridina multidentata)
10 Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi var. red)
1 Zebra Nerite Snail (Neritina natalensis)

Plants:

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demursum)
Sunset Hygrophilia (Hygrophila polysperma)
Red Crypt Wendtii (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
Marimo Moss (Aegagropila linnaei)
Red Ludwigia (Ludwigia repens)
Corkscrew Val (Vallisneria spiralis)
Anubias Nana (Anubias barteri var. nana)
Java Moss (Taxiphyllum barbieri)
Mayaca (Mayaca fluviatilis)
Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus)
Dwarf Sagittaria (Sagittaria subulata)

I've basically maxed out most of the space in my 5 gallon. Some of the plants had been trimmed short to allow for growth. My Anubias Nana came from my friend's koi tank where the koi ate most of the leaves. It is now just recovering and it finally grew new roots and a new leaf. My Java Ferns came from a plant swap with someone but they were pretty poor quality. I had to trim all leaves and much of the roots. It will take at least a few months before they will recover.

Now that the tank is all planted, it is time sit back and let plants to grow and mature!