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Well, the tank is now roughly a year old, still happily more or less self sustaining and has turned into an absolute jungle. I’m quite happy to leave it do it’s thing really, so everything is pretty messy, but some pics –
In the process of setting up a seperate spawning tank for the Paros, so hopefully there’ll be some news there in the coming weeks.
Thanks Helene.
That was quite an annoying bug as it happened just as I’d replied to a 2 page thread!
Hi Humike,
I am glad to hear that my tank has helped to interest you in keeping Paros. However, I very much agree with Peter on the need to try and breed these little fish, rather than just to ‘consume’ them. I had hoped that they would breed in the Bucket, but I have been struggling to maintain the correct water chemistry for successful egg development, and so I will soon be setting up an additional small spawning tank to move one of the pairs into. I hope this way to be able to enjoy the Paros as a community fish and to be able to contribute a little to the conservation project.
Cheers,
TomYeah, it’s normally a custom build job for something like this. Water pressure is much lower in shallow tanks, so they’re pretty safe for going rimless. In retrospect, I’d probably go for 15″ high rather than 12″ if I were doing it again, as it tends to look slightly cramped unless the water is right to the brim.
Hi Kelly.
No, I got it made by a local fish shop. The quality is so-so (some slightly over-enthusiastic silicon work) but it wasn’t too expensive and seems pretty sturdy.
[quote=”martin” post=545]In one of “Macropode” issue Peter Finke wrote that Paro-friends are simply recognize by the pocket light near their aquarium(s) – so now I’m paro-friend!
p.s. more english issue of “Macropode” – it will be great thing :):)[/quote]
Haha, I too have a small torch next to my tank now.
Also would love more English copies of DM.
[quote=”kindai” post=521]unfortunately i cannot view the pictures..:(:([/quote]
Hi kindai. Not sure why that might be… they are showing fine for me and are hosted on imageshack which is pretty reliable, so I think it must be something funny at your end.
If you can’t find a home for them then I’d be happy to add them to the Bucket. However it’s all pretty hectic at this end, not sure when I’d be able to get across to pick them up.
As winter draws ever nearer (in Scotland anyway!), I thought I should take a few shot sof the rather nice light that diffuses into the tank in the mornings…
Peter, thank you very much for your kind words. I am just happy that the tank was turned out close to what I had hoped for (it was an idea that had sat at the back of my mind for over a year before I was able to start the project).
Hi Peter,
There is good detail in those images which can be shown with a little brightening. I don’t know if this will help with ID?
Martin, I hope you don’t mind me altering your images, I will remove them if you ask.
Cheers,
TomYes, balancing the light needs of the plants with making sure the Paros still feel secure is potentially tricky. Metal halide lights are quite powerful, but importnatly are also better able to penetrate the water than normal T5/T8 lights. Having the light 2 feet above the tank allows enough light for the less demanding plants to grow, without being so bright to scare the gouramis (I tried some more demanding plants (glosso etc) but they did not do well).
Having the light angled from the back of the tank also means I can keep floating plants around the front edges without blocking the light from reaching the other plants, which keeps the paros happy :).
This tank really is all about compromise and balance… it is not the perfect paro tank, nor the perfect plant tank, but taken as a whole it seems to work – which makes me happy, as the whole thing was a bit of an experiment and could have gone horribly wrong!
Hello Helene and Peter,
Peter, you are very welcome to use my images to illustrate the ‘sentang’ page, I will try to get some still images of flaring and courtship, showing the mature male colouration.
Helene, I really hope that the paros manage to breed in here. I am not taking great care of my water paramaters – I know my tap water is fairly soft and probably acidic from humics in the tank, but have never measured pH or hardness. If there are no successful spawns I will think about switching to RO water. I live in a city so am not too keen on using rain water.
With regard to your other comments, there is almost no algae in this tank, except a small amount of green spot algae (noticeable in the video) on the glass. The whole system is very ‘lean’ in nutrients, and the emergent plants seem to do a good job of keeping the levels stable, hence no algae. The only time algae was a problem was in the first month, while the soil was releasing ammonia and the plants were adapting to hydoculture conditions.
I do not bother removing dead leaves or other dirt from the bottom of the tank, as seems to provide a good home for many of the small invertebrates and the breakdown will produce CO2 for the plants. So far water quality does not seem to be an issue.
I am lucky with the video making because I recently rearranged the tank a little and introduced some floating plants around the front edges. The male paros, which were very shy to begin with, are now happy to be out in the open and have established new territories right where I can see them easily (before this I mainly just saw the females). My new camera seems to be very good for video, and has the useful feature that you can lower the framerate below the normal 25 or 50 frames per second, to let in more light; I shot this footage mainly at 10fps, which makes it a little jerky with fast moving subjects, but fine for capturing courtship etc.
