Stocking, lighting & filtering questions for 17g DP tank

[Pufferpunk]

If you just stick with lo-light plants, you don't need any of that stuff. Too many chemicals for me!
Check out this site, I swear by their stuff: www.yamatogreen.com.

[RTR]

LFS employees are there to sell things (as PP said), not to teach. Very, very few have any real puffer or high-light planted tank experience. Many of the plants sold in such stores are not aquatic. I do know that many folks buy cars and appliances and pets without any real info on them, but I do not. I have done in the past muself and had to learn the hard way. Knowledge is important.

[paws_bells]

If you just stick with lo-light plants, you don't need any of that stuff. Too many chemicals for me!
Check out this site, I swear by their stuff: http://www.yamatogreen.com.

Thanks for the link, PP, I will be sure to consider that range of products once I finish using my current supply of Seachem. No use buying so many things and having them turn into white elephants later, right? I will be extra careful and frugal about the dosing amount though, and will make certain to monitor the water condition (as well as the tank inhabitants closely).

@RTR: I agree very much with your reasoning. This experience is a lesson learned for me, I suppose. I'm not sure if many newbies have the same problem, but I have trouble ID-ing aquatic plants beyond those very obvious looking varieties. Still, I'm determined to stay on the learning curve though, so do be patient with me, and I will be grateful to have any future mistakes brought to my attention so that I can have the chance to rectify it.

Today, I brought back the Dracena to the LFS and they were happy to facilitate an exchange for me. I browsed carefully this time and brought back something that resembled the Nymphoides sp. (it was one of those plants that looked 'legitly' aquatic to me, so I was pretty confident that I had chosen correctly this time). Since I was already in the area, I also grabbed a packet of live brine shrimps as a treat for the DPs as well as some Ramshorns to try my hand at breeding them. Then, I scurried home to perform a 75% PWC for the tank - it was at the end of the 5-day dosage period of Praziquantel, the DPs were looking good pretty good and my shrimps in QT were also quite anxious to permanently settle into their new home.

I drained the tank water, plopped in the new plant (after washing it really carefully), did a bit of rearranging, filled the tank back with treated water, added in the necessary vitamins, liquid fertilizers, etc, and then started the process of acclimating the shrimps to the tank water. The shrimps I had on hand were as follows: 3 Amano, 13 RCS, and 10 Sakura Red shrimps. The 3 Amanos were actually native to my previous 5 gal tank (and therefore familiar with my DPs) before I netted them out to medicate the fishes for IP, so I wasn't worried that they'd get attacked as the 'lil helicopter fleet were actually quite intimidated by the larger shrimps. But the RCS and the Sakura Red were new additions, and they were also slightly smaller than the Amanos, and I worried that the DPs might see them as food.

That was a risk I was prepared to take, but still, prior to releasing the shrimps into the tank, I treated the DPs with brine shrimps until they were all round and jolly. Another good sign was that the little fellas were swimming curiously right up to the transparent plastic bag with the shrimps to size up the newcomers when I was in the process of acclimating the inverts to the tank, but they didn't seem to be in that 'fixated, hunting mode,' so I crossed my fingers and slowly introduced the new additions.

Throughout my planning, I never noticed or even expected that at least one of my Sakura Reds had spawned and successfully hatched shrimplets, and it was until I upturned the entire net of shrimps into the tank that I noticed little baby shrimplets swimming into the new tank together with the adults. On the positive side, my DPs found all the adult shrimps too big to take on and so they didn't even bother - as with the case of the Amanos, they were quite intimidated by the shrimps. On the negative side; they hunted the little shrimplets with unprecedented precision and delight.

It is mean of me to say this; but I'm quite relieved. After all, the ending could be much worse, i.e. a complete massacre, and since I know that these shrimps procreate faster than rabbits, well, my little puffers will at least have a viable source of food supply in the foreseeable future, and the shrimp population will be somewhat controlled. Win-win situation.

Another thing that I have noticed after introducing the new additions - my quiet tank suddenly became a hotbed of activity! With the shrimps scurrying briskly around in search of food, my Otocinclus suddenly decided to buck up and do his job as well - I have certainly never seen him sucking away at surfaces so enthusiastically before - he is usually a bit more shy and reserved, but apparently not anymore! Last but not least, my DPs, who usually prefer to tuck themselves behind foliage and remain out of sight, were suddenly more willing to come out in the open and be more willing to explore. I'm a bit baffled but quite pleasantly so; wow, these shrimps sure are amazing!

One of the RCS didn't survive the transition, unfortunately, but I had expected some casualties and wasn't very surprised. I fished out its carcass and periodically did a visual scan of the tank for other dead shrimps, but so far so good. Hopefully, this lucky streak will persist. =)

This is what the tank looks like now - the red blobs interspersed around the picture are obviously the shrimps, and if you squint to the right, you will see the DPs hovering around around and wondering who called up a party:



Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading! =)

[defool89]

Looks awesome! Idk much about specific on plants, i just buy what looks good. Probably not the best of thought processes...unless someone can give insight on any plants they see in that picture you can expect some growth... I'm jealous, i have a 20g lying around that i i want to sttick dps in...buut the wife thinks I'm living in a zoo already.

[Tim]

buut the wife thinks I'm living in a zoo already.

That means one more tank won't hurt, just don't tell her, she won't notice

[defool89]

buut the wife thinks I'm living in a zoo already.

That means one more tank won't hurt, just don't tell her, she won't notice

Lol living in an apartment with a fahaka tank, ball python tank and a hyperactive Pug..you tempt me to do it...

Hey Paws check thid video its amazing planted tanks you might appreciate. Skip to 1: 25 if you want to skip the intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWwD7zz ... ata_player

[RTR]

The tank looks very good.

That is quite a shrimp load. They are great scavengers and some will graze algae well also. My DPs did on adult shrimp but not a mass killing, just sometimes catching one resting and dining on it. Eventually they wiped out all of them, but the DPs were breeding by then and I did not try any more - I was afraid they would eat the DP eggs or fry.

[Master of Puffers]

Really need to take the LFS assistant's words with a pinch of salt next time.

Even less than a grain, IMO. They're there to sell you stuff.

Guess I'm getting lucky then...most of my local LFS, well the ones I'm now patronising, are aware enough that if you show an intereast and have proven yourself as a serious fish-keeper they not only ask your advice and are prepared to share their knowledge with you.

Before we moved here several of the Maidenhead Aquatics used to call me on delivery day to either consult with us to id new puffers or to see if we wanted a different species.

[Master of Puffers]

..buut the wife thinks I'm living in a zoo already.

I wants to live in an aquarium....pg won't let me have any snakes..

[paws_bells]

Hey guys, thanks for all your kind and helpful input and comments. I really appreciate all the advice that I have been given here; else, I would have been quite lost with all the differing information that I have found online.

I haven't had the chance to be on this forum for the past week or so because I was quite busy with work and Apache, my second largest DP, came down with what I suspected was IP - again. It was S.Puma who got it the last time but evidently Apache caught it too. On Monday evening, he appeared unusually reticent and lethargic, his tummy looked a teensy bit sunken in and he wasn't displaying his usual right-in-your-face enthusiasm for food during feeding. Concerned, I netted him up, isolated him in a hospital tank and commenced treatment once again (Praziquantel). Thankfully, he responded well to the medication, his appetite returned, and after the five days dosage, I released him back to the DP tank and right now, all three (plus one Oto) are all lookin' good.

The shrimps did not do as well, unfortunately. I know that inverts are very sensitive to changes in water conditions, and while I haven't lost them en mass, I have picked out a total of around six to seven carcasses over the last week. It was quite saddening, but the rest seemed to have more or less settled down into their new habitat, so I will keep my fingers crossed for now.

The latest water parameters (taken today) are as follows:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: 8.0

Most of my plants are doing good as well; doing too good, in fact. Some of them have already broken through the water level and I'm starting to wonder if I should start to do some pruning - and whether if it will be possible to harvest parts of my more aggressively growing plants to decorate other tanks in the house. Looks like I will have to mosey over to the planted tanks forum to do some research on that topic.

So yep, that's the update for this week. =)

[Pufferpunk]

Of course you can harvest them!