RESCAPE #4

Above: Rescaped my aquarium again and now it looks a lot better thanks to Astrosag from Planted Aquariums.

Sad to say guys that my Blue Ram eggs didnt ever make it. They never hatched and instead turned white. After reading a bit online, I think I had 2 females instead of one male and one female. Therefore I made a purchase of a Stud Ram called "Tommy".
He is a little shy now so I will post his pics up later when he stops hiding.

RESCAPE #3

I did a rescape on my EHEIM opal.
Basically I tried to create a focal point and divided my ambulias down the middle. I also moved the red stems to the side a little. Still needs a lot of work though.

RESCAPE #1 and #2 EHEIM OPAL TANK

top: BEFORE and AFTER bottom: closeup of AFTERSHOT

I have got two new plants today
1. Ambulia spp. - green
2. Ambulia spp. - red

So far a summary of plants
back left: baby tears
back centre: Ambulia
centre: Lilaeopsis
front : HC
front left: Glosso
middle right: Anubias / Java fern
middle: Tiger Lily
Christmas moss / Riccia / Java fern - on driftwood

Also, I am sad to say that my ghost knife has been sold. Mainly because I didnt want him
picking off my ram fry.

I have spent some time trying to rescape my EHEIM OPAL.
Above are before and after pics. The rocks have been removed.

SHRIMP TANK - First Berried Female!

Top left: My previously berried A-grade female (see previous posts). Only a few eggs remaining. She had dropped most of them. (presumably due to the stress of the journey home).
Top right: My newly berried female today. Will keep this one in the tank and fingers crossed all those eggs will hatch.

This morning I noticed all my males going crazy. I hadnt even done a water change. The first i thing I did was look for an isolated female and I found her. She hadn't berried or moulted yet so I moved her into isolation and put in two of my best males.
Approximately 20 minutes later I let them go. She moulted approximately 1 hour later and several hours later I noticed she had a whole heap of eggs!

Above: One of my CRS enjoying the Hydrocotyle

Am feeling quite excited. Only 2 days till those eggs hatch (or dont)... well worth the wait.
One of the rams is continually guarding the eggs. The other one seems to be off to the other side of the tank. They had a squabble yesterday but seem to be okay with each other today.

Strange creatures they are.

EHEIM OPAL - Blue Ram Spawning Already?

Came home today from work to see the two Rams laying eggs.
I am a little confused as I thought they were both females.

I guess i have to wait and see if they hatch =p

Also the berried female shrimp has dropped at least half her eggs since I have acquired her. They are now more difficult to see.
From what I hear they go from black -> red -> grey -> clear
It seems she is the greyish stage.

Note: After reading online, i have realised it takes about 40 hours for these eggs to hatch. If they do not hatch in this time; it is likely that I may have a couple that may have confused one another for a male. Fingers crossed. I'll update the blog as soon as they hatch.

CRS caught mating?

above: my baby ghost knife

I did a 20% waterchange for my Shrimp tank today.
Soon afterwards they got really excited and started dancing all over the place.
I think one of the females may have released a sex pheromone.
Anyways I caught one of the males in the act on video.

Not sure exactly what he is doing but he may be trying to mate with the other CRS.
Anyways no more waterchanges for another 2 weeks until the pregnant female hatches those eggs she is carrying.

Click here to see the video

EHEIM OPAL - NEW FISH

I got the following new additions to my 180L today.
1. 2x Blue Rams
2. 2x Clown Loaches
3. 1x Ghost Knife

The clown loaches are a bit skinny but soon enough Ill fatten them up =)

Update on Riccia

Remember this old picture to the left? I am surprised to see how fast Riccia really grows with good lighting.

SHRIMP TANK- Berried Female Purchased!

Here is a pic of my berried Crystal Red Shrimp.
The others are still too young to berry but this one was
picked up from my LFS and has survived a 6 hour trip back home.
Lucky!

Parameters
My shrimp tank's water parameters are currently close to perfect and hopefully will stay that way. My water parameters are:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0 to 5
pH - 6.4
kH - 1
Unfortunately I am losing a battle with green spot algae. I am currently not injecting CO2 into my tank because i dont wanna stress out my berried shrimp.