Evolution of a nano 9.5 gallon long

Looks fantastic, great job, and glad to hear that your foray into Tang Cichlids is off to such a great start!! That's a sweet little tank that should age very nicely as the multies colonize and the plants grow in.

Anthraxx wrote:LOVE IT! seriously, those shells are really nice too. good mix of escargot, gold mouth turbos, whale/shark eyes. id work that back glass algae personally, but leave it on all rocks and shells. its a really nice look to have the shells looking all grungy like they do in the wild.

TFP was generous and upped the shell quantity from 10 to 20 which I am greatfull. He totally set me up.

cichlid-gal wrote:Glad you are enjoying your new group.    

Yeah they are awesome. I was concerned because the water they came out of had a PH 9 and was really hard. There was no way I could come close to that. I slowly acclimated them to my 7.8. They got comfortable quick, now swimming all around and ate up their dinner like champs.

Also got 3 adult Aussi rainbows to hold onto until I find a permanent home. Put them In My 140. After they colored up I realized how much I dig these type fish. In this 140 I once had a community of various types of large rainbows and barbs with a school of Congo Tetra. Was a beautiful set up...

hose91 wrote:Looks fantastic, great job, and glad to hear that your foray into Tang Cichlids is off to such a great start!!  That's a sweet little tank that should age very nicely as the multies colonize and the plants grow in.  

Thank you hose91!

Looks like a great start! Love those little multis. And the shell covered bottom makes for a very nice looking arrangement.

What kind of light are you running on there? Is that a finnex clip on? I was thinking this would be a nice darker light tank. The shells and the rocks look like they would be really interesting with some more shadows casting, and that might help with the algae control too.

MRTom wrote:Looks like a great start! Love those little multis. And the shell covered bottom makes for a very nice looking arrangement.

What kind of light are you running on there? Is that a finnex clip on? I was thinking this would be a nice darker light tank. The shells and the rocks look like they would be really interesting with some more shadows casting, and that might help with the algae control too.

Yes the light is a Finnex Planted+ clip on. I've noticed during the summer months the tank gets a lot of natural light in the A.M. (not direct). So the timer is set to come on after 12pm. I'll share a picture.

The African fern in the tank is a mini form. As it grows I will clip the longer leaves toward the bottom of the tank and alow it to create a type canvas by alowing the plant to fill out more toward the top of the rock towers. Hopefully the mosses will fill in spaces between my clipping forming a moss mat with fern leaves sporadically poking out. This will take time but I was hoping that would reduce the amount of light that reaches the lower levels of the tank thus minimizing algae growth.

Natural light. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Maybe I should just not run a light at all . Or just switch it on much later in the day. Like maybe around 7 PM for a couple hours for evening viewing? If Algaes become out of control I may choose to do that...

I like your approach, see where the algae goes. I do the 7pm thing myself so that I can see the tanks when I am home and it works well on most of them

Journal update: near a month in and no algae issues, YAY!

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I am liking their little social community. They swim at all levels (it is a small tank), when I come around the corner they all dart into their shells. If I stay still they will all come out within seconds. All active eaters except one big male that's a bit shy but he's still comes out. He has the giant sand mound on the far right with his shell near all the way buried.

Very cool looking little shellie tank. I like the mosses. Did you buffer for PH to get it higher? If so, the plants don't seem to have minded the change.

cichlid-gal wrote:Very cool looking little shellie tank.  I like the mosses.  Did you buffer for PH to get it higher?  If so, the plants don't seem to have minded the change.

Not much buffering Donna. I've read a lot on this species and talking with other members it seemed like the best choice not to mess with paramiters. I do have a little bit of crushed coral in the filter from when the tank was planted with other fish. I just left it in there.

i REALLY like that tank. coming together very nicely. the plants and those high rocks definitely look great and provide structure so they will swim around more. keep the pics coming

Anthraxx wrote:i REALLY like that tank. coming together very nicely. the plants and those high rocks definitely look great and provide structure so they will swim around more. keep the pics coming

Thank you. I am really enjoying how this worked out.

Stop posting pics, it makes me want to set up another tank!

Really like the look of that tank, very cool little set up!

glad to see you liking it. if you ever get sick of the substrate just move it around. i always enjoyed ticking off my multies . takes em a day to put it all back, and seemed to curb any aggression for a day or two (clearly they were busy digging)

DMD123 wrote:Stop posting pics, it makes me want to set up another tank!

MTS MTS MTS MTS MTS MTS

DMD123 wrote:Really like the look of that tank, very cool little set up!

Thank you DMD123

Anthraxx wrote:glad to see you liking it. if you ever get sick of the substrate just move it around. i always enjoyed ticking off my multies . takes em a day to put it all back, and seemed to curb any aggression for a day or two (clearly they were busy digging)

Lol! Thank you for the tip. Haven't noticed any aggression yet. Still trying to determine sex of these little fish.

size is really the only sure fire way ive found (or read about for that matter) its kinda why i always aim high and then let them kill each other off till it works. none of the shellies outside of brevis seem to "pair off" so its mostly aggression on males. if you could find a way to identify each fish and try to get some good profile shots i may be able to help. also something for size reference would be good. maybe set a ruler next to the tank rim idk. anything over an inch is most likely male tho, GL to ya!

Not completely sure of the age of the fish but was picked up as a mature colony. With that being said I more than likely have 5 males and 1 female. I'll try to get some individual snap shots.