Anshuman's 22 Gallon Killifish Planted tank journal

[anshuman]

hi guys and gals,

First here are the details.

Total Capacity: 22 Gallon US
Dimensions : 24x18x12

Substrate : Golden sand/gravel 2+ inches, ADA Amazonia soil half inch middle.
Lights : 36 watt PL lights wall mounted fixture. This amounts to nearly 2+ Watts Per Gallon (WPG) as water column is around 16+ gallon.
Rocks : NONE

Decorations : Planning on half dry-coconut shells with drilled-holes to allow easy access for the killies, Inside this shells I will put plastic container filled with peat(expensive , cant get here) or boiled+sinked coconut husk powder (cheap diy stuff).
Going to cover this coconut huts with riccia or flame moss. this will be like love(breeding) huts for killies. will collect the peat in durations.
Moss wall with Javamoss , this is already done.

looking for small thin-branched drift-wood to add in future.

Filtration : COSMO AQUARIUM SPONGE BIO-FILTER II (very quiet, killies like to hide around it. does the work)

Plants:
Background :Water wisteria, carolina cabomba, javamoss wall
Carpet: hairgrass or chain-sword carpet.
Foreground: riccia on coconut shells (to be done) and some thin-leaf java-fern or something similar (i will be visiting the hobbyist friend who has lots of planted tanks to see and choose from).
* The plants will cared on dry-ferts and excel dosed co2 source or diy co2 bottles as i go along.

Fish: Killifish Nothobranchius Rachovii Beira 98 batch of 20+ (raised from eggs)

I recently raised killifish in nano tanks and within a month they grew full size (almost) so some weeks ago I moved them to this 22 Gallon tank.

Within first hours i saw the killies going totally nervous in bare tank, which had some old tank gravel and ada amazonia soil on bottom with some wisteria/cabomba shoots planted here there.

Killies are nervous/shy fish, they do not like movements around tank and will freeze on seeing anything move. they seek cover in this moments and the bare tank with some wisteria shoots did not provide any cover. I had to plan for plants atleast for them if not for aesthetic reasons.

I had decided I will never use fake background or coloured background in a tank because it shrinks the depth and the tank suddenly looks very small. So I planned for moss wall in coming weekend.

I had some javamoss in fry tanks, it had more than doubled in 3 months. so i used it to make moss-wall, its my DIY moss wall with my own vision. I really underestimated how short i will fall regarding javamoss once i spread it in the knitting nets before attaching it to the back.
Its went up in tank and killies like standing under the small moss-shoots peeking out of this wall.

Also, I can see the killies jump into this nets in the corners and between the gaps i have created (when i am near them). but they come out easily too. Hope i dont loose killies stuck in it.

I wanted to add lots of plants but could not find proper light fixture here and I was running short on fertilizers too but this time i decided to go dry-fert method. Holded off my plant purchase till i get this everything setup.

I ordered dry-ferts first and they have arrived, the tank is cycled because I moved the old filter from fry tank and gravel from goldfish tank and even old tank water was used.

So Today the lights went up in the tank, dry-ferts dosed for some plants and moss-wall already in tank, tomorrow i am going to get the rest of the plants and will keep this journal updated as weeks go by and tank takes shape.


Tank as of today April-2-2010: YouTube - Day1_April2_2010_Dryfertsandlightsadded.avi

 

[Newman]

Well they look absolutely terrified. they're practically saying "Crap, crap...I think it sees us!..... o_o" and are giving you blank looks.

Also, I can see the killies jump into this nets in the corners and between the gaps i have created (when i am near them). but they come out easily too. Hope i dont loose killies stuck in it.

this is actually the second biggest problem with a moss wall, the first being the amount of time needed to fully grow one -_-

Best of luck with this, of course as you know I will be following this journal

 

[anshuman]

ya, you would think the killies are flipping because i was near the tank and filming. this happens as soon as i enter my room, I have to go on full ninja mode when moving through that room. i practically do the deer steps in my room .damnnit its my room and the killies own it.

lets see. i hope they de-sensitize soon , once the tank fills with plants and they get used to me. etc.

ya, the moss wall , i know i am taking risk by keeping a knitting net which might never grow, lets see. i want to see what the dry-ferts and lights do to it.

 

[OrangeCones]

A friend of mine, to get good photographs of the killis, had to set up a curtain. She cut a hole in the fabric to put the lense of the camera in. They just freaked out whenever they saw people.

She solved it in the end by not feeding them for 3 days and then sitting at the desk next to their tank and dropping a tiny pinch of food in every hour or so. By the 2nd day, they begged at the surface for more food!

I think the more plants and places to hide they have, the more they will come out. That's the way my Chili Rasbora are.

Just talk to them in your funny fish voice! They will get used to you soon!

 

[anshuman]

ahhaha... ok.. i was going to say this several days ago but thought i am just one voiceover away from getting labelled crazy.

The one big male , who simply hangs around on top and near glass and does not run/hide and gets it that i am giving food. I call him "Barry white" , he is big , he is calm and i imagine him singing in that voice when going after ladies. he might even be even saying "Calm down guys, its just food guy".

 

[OrangeCones]

If he's the dominant one in the group, he's probably giving the rest the 'oh no, its the big scary guy going to eat you alive!!! Run and HIDE!!!' speech. That way, he gets the most food!

 

[anshuman]

heh, probably.

I am trying to find a way to record a long vid and speed it up. lets see.

 

[lauraf]

Anshu, just a note to say that I'm following all of this, and the voiceovers are super. Keep going.