125 gallon South American fish community

LONG overdue in posting this but here we go.

Initially had a 55 gallon with a random mishmash of fish and have since upgraded. Kept only four and rehomed the rest. The 125 came with a bunch of huge aggressive cichlids (red devils, green terrors, ect.) that were also rehomed, though I kept the albino bristlenose pleco that was in with them.

Current stocking:

Fauna

1 Giant danio (Devario aequipinnatus)*
1 Eastern rainbowfish (Melanotaenia splendida splendida)*
2 Bristlenose plecos (Ancistrus sp.)* (there were 2 babies recently but I don't believe they've survived unfortunately)
4 Three-striped dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma trifasciata)
8 False blochi corydoras (Corydoras delphax)
5 Fairy corydoras (Corydoras atropersonatus)
21 Neon tetras (Paracheirodon innesi)
20 Black neon tetras (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi)
1 Glowlight tetra (Hemigrammus erythrozonus)
1 Male guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
5 Mystery snails (Pomacea bridgesii)

Flora

Vallisneria
Ludwigia
Bacopa
Cryptocoryne
Java fern
Anubias
Micro sword
Amazon sword

*Holdovers from previous setup (the top two are the last of their kind and are living out their remaining years with me despite "not fitting" with the theme)



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Some extra schooling shots.
https://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...0b0bdf65e6.jpg
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Two of the fairy corydoras.
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Some mystery snail pics (they go CRAZY for cucumber).
https://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...b30bd5c26e.jpg
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Closeups of the three-striped dwarf cichlids (and the miserable-looking micro swords behind them, I've had terrible luck keeping them going).
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Vagrant the stowaway guppy. He arrived on accident as a baby when I bought a couple of the mystery snails, hence his name. He's fully developed now and looks unbelievably stunning. This pic doesn't do him nearly enough justice (though the back of his tail sadly has a slight tear).
https://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...478d5d63c4.jpg

And finally the glowlight. This little one was an "orphan" pickup I brought along when I bought the black neons. It was all alone in an adjacent tank desperately trying to swim through the glass to reach the neons and have some security, so I decided to give it a home. It's been doing well. Notice the bunches of Javas in the background, those are all just a handful of the children my main plants have been producing at an insane rate. If you look closely you'll see them dotted throughout the aquascape.
https://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...08f12f55ae.jpg

As a bonus, 17 silver hatchets (Gasteropelecus sternicla) and my 2 prized farlowella catfish (Farlowella acus) in quarantine. The hatchets have been dealing with ich since the second day they've been here but are responding well to heat treatment.
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I know nothing about this stuff, but I love looking. And you obviously know quite a bit. :gj:

(Gee, maybe you should be working in the tropical fish business?)

Nice setup. I have a buddy that breeds fish and his house is the first time I'd ever seen apistogrammas, they are very nice looking. I love the look of hatchet fish too, so unique!

Fantastic tank! Here’s my 45 gallon, been running for years and doesn’t look as nice as yours.

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Nice setup!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hugsplox

Fantastic tank! Here’s my 45 gallon, been running for years and doesn’t look as nice as yours.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6465fe0d05.jpg


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Looks beautiful ... have you considered black gravel/sand like the pros use in their display tanks ??


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Looks beautiful ... have you considered black gravel/sand like the pros use in their display tanks ??


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I have! I plan to the next time I do a substrate change. I still want to upgrade tank sizes once more before I’m happy with what I have, so I’ve been holding off until then.

This is a planted tank substrate that works amazingly well. When I initially set the tank up it was this dark red, almost clay color that looked amazing. Sadly overtime it’s faded to what you see now.


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I kind of miss keeping fish but after I married a guy with an itchy foot, it became too problematic to move even a 20-gal along with 3 kids, 2 cats, and various assorted birds, every couple of years, so I gave it up. I tried again after settling into my current digs, but could never get the tank balanced. So I will enjoy looking at your fish instead!

After a bit of research it seems I've made an error. My hatchets are not Gasteropelecus sternicla as I originally thought and are in actuality Thoracocharax Stellatus. Figured this out once I noticed today that they started developing black coloration on their dorsal fins, something I've not seen from other hatchets. They apparently share the common name of "silver" with several species, but another one they have is the more appropriate "spotfin."

Couldn't get good pics of my own because of lighting/movement/bad phone camera, but this is what they look like now.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach..._stellatus.jpg
Notably, some have started to show courtship behavior (swimming side by side in a kind of duet), and when they do almost their entire dorsal fin flushes black.

My poor hatchets are still dealing with ich... The heat treatment hasn't fully gotten rid of them and I've resorted to ordering some Seachem Paraguard (wanted to just buy it from a local store but no brick and mortars apparently carrying it). Unfortunately it won't arrive until sometime next week, plus the upcoming two weeks of medicated treatment to be absolutely certain the parasite is eradicated.

It's unfortunate because both species are getting fed up with their living situation. The hatchets are butting heads due to lack of space (the quarantine tank is only 10 gallons) and my precious farlowellas can only gnaw on cucumber slices as the algae they crave has been stripped clean long ago...