Blue-green algae defeated

So, I finally got rid of cyanobacteria.
Blackout of the aquarium did not work. And with blackout I mean turning off the lights and covering it with a blanket for 3 - 4 days. As described here.
The only method that worked was physical removal of the Blue Green Algae with regular water changes and probably the time that passed.

And there is another good news. My Tanichthys micagemmae got their young ones. Every month, a few new fishies appear in the water.  I am feeding them with yolk from very well cooked egg. This is the only food that falls in small enough pieces so the young are able to eat it.
However, only two of the young tanichthys micagemmae survived for now.

Total # of fishes: 8

No New photo.

No new photo of aquarium was up since april 2012. It is because my aquarium got attacked by blue-green algae or cyanobacteria.
This probably occured because of the extremely low level of nitrates.
So now I am physically removing them and waiting for No3 level to get higher.
Hope that they will disappear by themselves ;)
However, doesn't look really promising.

Will report.

Brown algae

I am glad to inform you all that the brown algae in my freshwater aquarium are now gone for already more than a week.
Looks like the aquarium cycling is now finally finished.

And I can also tell you that I tried to feed my fishies with yolk from cooked egg. It looks like they adore it.
:)

Branch added + Update

A few days ago, a branch of chestnut was added in aquarium.
Before I did that, I put it in an own for a few minutes at 200 degrees C to destroy any insects and then removed the bark. After that the branch was also cooked to kill the bacteria and soaked in water for a few days so it didn't float anymore on the water.

I also changed 20% of the water.
After one month of inhabited with fishes, the water was still clear and its parameters were normal.
No2 was zero and No3 was something from 10 to 20 mg/l.

New photo.

It turned out that the water change was very stressful for the fish.

One of them really freaked me out, because it was hidding between the filter and the glass. It was perfectly still and was breathing very fast.
At first, I tought I killed it. But after one day, all of the fishes were nicely coloured and were swimming all over the aquarium. ; )

There is also something new about the Strange behaviour of Tanichthys micagemmae.
They actually stopped with this fast swimming close to the glass. They only do it when they are stressed and in panic.

Maybe they just got used to their new home or they stopped it beacause the plants have grown and are now offering more hiding places.

Greetings

Ratio male:female

The interesting thing about my little pond is the gender of my fishies.
When I was buying them, me and the seller tried to find 4 females and 2 males. This would be appropriate according to male:female ration from here.
However, the problem was that those Vietnamese White Clouds were still so young, so it was very difficult to define the gender.

Males should have more intensive colours and females should have rounder bellies.
So when I bought them, I thought I got 5 females and 2 males.

But now, from day to day, I am more convinced that I actually have 6 males and 1 female.
This one female is lighter colours than other fishes and also bigger.

However, I still don't know in which week they actually get sexually mature. So for now, I am waiting for female to come into breeding season. If that ever happens I will be sure about male female ratio in my aquarium.

Feeding the fishes with black ants

Yesterday, I tried to feed mi fishies with ants. I threw one small black ant in the aquarium and watched the reaction.

Not one of the fishes even touched the ant. They came close and then turned away.
Probably because the ant is still too big for their tiny mouth.
So I took it out of the water.

Then, I searched on the Internet about this kinda food.
Found out that it is actually not recommended to feed your fish with ants, because if the ant is swollen in one piece, it can make it's way out of the fish's stomach.

Okay, and they also contain some acids which can harm your fish.
And I don't even want to talk about the possibility that the ant is sprayed or have eaten some insecticides.

Strange behaviour of Tanichthys micagemmae

Since I settled my Vietnamese cardinal minnows I am noticing a strange behaviour.
Approximately half a day some, or all of them are swimming really fast at particular side of aquarium glass. They are always touching the glass with their head and swimming up, down, left and right, and wagging with tails at high frequency.

I measured my No2 level and it is still at zero. So they are not poisoned with it.

They also don't scratch on stones and sand, so I guess they don't have any internal parasites.

However, I searched on the Internet and found out that some people say that their fishes do this kinda thing always when they are moved in new aquarium.

But I also found out that these beautiful fishes don't do this when feeding time approaches. So I am guessing I may overfed them in the past.
Now I am feeding them with smaller amount of flake food. And they look calmer. It may be because flake foods contains a lot of vitamins and these may give them a lot of energy.

Oh, and there is still a possibility that they see their own reflection in the glass. But I think they don't.

I will report when they stop with this behaviour.

New update here. (21.4.2012)