Thanks for all the awesome pictures and the information. This is one of my favorite areas and I will have otos again as soon as I can manage it.

Rose

Thx Rose. It has definately been an enjoyable ride. Just hope it never ends. ;)

Can you not get Oto's where you are? Where bouts in NE are you anyway? Have family out in Bellevue.

We have a very small fish outlet in a garden center here but they get a few in at a time and I am not able to drive so by the time I get there the few they have are usually sold out. The problem is that the online vendors have minimum orders usually and since they are not expensive fish they tend to not be available to buy alone and I do not have enough tanks anymore to make a big order. But I have a big order in at the LFS for them and this time they will send them my way first. The otos they get are usually great but everyone else knows it too. LOL

Thanks and good luck with the new babies. This the first post on my new computer and my fingers are totally dyslexic and strange on this thing so forgive any bobbles.

It has been a while since I have updated this (or been online for that matter). Family always comes first regardless. Sadly, my father lost his battle with cancer on 09/10. He fought a long and couragous battle.

Just now getting back in the swing of things on my tanks. All of them are in really bad shape. The Oto tank appears to be ok as mom, dad and babies continue to grow. I did loose two of my snails. Boris appears to be still growing. The eggs that Natasha laid are still there. I've noticed no hatching or such. Will have to investigate this later. Shrimpies don't appear to be in numbers like they used to. The Oto clan was all in the crypt jungle.

I did a PWC yesterday. I think I did a bad as well. On impulse I decided my Rotala sp. 'green' was just too tall and instead of going stem by stem trimming, I just pulled it up, got a pair of scissors and CHOP. Cut the whole plant down to about 2". Don't ask...don't know what I was thinking. Hopefully it will be ok. I added two stems of Lobella to the mix to get some more broad leafs in there. Recharged the DIY Co2.

You have my sincerest and most heartfelt sympathies on the passing of your father. I know how hard it is to lose a loved one and cancer is an insidious disease that affects not just the patient but the entire support team of the family and friends of the one who has it. If you have a few boo-boos in the fish area for a while just give yourself time to heal and recuperate from your loss. We will be here and the fish will be patient. We all love and respect you. Time will help I can promise you.

Rose

09/25: Was setting up to do another 10% WC and I found eggs. Current count is 24. However, Papa Oto missed one and not viable making the count 23. Continuing with water change. Going to be using a smaller tube this time in an effort to clean up some detrius on the bottom.

On a side note, Boris and Natasha not acting all that well. They are usually active but the past couple of days have been rather lethargic. Hopefully I can regain the momentum on the tank and they will recover. Still no hatching of Natasha's eggs. Not really sure what to do with them at this point.

9/26: Tank is really in a state of disrepair. Just found that the food and zucchini that was placed in the tank yesterday is all fuzzed over. Then the shocking discovery....most of the eggs are fuzzed over as well. Very bad. Have no choice but to attempt a major cleaning. Just have to pray that I don't disrupt the tank any further.

Definately not an easy process thats for sure. Guess that is a draw back to using SMS. You can't vac it unless you suck it all out. Got about 1/4 of the tank "somewhat" done. Best thing I could do was to stir up a section and then create a swirling motion with the syphon tube to clean the area. Not the best of jobs but between that and moving the filter to the area I am working on, hopefully it will be enough.

I also took a large eye dropper to remove as much of the fungused eggs I could. I did have to sacrifice a viable egg as it was right up against a bad one. Couldn't seperated them. Poo!

Giving it a break to let the water stabilize then I'll do another section.

Wow this is quite the recovery salvage that you're in. I've been following since you could give more attention back to the tank. Sorry to hear about your situation.

If you are anything like I am when it comes to tanks, you like the process of building and maintaining just as much as watching the completed product. I hope everything works out ok....I'll be following the process as ya go! I hope to see some pics up that show the restored tank! Best of luck!

Nathan

09/27: Remaining eggs hatched today. Only counted (5) wigglers. I have most of the plants bunched up around the crypt jungle while I cleaned the other side so maybe there are some more hiding out in there.

Lost (4) yellow shrimp overnight. There numbers have greatly declined. Boris and Natasha still acting a little on the lethargic side. Still hoping they make a speedy recovery.

So as it stands right now, there are two adults (mom and dad), 6 juvies and 5 wigglers.

Will be doing a water test later today to check the parameters.

09/29: Still working on getting the tank back in shape. Went to put a "cage" (if you will) around the area where the heater is. My plan is to put the Subwassertang on this grid in front of the heater. Just something to attach it to.

So...to do this, I had to move the HOB back to it's original location. When I moved this, I noticed more wigglers! Kewlness. They are hanging out right where I was going to put the grid. So that is on hold at the moment until they relocate peacfully.

Natasha still sitting where she has been. No movement. I do see her wisker hanging out so hoping for the best. Boris is starting to move about a bit as well.

Wiggler count now up to (10). Will start placing plants back in place soon.

09/30: Did a water test today:

Temp: 78
PH: 7.4
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 20 (bit lower than normal but I have not been dosing ferts in a while)
KH: 5
GH: 8

KH and GH numbers are lower than normal as well.

Fert dosing resumes tomorrow.

I have given it a bit of an overhaul in regards to the plants. Will snap a new pic when the tank settles. Still alot of particulates floating around from planting.

I removed all the mosses (peacock and fissidens). I think the fissidens may have perished but moved it to another tank to see if it will recover.

I added Lobelia Cardinalis 'small form', Littorella Uniflora and L.repens X arcuata.

Found all (10) wigglers today so hopefully they will continue to grow. Added 1g spring water to bring the water level back up.

Boris (boss brig) is moving around again. Feeling good about that. I noticed Natasha (la fem brig) occassionally peeking out but still not venturing around.

10/01: All seems to be doing ok today. Everyone swimming around doing their thing. Not going to be doing much today as I have taken a headache. I hate those things.

Took a few pictures. Here's one of the new babies. He's on the grid that I am making to put in front of the heater. I will be cutting a second grid to place behind this. I will then fill in between the two with SMS and plant Echinodorus Angustifolia.

10/02: Daily check and feeding. Surprise! Mama laying more eggs. Counted (33) as of now. She wasted no time breaking in the new plants. The L. Arcuata has quite a few on it. Crypt jungle still harbors the most of them. I have been contimplating thining it out, but if she is continuing to lay here, I can't bring myself to disturb her dwellings.

Wigglers continuing to grow. Couldn't get an acurate count as they are still very active. They are starting to color up nicely.

I'm going through some pics I just snapped. We'll see if any come out good.

10/02: Looks like I got off a few good shots today. I'll break it down into two seperate posts.

We'll start with Mama. When I snapped this pic, I didn't notice the wigger behind her:



Eggs found today:


Egg on the L. Repens. There's a wiggler just behind it on another leaf but it is blurry.


Here I was trying to get a pic of the wiggler. Found the eggs below it:

Additional Photos today (10/02):

Shots of the wigglers:

Getting ready to head out to Haloween Haunt at Kings Dominion. Did one last check. Found (13) more eggs.

Mama has her girlish figure back.

that is very cool that you have a journal...i have been up to date

keep up the good work!!!

__________________
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Celebrating 500 posts



Planted 20 gallon
2 emerald corydoras
2 gold barbs
2 cherry barbs
4 swordtails
2 platies
1 balloon mollies

10/03: Heading out to the state fair today so won't be doing much with the tanks. Found papa missed three eggs yesterday. All else is doing well. Lots of activity in there this morning. Fed two zucs. I kinda rushed the thawing process so think they will float back up to the top soon.

I'll leave you with a couple parting shots of the juvies:

10/04: Hatching began a little earlier than I thought. Figured I had until late this afternoon. Minor snag in the water change, but will still do a trickle from the HOB to do it.

Found some eggs turned fuzzy. Water quality still an issue. Have to try to come up with a safe schedule to get it back. Think also where they were laid has poor circulation. May look at adjusting the HOB a little more center to try and get coverage.

Still a few more eggs left to hatch. Here's some shots from today: Wigglers not the easiest thing to snap (for me that is).


Had more eggs than I originally found on the Lobelia. You can see the ball of fuzz in the upper center. Four eggs are in there. Few wigglers (one to the left and one to the right) and a couple on the under sides of the leaves.


Bonus shot: Couldn't resist the poser: