Stephen's 550L tank log (summary & continuation)

[F3l1ss]

Good luck

[Stephen]

Good luck

I may need it.

[Stephen]

Sat here waiting for the female to go in the pit under a piece of bogwood.
It's catching the female that will be the issue as the male is more distinctive. I want to catch the correct female.
She'll go in to the pit then as I think now is the time, she pops back out again, the male is usually close by.
It may take longer than I hoped to catch them. (Only 346 days until Christmas). lol

Meanwhile I have about 50 x Hemigrammus bleheri to catch tomorrow ready for the exchange on Saturday for 50 x Petitella georgiae.
Hopefully they will be much easier to catch.
They will be placed in a temporary holding tank tomorrow and then bagged up on Saturday.

[Martinspuddle]

If you think you have problems, try catching Ancistrus fry from in here.


Click to enlarge


Click to enlarge

I think a Heath Robinson style trap is the only way I'll ever catch them.

[Stephen]

I had an opportunity to put my egg-crate grid in to separate them from the others.
Just my luck, the one spay bar was in the way.
I have now removed the spray bar to make things easier.
I will try gain now the lights are off or maybe tomorrow.
I have some rummy-nose tetra to catch tomorrow as well.

All good fun but annoying at the same time.

[Daveymancs]

Good luck Stephen!
I am confident you will be able to catch them all this year

[plankton]

Fingers crossed you can achieve your objective, with the correct fish.

[Stephen]

Fingers crossed you can achieve your objective, with the correct fish.

Thanks Ian
I'm not too hopeful on this occasion, it may take a few more days.
I can catch the whole nine Cupids without too much bother but catching just the right two is proving more difficult.

Edit:
Plan H
Lower the water level to just a few inches, catch all the Cupids and inspect their dorsal fins.
At the same time catch all the rummy-nose.

[Stephen]

Edit:
Plan H
Lower the water level to just a few inches, catch all the Cupids and inspect their dorsal fins.
At the same time catch all the rummy-nose.

That's what I've done which also incorporated big water changes.
All the wood was also removed to make things easier.
I placed each piece of bogwood in a bowl.
After catching the fish, I was about to place the bogwood back in to the aquarium, oh dear.
One of the Snowball Pleco (L102) was lying in one of the dry bowls. It must of been hiding on a piece of bogwood despite me checking.
It must of been there for around an hour.
I put some tank water in to the bowl, returned the pleco to the aquarium and hoped for the best.
It lay motionless on the sand.
Then I noticed a little twitch, then another twitch and another.
He moved to a piece of bogwood and disappeared. He's not there now.
Hopefully he'll turn up later.

I caught all the tetra but returned the Cardinal tetra back to the big aquarium.
Caught all the Cupids but only counted 8, there should be 9.
It was hiding under a leaf in just 2 inches of water. So all 9 are there in a temporary holding tank.

I'm going to have a break now but will look for the other pleco afterwards.
I will catch each of the cichlids in the temporary holding tank and hopefully identify the paired two by their markings.

Update at 15:29

I caught the male cupid straight away. He had a nick taken from his dorsal fin.
I also caught the female as she also had a nick taken from her dorsal fin.
Both are in my 120L aquarium.
Then I checked the others and there's another female with a nick taken from her dorsal fin. I hope I have the right female.

Plecos ?
One is in it's favourite cave.
I can't see the other one anywhere. It must be there somewhere. I'll check again at lights out.

[plankton]

Hope he's ok....