First post of the year...and of the decade

What better time to update this thing than after the holidays. I hope everyone had their fill of delicious food and well, family. Nothing much has changed although I have made an effort to do some extra maintenance and refine my pruning and arrangement* techniques. I decided to put some slate with java moss as foreground cover although much of it has died. It's probably adjusting to the lower light conditions since it used to be attached to the branches closer to the light. I also added some more Rotala rotundifolia to the left mid-section. It doesn't seem to grow as tall or as red as in my 2 gallon hexagon. It's more likely due to lower light and less Potassium concentrations. It didn't turn as vibrant in my 2 gallon hex until I increased the KCl dosage. You might also notice some new inhabitants. Some time ago I decided to trade in some of my surplus of Endlers (Poecilia wingei) for store credit at my lfs. With it I got 6 neon tetras (Paracheirodon innesi) and some filter media. And then with an old Petco gift card I got two more otocinclus and thanks to a loophole I got a third one for free. So after the mass die-off the population has finally rebounded. I have 6 neon tetras (Paracheirodon innesi), 3 red wag swordtails and 8 of their babies (Xiphophorus hellerii), 4 otocinclus (Otocinclus sp.), 5 baby tiger endlers (Poecilia wingei), and the booming red cherry shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda) population. When I first got the neon tetras I took extra precautions to ensure that all of them survived. This is the fourth time I have tried keeping them and the first time to be successful. It has been weeks and so far they are doing great. I will end up trading my baby swordtails for more neon tetras once they reach the 1" mark. The baby endlers will go in with their mom once they are big enough that she won't be able to feast on them.

10 gallon tank, frontal view

My 6 gallon tank is probably the one that has been through more changes. One day an idea came to mind and the end result was exactly how I pictured it. I used the same two branches that were originally erect in addition to two more branches that I had stored away. I also thinned out the Vallisneria sp. and added some Hygrophila difformis. Anyway, I really like it. I was thinking about maybe relocating this design into my 10 gallon tank, but I decided against it since that would mean lots of changes.

6 gallon tank, frontal view

This tank, the 2 gallon hex is nothing special. I just let the plants grow like crazy and then prune them down and use the clippings for my other tanks. I'm not liking the Echinodorus tenellus taking over the bottom part of the tank, they are too big and the root systems are overwhelming the other plants. I will put the lot of them into my ten gallon where they will have more room to grow.

2 gallon hex, "side" view

I have never shown this tank primarily because I never thought much about it. It's 2 gallons and currently houses a lonely female tiger endler and numerous baby red ramshorn snails (Planorbis sp. "rubrum"). It only gets ambient light, the light shown was the lamp I borrowed from the 2 gallon hex. I just added those rocks yesterday, the java moss tree originally was set down across the sand as a "trunk". It doesn't have a heater because it's down on the floor where the carpet keeps it nice and cozy and no filter since there's no significant bioload. I do try and keep up with maintenance though. It's fairly low maintenance more or less.

2 gallon, frontal view

Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

*I don't consider myself much of an aquascaper so from now on I will refrain from using the term "aquascape". My tanks are planted tanks, nothing out of the ordinary.