Gastromyzon punculatus & Apistogramma cacatuoides...

This is an Apistogramma cacatuoides - also known as a Cockatoo Cichlid:



And this is one of my Gastromyzon punculatus - also called a Hillstream Loach or Borneo Sucker:

Great Shots! Do you breed fish?
I just acquired a 3rd tank, a 30 gal tank which I will probably make into a community tank, guppies, tetras, gouramies. I have a couple of Fire Mouth cichilds, a pair of Green Terrors and a Bichir in my 55gal tank and a Gold Severum in my small tank.
I have tried to get pictures and haven't had much luck, If I use the flash it over exposes just about everything, If I don't the exposuer is too long and the tank shows up orange (florescent lights) and, of course, the fish are blurred from moving.

Well done Stuart!

WOW Stuart.... Really impressive. I have to say, I dan't even keep a goldfish alive. I blame it on the nasty WF water...do you think???

Goldfish are pretty darn hardy, tracy - they can survive ammonia and nitrite levels that many other fish can't, but they are susceptible to chlorine and chloramine, commonly added to a lot of water to keep it drinkable, they need well oxygenated water, and don't like it too hot... chances are, if you can't keep them alive, it's either chlorine in your water, if you weren't treating it with a dechlorinator, or aging it, possibly weren't in a big enough tank/needed an air bubbler, or the water may have been too warm for them... contrary to the image of a goldfish in a bowl, they're messy fish, and ideally need quite a lot of tank to themselves - given good conditions, they live up to 30 years, and grow really big...

I'm breeding guppies, blue rams, platys, albino bristlenose and corydoras atm, Griz... but I'm not breeding them in breeding tanks, just letting them breed in their various tanks... I have four tanks atm, and am hoping to add a four footer for Christmas, probably either a cichlid tank, or I'll bite the bullet and go saltwater in it...

I have a pair of hang on 20W fluoro's to add to my tanks if I want to shoot without flash, that takes the 140L up to 60W, and the 60L to 88W - even the little 20L hex gets over 50W of light from that, and I can shoot in that light fairly comfortably... I use a 580EX flash, set to -1 stop exposure, angled down with a diffuser on it, camera set to 400ISO with the 100mm macro lens set at f/16, 1/180th - with the flash angled down, and keeping the camera to an angle to the glass, I find I can take repeatable shots with good depth of field in just about any tank...

Great shots Stuart !! You sure are adding to your tanks :)

But................you aren't spending Any time with us I think you need

Stuart, we just want you to know that we miss you, so here is something to know that you are well loved here!!!!

Thanks for the advice on the fish. I think the problem was that we tried just having a bowl, and probably didn't get enough oxygen.

How often do you need to clean out the water on those tanks? and scrub down the sides of the tanks? Another friend of mine has about a 10 gallon tank, and hers is always NASTY, even when she cleans it, about 3 days later, it looks terrible again. I have never seen such clear tanks as yours....the only place I see nice fish tanks here is at the doctor's offices, where they pay someone to come in to maintain them.

Thanks for the "how to" on shooting into a tank.
I had figured out the shooting from an angle to avoid the flash reflection but lighting has been a problem. I'll have to try adding more light from an external source.
What distance are you shooting from?

Nice presentation and great pics

-Griz

Great shots Stuart - I know it ain't easy to shoot with clarity through glass into water - these are really sharp - thanks for sharing ~ John

I do a 10-20% change on a weekly basis, and once in a while and extra change and clean when I need to trim plants, etc, maybe once or twice a month. I wipe the front glass with an algae removing scrubber once a month, not as much for algae, but just to stop any forming - the back and sides are left for my algae eaters... I don't get much algae growing, as the plants soak up most of the nitrates that would encourage algae, and I have a group of algae eating fish, shrimp or snails in each tank... I have a cleanup crew for any excess food missed by the other occupants, too, which stops a lot of the buildup that many people struggle with...

I *do* get the 'your tanks are so clean' comment a lot though... lol

These are very good indeed Stuart.
Good enough for a publication.