My fishes

[andy]

Just taken a pic of the fish tank which i am very pleased with at the moment.

The tank is 4' x 18" x 15" and contains the following

30 rummy nose tetras
20 harliquins
4 swordtails
4 cardinal tetras
4 corydorus catfish
3 otocinclus catfish
2 moonlight gouramies
2 silver sharks
1 red tailed black shark
1 royal panaque catfish
1 rosy barb

[Deleted]

Wow - Andy - stunning ;D

[madonplants]

Nice tank Andy, but I do fear for your Cardinals as eventually they may become a meal for the silver sharks as they grow quite big and may need a new tank at a later date! How big are they at the moment, as I don't see them, as yet. I will try again. I had two, one 12 inches and the other 14, but I gave them to a shop due to moving house and as we were moving into our caravan until we found a house, the fish had to go. A real pity. They were kept in a 60 by 24 inch tank with other large fish.
Sorry to mention this!

Keith

[Dr Bill]

I love tropical fish. I used to have quite a big freshwater aquarium but it had to go when we moved house because of lack of space. I would still like to have another, although I would really like a marine tank

[chickadeedeedee]

Beautiful aquarium Andy! How long have you had it set up? What kind of filtration do you use?

C3D

[andy]

Tank has been set up since March this year, it is filtered by two eheim external filters plus the forest of plants.

Substrate is 1.5" of aquatic soil with 1.5" of playpit sand on the top. The plants tend to love it especially the big root feeding plants such as amazon swords.

Lighting is via 5 x 18w energy saving bulbs rated at 6500 kelvin. No CO2 is used as yet but i do have it if needed.

Thanks Keith for your comments. The silver sharks are only about 3" at the moment and the cardinals are huge. Obviously, when they do reach a size when they could pose a problem, i will certainly think about re-housing them (if you look at the very far right of the photo in mid water, you can just see one of the sharks)

Andy

[andy]

drbill said:

I love tropical fish. I used to have quite a big freshwater aquarium but it had to go when we moved house because of lack of space. I would still like to have another, although I would really like a marine tank

Here's a pic of my reef tank that i had to get rid of last year due to unbelieveably high electric bills and the amount of time the maintenance was taking.

It was a soft coral reef and at its peak, was absolutely superb. It won 4 different "tank of the month" competitions on different marine forums.

The tank was 5 x 2 x 2, filtered by live rock and a deep sand bed in the sump. There was a huge deltec ap850 protein skimmer plus lots of powerheads for superb water circulation all linked to a wave machine computer.
Lighting was by 2 x 150w, 10,000 kelvin metal halides and two actinic blue tubes.

Not the best pic unfortunately

[4pygmies]

These are beautiful pictures Andy. There is a huge aquatic GC not far from me which I take the kids to as they love to see all the bright fishes. I've often thought about having a tank and just filling it with the plants and corals, no fishes at all, as I think they are even more attractive than the fish! The people at the GC look a bit puzzled when I ask about this but p'raps you know - is there a mutually beneficial relationship between the fish and plants or can they exist perfectly well without each other? Watching the gently movements and colours in the water is more relaxing (and interesting) than the rubbish on the TV I think!

[andy]

They're much better than anything on TV 4P.

Corals and plants are different. Corals are live invertabrates which have living algea growing inside them. The algea needs very bright light to photosynthesize and produce starches and sugars which feed the corals. Corals obviously live in warm, crystal clear seas and oceans.
However, unless you're getting into the really bright stony corals (the ones that build the reefs), then most corals are a dull brown colour. But it's the shapes and movement that attracts people. Fish are of no real benifit to corals and are usually put in the tank to add movement and colour.

But, on the other hand, the freshwater tank incorporates plants to act as a filter. They remove nitrates and phosphates (which are produced by the fish) and uses them as plant food. Plants can also be used to set off the colours of some fish.....eg a large group of cardinal tetras (irredescent blue and red stripe) look incredible against a backdrop of dark green foliage. A shoal of angelfish look amaizing among a big thicket of grass like plants (such as vallis).

So it is possible to keep a tank of plants on their own...or corals, but it just keeps the balance right by adding a few fish.

Andy

[chickadeedeedee]

My 55 gal. freshwater tank is filtered by plants and I run the Diatom filter once a week or two if needed. The biggest problem with mine is the plants grow so fast and thick I find I need to thin them often otherwise there is little room for the fish to swim about.

I do like your set up! Oh dear! Think we need to set up another tank.

Thanks for the information Andy.

C3D

[madonplants]

andy said:

Tank has been set up since March this year, it is filtered by two eheim external filters plus the forest of plants.

Substrate is 1.5" of aquatic soil with 1.5" of playpit sand on the top. The plants tend to love it especially the big root feeding plants such as amazon swords.

Lighting is via 5 x 18w energy saving bulbs rated at 6500 kelvin. No CO2 is used as yet but i do have it if needed.

Thanks Keith for your comments. The silver sharks are only about 3" at the moment and the cardinals are huge. Obviously, when they do reach a size when they could pose a problem, i will certainly think about re-housing them (if you look at the very far right of the photo in mid water, you can just see one of the sharks)

Andy

Cheers Andy, I thought that was one. How do they get on with the redtailed black shark? I only have one fish, but it's a redtail as well!!!

Keith

[andy]

The RTB shark leaves everything alone. He used to chase my rosy barbs relentlessly but the female died and he stopped the chasing.

RTB sharks are one of those fish that look really awful in the shop when you see a tank full of small ones. But you buy one, get it home and within a week, it's looking superb

[madonplants]

andy said:

The RTB shark leaves everything alone. He used to chase my rosy barbs relentlessly but the female died and he stopped the chasing.

RTB sharks are one of those fish that look really awful in the shop when you see a tank full of small ones. But you buy one, get it home and within a week, it's looking superb

I know what you mean. I have had them as well and the Ruby Shark. They are not a patch on the silver ones though. I saw two today in a shop, one about 8 inches and one about 9. I still miss my community tank, sometimes, especially my Gibbicep. One of the times when we moved house, my local shop offered to look after all my fish, until we settled in our new home. The plec was put in a display tank, with another one which was slightly bigger. That one was destined for a hospital display tank. When I came to collect the fish, I got a shock. My gibbicep wasn't there, but the other bigger one was. Mine was 14 inches long and the other was about an inch bigger. To cut a long story short, this is what happened. When the hospital staff came to pick the other one up, only a saturday boy was working, as the manager and son had to go off for the day, collecting fish if I remember correctly and the young lad just said, take your pick. I was horrified as I knew my fish and the one there was not mine. The markings on the dorsal fin were different. The manager (who hadn't realised the mistake until I turned up) said what do I want to do, go and collect mine from the hospital and exchange it with the other one, or take compensation. I thought long and hard about this and chose to leave Dennis, where he was, he was being well looked after and a lot of people had watched and got to know him. That was a really difficult decision to make. I had grown Dennis from 2 inches to the size he was. Was I right, I will never know!? Maybe one day I might get a community tank again and maybe even a Sailfin Plec again! Time will tell.
Andy, your tank has got me thinking again! ;D

Keith
P.s. Time to get some trout out to feed T.C.

[andy]

You really can't beat the trop tanks Keith. I've just bought a delightful little royal panaque (£22 ). They don't get big but still remain spectacular.

The one thing i'm sooooo impressed with is my newly aquired shoal of rummynose tetras. They look superb darting around in a big shoal with their red noses and black and white tails.

If space is an issue, you could always set up a planted nano tank.....something around 18" x 10" x 10", use dwarf plants. a small piece of bogwood and have a small shoal of something like cardinals or pygmy rasboras.

Have a look at this site...some awesome nano tanks on here showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2005.cgi?&Scale=3&op=ishowcase&category=0&vol=0

[Dutchy]

There are some of us with less space or time. So an alternative but not the real thing.
www.dreamaquarium.com/index.html
On this site you can download a free sample that you can use as a screen safer. Or buy the package and get yourself an absolutely brill virtual fish tank.
As said it does not get near the real thing but I like it and wanted to share it with you all.
Dutchy

[madonplants]

andy said:

You really can't beat the trop tanks Keith. I've just bought a delightful little royal panaque (£22 ). They don't get big but still remain spectacular.

The one thing i'm sooooo impressed with is my newly aquired shoal of rummynose tetras. They look superb darting around in a big shoal with their red noses and black and white tails.

If space is an issue, you could always set up a planted nano tank.....something around 18" x 10" x 10", use dwarf plants. a small piece of bogwood and have a small shoal of something like cardinals or pygmy rasboras.

Have a look at this site...some awesome nano tanks on here showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2005.cgi?&Scale=3&op=ishowcase&category=0&vol=0

Hi Andy.
There are some great ones there, but I need to wait until T.C. goes into his next tank in the living room, a 7ft by 2.5ft. Then we can decide what will happen in the dining room, whether we get rid of his tank he is in now or not and get 'more' storage. By the way that plec 'can' grow to about 16 inches and eat a lot of your lovely plants. Keep it well fed with scalded lettuce, peas and spinach and you shouldn't go far wrong. But then you probably know that already! I remember growing my own spinach and lettuce for Dennis, as I knew then, it was chemical free. Great fun too and so easy to grow. The kids love the catfish as he (or she) is so tame, but still look at the little fish at the aquatic stores we go to, so we will see what happens. Also I will have so much equipment spare, as I will probably be going for a systemised setup in the new tank, that I will have to make use of it somewhere! That will be my excuse anyway!

Keith

[andy]

madonplants said:

By the way that plec 'can' grow to about 16 inches and eat a lot of your lovely plants. Keep it well fed with scalded lettuce, peas and spinach and you shouldn't go far wrong. But then you probably know that already!

I did some research on the panaque before i bought it and 16" is the absolute maximum size it could attain in the wild. In captivity, the size is more like 6-8". They're also very slow growing...getting to 6" after 10 or so years !!!

They're not renowned for plant munching....another reason for buying one and he gets a big lump of courgette every other day.

They are also one of the few plecs that need bogwood to feed on....not just for digestive fibre like other plecs.

Andy

[madonplants]

Sorry Andy. I had to mention it, as I nearly bought one myself many years ago (when I first started fishkeeping) as a little one until the shop (Daves of Bolton) showed me one in another tank returned from a customer. It was at least 14 inches long, great looking though. I have been told that the normal size for fish is quoted for a 3ft tank which is the average people have. So if I have misled in anyway, I am sorry! Maybe what I have been told was wrong! 'Plecs of all descriptions are one of my favourite fish.

Keith