• Please note that Audiokarma will be offline briefly for updates early on Monday morning, September 28th.

Show off your Aquarium!

Finally decided to set up a tank in my music room. I raised and bred cichlids for many years but back problems ended it. I sold off everything. My back is doing better and I got the itch to have some fish again. I'm only going to have this one tank, a 40 gallon breeder. I went with one of my favorite fish that I had when I first started as a kid, the Andinoacara Pulcher (AKA Blue Acara). I have 4 of them that are a little over an inch and 1/2 in size. They are hardy, outgoing, eat anything and aren't PH or water quality sensitive. They also breed easily. Very pretty fish, too.

002 (18).JPG



005 (9).JPG



Last photo is of adults. They get to about 6 to 7 inches.
 

Attachments

  • upload_2022-4-6_11-14-56.jpeg
    upload_2022-4-6_11-14-56.jpeg
    11.7 KB · Views: 4
My uncle got me interested in fish when I was a kid. He used to raise Discus.
Every Sunday morning I'd grab the classified section of the paper and go through all the pet shop ads to see what they had on sale that week. If there was anything of interest, Dad and I would head out, sometimes taking my uncle for advice.
Back then, sales were several fish for a dollar. Today it's several dollars per fish.

About 10 years ago (probably more) I bought a 29gal tank, my first all glass one, with the intention of setting up a native fish and plant aquarium. It's still sitting on it's stand with all the equipment, waiting for me to find a place for it.
 
pfcs49 said:
40g breeder tanks are great sized! Gives you plenty of garden space per gallon, but most Cichlids root too much for plants. I don't know where yours would fall, but I fancy lush plantings.

Here are my out of control tanks that need trimming severe!

View attachment 2532663View attachment 2532662
Click to expand...

Beautiful, lush growth! My plants are plastic with weighted bases. Cichlids love to dig and plants are hard with them. I used to grow some Java Fern in a couple of tanks back in the day.

Discus are beautiful fish and used to be really pricey for some of the new color varieties. I remember reading about a tropical fish hunting expedition to South America in one of my aquarium magazines. The members went to lunch at a small restaurant and the special was discus. They said they sat there in shock watching the diners chowing down on the discus.
 
Just saw there is a 60 gallon breeder. 48.5" wide, 18.5" deep and 15.25" high. I didn't know they made that size. May have to upgrade :biggrin:
 
After being away from aquariums for 25 years my wife gifted me a 36 gallon bowfront for Christmas. I started this tank at the beginning of the year. My first foray back to raising live plants. Doing it right this time, have Fluval full spectrum LED lights, Magnum canister filter, CO2 injection, CO2 reactor, PH meter, and externally regulated heater. So far its doing well. Tank dwellers are 12 rummy nose tetra, 8 Cosmic Pearl Danio, 4 salt and pepper corys, 4 Amano shrimp, 1 bushy nose long fin pleco, 2 Honey Gourami, and 2 strawberry licorice gourami.

IMG_20220407_064303.jpg
 
Last edited:
joecoulson said:
Looks good man. CO2 FTW.
having a hard time with mine with some very different plants. Hard to grow. But I keep trying

View attachment 2533315
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind words, its a work in progress and we will see how it goes. One thing with planted aquariums, there is no substitute for time. It take weeks to see if something will work or not. when it doesn't work then you lose the whole biosphere and its a ton of work to reset things. A couple of weeks ago I tore the whole tank down to add an aquatic soil to the tank, and then I capped it with the substrate I had. When I got back in the hobby I thought I needed a plant substrate, but a shop told me that the Ecocomplete gravel with root tabs would be fine...did not work out well for me. So in a 5 hour stretch I broke the whole tank down, housed the fish in a rubbermaid, added the soil, and reinstalled the fish the next day. What a pain in the ass!

The driftwood in your tank is beautiful, such a lovely piece. Good luck with your plants. Seems like the whole adage holds true, you need soil, nutrients, and light, and CO2 is the hardest to add. So you have a tricky balance between having enough fish for waste to fertilize plants, and how much CO2 they can add to the tank from respiration. Then if you have too many you have aggression and mulm does not break down fast enough. It is a great challenge though isn't it?

The plants look good though! I am sure your fish love them, it adds a lot to a tank versus the typical decorations in my opinion.
 
There is no comparison for live plants. They are phenomenal. But Yes you are right. So much patience is needed. It’s easy to get fast growing Rotunda or the like and blast the tank with CO2 as they will consume as much as you dose, but the plants I have here are VERY slow growing so getting that balance right is quite hard.
Thank You for the compliment on the driftwood. That has about 30lbs of marble strips (used for tile thresholds) holding it down. It was my statement piece and makes the tank.
That and my Clown Loaches. They are the best!
 
bobsvinyl said:
Finally decided to set up a tank in my music room. I raised and bred cichlids for many years but back problems ended it. I sold off everything. My back is doing better and I got the itch to have some fish again. I'm only going to have this one tank, a 40 gallon breeder. I went with one of my favorite fish that I had when I first started as a kid, the Andinoacara Pulcher (AKA Blue Acara). I have 4 of them that are a little over an inch and 1/2 in size. They are hardy, outgoing, eat anything and aren't PH or water quality sensitive. They also breed easily. Very pretty fish, too.

View attachment 2532530



View attachment 2532531



Last photo is of adults. They get to about 6 to 7 inches.
Click to expand...

Bob, that's great you have a new tank! Looks beautiful and the fish too! :thumbsup:
 
Mister Pig said:
After being away from aquariums for 25 years my wife gifted me a 36 gallon bowfront for Christmas. I started this tank at the beginning of the year. My first foray back to raising live plants. Doing it right this time, have Fluval full spectrum LED lights, Magnum canister filter, CO2 injection, CO2 reactor, PH meter, and externally regulated heater. So far its doing well. Tank dwellers are 12 rummy nose tetra, 8 Cosmic Pearl Danio, 4 salt and pepper corys, 4 Amano shrimp, 1 bushy nose long fin pleco, 2 Honey Gourami, and 2 strawberry licorice gourami.

View attachment 2533297
Click to expand...
You should have some wood in the tank for the pleco.
 
I tell you what drives me crazy is trying to get the Ammannia Pedicellata established. It comes as a loose cut stem that is banded with foam and a zinc kind of metal band. If you remove the band and foam and try to establish the loose stems they will float if jostled too much by the cory cats. Then when you try to replant the floater others will dislodge and then you are replanting a whole bunch. Drives me crazy! I hope they establish roots soon. Some people leave the foam and tape in place, but I hear the stems can rot at that point too. Wish I had a better way to do this.
 
Mister Pig said:
I tell you what drives me crazy is trying to get the Ammannia Pedicellata established. It comes as a loose cut stem that is banded with foam and a zinc kind of metal band. If you remove the band and foam and try to establish the loose stems they will float if jostled too much by the cory cats. Then when you try to replant the floater others will dislodge and then you are replanting a whole bunch. Drives me crazy! I hope they establish roots soon. Some people leave the foam and tape in place, but I hear the stems can rot at that point too. Wish I had a better way to do this.
Click to expand...
.

Your Royal Pigness- You could try using a tight weave plastic /nylon screening. Make a ball like they do around rhe root system of trees when you buy them. Put your tank medium in the screening to create a ball. You can tie it shut with fishing line. Insert the stems through the mesh into the medium. Bury the ball under your gravel/soil mix. When the roots get established, you can remove the mesh.
 
Decided to make a change and add a couple of fiddler crabs that means a place for them to crawl out onto so went with a piece of driftwood. Takes up some room but the male crab has already crawled up and started displaying waving his big claw. The female is a bit shy so spends her time in the shadows so far. One thing is the fish seem to be really enjoying the addition to their home. It's added some tannin to the water so I'll change 10 gallons of water every other day till is slows down.

51990549403_34fc61f79f_b.jpg


51990208671_b563e1f364_b.jpg
 
Not the greatest shot, but here is one of the blue acaras starting to color up. I have a male that breeds constantly with the 3 females in the tank. The fry are being eaten after a couple of weeks, but I don't have another tank to move them into.

001 (26).JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom