Armadillo's tanks

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

1st - 72L/13G long

It's been so long since I've updated my tanks' thread that it's disappeared. Here's the updated info.

OK, here's the first tank:

- 3 ghost shrimps
- 3 dwarf puffers
- 3 kuhli loaches
- 2 zebra otos
- 1 leopard pleco

They have really cool mini-jars for the loaches, and the loaches also got this coral formation thing with loads of galleries in it. Our leopard pleco always steals that one, though. Somehow this big fish manages to squeeze in that really tight spot to only come out at night.

The funny bit of fabric you see on the filter outtakes is to prevent the loaches from being idiots and trying to swim upstream into them.

No, we don't normally leave that tank uncovered. Thijs was doing some maintenance on the hood when I took the picture

The zebra otos are FA-BU-LOUS algae cleaners. You can look at a leaf in the evening, and it's slightly brown with algae. The next morning: pristine, with an oto on it and a big grin on its face

!

The puffers are kinda rude to us. They either ignore us or run for cover. They are very cute, though. So far, not too much aggression between them (they totally ignore tank mates) so we're keeping our fingers crossed (there's 2f and 1m).

The loaches are the most entertaining fish of all. They're always annoying the otos who totally ignore them. They're forever running into them (no doubt on purpose, as they'll turn around and do it again when they're past the oto). The loaches will lodge themselves in the tightest of spots. They're totally ignoring the decos we bought especially for them (what fish doesn't) and their favorite spot is under the filter, where they can swarm in a nice loach pile to go to sleep. They're very active bottom cleaners.

The shrimps are doing well so far, but we've only had them 1 day. They look just too big to be eaten by our dwarf puffers, but nothing will protect them against the puffers' territoriality. We'll see. So far, the puffers have pretty much ignored them. They're a fabulous clean-up crew too. They'll climb all over the tank to clean.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

Leopard pleco in long 72L

Here's the leopard pleco. That's pretty much the only picture we've got of him, and we've had him 3 months. He is soooo incredibly shy.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

Amano shrimps in long 72L

Here's one of the amano shrimps with two of our kuhli loaches. One of the loaches is doing this really scary thing with its mouth. It went back to totally ignoring the shrimp a second later. Go figure.

The other one is of our zebra oto checking the shirmp out.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

Kuhli loaches in long 72L

Totally deserving of their alternative spelling: coolies. They are extremely cool fish.

Here's a couple of pictures of ours, as usual.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

Zebra otos in long 72L

And here's one of our zebra otos eating zucchini. Mmmmmh, yummy.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

2nd - 150L/29G bow-front

- 7 adult mollies (2m 5f)
- 10000000 fry

This is my favorite tank because, as if you didn't know already, mollies are my absolute favorite fish.

This tanks' got a million decorations which makes it such a pain to clean the substrate. But it's worth it as they really love exploring here and there.

I particularly like my matching house and castle (orangey colour, to the left of the tank). I bought them in different shops and had been looking for the castle for ages.

I also love the mini-jars as the fry go totally crazy in them. They try to squeeze in with, like, 4 fry at the same time. It's really funny to watch.

They also have a little bowl for their sinking food, as well as veggie clips and a food basket. Since I've started using these, their tank gets dirty much less quickly.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

My beloved balloon molly (in bow-front 150L)

This is my absolute favorite fish of them all: my female balloon molly.

She's the most daring with me (and god knows the others are daring) and is VERY inventive to get food. She always looks straight to the camera whenever I try to take a picture (whether I want a picture of her or not...). I have so many pictures of her swimming into the shot, as if to say: No you WON'T give any other fish any attention. She's all the more special to me that we nearly lost her and she had a miracle recovery from a really nasty disease.

I am boycotting balloon mollies in fish stores since I've found out that balloon mollies are bred to look like that through selecting fish with bad spine deformation. Apparently, this reduces their life expectancies due to likely difficulties in giving birth (a lot of them die in the process), due to their organs being squished, and due to their morphology which is not ideal for swimming thus causing wear-and-tear faster than for normal mollies.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

My beloved mollies in 150L bow front

Here's other pictures of my mollies being generally, well, very silly.

Oh, and by the way, this picture is the only example I can think of of an unphotogenic JUMPER!

I swear to you that cardigan is extremely pretty and extremely fashionable

and extremely, well, you get the point, I really like it. I even wore it on top of a dress for a wedding, and when I have an important customer, I sometimes wear it too. All this to say: I swear I wasn't wearing some frumpy granny jumper as it apppears on the picture. Just being vain here, but guys, it's a REALLY cool jumper in real life!

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

3rd - 30L/6G hospital tank

I've had this one custom-made from my tall hex. It's basically my tall hex minus the top half (-20%).

Nothing in it except a couple of rotting shrimp bars to keep some nitrates in there. Yummy. Hopefully I won't need this tank anytime soon. I hate having a sick fish.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

4th - 25L/5G bow-front nursery tank

This one started out as a hospital tank, became a molly nursery tank, to which I added otos to treat the algaes. This soon became an oto-only tank, as my otos had fry and I didn't want the increasingly big molly fry to disturb the oto eggs/fry. The funny thing is that now I grow algae in the garden to make sure the otos don't starve.

If you look closely, to the right of the tank, in the back, you'll see one of our wedding presents! A jungle house on stilts. I love it as it really looks like my hornwort plant!

To the left, you'll see a little glass jar. This is a mini oxydator made for fish in a small tank who don't like strong current. I've also got a traditional airstone in there, but with a valve set to very low.

It's heavily planted and the otos seem to love that. They are damaging my broad-leaved plants but who cares?

You'll also see a white bowl in the shot. I've taken to feed my fish's sinking food in bowls lately, as I was sick of the mess. They seem to have understood it (otos included) and always check the bowl for food before browsing to other places (here's also a picture of oto fry checking the bowl).

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

'Regular' otos in nursery tank

Here's a picture of one of the otos gorgeing itself on cucumber (again!).

And a couple of oto fry pictures.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

Some deco in nursery tank:

And here's that jungle house on stilts that we got as a wedding present. If you look carefully, you'll see the male oto just above the rock base of the ornament. (the oto in the front of the shot, on the glass next to the green airhose is the female)

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

5th - 50L/10G tall hex tank

This one was the first tank I bought. I didn't know anything about anything and had in there: 5 mollies (3m 3f!), 2 angels, and 3 common plecs!!! My angels and 1 balloon molly passed on quickly (cycle...

) and that's what's got me to fishlore. I came here asking for help. Havne't looked back since!

It's had mollies only, then my man's fish (leopard pleco + 3 puffers), and now is home to my male betta alone.

It's got soooo much substrate it's a nightmare. 1 layer of earth, 1 layer of thin red gravel, 1 layer of slightly thicker blue gravel and 1 layer of pebbles. The pebbles are to prevent the betta from being stupid and swallowing the small gravel again (giving me a huge scare in the process). It also decreases the tank's depth as bettas are shallow water fish.

I love his tall rock ornament (and so does he). It's like it was custom-made for the tank. It's got a little hole in the middle that the betta loves to use to get to the other side. It's got a couple of flat platforms too. The idea was that he'd rest on it. Haven't seen him do that yet. I've put a clump of java moss on top so he can sleep on that at night. Again, am yet to see him do that.

He's also got some large marbles to keep him curious, as well as a long empty log. He loves to swim through that log.

He's very clever with his food basket too, and loves to play in the bubbles. He must be the only betta in the world to like water agitation. That's why I've left the bubble thing on full blow, as he really enjoys swimming against the current in that corner of the tank.

Oh, and he's totally in love with his plants. He's forever swimming through the leaves.

armadillo · August 5th, 2007

Betta in 10G tall hex:

My betta.

armadillo · September 21st, 2007

6th - 60L/12G bowfront

Here's another tank I got for my molly that was getting bullied by all its tank mates. I've now put him in with a molly fry, 3 corys and 2 platies and things are OK.

The idea behind the set-up here is to provide them with a semi-closed off heavily planted area (closed off by 2 pieces of wall ruins on either side), and a more barren area in the front.

I've put a majority of fake plants in there, with the odd real one for biological filtration. Also, I've mixed some dark gravel with my originally light gravel, and it seems to have chilled out the corys a lot.

I love to see them relax in the planted bit, and come out for food or attention once in a while.

Daniel · December 8th, 2007

wow your tanks are b e a u t i f u l i mean amazing

Kevin · December 8th, 2007

my bettas really seem to like the water current in their tanks also...they ride it exactly like an invisable slide, over and over

COBettaCouple · December 9th, 2007

Love the new tank! MTS!

Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads
Thread	Fish Forum
Vegging out in front of the tanks (yes, tanks)	More Freshwater Aquarium Topics
my tanks so far	Members Fish Tanks
reptile tanks for fish tanks?	More Freshwater Aquarium Topics
10 gal and 47 gal tanks	Freshwater Fish and Tank Photos
Tanks.. Tanks alot!!	Freshwater Beginners Archive