Any Aquarian people?

Some of you might know that I like to keep fishy’s as a pet.

I was wondering: Are there more aquarians amongst us? I really want to see what kind of aquarium others have running.
I do like other pets like dogs, birds and cats too. 

The most important part of fish keeping is in my opinion the health of the tank. Nothing is more important than that. My current fishtank is reaching it’s end (not that it became unhealthy, but my interest for this tank is gone). Especially the feedback about the way it looks made me less interested in continuing with this tank.

This weekend I have started with a new bigger tank that I planned starting October with a in a total different style. I am competitive when it comes to fish keeping so that means I take all time to start it correctly. The estimated time for starting up without fish is 8/9 weeks. In the meantime my old fishtank will run until I can replace the plants and fish in my new setup. Photo’s of the new one I will post in this topic when the water values and color are getting better. I wanted to do an aquascape and I have chosen for a Star Wars theme. Biggest challenge is to make it look like a professional diorama. The big con of using ornaments is that it often looks messy, out of place, unrealistic or childish. With this setup I want to prove that an aquarium with use of a few ornaments can give gorgeous results. For this moment no photo’s of the new tank yet. 

I do want to show some photo’s of my old fishtank that is now running in the garage. It’s like a tribute of the past five years.

Are there any aquarium enthusiasts here on Dolldreaming too? If so I really want to see what kind of fishtank you created. 

Edited January 28, 2024 by Rajke

Yes I used to keep fish but had to give them away when I went to live in Asia for a while.

My favourite were Kuhli loaches. They were near impossible to catch and also did a weird ritual of swimming up and down the tank. If I caused them to panic they would sometimes dive into the miniature clay pots I put in their tank.

Now I keep praying mantises. They don't really do a lot but the most exciting part is watching them moult.

Edit: great excitement in mantis land this afternoon as the female Violin spotted the male Conehead. Unfortunately I don't think they can interbreed, plus Mr Conehead is probably unaware of what horrors the mantis mating ritual often involves 😂.

 

Edited February 1, 2024 by Xiongmao

3 hours ago, Xiongmao said:

Yes I used to keep fish but had to give them away when I went to live in Asia for a while.

My favourite were Kuhli loaches. They were near impossible to catch and also did a weird ritual of swimming up and down the tank. If I caused them to panic they would sometimes dive into the miniature clay pots I put in their tank.

Now I keep praying mantises. They don't really do a lot but the most exciting part is watching them moult.

Edit: great excitement in mantis land this afternoon as the female Violin spotted the male Conehead. Unfortunately I don't think they can interbreed, plus Mr Conehead is probably unaware of what horrors the mantis mating ritual often involves 😂.

 

Kuhli Loaches are cool. And indeed hard to catch. Last time I spend almost one hour for just 2 Kuhli’s to catch. I wonder how much time I need to catch the 15 for replacement in the new tank. 

Praying Mantises are nice. They are very nice species. I have have seen some videos of them and I definitely hope that the male knows what he is doing.

Oh awesome, I didn’t know I’d run into this particular hobby on a doll forum! My husband and I keep 3 tanks although one is just for storing plants and snails, hehe. We both started this hobby during the pandemic lockdowns and grew from a single 7G nanotank to adding a 15G tank… and then another 5G nanotank. In the 15G, we keep a male Betta Giant HMPK and a school of 6 Pygmy corydoras (I love corycats!) and in the 7G we keep crystal red caridinas and some cherry red neocaridinas (and one random yellow that was born in a tank full of reds, ehe) which are breeding like crazy. The husband is more the aquascaper and takes care of the plants, tanks, c02, etc and I more take care of the fishies. I used to have a betta of my own but he sadly passed away a few of months ago. Betta’s are definitely my favourite fish, they’re like little underwater puppies! 

Your tank is in super great shape for 5 years, and really clean! Did you end up starting your themed tank, @Rajke? I’m really curious to see how it turned out as I’m in agreement that non planted tank can quickly look tacky with ornaments but I love your idea! What kind of fish do you keep? The red/silver ones look so beautiful! 

 

Here are some photos of some of our setups.

We recently re-aquascaped this 16G tank so a lot of the plants are still growing in and it’s still a WIP although the carpet has grown in a lot more since this photo. Soooo much anubis… 🤣
The giant betta is called Flareon, although we just call him Flarey because he likes to flare at pretty much anything, lol.

 

This is the same tank in its first aquascape, it’s supposed to be a peninsula style layout due to it being placed between my computer desk and my husbands so it could be viewed length wise from both sides but it got really overgrown and hard to upkeep because the plants all grew so damn fast! And there wasn’t enough space for our betta to swim freely because he’s huuuuge and hates plants for some reason, lol. Moved it to our lounge area and did the more traditional layout posted above. 

 

This is the super overgrown shrimp tank! Older photo yet again and it’s been trimmed back a bit with a lot more buce being planted. Not much shrimp in the photo here (if any visible at all) but it’s bustling with so many more these days. All the Monte Carlo growing makes for an excellent place for all the babies to hide out in until they feel big enough to come out and play! 

And just a shot of my late Xelphie, the tiny little darling Nemo Betta. Sadly he passed last November to an extremely sudden case of dropsy when he was just a year and a half old and I still don’t know what caused it. Miss this little fella so much, he was such a lively and friendly fish! Loved to do tricks and beg for food all day every day, lol. Now we just use his old tank for plant growing since I can’t bring myself to get another fish just yet. But he was very cute and darling so wanted to include a picture of him. ^^

 

Anyway, great to meet someone else into the two same hobbies! 

@Zai Your aquascape tank is awesome. It is the first time I see the combination with green plants in the front and red plants in the back. It adds very much depth. It is a complete difference from your first one. Looks nice too, it has a lot of straight lines in the setup. Both ones are very inspiring. 

I love the Beta, he looks very happy and healthy. His colorscheme is gorgeous. I love Beta, really beautiful fish.

Neocaridina sounds familiar, I have the Blue Velvet version in my aquarium. Very nice color but after some time there are more red ones and brown/black ones. It is hard maintain the blue color. However the black and brown ones are nice too.

I love your schrimp tank. There are a lot of plants but it is still looking appealing. It’s definitely a schrimp paradise. 
 

The current aquarium is doing very well. The only issue currently are the snails I have in the aquarium that came with some of the plants that I attached to the wood.

I am curious for your opinion. The style is worlds apart from my previous aquarium. It made it like it would fit in Palpatines thrown room. 

A lot of plants have to grow. Attaching them to the wood was a time consuming task. In the right lower corner is something that is called an underwater fishcave or underwaterbunker. It fits perfectly in the theme but not many schrimps or fish are using it.  I think the ornaments fits well in the total picture. I think it looks even better when the plants have grown more. 

I have changed the wood and the ornaments a lot when setting up. I wanted to get it as appealing as possible. I do like the current color of the water but I am afraid it will become clear like the previous one. One of the things I did not change was the process of maintenance and starting up for this aquarium. Watervalues are 6.8 PH and 7.2 KH currently. 

The grey strip is not standard on this aquarium. It serves two perposes: It is needed for the examination (will be entering in the category aquascape under Taiwan style) and it keeps away alge at the side of the sand. I think the grey would perfectly fit with the theme. 

 

I decided to bring over all fish from the previous aquarium. Currently without any dead ones. The silver red ones you mentioned are Whitefin Tetra’s. They have already moved to this new aquarium and they look happy.

I do like the view of the side. There is a lot of depth in it. 

It’s always nice to meet people who shares multiple hobby’s. 
 

I used to be into nano aquariums before my move, I'd love to make a new shallow nano scape with kubotai rasbora once i got the funds ! Back then I used to have a 60L Dennerle cube with giant anubias and a few tetra amandae (my favorite fish!) a 30L Dennerle cube black water scape with a beta and a small 15L for my cherry shrimps. I really miss aquascaping so seeing this thread brings me so much joy 🥰

 

@Rajke Your two aquascapes are so cool, really love the first one's colors and the second one originality! I can't wait to see how everything will grow and thrive 🌱

@Zai Tell your beta that I love him he's gorgeous! so are your scapes those plants are beautiful and the layers are well thought ! also love your pygmy corydoras, I had some they were so cute and fun to watch 💗

@Rajke - Thank you for your kind words! We tried to go for an ‘autumn’ look with the big tank although it mostly just turned out looking red and green, lol. I’ll pass on your words to my husband since it was mostly all his work, he’ll be stoked to hear such lovely feedback. 

When I’ve sorted out the majority of the things I want for my dolls I plan to make another aquarium, although I’ll get bigger than a 5g this time. I really want an alien type betta fish! Although I’ve heard that they’re bad for jumping out of the tank so I’ll need to make sure I used an extremely secure lid… I’ve never had to use a tank lid before but I see you have a gorgeous tank set up with a good secure looking lid!

Blue and black shrimp sound really cute, I’d love to get some of those colours when I get around to cycling a new tank. Although keeping shrimp and betta in the same tank is a big, big risk! 🤣😅

It looks like the style of your new tank is growing in very nicely! And I adore the extremely natural look of it, the decorations looks like they blend in naturally and are so well done. Especially the AT-ATs. It looks like the scene from a fierce fight long ago, awesome job! I hope you keep us updated with photos. Did you add tannins or is the Blackwater leeching from your wood? It looks great either way!

The grey strip is such a good idea, especially for hiding sand algae. I lovelovelove using sand but the algae drives me insane, lol. I hope you do well in the competition! And I’m glad the tetras are happy, looks like they have a very fun tank to play in. 
 

@dolloramore Oh, nice! My first was a high tech nano and it upkeep was so much, lol, but it was so much fun! They are great for betta too, I think. I have never had a black water tank before although I probably should if I plan to keep more betta. The Dennerle cubes look so cool, I wish they sold them in my country! Just have Aqua One cubes here, lol, and the big one is an ADA. I thought about getting the ember tetras for our 60L but the betta harrasses the corycats so much that I’m worried he’ll do the same to the tetra. Thankfully he just chases them a bit but doesn’t bite or get aggressive but worried it’d stress tetras too much. 😅

I’ll be sure to tell Flarey that you said he’s gorgeous, he likes to prance around thinking he’s all pretty so I bet he’ll love that, haha. If you get back into aquascaping, I’d love to see your work! 

Thank you both for the compliments. 😊
The watercolor is from the wood. I do think that the water gets more bright over time. I am not big fan of tannins. All the aquaria that I have had are running on as less additives as possible. Ill fish that needs medicine are in a quarantine aquarium.
I’ll definitely keep you updated how the Star Wars themed aquarium is doing. 

@dolloramore Tetra Amandae are very beautiful fish. I had them in a smaller fishtank years ago. You have my full respect for keeping a 15L tank. From all sizes I had I noticed that the smaller sizes are more difficult to keep in balance than the bigger ones. The smallest size I could keep in balance is 40L. 

@Zai The lid on this aquarium is the standard one. I prefer the aquarium type Rio made by Juwel. Not only for the lid but also for the frame underneath. I keep the transport safety pins in. This brings the middle part a bit up which makes the lid even less noticeable and letting in some more fresh air. I have seen within the club some creative ways to make a lid themself. The acrylic ones are favourite because they work well also for muscular fish. I have looked up the alien Beta and it is a gorgeous fish. I love the very bright colors. 

We are now 4 months further and preparing for the examination. 

The blue Sumatran fish are there now for three months. Definitely not a beginner fish and they are exactly as mentioned online: difficult and aggressive. I started with a group of six and it was like a real war in the aquarium. To solve this I have expanded the group with an additional group of six. Now the war in the aquarium has come to an end and sadly two whitefin and two blue Sumatran have not made it. 

No problems so far anymore for two and a half month. 
I replaced the pump 600l per hour for one that does 1000l per hour. That is to prevent the oil layer on top of the water. I might need to add a spraybar for a better waterflow in the future. 
 

This is how the aquarium looks today. 

On 2/1/2024 at 9:15 AM, Xiongmao said:

Yes I used to keep fish but had to give them away when I went to live in Asia for a while.

My favourite were Kuhli loaches. They were near impossible to catch and also did a weird ritual of swimming up and down the tank. If I caused them to panic they would sometimes dive into the miniature clay pots I put in their tank.

Now I keep praying mantises. They don't really do a lot but the most exciting part is watching them moult.

Edit: great excitement in mantis land this afternoon as the female Violin spotted the male Conehead. Unfortunately I don't think they can interbreed, plus Mr Conehead is probably unaware of what horrors the mantis mating ritual often involves 😂.

 

 

My Mom kept Glass Catfish, Khuli Loaches and Angel Fish back in my early-childhood/Tweendom in the mid '80's~early-90's...

Edited July 15, 2024 by Tasuke

I am happy to say that I had a very good score with the house examination this year. 383 points, 61 biologic in the aquascape category. If I want I now can compete in a higher class competition. 
 

The aquarium is not perfect or finished and never will be. It is different from the last update. 27 pieces of wood added and new plants.