Ah, the underwater zoo. I've been keeping fish since high school. Here's a
link to the fish I had back in high school and
undergrad years. Now I'm an apartment dweller, so I have to limit myself in
my number of fish. Right now I have a 40g, 29g and several 10g tanks running.
I also have this 3 tier stand in storage
because there was no way I was lugging that thing up the stairs to my current
apartment. When it was running, it held a 30 breeder on the middle shelf, up
to 4 10g tanks on the top shelf and up to 2 5g tanks in the cabinet. Here's
a
link to the description of the 30 breeder when I had it up and running.
It'll be one of the first things set back up when I move.
Click on any of the following to see the description
40 gallon Tanganyikan community tank
This tank has seen several incarnations. Here's a
link to the first setup of this tank. They met a misfortunate end when
a roommate turned off the A/C in the summer. Currently I have:
One pair of white calvus
One pair of N. pulcher
One Julidochromis transcriptus (male calvus killed its mate)
Two Paracyprichromis
The paracyps were a rescue from the pet store and I've yet to get more as
this area is not well known for its abundance of rift lake cichlids and mail
order would be rather expensive just for a group of paracyps. I also don't
know for sure what their locality is since the pet store didn't know. They
seem content to school with the pulchers oddly enough. When I move and get
room for more tanks, I think this will become exclussively a calvus tank. They
are still a bit young, but the male is starting to show fits of intolerance,
such as when he killed the other julie.
This tank is inhabitted by Ameca splendens and Amano shrimp. The tank
has a river tank theme, complete with a special bit of PVC plumbing to get
the water to recirculate in a more river-like fashion. Originally these
guys were in a 20g show. Here's a picture of that setup:
However the Amecas are quite prolific, so I moved that setup to the 29g
when I moved. It looks basically the same, just a tad larger and more algae.
Originally my similis were in the 29g tank and then the 30 breeder tank with
just two pair in the 10 gallon tank because they couldn't find territory in
the 30 breeder. Here's my page on those old
setups. Then I discovered that the city I lived in didn't much care to take
protective measures when excessive bacterial counts were noted during water
testing. Unfortunately, I changed the water on the 30 breeder tank during one
of these bacterial blooms and lost that whole tank. I still had the two pair
in the 10 gallon though. Now I have that pair and about a dozen of their
offspring of various ages.
This tank has a breeding trio of N. pulcher. Before the move, they were
in a 20g, but it didn't make the move in a water-safe fashion. I put them
in a 10g that is right next to the similis tank. It's been 6 months and they
seem to be adjusting fine. The male spends most of his time flaring at the
similis in the neighboring tank. When they were in the 20g, the females did
produce more fry, but I view this setup as temporary. When I move, they'll
go back into a 20g long or 29g.
This tank has the older offspring from the breeding trio. There's about a
dozen juvenials in this tank. The oldest were born in Nov 2005, a month before
I moved. Actually suprised any of them survived that. The younger ones are from
a batch in February 2006.
Thanks for visiting the aquatic portion of my zoo.