Extreme Makeover - River Tank Edition
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:46 pm
Last week, after much planning, we decided to move most of the contents of our 3ft (and tall) river tank into a new 4ft aquarium. This aquarium is not as tall, and obviously longer, so the uni-directional flow from the new manifold works much better.
This is the old tank, where all the little Sewellias were conceived:
36" long x 15" wide x 28" high. Weird dimensions I know, but when it was made, I had not intended it to be a river tank until Martin's assimilation plan worked on me...
And here is the new tank, before the big move, showing the new manifold comprising 3 Maxijet MP 1200 powerheads:
The change over was difficult because the new tank had to go where the old one was, and both tanks & cabinets were heavy - particularly the old one which had to be dragged and pushed out of the way. It was hard work, even after all the water, decor, substrate and equipment had been removed.
We put all the fish into polystyrene fish boxes, along with all the plants. This was the perfect time to catch all the XL Amano shrimps and XL Eirmotus octozona which I suspected were snacking on hillstream loach eggs and fry. These were taken into the shop, and I must admit I felt a little guilty. But if they were preying on loach fry, they really had to go and this was the time to do it.
So, here is the new tank after all my hard work getting it just how I wanted. Once the Java moss takes off and covers a bit more of the bogwood, I'll be totally happy with it:
(excuse the CD rack reflection on the RHS of the next two shots)
LHS
Centre
RHS
And now for some pics of the residents. The shallower tank and different lighting is making for much better photo opportunities
:
My favourite Sewellia sp. 'spotted'. I was thrilled to get this shot as it is really sharp and shows all the fins held wide:
Some of the Sewellia sp. 'spotted' tank bred juveniles:
And the following two pics, although not brilliant, show that the recently discovered (and still very little) fry got through the move ok:
Sewellia lineolata:
That last photo showed up the pectoral fences nice and clearly, so I thought I'd take an even closer look. You can see fine tubercles all over the head area, back as far as the dorsal fin:
Here's a couple of S. lineolata tank bred youngsters:
Young and old:
Annamia normani:
I added 6 of these Gastromyzon beauties (or at least 6 similar looking individuals), which had been at the shop for several months:
And seen here 'in the mix', flaring fins:
This shows a central part of the tank, and all the cobbles that are piled up at the back of the aquarium. I'm hoping that the addition of such a lot more cobbles will help to create more safe havens for any future fry:
Some more group shots at feeding time:
And finally, the beautiful but XL ageing Schistura balteata 'fatty' put in an appearance! This is my lone remaining specimen of this species, and there is no way I could have removed him from my collection, despite being a likely egg & fry muncher:
Hope you all enjoyed the pics.
Emma
This is the old tank, where all the little Sewellias were conceived:
36" long x 15" wide x 28" high. Weird dimensions I know, but when it was made, I had not intended it to be a river tank until Martin's assimilation plan worked on me...
And here is the new tank, before the big move, showing the new manifold comprising 3 Maxijet MP 1200 powerheads:
The change over was difficult because the new tank had to go where the old one was, and both tanks & cabinets were heavy - particularly the old one which had to be dragged and pushed out of the way. It was hard work, even after all the water, decor, substrate and equipment had been removed.
We put all the fish into polystyrene fish boxes, along with all the plants. This was the perfect time to catch all the XL Amano shrimps and XL Eirmotus octozona which I suspected were snacking on hillstream loach eggs and fry. These were taken into the shop, and I must admit I felt a little guilty. But if they were preying on loach fry, they really had to go and this was the time to do it.
So, here is the new tank after all my hard work getting it just how I wanted. Once the Java moss takes off and covers a bit more of the bogwood, I'll be totally happy with it:
(excuse the CD rack reflection on the RHS of the next two shots)
LHS
Centre
RHS
And now for some pics of the residents. The shallower tank and different lighting is making for much better photo opportunities
:My favourite Sewellia sp. 'spotted'. I was thrilled to get this shot as it is really sharp and shows all the fins held wide:
Some of the Sewellia sp. 'spotted' tank bred juveniles:
And the following two pics, although not brilliant, show that the recently discovered (and still very little) fry got through the move ok:
Sewellia lineolata:
That last photo showed up the pectoral fences nice and clearly, so I thought I'd take an even closer look. You can see fine tubercles all over the head area, back as far as the dorsal fin:
Here's a couple of S. lineolata tank bred youngsters:
Young and old:
Annamia normani:
I added 6 of these Gastromyzon beauties (or at least 6 similar looking individuals), which had been at the shop for several months:
And seen here 'in the mix', flaring fins:
This shows a central part of the tank, and all the cobbles that are piled up at the back of the aquarium. I'm hoping that the addition of such a lot more cobbles will help to create more safe havens for any future fry:
Some more group shots at feeding time:
And finally, the beautiful but XL ageing Schistura balteata 'fatty' put in an appearance! This is my lone remaining specimen of this species, and there is no way I could have removed him from my collection, despite being a likely egg & fry muncher:
Hope you all enjoyed the pics.
Emma
