My Managerie of Tanks

I've just scrolled down to admire your fish - they're lovely - and shining with health.

I love the neons and black neons, and the little shoal of corydoras is a delight. (Who doesn't love a cory with their whiskery little faces and their suits armour?)

What's that very pretty little blue fish in the second last photo.

Coincidentally I offered one to a one-eyed bubble-eye goldfish just last week, but it was refused. Apparently having one eye doesn't affect the fish at all (hmmmmm) and someone will buy it. I hope so, but I'm afraid I wasn't prepared to pay £7.99 for a fish that a kept swimming into the heater as it tried to keep up with the others. Not when it would have meant some re-jigging of suitable temporary containers at home for a few days until I could get hold of a tank to put it in.

LostBear said:

I've just scrolled down to admire your fish - they're lovely - and shining with health.

I love the neons and black neons, and the little shoal of corydoras is a delight. (Who doesn't love a cory with their whiskery little faces and their suits armour?)

What's that very pretty little blue fish in the second last photo.

Coincidentally I offered one to a one-eyed bubble-eye goldfish just last week, but it was refused. Apparently having one eye doesn't affect the fish at all (hmmmmm) and someone will buy it. I hope so, but I'm afraid I wasn't prepared to pay £7.99 for a fish that a kept swimming into the heater as it tried to keep up with the others. Not when it would have meant some re-jigging of suitable temporary containers at home for a few days until I could get hold of a tank to put it in.

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That little blueish fish is a sparkling gourami. A small nano fish, about the size of a neon tetra. Fun little fish. A touch delicate to water quality, air breathers, and a tiny bit of an attitude.
The blue is iridescence which doesnt always show. Their eyes are reflective like that too with blue


I have 3. A male and 2 females. Theyre kinda skulky and like places to explore and hide.

Corydoras Leucomelas


Corydoras Paleatus


Corydoras Aeneus



Corydoras Sterbai


Bamboo Shrimp

Your fish and your tanks look amazing!

NCaquatics said:

That little blueish fish is a sparkling gourami. A small nano fish, about the size of a neon tetra. Fun little fish. A touch delicate to water quality, air breathers, and a tiny bit of an attitude.
The blue is iridescence which doesnt always show. Their eyes are reflective like that too with blue


I have 3. A male and 2 females. Theyre kinda skulky and like places to explore and hide.
View attachment 104838View attachment 104839View attachment 104840View attachment 104841

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Absolutely beautiful - I've never seen anything quite like them.

NCaquatics said:

Corydoras Leucomelas
View attachment 104842

Corydoras Paleatus
View attachment 104844View attachment 104848View attachment 104851

Corydoras Aeneus
View attachment 104846


Corydoras Sterbai
View attachment 104850View attachment 104852

Bamboo Shrimp View attachment 104845
View attachment 104853

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These are all lovely, too.

I'm after a shrimp or two myself at the moment, but haven't seen anything quite like your striped ones.

Keeping so many aquaria in such superb condition must be a full time job for you.

LostBear said:

These are all lovely, too.

I'm after a shrimp or two myself at the moment, but haven't seen anything quite like your striped ones.

Keeping so many aquaria in such superb condition must be a full time job for you.

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Bamboo shrimp, they get fairly large (4 inches), and require some specialized care. If you got a set up that allows some current, can culture some green water and can feed fine powdered foods, you may be good to go. Min tank size needed is 20 gallons as they are fairly big. They sit in the current and catch tiny particles of food in their fans. I keep branches directly under my filter current for them. At night they come out and i feed them. I culture green water for them and offer fine powdered foods.

But theyre pretty neat.


Im always fussing over something about the tanks. Some are more of a challenge i tend to lose at (the livebearer tank, thanks to the apple snails... they eat every plant so can only use fake ones, but those take up space compared to real plants so i hate it... lol)

Oh, and the sparkling gourami, a video

NCaquatics said:

Oh, and the sparkling gourami, a video

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It's so delicate! Thanks for sharing that.

Those bamboo strip are a little large for my requirements - I've never seen them in the UK anyway, so they'd probably be hard to source.

Added more strawberry plants and moved them to my filter baffle.


Moved my dandelions. Added raspberry as well, but i can take this out. Couldnt find anything online about using it or not using it in a fish tank.


Trimmed up a bit of my sword plant. This thing is massive. Thats one leaf cut off the plant.

Nice tank, you put a lot of work into it

NCaquatics said:

Added more strawberry plants and moved them to my filter baffle.
View attachment 104882

Moved my dandelions. Added raspberry as well, but i can take this out. Couldnt find anything online about using it or not using it in a fish tank.
View attachment 104881

Trimmed up a bit of my sword plant. This thing is massive. Thats one leaf cut off the plant.
View attachment 104883

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Blimey!

That's a leaf and a half, alright!

So bit of an update.

I moved the last apple snail to my fry grow out (20g) and added my wisteria to that tank. No snail left to eat it in there


We went through a heat wave and even with AC, our house got so warm i had to turn my heaters off. Even on my betta tanks because the thermometer was reading in the 90s! But as a result, the ramshorn snails in my betta tanks struggled, and all of them died in my female betta's tank. Caused a major ammonia spike, so i had to do a total water change, take all the leaves out to find the dead snails, and didnt have the time to get more tannins ready. So they will have to be added in time. But theres no snails left in her tank. Plus ordered moss, its been added to her tank.


Its not been a good month for my 46g. I had 3 HOB filters on this thing. Almost a month ago, one broke down because salvinia got into the motor. Now this week discovered a crack in the holder case of another HOB filter causing a slow leak. So that's 2 filters broke down. So i caved and bought a new sponge filter and pump. Theres also a DIY one hidden inside the amazon sword plants. Those need to cycle, but the remaining HOB is still running and cycled. Keeping an eye on parameters thanks to both filters crashing on me.

Growing lettuce in this tank. The raspberry didnt work out, and the dandelions kicked the bucket. But this lettuce i was growing from a nub leftover the lettuce we bought at the store inside a bowl with tank water. Now its got leaves, moved it to the tank.



The 10g nano got most of my moss. Cant wait to see how it fills in!

nicesorry you are having issues with your tanks/HOB filters and snails. The lettuce, do you have it in one of those plastic cups that stick on the glass? I bought several plants awhile back and two were "betta" plants which I have hanging out the back of my shrimp tank.

Retired Viking said:

nicesorry you are having issues with your tanks/HOB filters and snails. The lettuce, do you have it in one of those plastic cups that stick on the glass? I bought several plants awhile back and two were "betta" plants which I have hanging out the back of my shrimp tank.

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No, i have it on a strap connected to a suction cup.