Beastije
Fish Addict
Hello all
I am pondering and need outside perspective. To remake my 6 gallon (40x25x25cm) and how, or to terminate it.
I am long term unhappy with this tank, due to massive algae/messy substrate. As we speak I am catching out my fish and putting them in other tanks that can house them. But what next.
There are two ways for me to go, to remake it (but to make it something completely different), or to just tear it down.
A bit of a history - I bought this tank nearly 2 years ago. Previously I had this volume when I started out, 25 liters, and it was a big mess. I played around with micro rasboras, a betta, pygmy cories, maybe even a mexican crayfish. Those years ago I quickly updated to a 54 liter, sold my nano tank. Two years ago I had a group of indostomus paradoxus who were not doing well in my 40 liters, and a new 25liter tank was super cheap (30 euro). So I set it up for the group, leaf litter, botanicals, gentle flow, not a lot of light and let it develop microorganisms. The group of indostomus worked for a year, until they stopped working. I used it to try breeding pairs of clown killifish, no success, and when tearing out my other tank I moved a pair (well not confirmed, more like 2 fish) of dario hysginon, and 10 least rasboras. That was in May and since then, there was a crypt melt, hygrophilla melt, more algae, less plants, and so on. I didnt have any willpower to do anything but water changes with the tank and yesterday said no more. The fish are fine, currently in my other tanks with the option to be moved back.
Option a) remake it again, maybe with a new substrate, to fit best to a no filter setup. I have a filter, but it is just an air pump and half a sponge due to the height of the tank and it is more of a water caress than a filtration device. Given I also have many other tanks, I would love it if the tank looked different. It is hard to achieve since most of my tanks are low tech, low light and therefore the same plants, similar setups. I will post my other tanks here too to get a picture.
To remake it to something other than a tank. Maybe a sort of palludarium for thai micro crabs? I would love a small frog too, aquatic or no, but the dimensions dont work with me I think. Anything I thought of I am reluctant to keep due to fear of torturing the animal in a too small space (micro crabs, african dwarf frog, a mussel, or maybe a terrestrial bug? Though that didnt really excite my partner)
Or to make a last attempt at keeping some interesting fish. I am fairly sure I exhausted list of nano fish to try though. I had the indostomus, I have the dario (not an exciting fish let me tell you), I have pseudomugil, I have pygmy corydoras, I have the clown killifish, I have shrimps, had a shrimp only tank in the 25 liter too for a while, not really that exciting), had a betta in there as well, not keen to try it again, as the necessary heater takes up half the tank and makes it ugly. I think the last options to try are pea puffers ( CARINOTETRAODON TRAVANCORICUS) but I am always reading conflicting information about their preferred tank size/numbers. Or hara jerdoni, asian stone catfish, but again. They may not work at all or might disappoint me. Or perhaps one of the smaller hard to identified gobies (BRACHYGOBIUS KABILIENSIS perhaps, the latin names change too much)
Or maybe, if I find a super nice scape, I could return the least rasboras, maybe even the darios back. I just...dont know and need help.
Thank you for any advice
I am pondering and need outside perspective. To remake my 6 gallon (40x25x25cm) and how, or to terminate it.
I am long term unhappy with this tank, due to massive algae/messy substrate. As we speak I am catching out my fish and putting them in other tanks that can house them. But what next.
There are two ways for me to go, to remake it (but to make it something completely different), or to just tear it down.
A bit of a history - I bought this tank nearly 2 years ago. Previously I had this volume when I started out, 25 liters, and it was a big mess. I played around with micro rasboras, a betta, pygmy cories, maybe even a mexican crayfish. Those years ago I quickly updated to a 54 liter, sold my nano tank. Two years ago I had a group of indostomus paradoxus who were not doing well in my 40 liters, and a new 25liter tank was super cheap (30 euro). So I set it up for the group, leaf litter, botanicals, gentle flow, not a lot of light and let it develop microorganisms. The group of indostomus worked for a year, until they stopped working. I used it to try breeding pairs of clown killifish, no success, and when tearing out my other tank I moved a pair (well not confirmed, more like 2 fish) of dario hysginon, and 10 least rasboras. That was in May and since then, there was a crypt melt, hygrophilla melt, more algae, less plants, and so on. I didnt have any willpower to do anything but water changes with the tank and yesterday said no more. The fish are fine, currently in my other tanks with the option to be moved back.
Option a) remake it again, maybe with a new substrate, to fit best to a no filter setup. I have a filter, but it is just an air pump and half a sponge due to the height of the tank and it is more of a water caress than a filtration device. Given I also have many other tanks, I would love it if the tank looked different. It is hard to achieve since most of my tanks are low tech, low light and therefore the same plants, similar setups. I will post my other tanks here too to get a picture.
To remake it to something other than a tank. Maybe a sort of palludarium for thai micro crabs? I would love a small frog too, aquatic or no, but the dimensions dont work with me I think. Anything I thought of I am reluctant to keep due to fear of torturing the animal in a too small space (micro crabs, african dwarf frog, a mussel, or maybe a terrestrial bug? Though that didnt really excite my partner)
Or to make a last attempt at keeping some interesting fish. I am fairly sure I exhausted list of nano fish to try though. I had the indostomus, I have the dario (not an exciting fish let me tell you), I have pseudomugil, I have pygmy corydoras, I have the clown killifish, I have shrimps, had a shrimp only tank in the 25 liter too for a while, not really that exciting), had a betta in there as well, not keen to try it again, as the necessary heater takes up half the tank and makes it ugly. I think the last options to try are pea puffers ( CARINOTETRAODON TRAVANCORICUS) but I am always reading conflicting information about their preferred tank size/numbers. Or hara jerdoni, asian stone catfish, but again. They may not work at all or might disappoint me. Or perhaps one of the smaller hard to identified gobies (BRACHYGOBIUS KABILIENSIS perhaps, the latin names change too much)
Or maybe, if I find a super nice scape, I could return the least rasboras, maybe even the darios back. I just...dont know and need help.
Thank you for any advice
