72 Gallon Rescape

[Jenste]

My axolotls tank had been looking very cluttered, unorganized, and just plain fake to me and it started to really get on my nerves. It ended up being that I just wasn't enjoying looking at the tank much as I wasn't focusing on any of the 6 axolotls in there, but at their decor.

Here is how it was:

Mostly fake with a few pieces of driftwood and a bit of floating water wisteria and a dwarf lily or lotus species that I cannot recall the name of.

Here is it now:

I removed all the ceramics, the plastics, and the silk plants. Kept all the driftwood, lily and wisteria, added in Argentine Sword, Bleheri S.American Sword, Water Primrose, Moss balls, and Water Hyacinth.
From left to right, my plantings are
Bleheri, Primrose, Argentine Sword, Lily plant, moss balls, Arg.Sword, Primrose, Arg Sword, Primrose, Bleheri.
Wisteria and Hyacinth floating.

I am quite pleased so far. Will take another picture at night with out the light coming through/around the window shades so that the effect can be properly seen.
To get the swords and primrose to stay rooted, I used sewing thread to secure the roots to large rocks and put them into the sand. Other wise the axolotls would have a blast uprooting everything.

6 of my 7 axolotls are housed in this tank. My largest, the 8 inch female is in another tank while my smaller axolotls (5.5-7 inches) bulk up a bit.

 

[Jenste]

Figured I would also introduce my growing lotl family.... Started with Reese in April 2011

Reese, my female wildtype 2 years old

Butters, my male golden albino 1.5 years old

Spyro, my recently matured male leucistic 8 months old

Black Magic, unsexed GFP wildtype 8 months old

Yoshi, unsexed wildtype 6 months old

Puff, unsexed leucistic 6 months old

Fluff, unsexed leucistic 6 months old

Group, clockwise starting at the top behind the plants. Top - Wildtype Yoshi, Right - GFP Wildtype BlackMagic, Bottom - Leucistic Fluff, Left- Leucistic Spyro

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Looks great! How big are they?

 

[Jenste]

Looks great! How big are they?

Reese is over 8 inches,
Butters is about 7 inches
Spyro, Black Magic, and Yoshi are a little over 6 inches
Fluff and Puff are between 5.5-6 inches.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Wow, they are pretty big!

 

[Jenste]

Picture at night with out window glare

 

[Serna2000]

Picture at night with out window glare

First off I would like to say you have a beautiful tank I have a 72 bow also the guy sold it to me as a 90 but I still love it. Anyways what is the substrate that you are using? How did you go about putting it in? Is it making your water any harder? Any changes from normal gravel? I love the way it looks do you vacuum it? How do you not suck up the substrate? Sorry about all the questions but I want to convert my tank to a more fine substrate I currently have gravel. You can PM me or just comment back any advise would help and again beautiful tank

 

[Jenste]

responded via email =)

 

[Jenste]

The hubby has also given me the "OK" to look in to upgrading to a tank as long as it is 6 feet or under, or under 150 gallons...AND if I can find one with a stand for under $200.

THE SEARCH IS ON!

 

[LucyB]

They are gorgeous!

Have you ever touched them? They look...squishy...

 

[Jenste]

They are very soft, yes. I have had to handle them for a few seconds from time to time (Mostly I needed to plant or decorate in what every area they were sitting in and a few nudges of my finger wasn't getting the hint through so I would have to pick them up and move them from one end of the tank to the other)

They are....slightly palpable...? Not very squishy feeling as they are very soft and smooth.