Eclecticoldsod
Fish Crazy
OK, this is what I have...
A 24'' by 15'' by 18'' high glass tank, with a grow-lux tube in the lid, and an internal power filter. It is unheated (British living-room temperature...) There is tuffa rock glued to the back and sides, and a some very old bogwood – both smothered by Java moss. The substrate is a 2'' layer of glass marbles, in which grows a pot of huge elodea, another of cabombia – and there are floating plants of that dreadful/lovely cabbage with long, trail roots (I compost a whole handful of that stuff a month!)
Maintenance: I clean out the filter once a week, change a bucket of water once a week, syphon gunk from the marbles about every six months, do a total clean out about once every five years.
The tank contains one 8 inch-long, 20-year-old fantail goldfish, a constantly breeding herd of White Cloud Mountain Minnows, gigantic Golden Apple snails, red ram's horn snails, trumpet snails, tubifex worms from the marbles, and Gammarus freshwater shrimps from the Java moss...
I am only feeding this lot a [large] pinch of dry fish food every morning, sometimes some live food once a week, and any bits of left-over vegetables from Waitrose...
If this is not just about the 'almost self sustaining' tank of dirty-####e-loving-life, I really don't know what is..!
A 24'' by 15'' by 18'' high glass tank, with a grow-lux tube in the lid, and an internal power filter. It is unheated (British living-room temperature...) There is tuffa rock glued to the back and sides, and a some very old bogwood – both smothered by Java moss. The substrate is a 2'' layer of glass marbles, in which grows a pot of huge elodea, another of cabombia – and there are floating plants of that dreadful/lovely cabbage with long, trail roots (I compost a whole handful of that stuff a month!)
Maintenance: I clean out the filter once a week, change a bucket of water once a week, syphon gunk from the marbles about every six months, do a total clean out about once every five years.
The tank contains one 8 inch-long, 20-year-old fantail goldfish, a constantly breeding herd of White Cloud Mountain Minnows, gigantic Golden Apple snails, red ram's horn snails, trumpet snails, tubifex worms from the marbles, and Gammarus freshwater shrimps from the Java moss...
I am only feeding this lot a [large] pinch of dry fish food every morning, sometimes some live food once a week, and any bits of left-over vegetables from Waitrose...
If this is not just about the 'almost self sustaining' tank of dirty-####e-loving-life, I really don't know what is..!
It just seems cruel to me, keeping an 8 inch fish in a tank that small. Is there a reason you don't upgrade the tank size? JMO.
