Shai

I've only ever come across it as anecdotal evidence on another board I visit. I suppose, like with any other fish, it depends on the personality of the angel(s) and circumstances in the tank. Such as: I'll keep them in mind though, I might worry about the centerpiece fish later on, just explore ideas for now and work on getting the schools established. I've been half-considering a flame gourami (4.5") but I'm not so sure... Do gouramis have issues with current? I added six harlequin rasboras this past Sunday, one male and five females. Nice fish! They won't sit still long enough to get a good photo though. : ( The next six will come in a week or two provided everything works out in the meantime. I lost one of the otos last week (for the second time, I just don't think I can support three of them) but the remaining two are looking good. Haven't found a suitable dish for the cory sandbox yet... I've been really sick this week so I haven't had an opportunity to go out and look for one. I still need to build up more plants in the tank too but I'm not sure what else I can put in there that will fill out well without having to spend a bunch of money upgrading lights and tackling CO2. Eventually I'll have to look at DIY light setups from Home Depot, I really have no inclination to break the bank buying higher wattage hoods from an LFS. : ) I updated the pic of the 55g from my last post. This one is much better, less orange. I turned off the bubble wall to get a cleaner shot. The orange blobs are the harlequins. : ) (I almost like the tank better without the bubble wall. I only really bought it to help interrupt the betta's reflection, but since I had to take him out, I don't really need it anymore, but not sure if I want to get rid of it. I've heard bubble walls can lower the amount of dissolved CO2 in the water though, too much surface agitation.) I hope so! He was looking lonely so I got him some cherry barbs for company, everybody's getting along well. I'm really liking the crypts in that tank too, I'm thinking I'd like to swap out most (or all) of the anubiases for more of them. The tape grass is spawning baby plants already too, might be getting time to put them back in the 55g!

Ah, good to know, thanks for sharing! Hopefully I'll be able to tell the difference when I'm ready to get mine, I'd like a male and female pair. : ) Great fish.

Very nice. : ) I'm looking forward to picking up a pair of these for my 55g next year. I take it the male is the more colorful one?

This is quite true and valid. But you'll notice I never said the idea was original. : ) However, just because it wasn't successful in the past doesn't mean it won't be this time around. There are more/different members now than there were then, and as mentioned, maybe some kind of compromise or variation (there doesn't seem to be a consensus yet) on the ideas being discussed currently will have better results. Or not. Who knows? Ultimately it is an admin decision and everyone will have to respect it, but what is the harm in discussing further without the ideas being shot down outright and possibly making an attempt at some point?

Just my two cents... Since you're repeating yourself, it seems that a ) the gallery obviously does not come to mind as an alternative, therefore b ) the fact that is has a rating system goes largely unnoticed. Perhaps if the gallery were somehow made more prominent, exasperated posts like this one wouldn't be necessary. I can understand this sentiment, as I manage two websites plus a forum myself. On the other hand... ...attitude from site mods has a pretty big impact on site visitors. It's within admin rights to not be keen on an idea, but the Suggestion forum was put here for suggestions, and taking an "It's doomed to failure anyway" approach doesn't reflect well on the mod making the post, nor the site in general. Apparently there's some interest in this idea, or certain forms of it, and obviously some of the site members are trying to invest some of their own creativity and desires in this forum. If you don't believe it's a good idea, that's perfectly all right, but instead of being so negative about it, why don't you try to look constructively at the discussion and suggest ways in which the site could be improved to come to a compromise? But again, just my two cents.

This is true, but I've heard angels will snack on smaller fish, such as tetras? New pic...! It looks a lot brighter in person, as much of the tannins have been filtered out now. I've added two more amazon swords plus some dwarf sagittaria (as I could not find Brazilian microsword anywhere). The tape grass I had in here before seemed to be having a hard time establishing so I moved it to my ten gallon as a temporary measure (which seems to be working). Future plans include incorporating a cory sandbox on the left in that open area. I think I'll be buying some more sagittaria as well. Next fish addition to the tank will be the harlequin rasboras, which I'll be looking at in a couple of weeks. I'm kind of torn about the new centerpiece fish... I saw a dwarf gourami at the LFS the other day that looked very nice, with orange, red, and blue on it, and was thinking a trio would be good, but then I would have to drop the rams. But then the LFS had a very nice pair of rams, and they're just so pretty that I don't want to take them off the list! I still have to do more research, so I'm not sure what kind of larger gourami might work for my preferences. : ) And, if anyone's interested, here's a pic of my 10g with the tape grass in it:

^^ My turn!

Wonderful tank! I like the coloring of the gravel. Very bizarre about the tetra getting sucked into the filter though, I don't think I've heard of that happening (shrimp definitely). Too bad! ^^ Please post more pics when you get some!

I've had to take the betta out. He just wasn't coping well with the tank and the current. : ( Poor guy. Removal of the betta means I've lost my centerpiece fish... I was thinking I'd get a gourami to replace it, possibly a flame gourami or something similar and colorful. Granted, I realize not having the betta now opens up other possibilities but since I was originally planning around the betta, I'm not really aware of what else is out there. Suggestions? The stock is currently sitting at: 12 neon tetras 3 otocinclus 6 malaysian rainbow shrimp The rest of the plan is posted just a few posts up, so I won't repeat. ^^

Great, thanks!!

Does anyone know where in Calgary I might be able to find a plain glass dish about the depth of a pie plate, but not necessarily round or square? I would like to create a "sandbox" in my 55g for the bronze cories I will be getting in the near future, and if possible would like a dish of an interesting shape so that it isn't quite so obvious that it's a pie plate or similar. Obviously the dish should not be painted or glazed. (If the glass itself has been dyed, ie same idea as a beer bottle, should I avoid it?) I was thinking perhaps IKEA...? I don't know that I've ever seen anything at Zellers or Wal-Mart or similar places. Dollar stores? Don't want to spend a fortune.

lol Pics that actually load!! Isn't that quite a lot of sand in the smaller tank?

I agree, a "Show your tank" thread would be a good idea. If people could be encouraged to post the types of fish and plants as well, this would really help others get ideas or see what works. Instead of all the replies, members with questions can PM the author of a post if they have more specific questions. Popular questions could always be edited into the appropriate post later.

I downloaded the videos to watch them. Great work! Seeing the fry moving around on the glass was neat too. The wide angle shot really looked like there's a swarm of them in there. Please keep posting updates. : )

Fab pics. What is that plant in the pic of the full tank, the one with the very long leaves?

Fantastic pics! They do look like they're posing!

Nice piece of wood, great shape to it. Are you planning on adding more (taller) plants? What about a background? Tank looks a bit bare still. : )

If you right-click on one of the broken images and select "Properties" and then copy/paste the URL for the image into your browser, the page that comes up says "Sorry, the page you requested was not found."

I'll say! And here I thought you might be opening up your own in-home aquarium and might start charging admission. ^^ Live plants are always better IMHO. You might have a lot more of a challenge finding plants only from the areas you've chosen though. : )

Good grief, Slough Shark, how many tanks are you going to end up with in the end???

If you don't have a macro lens but are trying to use your camera's zoom to get a "close up" of the fry, don't. Leave the camera completely zoomed out and get as close to the tank glass as possible. You have a better likelihood of catching a clear pic this way. Also do not use the flash if you can (shoot on Manual and allow lots of light) and set your camera at the highest picture quality setting so that you can use your computer afterwards to crop out a pic of the fry.

I completely disagree with this statement. Both my tanks have black backgrounds and my shots come out just fine. : ) Slough Shark, black is great as a background because it really helps the colors inside the tank "pop" and helps keep the light focused inside. A dark blue is another good choice. Lighter colors can sometimes look cheap or tacky depending on the substrate and other decorations, but I have seen tanks where it worked well. A background that is a picture can make the tank look too busy or unnatural. But go with what you like. Despite the lost scales, the goldfish actually look like they're in pretty good condition otherwise, no fin rot or body growths. The water in the tank is very clear and there doesn't appear to be an algae problem, so it looks like you've been doing your best to take good care of them, under the circumstances. Some live plants would be nice. : ) Post more shots soon!

: ) I wish I had more experience with stocking levels so I could help you out! When I was looking at getting a larger tank I discovered that once you get to about 35g (I think it was) they're all the same length (4ft) up to 55g. The depth of the tank is what changes to accommodate the different gallons. You've made a lot of changes to your plans, but what I would recommend if you're still thinking about going a bit bigger, measure the space you have available and then take a tape measure with you to the LFS and measure the tanks (out of box) that you are interested in to find out if they'll fit. : )

I have one heater that has the "minimum water level" line on it, which I have fully submerged in my 55g. The heater that is in my 10g has a "maximum water level" line on it, and both the box and the instructions said not to fully submerge it. So who knows?

I hope everyone had a great holiday! All the best for the new year, too. : ) I think I'm past the worst in my 55g. No one else has come up looking ill recently. *whew!* So now I'm looking forward to starting on the stocking again. I did some rearranging to the aquascaping: I'm not quite sure that I'm satisfied with the placement of the driftwood on the right, but I'm also not sure what else I can do with it. I'll be getting another amazon sword to put in that corner, maybe that will help. I have two small Vallisneria spiralis (Tape grass (Val)) in the tank. If you look carefully in the picture, you'll see one on the left and the other on the right. The research I've done says these plants grow like crazy, but I guess mine are still acclimatizing to the tank and haven't taken off yet, because I haven't seen much change since I got them in early December. I'm not sure if I should get more, like more mature ones? I'm looking to fill in the back of the tank with something tall to hide the equipment and break up the bubble wall just a bit. Can anyone make any recommendations for other plants that would fill in the back of the tank well, but not become a tank buster? This is a low-light, low-tech setup, although in the future I can look at upgrading (ie, adding CO2, etc).