After thinking about it for a long time, I finally got around to re-aquascaping my 54G corner tank in my living room. This tank has had roughly the same aquascape for 2-3 years, and being a low-tech tank, has always seemed to kick along without much intervention from me. It might not be my most impressive tank, but it’s consistently, well, okay.

Click picture for larger version.

With the new scape, I wanted to incorporate some rock into what had previously been a very wood-dominated aquascape. So, I grabbed my largest available piece of porous mossy rock, put it on the left/middle side, and went from there. I kept the plants the same, utilizing tons of anubias, java fern, crypts, and bolbitis. I’m not really happy with the foreground, and may try growing some Marsilea quadrafolia, but I’m unsure as to whether or not it will hug the substrate as this is a tall tank without a ton of light on top (only 110W). All in all, this is a scape-in-progress, but I wanted to document how it looked initially, so that I can keep track of how it progresses. Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

For many catfish, specifically “suckerfish” like plecos, it’s often stated that you want to keep wood in your aquarium as it’s an integral part of their diet. It’s also true that they ought to be fed other vegetable matter, such as algae wafers, veggie-based pellets, and so on. Well, fresh, clean vegetables are also a cheap and much appreciated treat for these fish.

We had zucchini as part of our dinner last night, so rather than throwing the ends down the disposal, I cut the stalk off, and set aside 4 small circles of the squash for my catfish. Now, these vegetables were certified organic, so I was fairly confident that they would be pesticide free. In the summer we grow our own vegetables, so we know their source as well. If there’s any doubt, at the least do a thorough washing, and at the best, don’t throw them in your tank. Also, if they’ve been contaminated with any oils, butter, or seasonings, don’t put them in the aquarium.

The problem with fresh zucchini is that it floats. Placing the pieces in a small dish with a bit of water, I microwaved them for 4-5 minutes, or until they stopped floating. This boiling process breaks down the cellular walls, allowing them to become water logged. Alternatively, you can tie them down to a heavy object. The last step is to slice a couple notches in the rind of the squash. The reason being that the catfish eat out the soft core, and could potentially get the “ring of rind” caught around their bodies.

At first, when I dropped the cooled zucchini into the aquarium, none of the fish took much notice. I was surprised that the cories didn’t seem to care for it at all. Then, my chinese algae eater (CAE) found one of the pieces, and started going to town. Two other plecos (Ancistrus sp. L279) took notice and latched onto the same piece. A rigmarole of back-and-forth swapping of the vegetable pieces ensued for 20 minutes before I let them continue on for however long.

Even when not scraping the inner core of the zucchini, the CAE sat over top of one of the pieces, claiming it as his own. While this was going on in my 54G, Red Lizard Catfish and some cherry shrimp were devouring two pieces in my 75G tank. Over the next day or two, I’ll pull out the rind once all of the “good stuff” has been eaten.

Bottom line, if you’re chopping squash for dinner, set aside a couple rounds for your catfish — they’ll love you for it!

I maintain my 54G corner tank in a very low-tech fashion; I don’t use CO2, and I allow Phyllanthus fluitans, or Red-Root Floater, to help suck up any excess nutrients. What that means is that after about a months time, the floater has completely covered the surface, shading out everything below.

Look at how much darker the tank is above with the floater, verses below, without it, albeit, this is probably common sense. This tank is easy to forget about as it generally maintains itself, but it always reminds me to do a water change and remove some of the floaters when the tank is quite dark. It’s a nice visual cue.

And just because he was out and about while I was taking the above pictures, here’s another picture of my Irian Red Rainbowfish (Glossolepis incisus).

I haven’t paid much attention to my 54G corner tank in awhile, so I decided that it was time to do a small photo shoot give these fish the appreciation they deserve. Unfortunately for most of the rest of them, the Red Irian Rainbow (Glossolepis incisis) decided to steal the show, posing and darting right in front of the camera. (And more importantly, directly under the flash sitting on top of the tank!)

This rainbowfish is definitely the centerpiece of the tank. He’s always out and about, and is hard to miss, both because of his size, and his swagger.

I really wish I had followed my own advice and cleaned the glass before this shoot, as there’s a lot of particular matter on the glass and in the water.

And then, one of the oldest fish in my aquariums, the Chinese Algae Eater. I bought this fish long before I read that they can be aggressive toward other fish by sucking holes in the sides of their tankmates. Fortunately, this guy hasn’t caused any problems during his long 5-6 year tenure. I love when he props himself up on his fins like this.

At both the Catfish Convention and the Aquafest auction, I picked up a bag of Ancistrus sp. L279 dwarf bushy-nosed plecos. After keeping them for other a year, I think this species is a fantastic match for a planted aquarium. They max out in length around 4 inches so they’re not going to inadvertently uproot plants from their size. Mine are not shy, so I see them on wood or lounging on open substrate, and they’re fairly active algae eaters. Plus, they’re very attractive fish with white markings on the tips of their tail, and many have very nice spots on their body. I’m guessing that the spots are a gender distinction because some of mine have very pronounced ones, and others not so much.

I don’t have any with huge sections of tentacles/growths on their snout, but they do have some small barbels. I’m hoping that as my latest batch grows up, they’ll develop these further. I’ve seen this species posted on Aquabid, sometimes called Ancistrus sp. ‘Huaca Mayo,’ so if you come across this listing, give them a try — they’re a great little ancistrus!

I wanted to post an updated picture of my 54G, anubias, java fern, and crypt tank. I’ve really let this tank go wild, partly because I like that look in some tanks, but largely because I’m gearing up to really downgrade the maintenance requirements for some of my tanks. That means that I’m going to go back to tanks that are largely free of stem plants requiring frequent trimming. So, at the past few GWAPA meetings, I’ve tried to stock up on crypts, and guess where they’ve been going to grow out?

The anubias in this tank may not be pristine, but they’re actually looking pretty good. I have four separate plants flowering right now, so that’s never a bad sign. Just as a reminder, this tank does not use CO2 (infact I run an airstone), and I only occasionally add a few milliliters of my own PMDD mix of trace, K, and P. I figure the fish provide enough N. Finally, it’s a corner, rounded front tank, so the pictures never truly reflect how it looks. The curve in the glass seems to distort the picture, removing a lot of the depth that’s in the tank. Comments are welcome.

I had my camera and tripod out last night, so I decided to snap a picture of my 54G corner tank. This scape doesn’t change too much, but that’s a good thing. As a reminder, there’s no CO2 on this tank, and the light is mostly deflected some the Phyllanthus Fluitans floating on the surface. I have an Eheim Liquidoser on top of the tank that dumps in a few milliliters of PMDD every day, but otherwise I don’t supplement this tank with anything more than fish food.

Melanotaenia splendida australis is a beautiful, but fairly common, rainbowfish. I think this was the cheapest rainbowfish that I have in my 54G, rainbowfish, tank. I believe I paid $1.99 for the juenvenille, drab-looking, fish. Despite it’s youthful appearance, as an adult, I think it might be the most prolific fish, both in spirit and color, that I own. I’d recommend to anyone who wants to try rainbowfish.

I was fortunate to catch it displaying to another male rainbowfish in the tank (below). These fish truly are a marvel to watch, especially in the morning, when they’re especially spirited.

A few weekends ago, I emptied everything out of this tank, except for the SeaChem Oynx sand substrate. Previously, I also had a “wall of wood” with anubias and java fern plants attached to them. Unfortunately, I had that scape in place for about 2 years, and most of the plants had overgrown themselves into places that were no longer aesthetically pleasing. So, I basically wanted to keep a similar scape, with just a few adjustments that would open up more free space for the rainbowfish, who had grown quite large since I introduced them to the tank.

(54G Tank – 10/18/2006)

The foreground itself is quite bare right now. I have a few varieties of crypts planted there that, in time, should fill out the foreground quite nicely. I want to remind you that this is the tank that I don’t do anything to except for bi-weekly water changes. I have phyllanthus fluitans floating on the surface to soak up any extra nitrates. I rarely dose the tank, and I don’t supplement any CO2. I have a JBJ Formosa fixture on top that sports 2x65W PC lights and some NOISY fans. All in all, so long as the powerhead and filter keep a fairly high amount of circulation going in this tank, I have zero problems. I’d welcome any low-light recommendations for the foreground.

Last week, I ordered a few new compact flourescent bulbs from AHSupply to replace some old ones over my 54G. Previously, I had always had 6700k bulbs over that tank, and I always thought that the tank was a little bit off in color. So, this time I decided to mix one 6700k bulb with a 10,000k bulb.

Dozens of tiny phyllanthus fluitans flowers

Now, I’ve had phyllanthus fluitans in this tank for 2.5 years. Basically, we had an agreement: I did nothing, and it grew like crazy providing the rainbowfish shade, and sucking up any excess nitrates. One of my goals for the pond this past year was to get my “red-root-floater” to flower outside under the full sun. It turned bright red, but never a single flower. So, anyways, I opened the lid to the tank this evening to feed the fish, and low-and-behold, dozens of little white flowers are sticking up from each phyllanthus fluitans leaf. These aquariums never stop giving me nice surprises!