Catfish
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Just introduced to the tank, these small bristled catfish will help with algae control, and to provide some variety. They started small but are growing quite noticably now, and should get to 15cm or so in length (4-5 inches). |
Despite being tiny at first (1cm or so) they cleared most of the glass in the tank within two days of being added to the tank, getting into the corners where my scraper could not reach. I may need to re-organise the tank for them as they grow, two males together can be quite territorial.
They are a type of Catfish, which is a huge fish family with many interesting species, there are 'talking' catfish (can make a noise loud enough to wake people up), Electric catfish (shocking) and even walking catfish, which have been known to climb out of their tank at night, explore the house, and are found in the toilet the next morning. Mine are really quite simple by comparison. |
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From underneath you can see their bristles quite well, and cute little bellies! |
White Cloud Mountain Minnows
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Their common name comes from the White Cloud Mountain in China where they were discovered by a man named 'Tan'. His name now forms part of their latin name. In the Netherlands they are often called Chinese Danios. |
I like them a lot; 14 little energetic schoolfish are very cute! I just wish they didn't jump so well (I used to have 15.. 
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Feeding Time
The Minnows are surface feeders and will ignore food that has fallen to the bottom of the tank (the Plecos get that). I use a feeding ring, which floats on the surface of the water to lure the fish to one spot, it sometimes results in a mini feeding-frenzy if they're hungry.
The Plecos get slices of Cucumber, Courgette and compressed Spirulina tablets. They will munch on the tank algae if hungry too, and take any food that escapes the minnows and falls to the bottom.
I've been feeding them live food occasionally, so that the minnows can do their 'mighty hunter' routine. They are very fast when they need to be, and they like bloodworms, which are a sort of midge larvae (the name comes because they are red, not because they live on blood ok!). I use a feeder for this, a small 'sieve' that floats in the tank and allows the worms to wriggle out one by one. I recently observed one of the Plecos attach himself to this and start sucking the worms out through the holes 
, what a pig.
Tank
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My tank is a hexagonal affair, with a capacity of 45 liters (10 Gallons) or so. It's quite tall, which can be a problem (especially if you keep surface preferring fish in it, like I do). But it gives a lot of room for the minnows, and I like the design; it encourages you to look at it from different angles. |
In the tank I have quite a few plants, which are rooted in a layer of fertile soil underneath the gravel. I light it with a special fluorescent bulb for fishtanks, this shows off fish colours and helps the plants.
Bits and Bobs
I have an external cannister filter, probably a bit of overkill for this tank, but it keeps the water prefectly clear, and has carbon and biological filtration too. It's a box that lives under the tank, connected by tubes which seal at the filter end when disconnected, so you can change and clean the filter medium very easily without disturbing the tank.
The filter unit has quite a powerful pump in it, which causes quite a high current to form in the tank. This is good from the water quality perspective, the plants like having some waterflow over their leaves and tendrils, and the minnows like it, they are stream living fish originally, and there are 'dead spots' where they can get away from the flow if necessary. In addition, I keep the outlet well below the water surface, which reduces surface turbulence. The fish like to 'play' in the fast flow coming out of the outlet pipe, taking turns to swim fast against the stream.
I also have a simple air pump and a big airstone, this creates a complete curtain of bubbles when it is on, and causes a lot of surface agitation. Because the bubbles rise a long way in my tank they actually cause a really noticeable secondary water current.
You may wonder why I wan to reduce surface movement with the filter, but increase it with the airstone. The trick is that I only run the air system at night. During the day the plants will be releasing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide, during the night this process reverses.
The airstone and lighting are controlled with simple timer switches, lights on during second half of the day to supplement the sun, and the air comes on overnight. The filter is also on a timer, which goes off for a few hours in the very early morning, giving the tank lots of variation, and the fish a bit of peace at dawn.
Plans
I'm pretty happy with the setup, with small fish I can have a lot of fish in the tank, the plants are growing well (too well?) and all is hunky-dory for the moment, but I'll need a bigger tank once the Plecos start reaching maturity.
New Plan:
- Get a bigger tank.
- Transfer everything to that and get it established.
- Clean old tank, put a double partition across it.
- This creates a rear chamber, and a (slightly smaller) front one.
New server (Calvin) in the rear chamber, filled with Mineral oil.
- Whole thing (Motherboard, PSU and HDD submerged in oil).
- Small (12v, 800x600) oil submerged LCD display visible from front of tank, and a wireless Keyboard+Mouse.
- Wires etc. hidden by plastic plants, airstone in the oil.
- Some lighting built in, cold-cathode, but externally controlled!
- DVD drive and Webcam external.
- New Fish in the front tank.
I think this should be a Betta!
- The screen can display pictures of other Bettas (good for the fish).
- Front will also have lights and a filter system.
Old Plan: The basic plan is to build a 'shelf' in the tank, which has the substrate and plants contained in a nice deep (8cm) layer, and has 10cm or so of space underneath. This will go across the back half of the tank, leaving the full tank height at the front. The main tank bottom will just be a small (2cm) layer of gravel with some bog wood and maybe a stone or two on it, and I will arrange wood and possibly some bits of pipe etc. underneath the garden to provide the hidey-holes the plecs will need. The existing tank background will make this quite a dark corner, even when the tank is fully lit.
The plant shelf will be free-standing in the tank, and there will be a cut-through for the filter outflow, air will still go to a big stone in the main tank body. I'll use commercial tank decorating plastic, which is available in nice textured forms, and I hope the plants will also benefit from being closer to the surface of the water, and hence the light. I may well add some Java moss to the main tank since it always looks good when grown on bog wood.
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