Fourth Fish

I decided to add some midwater action to the tank with four Firemouth Cichlids (Cichlasoma" Thorichthys meeki )


These guys really seem to have added a bit of life to the tank. The fight a little bit but not much. For some reason they have stimulated my tiretrack eel to come out and show itself which is a massive bonus.

I think i will not add any other fish other then my Brown Ghost Knife fish - I now just need to sourse them... :-S

Contact me if you know of any in the South East of the UK.

-- David

Third Fish

Just got my third fish a lovely little Bristle Nose Catfish

Its still pretty small ~6cm, its not exactly a oddball but it is a little different and it does a great job of clearing up any algae or tit bits of food left by the other fish.

Next will be either some other rainbows or my Brown Ghost Knights!!!

-- Eddy

Second Fish

Saturday came and it was time to trundle down to Farnham Maidenhead Aquatics and look for some tank mates for my spotted perch and tire track eel.

After having (as i usually do) a chat with one of the assistents I was advised to look at Rainbow's to add a little bit of excitment to my midwater and draw out the other fish in my tank.

I decided that i would get 6 fish, as a personal rule this is the maximum i would introduce at once.

3x NAME TO BE ADDED SOON
3x NAME TO BE ADDED SOON

Alas within 23hrs one has gone (or is keeping very quite somewhere). I have some concerns that either the eel or perch have had it but there was one which isolated itself as soon as it entred the tank so i guess it must have been on its way out. I have checked my aquarium water chemistry since and will make daily checks for the next few days just to make sure i dont have an issues.

-- David

Water Chemisty

My water chemisty info is now being published thanks to google docs

Take a look here

Current Aquascape

Aquascape Evolution

So here is my (slightly modified) current view of my tank:

11/03/07

I spent a few hours rebuilding it this weekend and i think the new look is better. This did involve removing all my fish (to a bucket) which was a pain in the a$$ but i rewarded them with some live food and they forgave me :-)

Future changes will be to add some more bogwood, plants and obviously fish!!!

Plant wise there is currently only Java Fern because i wanted to get it established early on the bogwood i have (top left corner).

-- David

Stocking

Using the Practical Fish Keeper - Density Stocked i got this stock guide::


System type
Tropical freshwater aquarium
Dimensions
100 x 40 x 45cm/39" x 16" x 18
Surface area
0.4 sqm/4.31 sq ft/ inches sq in
Volume
180 l./40 gal. (47.55 US gal.)
Probable volume
162 l./36 gal. (43 US gal.)
Stocking density
36"/91cm (built up gradually)
Maximum density
72"/183cm (theoretical maximum)

My goal is to include these species::

2x Brown Ghost Knife Fish - 20cm - (not yet bought)
1x Tire Track Eel - 90cm
1x Spotted Climbing Perch (Leopard Ctenopoma) - 15cm
6x Rainbow fish?? (not yet bought)
1x Catfish?? (not yet bought)

This gives me a current total of:: 120cm of adult fish

Althought this already excees the suggested density the tire track eel is only 15cm at the moment. Lets hope it never gets to be 90cm :-)

-- David

First Fish

Where the hell
do you start...?

On of my earliest post I outline what my key species would be, the beautiful Black or Brown Ghost Knife Fish. So my question to my local aquarium was what can i put into my new aquarium as a start up species?

This aspect is at the moment the hardest part of setting up my tank. There is always the problem that something you put in as a starter species might inevitably become food for a species later down the line. In fact I believe it might actually have been easier for me to start up if i had just put some "bait" in my tank but i didn't.

Instead i decided to take some advice and got two different species both of which i was assured would be hearty enough to cope with the changing environment. I got:

• 1 x Tire Track Eel (£5)
  
• 2x Spotted Climbing Perch (Leopard Ctenopoma) (£9 each)
  

This wasn't a cheap start up group of fish so i did wait nearly 3 weeks to make sure the water chemistry was correct and have been checking every few days since i introduced the fish. So far so good.

Question now is.... whats my second fish?

-- David