A Blank Canvas!

[timmystood]

OK, my life-long fish-keeping dream is to have 13 tanks, all the same size and all next to each in a line that follow the journey of a river, with approriate fish and vegetation in them; the tanks would include (in order):
- A Mountain Stream
- A Central American Stream
- A Central American River
- An Australian River
- A European River
- A Flooded Forest
- An Amazon Acid Pool
- A Southeast Asian Swamp
- Lake Malawi
- A Darkened Cave
- A Brackish Esturay
- A Mangrove Swamp
- A Coral Tank

All next to each other, in identical tanks, I believe this would look fantastic!!

Anyways, this is a dream and won't happen until i'm much older and more wealthy!! However, I am getting a 150UK Gallon tank on Sunday and would like to begin my 'life of a river' centre piece. Out of the above ideas there are only a few I fancy undertaking at the moment and would appreicate knowing which you think I should undertake now... thanks!

A Central American Stream
Substrate - Gravel
Decor - Bogwood and some larger stones
Vegetation - Heavily Planted with Java Moss, Vallis etc.
Fish - Pictus Catfish, Guppies, Minnows, Swordtails etc.

A Flooded Forest
Substrate - Sand and Smaller Gravel Patches
Decor - Bark
Vegetation - Heavily Planted with Echinodorus (sp?) etc. and floating plants like Pistia Stratiotes (sp?)
Fish - Rummy-Nose Tetras, Black-Widow Tetras, Farlowella Catfish etc.

A South-East Asian Swamp
Substrate - Silver Sand
Decor - Bamboo Canes and some Large Rocks
Vegetation - Heavily Planted with Lobelia Cardinalis etc.
Fish - Simease Fighter Fish, Pearl Gourami's, Harlequin Rasbora's etc.

Lake Malawi
Substrate - Dense Silver Sand
Decor - Rocks, Rocks, Rocks!
Vegetation - This is a lake malawi tank, so no vegetation!
Fish - Dolphin Cichlid etc.

These four all take my fancy at the moment but I wandered what you would go for if you had the chance!

Cheers Guys B)

 

[Ginge]

On a 150g i would go with lake malawi just becasue of the fact that it is a 150g and the malawis you could keep would be fantastic also imagine trying to keep a heavily planted 150g or a 150g with small fish.

In the tank it would be easy maintanance and look amazing.
What do you think?

 

[Chri$]

I voted Lake Malawi pretty much for the same reasons as Ginge, would look amazing.

 

[Paradise_Gourami]

Definatly an asian swamp, i love these heavily planted tanks plus these fish are my favorite
you should get one of the giant species of gourami in there, that would be awsome

 

[samyboy]

i voted for the flooded forrest you could have a small tree stump in then then no end of tiny schooling fish

 

[timmystood]

On a 150g i would go with lake malawi just becasue of the fact that it is a 150g and the malawis you could keep would be fantastic also imagine trying to keep a heavily planted 150g or a 150g with small fish.

In the tank it would be easy maintanance and look amazing.
What do you think?

Yeah, I see where your coming from Ginge and it makes sense. Really I would love to do all 4 at the moment, but obviously can't! So I'm just seeing what everyone else would choose!

 

[dasmall1]

I voted SE Asian swamp b/c I'm making one in the next 2 months!

 

[discus dreamer]

Definitely the flooded forest
it sounds just great.
btw I have just had to seperate my betta from my pearl gouramis as he was getting quite violent with them, could be an individual rather than a general problem, but I would say you can't mix them.
DD

 

[Ginge]

Just another thought maybee a massive reef???

 

[Anthony!]

I voted SE because harlequins with female bettas look incredible.

 

[geo7x]

South East Asian swamp for me, nice balance with rocks and plants, and with bettas, harlequins and pearl gouramis it would be great!

 

[blue acara]

ive got the same sort of 'problem' as you - deciding what to do with a large tank. a nice planted tank looks great as does a rocky african setup, planted may be expensive-lights and electrick bill, substream, so i voted malawi all ure ideas are good though, se asian sounds nice as well

 

[timmystood]

Well, I've finally got it set-up! I'll take some pictures when my mum gets home from Kenya with the camera tommorrow! It looks really cool and I managed to keep the bacteria alive, meaning I can stock straight away!! It'll be a flooded forest scheme as this won the voting (as of 31st July) so will have lots massive shoals of tetras with some centre-piece fish... just like you would find in a flooded forest!!

Thanks for voting everyone.. this tank will look really cool!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds really cool, get some pics up asap

 

[AMS]

If I were you I would do the Central American stream and do red belly piranhas. Although they come come rivers not streams but close enough