Fish Tank At Work...

[@ombomb]

We have our manager's meeting every Monday morning and today we were asked for suggests to improve the office environment. I jumped straight in with a fish tank and I think they are going to go with the idea!

Fingers crossed I'll be able to squeeze a budget in the the region of £500 - £600 out of them and can look at a 4' tank. I'm leaning toward FW over SW as the tank will be left over weekends and it'll be easier to show someone else the ropes of tank maintenance.

Suggestions please!!!

 

[catxx]

cichlid tank? moderny and architectural rocks and stuff, expensive though, but it'll look impressive!

 

[chrismr]

Hell if they asked me at work what improvements I would make, it would be to replace management...

 

[@ombomb]

Hell if they asked me at work what improvements I would make, it would be to replace management...

but...

I am management.

Having said that, I'd love to replace the staff

 

[chrismr]

Having said that, I'd love to replace the staff

I am sure management here would say the same

Anyway, nice idea on the fish tank.

I would not go with a cichlid community though, but rather a mixed community as people have all different likes and the cichlid tank would only appeal to a few. Well, in my opinion anyway...

 

[karlp]

I would go with the KISS principle. If you're going to have to maintain it, what do you have most experience with ? I certainly wouldn't want to try to set up my first cichlid, marine, planted or discus tank at work. They all take a lot of work until you get it right and will you have the time ?

Having said that if you've already got lots of experience with cichlids or any of the above then go for it, because it can make a great display and you'll already have cut your teeth on these.

Otherwise it's got to be a peaceful community tank with a few plants or a tank with a single character fish (e.g, an oscar).

 

[@ombomb]

That's what I've been thinking really.

My main tank at home is a heavily planted FW community, so I think it makes sense to do the same at work (assuming I get given the money to play with obviously).

Some fairly low maintenance plants and a few angels / pearl gourmais as centre piece fish, some shoaling fish, paradise threadfins / some sort of rasbora and a plec or two should fit the bill (maybe I could finally rehome a couple of emporer tetra that I could live without... ). Nothing too aggresive, nothing that needs out of the ordinary conditions and still a good display.

 

[ryan422]

I Keep Piranhas at my Work Place,

Ryan

 

[PlecMama]

Make them buy rays, tell them the office just wont cope without some, then you get to play with them too

 

[BettaUK]

I would definatly go with with a Planted tropical freshwater aquarium, nice mixture of species

Some thing like this :

Red Rainbow (Glossolepis incisus) & Cardinal Tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi) Would be part of my selection, both species are bright and colourful and get on well with most species.

This aquarium was very cheap.. If you buy second hand, your £500+ will go a long, long way LOL


Lawrence

 

[Ethos]

I wouldn't say cichlids because too many people have cichlid tanks, or atleast they do around here(the toyota dealership has a huge 500gal mixed cichlid tank, its huge!).
I agree on they planted idea.
Losts of tetras, bosmonian rainbows, ect.
Calming fish that can be both active and calm.

 

[akudewan]

If I were you, I'd go for a planted freshwater community tank, with mostly tetras, and a couple of big gouramis

 

[jkrekord]

i to would go with a big planted fw community
cardinal tetras would stand out among the plants rehome your emporer tetras to the work tank one or two plecs at the bottom would be cool a flying fox and a few pearl gouramis would be cool for work

 

[CFC]

I wouldnt really recomend a planted tank, to achieve good results plants require ongoing expenditure to replace lights, CO2 canisters, fertilisers and substrates as they become used up and the company boss may not be pleased to recieve an invoice for these items on a monthly basis.
A simple low maintainance set up with a few recognisable and hardy fish would be the way i'd go, angel fish never fail to impress non fish keepers as well as being extreemly tough and no can resist a shoal of Corydoras rooting about or the quick glimpse of a bristlenose plec as it darts out from its hiding place. All these fish can be fed on dry foods which are easily stored and require nothing more than a weekly water change and a quick substrate vacume once a month to remain healthy.

 

[Ami]

I agree with CFC. A planted tank would be cool but the rest of the management team might go off the idea totally once they knew how much work and ongoing costs would be involved.

Plus it gets quite complicated and you need something simple and easy to explain to people.

You could have minimal planting with vallis and java moss, decorating some slate for example in Jimboo fashion, I suppose. Little maintenance is really required except for the odd trimming or fertilizer and they can cope with lower levels of light, making it less likely that you'd develop an algae problem.

Check out the planted tank section for more (and probably better!) suggestions.

Some gorgeous wood, minimal planting, a couple of showfish, a shoal of something coloured and small catfish and you'd have a gorgeous tank. I'd go for some sort of gourami rather than angels though, but only cos I'd want neons in it cos they're colourful, interesting and beautiful when shoaling.


You must let us see pics when it's done - maybe we can all persuade management to get a tank?!

Ami