"Sticks" tank

[Beastije]

This tank doesnt photograph well, but I will make a journal for it.
I set it up last July 2024 and the idea was to try something new. No aquatic plants, no light, no heater, jus ta bunch of sticks and stones. Initially I made it with corydoras in mind, but it turns out, I cant keep them alive. Over the past 4 years I have had and lost all the corydoras I have ever had. Right now, out of my six remaining tanks, I have few remaining pygmy corydoras in one of them, though they are shy, and I am never trying any cories again. I think I might underfeed or the other fish eat all the food, or I really dont know. Does not matter, I am not trying them again and I have no more of them.
Therefore this tank changed inhabitants and now is on the final setup, I hope, at least for some time.

80 cm x 35 cm x 35 cm which makes it 70 liters or so. Willow branches, stones, leaf litter and three house plants, peace lily, sinongium and philodendron

I moved my 4 year old adult tylomelania snail with damaged shell here after I sold the other 3 adults and 25 babies, and suddenly, there along the 3 babies that I didn notice in previous tank and moved here, now there are like 10 more babies. In 22°C and soft water! how....
Two three year old bamboo shrimp, 3 remaining 4 year old ember tetras (that I dont like, boooring fish) and I accidentally moved some shrimp here with the tank sponge I had running in another tank last year, and now there are like 30 of them. How, there are no hiding places???

The final inhabitant list is:
7 mango (rosy) loaches Physoschistura mango
16 norman lampeye killifish

This makes the embers the largest fish in the tank btw the since the lampeyes are still too small and the mango loaches are absolutely adorable, entertaining, zooming all over, super active AND colored up nicely, at least the males.
I have quarantined the lampeyes in another tank for the past month, the seller sold me mostly fry to be honest, so I was feeding them up with daily bbs or microworm meals, and they are eating nicely, no issues with dry food, illness or anything, so they went here. The mangos were super interested in them when I acclimated them and will swim amongst them or any other fish .I used to have a group of wcmm which were two times the size of the mango loaches, they were never shy, always in the middle of the school, eating from the middle of the tank

All the fish are too fast to properly photograph and with the tank having no light and no background it makes it a tank just for my pleasure, as I enjoy watching it, but it doesnt translate to the internet. In the summer there will be a time in the day when the sun will hit the tank for a little while. That is why there are some nerite snails there too (my oldest, 6 year old, size of a golf ball )

the red fish in the last picture is a mango loach, not an ember tetra

 

[Beastije]

Looking at the pictures I am right now going to take the green suction cup out. It was supposed to hold the philodendron but it no longer does and it is an eye sore

 

[Beastije]

Seriously I am so sad, I spent like 30 minutes tyring to take a decent picture of the mango loaches, but NOPE. They move too much
So here are some blurs. Same with the norman lapeyes....
The tank is still so much fun

 

[jaylach]

This tank doesnt photograph well, but I will make a journal for it.
I set it up last July 2024 and the idea was to try something new. No aquatic plants, no light, no heater, jus ta bunch of sticks and stones. Initially I made it with corydoras in mind, but it turns out, I cant keep them alive. Over the past 4 years I have had and lost all the corydoras I have ever had. Right now, out of my six remaining tanks, I have few remaining pygmy corydoras in one of them, though they are shy, and I am never trying any cories again. I think I might underfeed or the other fish eat all the food, or I really dont know. Does not matter, I am not trying them again and I have no more of them.
Therefore this tank changed inhabitants and now is on the final setup, I hope, at least for some time.

80 cm x 35 cm x 35 cm which makes it 70 liters or so. Willow branches, stones, leaf litter and three house plants, peace lily, sinongium and philodendron

I moved my 4 year old adult tylomelania snail with damaged shell here after I sold the other 3 adults and 25 babies, and suddenly, there along the 3 babies that I didn notice in previous tank and moved here, now there are like 10 more babies. In 22°C and soft water! how....
Two three year old bamboo shrimp, 3 remaining 4 year old ember tetras (that I dont like, boooring fish) and I accidentally moved some shrimp here with the tank sponge I had running in another tank last year, and now there are like 30 of them. How, there are no hiding places???

The final inhabitant list is:
7 mango (rosy) loaches Physoschistura mango
16 norman lampeye killifish

This makes the embers the largest fish in the tank btw the since the lampeyes are still too small and the mango loaches are absolutely adorable, entertaining, zooming all over, super active AND colored up nicely, at least the males.
I have quarantined the lampeyes in another tank for the past month, the seller sold me mostly fry to be honest, so I was feeding them up with daily bbs or microworm meals, and they are eating nicely, no issues with dry food, illness or anything, so they went here. The mangos were super interested in them when I acclimated them and will swim amongst them or any other fish .I used to have a group of wcmm which were two times the size of the mango loaches, they were never shy, always in the middle of the school, eating from the middle of the tank

All the fish are too fast to properly photograph and with the tank having no light and no background it makes it a tank just for my pleasure, as I enjoy watching it, but it doesnt translate to the internet. In the summer there will be a time in the day when the sun will hit the tank for a little while. That is why there are some nerite snails there too (my oldest, 6 year old, size of a golf ball )

View attachment 365719
View attachment 365718View attachment 365720View attachment 365721 the red fish in the last picture is a mango loach, not an ember tetra

LOL! Looking at the first image in the initial post I don't see a green suction cup.

Am I just weirder today than normal or does anyone else see a green humming bird? Could be the first home aquarium with a flying fish... @Beastije I hope that you don't mind that I copied and cropped your image... Ya, I know it IS a suction cup but sometimes angle and perspective can make an image look like something totally different than what is reality. Since I prefer to create my own personal reality it is a swimming humming bird.

 

[Back in the fold]

I like the looks of that aquarium . The sticks are an aquascape I might try . The fish are a perfect match to it in my opinion .

 

[GaryE]

You may find the norman's really nice in there, depending on how the ambient light reflects on their eyes.

I like the tank idea a lot. Poropanchax normani only live a couple of years, and the loaches will eat their eggs. That's kind of limiting, as otherwise, they'd keep going with new ones growing up, but not overpopulate.

It's a very natural set up. Most aquatic environments don't have plants in them, but plants with roots in them, as you've created. Just beware of one thing I've learned with about ten years of good plant growth with roots in the tanks and plants on top. It isn't a substitute for water changes. Even in my lightly stocked tanks, I need to stay aware of my water quality and do 20-25% 7-10 day changes at least. In my other tanks without terrestrial plants, I do 30% minimum. I have tanks with peace lilies so large I couldn't encircle them with my long arms, but I still need to manage the water. You don't see ammonia reactions with those tanks as much as you see bacterial illnesses, if you neglect them.

Normani are strangely sensitive fish with their water quality.

 

[Beastije]

You may find the norman's really nice in there, depending on how the ambient light reflects on their eyes.

I like the tank idea a lot. Poropanchax normani only live a couple of years, and the loaches will eat their eggs. That's kind of limiting, as otherwise, they'd keep going with new ones growing up, but not overpopulate.

It's a very natural set up. Most aquatic environments don't have plants in them, but plants with roots in them, as you've created. Just beware of one thing I've learned with about ten years of good plant growth with roots in the tanks and plants on top. It isn't a substitute for water changes. Even in my lightly stocked tanks, I need to stay aware of my water quality and do 20-25% 7-10 day changes at least. In my other tanks without terrestrial plants, I do 30% minimum. I have tanks with peace lilies so large I couldn't encircle them with my long arms, but I still need to manage the water. You don't see ammonia reactions with those tanks as much as you see bacterial illnesses, if you neglect them.

Normani are strangely sensitive fish with their water quality.

Thank you for the experience. I still do water changes, mainly because I feed too much bbs and microworms, as those are hard to manage. I am trying to find a balance between sucking up the leaf litter and cleaning the bottom and not doing that to have some mulm. But I would not avoid water changes in any of my tanks, as I would be too scared

 

[Beastije]

The roots explosion is making it hard to clean, I had to clean the sponge and had to take out half the plants

 

[Beastije]

Is it a time for a trim?

also few pictures of blurs. no matter how long try to take a picture, all I get is a blur

 

[Beastije]

I had to cut some of the roots, it was a too big of a jungle to swim through.
I also caught out a male and female mango loach and moved them to a 25l tank for a breeding attempt. they are absolute darlings, swimming into the scooping mechanism. Less than a minute for two fish