🐠 TOTM VOTE NOW: March 2026 Tank of the Month Contest (16 US gallons and smaller)

[connorlindeman]

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Please Vote Now
We have 8 great tanks entered in Fishforums' March 2026 Tank of the Month contest featuring tanks sized at 16 US gallons or smaller! View both the tanks and descriptions below and then go to poll at the top of this thread, click on your choice for TOTM, and then click the "Cast" button.

Please DO NOT post any comments about any specific entry in this thread...such posts will promptly be deleted. You are not allowed to update your entry picture or video once voting has started.

Please Note:
Any attempt to influence competition results, other than by casting your allocated vote, is not permitted and may result in your entry being removed and / or further action being taken. You are not allowed to have friends or family join TFF for the main purpose of voting for you. This is a public poll so source of votes can be viewed.

Winner will be awarded a neat "Tank of the Month Winner" banner in their profile area and will be featured in a "TOTM Winner" thread for all to see and to comment on. Winner will also be added to our TOTM WALL OF FAME

You are allowed to change your vote if you wish.
This poll will end on March 17 at 4:30 P.M (ET).

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

5g shrimp tank:
It has some rock that I found in a creek on my road, an anubias plant, and a lily bulb plant. WIll fill in the tank soon with a bunch of plants but that is it for now. Have black sand, and 8 ghost shrimp. Soon I will be getting a female betta, wish me luck with its aggressiveness and its reaction to the shrimp. It has been set up a year now. Very seasoned and established though, used some media from another tank to seed it. I do 50% wcs every week and dose GLA PPS pro method ferts. Macros and micros. It has a HOB filter. 25 nitrates, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 7.6 ph. Very stable parameters.

Hope to bring this tank to its full potential, probably will not win this month but that is ok because I really enjoy seeing everyone elses and entering anyways! Love these TOTMs!!

 

[Munroco]

Been a while since I entered one of these competitions. For 2 or 3 years I've just been doing the bare minimum on my tanks but I seem to have regained my enthusiasm again.

This picture is an "end on" pic of one of six tanks in a rack. I had to put them in length-ways so I could fit them all on the shelf. It's a 24*12*15 cheap all glass tank. This is the only tank in the rack still containing shrimp (There are actually quite a lot in here but not easy to see them on the pic), the rest of the tanks have been converted back for raising fry.

There are a variety of cherry shrimp in here, mostly reverted to brown now but a few interesting variations pop up occasionally. The plants are mainly Anubius (nana, Nana petit, and barteri), and var buces. The foreground plant is either dwarf sagittaria or pygmy chain swords, can't remember which. Also in the tank, pogostomen stellatus, some subwassertang and java moss. The big plant in the centre is (I think) crinum calamistratum but its been so long since I got it.

This tank has probably been going (in it's present form) for about 5 years. Lighting is an old Jewel 4ft Led from one of my bigger tanks, lights on for about 12 hours. No CO2, No ferts. Very few water changes on this one, mostly I just top it up using a drip feed. All six tanks have sponge filters which are run from a large air pump. The substrate is some sort of specialist shrimp substrate.

The shrimps get a variety of food, but basically the same as the fish. Usually once a day but as I am feeding fry more regularly sometimes they get lucky.

If it's of interest to anyone I've included a pic of the rack the tank is on.

 

[MuddyWaters]

PLEASE WATCH ENTRY VIDEO:

This is my 3 gallon tank with chili rasboras and Caridina Crystal Red shrimp. It's about 2 years old. I use tap water & Prime. The water here is very soft so the shrimp thrive. I've actually got them breeding now.

It's a Lifegard setup I bought at Aquashella. I added a piece of cholla wood, a couple of Anubias nana and a banana plant.

I change water once per week. I feed the fish a little pinch of Hikari micro pellets once per day. I crush them some between my thumb & index finger because the fish are so small LOL.

I feed the shrimp a little dose of Bacter AE when I change the water and some Growth Envy pellets from Shrimp Envy a couple or 3 times a week.

I LOVE this tank. It keeps me sane while working.

 

[Back in the fold]

Here it is yet again . My ten gallon that is next to a north facing window . The Amazon Swordplant has been with me since July 2021 . It doesn’t really thrive but it stays alive with room light only , no supplemental light at all . This is an old established aquarium as evidenced by the hair algae growing on the sponge filter . There is a trio of Fundulopanchax gardneri ( aquarium strain ) in here along with a colony of some very small snails that came from somewhere . The snails never get larger than a BB . This is only one of two of my nine aquariums with substrate with this one having a beautiful array of colors selected as if from an artists palette . Notice also the nice piece of quartz with a fine covering of algae and the crystal marble . Exquisite eh ? The yarn mops facilitate breeding the fish . Water is a proprietary blend of tap and R/O water kept at a cool 75 degrees Fahrenheit . This aquarium has had many and various inhabitants over the past five years and this is its latest iteration . Who knows what will be next . Also , there should still be some gammarus freshwater shrimp in here but I haven’t seen them in a long time . Pretty sure the Killifish hunted them to extinction but , who knows , they burrow into the gravel so it is possible that some may yet live .

 

[Ophy]

This is my 10 gallon tank, which is also my first tank. After weeks of reading and research, I started setting it up in November 2025 so it is about 5 months old.

For substrate, I got a bag of some black gravel bioactive something or other and added some rover rocks and pebbles on top.
Decor is 2 pieces of wood, 1 ceramic floating betta hide, a few cavatappa leaves, an oak leaf, and lots of live plants. Unfortunately I do not remember the names of the plants (sorry!) except for a few pothos I have on the rim. No ferts have been used.
Lighting is just a couple cheapo LED grow lights I had laying around, and the tank is in a shaded but south-facing window.
The current inhabitants are 9 neon tetras, 2 striped nerite snails, 2 yellow neocaridina shrimp, 9 crystal red caridina shrimp, and 6 blue dream neocaridina shrimp.

Feeding is generally once daily. I use a combination of algae discs, bug bite granules, fish flakes, and shrimp pellets.

My levels are ph 6.8-7.2, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0. I do a 20%-30% water change every week or so. I always condition my tap water and temp match it as best I can, and add a little bit of beneficial bacteria as well. If I remember/have time I try to fill my bucket with tap a few days before the change to let stuff evaporate and get to room temp first.
For filtration I have a tetra whisper 10iq hob and a sponge filter for ~20gal. In the hob I have a section of coarse aquarium sponge, followed by 2 layers of aquarium floss, and a bag of fluval ceramic ring biomedia.

 

[Ed Pursell]

Ok, here’s my 10 gallon, running three years:
Aqua Clear hob filter

Black gravel
Live plants, Java moss, Java fern, anubius

Fish:
3 Albino barbs
1Tiger barb
1 Blue platy
2 hiding Pepper corys

Been doing good for three years, weekly water changes, filter floss when needed..
Been in this hobby since the late 70’s
Ed

 

[BanjoFish]

Superfish Start 70 tank.

After a false start in October 2025 there was a pause due to illness and christmas ( no fish ).

Water parameters are a nightmare.

Ammonia 0.2
PH 6.5
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
GH 12
KH 3

2 Honey Gouramis ( male and female)
13 Ember Tetras
12 Pygmy Corydoras
Shrimp and nerite snails

This is my first time owning a fishtank.

 

[Innesfan]

This is my Pemco 15 gallon S/S framed tank that has been in continuous use since 1971. Knock wood, it has never leaked. It sits at the head of my desk and receives more sunlight than any of my tanks. As such it is algae heaven and hence, livebearer heaven. Currently occupied by a growing shoal of the diminutive livebearer, Phalloceros caudimaculatus, aka "The Caudo' who pretty much spend the day feasting on the algae. I let it bloom everywhere but the front glass. The plants are three Echinodus that have been there...forever, and a few clumps of Java Fern.

 

[gwand]

View attachment 378211This is my Pemco 15 gallon S/S framed tank that has been in continuous use since 1971. Knock wood, it has never leaked. It sits at the head of my desk and receives more sunlight than any of my tanks. As such it is algae heaven and hence, livebearer heaven. Currently occupied by a growing shoal of the diminutive livebearer, Phalloceros caudimaculatus, aka "The Caudo' who pretty much spend the day feasting on the algae. I let it bloom everywhere but the front glass. The plants are three Echinodus that have been there...forever, and a few clumps of Java Fern.

Reticulatus variety?

 

[connorlindeman]

Please scroll up as you review the eight awesome entries, and then in the poll at the top of this thread, click on your choice for Tank of the Month. Be sure to click the CAST button to register your vote. Good luck to all our entrants.

 

[Innesfan]

Reticulatus variety?

Yup. You can see a well-spotted male to the right in my verification photo. The spotted form is one in a thousand in the wild.