Saturday 27 September 2008

My Tropical Fish Aquarium - Part IV

Just to give you the "big" picture... Fear not! I know I'm overstocked, and I know that received wisdom says that one shouldn't keep cories in an 8g tank. All things being equal, I'll be getting myself a 20g, at some point in the not too distant future.

In the meantime, this is what I'm working with. I'm going to plant my plants properly, the next time I do a water change (they're currently still in their pots). I want my Brazilian Microsword to grow into a carpet, and it's not going to do that, if I keep disturbing it with a deep gravel clean.

I've been trying to get some decent pictures of my cories, but they're challenging my skills (ie, lack of patience), as a wildlife photographer. Actually, they're not "challenging" them, at all - that would suggest a contest of equals!

Matt

17 comments:

susan said...

I like your tank.

Now we have to start a fund for a live web cam!

Radagast said...

LOL. I'll have to charge an access fee, I think - who knows what therapeutic benefit people will derive from watching my fish for an hour, or so!

Mind you, in the style of GSK, I could just cobble together some improbable figures, claim that it demonstrates efficacy, and create a multi-billion industry, out of nothing!

Matt

Ana said...

Gosh Matt! You've touched me with "Brazilian Microsword".
It was a hard process to some of us to be proud of our flag.
The "green and yellow" are still colors we avoid putting together (really not good taste but we don't need to feel ashamed)
Back in the eighties I was part of a group that was collecting data from athletes and two of our rowers had to be on psychological care to get help because of nationality issues.
They won!
Yes! It's therapeutic watching fishes.
Thank you for showing me a piece of this country that we're learning to love.
Yours,
Ana

susan said...

Yes, Matt, but unlike GSK, your fish make people happy with no side effects, other than maybe eye strain if you stare at them too long.

Tell GSK it's made me happy and smiling, and the cat-= well , she is drooling thinking of sushi.

And me, I have made this picture my wallpaper. It's a happy picture. Thank you Matt!

Radagast said...

What's the significance of green and yellow?

Anyway, Brazil, and South America in general, gives a great deal to the aquarium trade - cories and the neons are indigenous to that continent, for a start. LOL - I've got around a cubic foot of Brazil in my study!

Matt

susan said...

Ana, Matt, Green and Yellow were my High School colors! The Cougars!

soulful sepulcher said...

I love the photos of the fish tank Matt, it turned out really beautiful.

Ana said...

Green= our forests
Yellow= gold
and the other color of our flag:
blue= sky

I had to make a search o the "white" significance and I've just found out that the first republican flag we had for 4 days is a copy of the American Flag.
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagem:Flag_of_Brazil_15-19_November.svg
Now I'm learning that "Order and Progress" written on the flag is a homage to August Comte. :o)

Ok Matt! I understood the tip. You want me to send you some samples.
I'll try to connect people in Amazonia ok?
I'll send you the most exotic.

Susan,
I saw a movie about two schools trying to win a cheerleaders contest and one of the schools had yellow and green as their colors.

Radagast said...

susan: unlike GSK, I'll respond if somebody complains to me about my conduct!

stephany: It turned out quite nicely, didn't it? There's a limit to what I can do, given the amount of space that I have (ie, no driftwood, and no plant that's capable of growing over 12-15").

You should see some of the stuff that people do - see my "links to related stuff," or whatever it's called. There's a link to "Project Aquarium". Jesus, what that guy's done is beyond art!

Ana: I'd be delighted to spend two or three months in the Amazon basin, sourcing potential specimens, and then leaving them exactly where they are! If you can arrange that, I'd be delighted! In truth, I feel somewhat guilty - most neons, for example, are wild caught (because they're not easy to breed in captivity)...

Matt

Radagast said...

Ana: I get the rather contentious nature of the relationship between gold and wood, now.

Matt

Radagast said...

Stephany: I think I'm going to plant the microsword, so that it carpets the back RH corner, underneath the filter, and then plant something a little taller in the near RH corner (maybe another Creeping Jenny, like the one in the middle of the tank), to frame the "free water". Then I think that'll be it!

Matt

Ana said...

Ok Matt. I'll start to work on your journey to Amazon.
Now it's your turn to work on my journey to UK.
I have to see all that amazing hues of green I saw when I traveled from Dove to London.
And I have to see many things in London too.
Don't feel guilty! They are destroying it all for money!

soulful sepulcher said...

Matt, yes it turned out awesome! I like the RH corner idea, and love the creeping Jenny addition. That grows in water? I had that in my planter outside! (it blooms in June, so I planted it in honor of one of my daughters! (Jenny)

I do think the aquarium IS a form of art, I never thought about it like that before now.

Radagast said...

Ana: the green of our countryside is consequent to the rain, and we're very proud of our crappy summers!

Stephany: I think it's a different variety, but definitely very closely related. My local store didn't have any more Creeping Jenny; so I bought a Cryptocoryne, planted that where the Creeping Jenny used to be, and put the Creeping Jenny in the near right corner.

It looks a bit scrappy, at the moment, but once the leaves have oriented themselves towards the light, I'll take another picture...

Matt

Ana said...

Matt,
I was talking seriously about the impression I had on your countryside.
Not only by the colors but also by the amazing shapes of the mountains.

Radagast said...

Ana: Well, I have to say, the UK is one of the most extraordinarily diverse places, in terms of habitat - moorland, woodland, mountains, marshland, etc, etc. It's got its broadleaf woodlands and, in Scotland, it's got its ancient pine forests.

I love Scotland. Yorshire, too. And the Lake District. Speaking of Scotland, there's currently a bit of lobbying go on for the reintroduction of wolves, brown bears and lynxes, which were all native to the British Isles, up to about, I dunno, five hundred years ago, when they were hunted to extinction.

Matt

Ana said...

How I wish I could go and see it all!
I love wolves! I hope this lobbying succeed.
This month I was walking on my street and saw a white dog and didn't know what was his race.
I've asked his owner and she reply "-It's not a dog. It's an albino lobe."
He was amazing!