Fish shipment, and tanks (lots of pics)

ladayen · 04-25-2012, 02:24 PM

I is excited lol

ladayen · 04-25-2012, 02:46 PM

Pic 1-3 is is just me opening the box.
Pic 4 is a bag of 11 gold tetras. ( only ordered 7 lol

)
Pic 5 is 2 peacock eels sold as Macrognathys Aculeatus
Pic 6 is 7 Sunshine Peacocks sold as Aulonocara Baenshi "Benga"(Only ordered 6)
Pic 7 is 3 flamebacks sold as Haplochromis sp. Flameback (only ordered 2)
Pic 8 is 13 striped loaches sold as Botia striata (only ordered 12)
Pics 9 and 10 are a Royal Farlowella and a Butterfly Pleco, sold as Sturisoma Aureum and L52 - Dekeyseria sp. respectively.
Pics 11 and 12 is 2 Anubias barteri v Round Leaf mother plants. (Upon opening there was a total of 6 individual plants)

Pic 13 is my 75g community tank still needing to be planted properly, everything is just floating at the top still.
Pics 14 and 15 are my 55g peacock tank.
Pic 16 is my 35g growout tank
Pic 17 is my 20g bristlenose tank.
Pic 18 is my 5g betta tank (I dont know what that black thing is lol.. it must be a reflection. There's supposed to be a ball of Java Moss there.)
Pic 19 is my 60g community tank
Pic 20 is my 20g Oto tank
Pic 21 is my 10g hospital tank.
Oops 22 was a misclick lol
Pic 23 is my 65g Hap/Peacock tank.
Pic 24 is my Mbuna tank

Whew lol.. so what do you guys think?

ladayen · 04-25-2012, 02:55 PM

Termato · 04-25-2012, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladayen

Talk about a gallery of tanks. Where do you find the space!

I think you can really go somewhere with that 80 gallon Mbuna tank. Personally I'd take the pots out and put more Driftwood or rocks in. I like that more natural look. More plants can go in that tank, it could really give it more dept if you take the tall plants and put them in the back and the short ones in the front. Also, maybe switch the backdrop to black to make those cichlids colors pop!! oh man that would look wonderful! I think mainly the background because you already have live plants so you have that natural beauty already. Colors pop more on black.

Good luck!

Sanguinefox · 04-25-2012, 03:41 PM

I'm going to be honest because honesty is what is needed right now. Please don't feel like this is a personal attack, this a constructive criticism so you can work on fixing the various problems with all your tanks.

The first thing I will target is the fact that you should have waiting on ordering those fish until after your tanks were all landscaped properly. Not that you can do much about it now...just know you created a lot of unnecessary stress for all your fish because you didn't have the tanks ready first. Next up you've several tanks with improper substrate colors. There is no beating around the bush here. Pet stores ought to stop supply brightly colored substrate. It pleases people...but it stressed out the fish. It's not natural. As you create an artificial closed environment it's your responsibility to try your best to recreate nature. Only then will you have happy and healthy fish. Each tank that has bright gravel needs to be changed. Swap it out with black, brown, tan...etc substrate.

Moving on you have several tanks that have a lot of unnecessary clutter. If you want to go with a pot route for making caves that's fine. Those pots are too big and cut down on swimming space available for your fish. You would be better off laying driftwood, larges pieces of slate, etc. At least that looks more natural. You have one tank second to bottom that looks like it has no floor space at all. Cut down on the clutter. Remove half the stuff and structure your bottom properly. Your biggest pieces go in the back, and leave swimming room towards the front by only allowing smaller pieces and even then don't make too excessive. If I were you I'd stay away from any ornament that is made to be a brightly colored eye sore commonly sold to please kids an no one else.

Now you have some tanks with plastic plants. I am hoping you will take all those plastics out and redistribute the live plants. Remember real plants grow. So it's okay if you have a little bit properly put together in each tank. Eventually things grow out. Divide up your plants so that you can plant just enough in each tank.

I don't know what to think about the one tank with the light bright blue gravel. There is weird trash on the bottom that needs to be pulled out of there. Each of your tanks look like they could do with a good scrub, and most of them have dirty looking tank water(course that could be a lighting issue). Also to note those fish that came in blue water should be warning sign. You should never have put that blue water into your tank. Do not put any new fish in any tank with the blue water. It's likely they were being treated for some form of illness before shipment.

You've got a lot of work to do with these tanks so please take my advice to heart. Replace your substrate where necessary, remove unnecessary clutter and reorganize what is left, replace those pots, divide your plants, scrub the tanks and work on improving the water quality(If that isn't just a lightening issue).

Jayy · 04-25-2012, 04:31 PM

Your water line is killing me!! Are you planning to change all your tanks to live plants?

ladayen · 04-25-2012, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sanguinefox

The first thing I will target is the fact that you should have waiting on ordering those fish until after your tanks were all landscaped properly.

That was the plan, we started prepping about a month ago but life happened. We felt comfortble that we and the fish would be fine at this point. If we waited longer some of the fish we wanted would not be available again until who knows when.

Next up you've several tanks with improper substrate colors. There is no beating around the bush here. Pet stores ought to stop supply brightly colored substrate.

Agree completly. Most of that gravel came with the tanks when we purchsed them. So it was a bit of a catch, replace the gravel and cause a mini cycle or leave it until alternate surfaces could be find to grow bacteria on it. We've been replacing the gravel over time.

Moving on you have several tanks that have a lot of unnecessary clutter. If you want to go with a pot route for making caves that's fine. Those pots are too big and cut down on swimming space available for your fish. You would be better off laying driftwood, larges pieces of slate, etc. At least that looks more natural. You have one tank second to bottom that looks like it has no floor space at all. Cut down on the clutter. Remove half the stuff and structure your bottom properly. Your biggest pieces go in the back, and leave swimming room towards the front by only allowing smaller pieces and even then don't make too excessive. If I were you I'd stay away from any ornament that is made to be a brightly colored eye sore commonly sold to please kids an no one else.

The tank second from bottom was designed to have lots of random stuff. It had smaller fish in it that appreciated the various hiding spots that bigger fish could not fit into. Everything in there is meant for the aquarium and is safe in that regard.I was thinking of the fish and not about how pretty it looked. As to brightly colored ornaments, I forgot I still had those 3 plants in the 80 galllon tank, I was going to through them out long ago but was setting up a tank at the time and used them as a bacteria base, and they just kept getting moved around. I'll throw them out later. The spongebob pineapple... meh it isn't that bright and fish seem to like it.I use driftwood when theres a benefit to it. Not all fish want driftwood. Slate can have sharp edges and it is possible for a fish to gut itself. I dont have the means to buff the edges or I would use some of the 30+lbs I have of it. I'm still experimenting with finding an affordable, fish friendly way to build caves. I just dont trust going out and gathering rocks from around here.

Now you have some tanks with plastic plants. I am hoping you will take all those plastics out and redistribute the live plants. Remember real plants grow. So it's okay if you have a little bit properly put together in each tank. Eventually things grow out. Divide up your plants so that you can plant just enough in each tank.

Again, not all fish do well with plants. Malawi cichlids dont really have plants in thier natural habitat and they tend to just rip them up and it makses a mess then it rots and causes ammonia. Aside from my hospital and cichlid tanks, they all do have plants.

I don't know what to think about the one tank with the light bright blue gravel. There is weird trash on the bottom that needs to be pulled out of there. Each of your tanks look like they could do with a good scrub, and most of them have dirty looking tank water(course that could be a lighting issue). Also to note those fish that came in blue water should be warning sign. You should never have put that blue water into your tank. Do not put any new fish in any tank with the blue water. It's likely they were being treated for some form of illness before shipment.

LOL the weird trash on the bottom is just a reflection of an airstone and some rubber bands outside the tank.The only decoration in the tank is the cave thing you can see in the bottom right corner. That whole black area is a mass of Java Moss. As to the blue gravel I was going to replace it a long time ago but the betta seemed to be happy at the time so I didn't want to change anything. Lately though he seems a bit stressed so perhaps it's time for it to finally go.

The "dirty" water is probably a mixture of lighting issues and tannins from the driftwood. To the eye they all appear clear. Otherwise theres a bit of algae on some of the tanks, water marks and/or hardwater stains on the glass.

Erm the blue water may be methylyn blue(spelling?) as a preventative measure. There are also several "transport aids" that color the water blue. I'd be concerned if the water wasn't blue honestly. Also we didn't put the water into our tanks, the water from bags should never be poured into the tank at all. Net the fish out and drop it into the tank.

yes I cut some of the original message out as it wasn't relevant to my reply.

ladayen · 04-25-2012, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayy

Your water line is killing me!! Are you planning to change all your tanks to live plants?

LOL. Yeah the water line is low is most of the tanks because of the heaters. Need to get some submersible ones but anything bigger then 50w costs a fortune. See post above about the plants.

ladayen · 04-25-2012, 06:10 PM

Updated pictures for all tanks in my aquarium log.

Romad · 04-26-2012, 05:02 AM

Congrats to you on your newest additions. And nice score on the extra fish

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