New invertebrate tank (getting back in the game)

[Kristina]

About two and a half years ago, in December, we went through a 3 day power outage. We had a generator, but it quit working after about 8 hours and we were unable to repair it or rent another in time. At the end of the three days, I went from 27 aquariums of varying sizes and biotopes to THREE that still contained life. One was my goldfish tank, one was my native southeast coast brackish tank, and the other contained my two axolotls.

Going from tank to tank scooping dead bodies was one of the most horrible experiences I ever had. We had fish that we had had for years, some that were special due to personality, some due to the fact that we nursed them through strange sicknesses, others because of their uniqueness or rarity. Every little dead body was a tragedy.

I lost heart in the hobby. I kept my goldfish, and one small tank in my children's room, and later my husband set my 100 gal back up as a cichlid tank for himself, but I really just didn't have it in me anymore. It is impossible to ever get back all that we lost.

Anyway, the last couple of weeks I started to really miss my tank that contained my shrimp and briggs (still have to get used to calling them diffusa!) So, I decided to set up another invert tank

I picked up a 20 gallon show (extra tall, like two ten gallons stacked one on the other) at a resale shop for $3. It had a wood grain frame, which I don't like, and I also wanted the back painted black. I also hope to breed diffusa again one day, so I painted the top two inches of the tank black as well. This allows me to leave a gap above the water line and the tank lid for egg laying, without unsightly hard water marks or the actual water line showing.

I found a nice piece of wood for it, and I used washed construction sand for substrate. In the back corner is a red rubin sword that was originally in my goldfish tank; I had given it to my husband for his tank, but it wasn't thriving, so I stole it back It is actually planted in a small dish of organic top soil that is buried in the sand. The valisnera was wild-collected locally and treated several times in potassium permanganate to remove any creepy crawlies, and I purchased the rotala, crypt wendtii and wisteria.

Please excuse the fantastically craptastic cell phone pics... My camera died and my cell is an insult to all "smart" phones.

Well, what is an invert tank without inverts?!?! I am still shocked at how difficult it is to find diffusa... but, I did get four lovely little baby blues and a bunch of little neocaridina shrimp. No chance on a pic of the shrimp with my POS telecommunication device, but I do have a passably decent pic of my adorable little baby snails I got a bit giddy watching one of them do a "snail-dive" earlier, lol.

In a few weeks I will be adding some golds, ivories, chestnuts and purples. Just waiting for them to be big enough to ship. Someday, I hope to have THIS again -

Wish me luck!

 

[ascott]

I wish you TONS OF LUCK!!!!! And your group will be gorgeous again....

 

[Millerlite]

Any updates?

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

I definitely understand your pain. I had a 55 gallon setup with some VERY near and dear fish, including a knife fish that I handfed every day that would swim through my fingers and definitely act happy to see me. Well one day, the air line decided to get disconnected from the pump and BOOM I come home to 55 gallons of water on my basement floor and an empty fish tank. It was a miracle, though, since some of the fish still managed to live, but my knife lost his personality... he hid ALL the time... and I would literally cry sometimes because my fish didn't love me any more

My baby, Pants the Black Ghost Knife:


That hit me hard, and that's when I decided I wanted to get into something that wasn't as messy as aquatics, so I stupidly decided on a tortoise I sold three of my largest tanks, and all I have up and running now is my 20 gallon Endler's livebearer breeding tank, a five gallon betta, and a ten gallon dedicated to my goldfish, Delilah, that I am training to swim through hoops, limbo, etc. (everyone scoffs at the ten gallon bit, but I guess I should add that the tank has well over 60 gallons worth of filtration hooked up to it). In my 20 gallon, I also breed cherry shrimp, which I used for food for my brackish puffer. They only come out at night when the endler's are sleeping, but I must say that shrimp are marvelously fun to watch. I always think that they all died,I pick up a piece of driftwood, and there are 50 of them taking cover beneath it

Although I must say the only snails I have right now are an over abundance of ramshorn that I really wish I still had my puffer fish to feed to.