| Fresh water aquariums |
| 2 Gallon (empty now) |
| We discussed the idea of having a large aquarium several years back. We were really thinking about a saltwater aquarium but it was financially out of the question. I never considered a freshwater tank given the experience of seeing other friend's fish live short lives. Time went by...then one day while browsing for aquarium bargains we came upon what we thought was a bargain on a 30 gallon tank. I wanted to set it up as a saltwater aquarium immediately but we were told the tank was too small. That's baloney folks, I've seen 20 gallon saltwater tanks but I don't recommend any saltwater tank less than 50 gallon. Anyway, we bought it I watched it get set up as a freshwater tank. Shopping for livestock was a pretty neat experience for me. I had to read about community tanks, compatabilities, how big they would grow, etc etc. Well Max (a blue irridescent Siamese Beta) arrived. You could tell he loved his new home. Then we added barbs, plattys, tetras, a pleco, a small catfish. The Golden Apple Snail were free from a coworker. Well as luck would have it, a couple of fish got sick. So we get a 10 gallon tank to serve as the hospital. We got them well but now we had space for more fish, so we added some algae eaters, mini frogs (you could hear them chirp through the water), and a few gouramis, two of them ugly looking pink kissing gouramis (that's my opinion). Meanwhile, ole Max was now miserable in the 30 gallon tank, as the other fish his size were picking on him, so we go purchase a 2 gallon tank of his own. He loved it! His own castle...again. He and his fishkeeper (not me) developed a pretty neat relationship, I'd watch while she'd stick her hand into the tank, Max would swim into it and she would move him to a temporary container while she changed the water in his tank. He's since died, perhaps too much handling, dunno. Well, all's going well with the 30 gallon tank, the water's crystal clear and its residents are happy but misery was prevailing in the 10 gallon tank,. Some of the gouramis were bickering and growing rather rapidly, we eventually lost the frogs, and we couldn't keep the water clean. We moved a couple of gouramis to the 30 gallon tank and that helped a bit with both the bickering and the water quality, but I was still not satisfied. Well, it so happened that the local pet shop in the town I work at was going out of business, so for an incredible bargain I obtained the 20 gallon long tank. In went all the 10 gallon tank residents and the water quality has improved, but.. courtesy of some of the live plants that we originally used (no longer have them) we had some hitch-hiker snails come into the tank envirnment and now the whole 20 gallon tank is infested. Well, the resident fishkeeper was offered free platys from a coworker. They were gorgeous, orang with black fins and noses, very health sooooooo...guess which tank was now available? The 10 gallon tank. |