Here's mine...just set it up recently:





8)

Yes, the clams DO move around on their own....

Currently it's just a Blue Oranda (from PETCO) and 13 Freshwater Clams.....that I got out of a lake...Torch Lake.

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Brando

I have one... I don't pay much attention to it though.

I've had an aquarium since I was a little kid, and I used to mess with the PH and water softness and stuff (we have really hard water here) trying to make it just right in there.... but the fish never seemed to last more than a few months. Eventually I stopped caring so much and just used straight tap water in there, and I haven't been cleaning the tank more than once every 5 weeks or so. I guess that works out better for the fish because the current ones I have are about 6 years old

I used to put a black light in place of the regular florecent.... The fish really freaked out! They were the tropical, semi see through fish (cnat remember the name) It looked SWEET!

I HAD an aquariaum, untill one night my cat got curious and got up in the stand. He eventually got up onto the tank itself and uh...accidentally fell in. Scared me shitless cause it was a bout 2am. That cat is still the dumbest cat we have to date...

dude, thats awsome... my buddies got one also, things huge....
-Joe

I got a couple Otocinclus Catfish, a couple days ago, to clean up the algae...they do a nice job...really cleaned it up.

73, post some pics man....

Oh yea...and it's 11 clams now...

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Brando

i got a fish story for you... when i was no more than 8 years old i used to have a little shark fish and two little black fish (duno the name) but the kid at the pet store said those fish would get along fine ... well, the black fish had lots of babies, im talking maybe 10-20 little black fish in there with one shark fish.. my sister must have forgot to feed the shark fish that day so i went down stairs to check on them and the shark fish was the only fish left in the tank. Lesson learned... Never forget to feed aggressive fish

my cousin brought over a couple guppies a couple years ago and dumped them in the tank with the fish in the above picture... the next day I looked in there and.... no more guppies!

Those are pretty big....I've read that they can get up to 8" or more.....and live 20 years or more....

How big is that tank?

I just changed the filter, had a Whisper 10i "Bio-Bag" filter....sucked pretty much nothing. I got a Marineland Penguin Bio-Wheel filter...keeps it nice and clean.


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Brando

15 gallons

Here's some more pics:



A close up of blue (blue oranda, has some chocolate in him).



One of the Otocinclus Catfish hanging out in the cave, with the protection of them clams.



Blue, and the Oto in the cave.



Oto in the plant, can barely tell he's there at first glance.


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Brando

Suppose I could update this....

Those "Otos" are not Otocinclus Catfish as they were advertised at Petco which only get up to 2". They are Chinese Algae Eaters (CAE) which get up to around 5" and aren't so good with goldish (they are best with their own type--goldfish and CAE), so I moved them to separate tanks (10 gallons). I bought a 29 gallon tank (in my room) for the goldfish because he needs more room, plus I could put a buddy or two in there for him, but haven't set it up yet.

"Blue" the Blue Oranda Fancy Goldfish sure has changed color wise. Take a look...


"Smiling" for the camera...it was hard to get good shots of him, he kept dancing around when I put the camera in front of him...


Can see one of the zebra nerite snails in the background on the right, they keep the aquarium clean, do a damn good job too, cleaned all the algae off the plant leaves, aquarium glass, and every other nook and cranny.




The older aquarium set up (getting close to a year), with the two CAEs (highlighted for your viewing pleasure ). One is considerably bigger than the other about 4.5" (sucking the glass) and the other is about 2.5" (on the bottom).


Picture of the big CAE, with flash on. You can also see that the aquarium has plenty of pond snails to go around.

That's it for now...

One note, I found my goldfish sitting in the back corner of his aquarium this morning, so I poured some Melafix and Pimafix in there (natural medications). When I cam back home from school, he still wasn't acting right, so I put some prazi in there and fed him some medicated food. I finally realized I should check the water parameters....sure enough, the ammonia level was a bit high, I haven't changed the water in quite a while (vacation). I did a water change (about 30%) and he's back to his normal self. So remember to always check your water parameters before doing anything else if you have an aquarium or are considering one.
I have this test kit, it works much better than the strips:


Anyone else got some pics?

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Brando

I too have a fun fishtank, although it has been neglected as of late... my roommates feed the fish more than I do. They seem to be doing pretty well, so it's okay. The beauty of a 55 gallon tank and having a huge pleco is that you very rarely have to do any maintenance. I find that the tank stays pretty clean as long as I change the filters fairly regularly and don't feed the fish TOO much. I have a Bala shark in my tank, but he seems to be the biggest wuss out of the whole bunch!

-Carl

You have a common pleco? Those things get aggressive...can kill any/all other fish in the tank. Although you do have a fairly large tank. I've also neglected my CAE tank...haven't changed the water in quite a while....but it seems to do alright. I was gone for about a month and a half, no water changes during that period. No ammonia build up...probably due to the plants and I also have some hair algae growing, which sucks that stuff up.

I just ordered a bunch of accessories for the 29 gallon glass aquarium in my room to set it up. Gonna put the goldfish and probably give him another goldfish buddy. Maybe a couple butterfly loaches or a couple otocinclus.

Here is a butterfly loach if you've never seen one:

I think they look awesome.

Here is an otocinclus:


The problem with adding species like that though, is that they need sinking algae tablets to survive. Guess who also likes those? GOLDFISH!
So maybe not...the only thing I've been able to successfully keep with a goldfish so far is snails because they just clean the glass.

So maybe I'll just get another goldfish, and have fun with the newly available ten gallon, I'd like to turn it into a picotope. Dwarf rasboras and dwarf corydoras, along with dwarf plants! Basically it's a huge community aquarium (schooling fish), but small in size.

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Brando

More on the picotope idea...

Here a some dwarf rasboras:


Pork Chop Rasbora - up to 2"


Pygmy Rasbora - up to 3/4"


Bora Bora Rasbora - up to 2"

Here are some Corydoras:


San Juan Cory Cat - up to 1" - 1.7"


Dwarf Cory Cat - up to 1"


Dwarf Panda Cory Cat - up to 2"


Skunk Cory - up to 1.5"

And here is a Yo Yo Loach:

Only gets up to 2"

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Brando