It's really hard to photograph schooling fish!! Wasn't able to get a good shot of the neons and cardinals... or the black neons and white clouds- either they were all blurry or I got bad glare from the flash.

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Sky, that's really nice. It looks like you have the majority of plants, planted in the middle and that's really interesting. It's the opposite of what I usually do...and I feel like I'm in a rut with regard to my ideas so it was good for me to see this...especially since I'm going to be getting a 90 gallon tank this spring/summer. Also, I love the gravel and rocks. Has the tank been up long? It's looks very established and mature. Beautiful fish too. What kind of filter do you use?
Also, I loke the floating plants...are they plastic? Do they sell floating plastic plants?

Thanks for sharing these.

-andy

heh heh... yes - plastic and fabric plants in that tank... along with hair algae which needs to be scrubbed off from time to time. I do let a certain amount of algae grow since the rams and platys and otos like to nibble on the algae. Real plants (actually there is ONE real plant in there... kinda on it's last legs. It grows up with leaves that float on top. name escapes me at the moment)

You can use suction cup plants to stick them on the sides of the tank to prevent them from being pushed around by the water flow from the filter. These are plants they'll usually sell around the betta section (not sure why, but it's where I always buy mine)

The moonlight gourami just loves to tear up the plants to make nests at the top of the water... so I've given up trying to keep real plants in this tank. I'll put a few plants in from time to time - to keep the gourami entertained - but the plants eventually get chewed up by them.

I use an eheim professional II... really easy to clean and operate.

Floating plants make a lot of the fish in my tank more relaxed...like the neon gouramis and honey gouramis. Also the killies are in that tank (really those were an impulse buy - especially since I did absolutely no research on them!) and they'll hide up in the floating plants... along with the bettas (there are two male bettas in this tank) and the platys.

Down below I have those resin "logs"... like sideways tree trunks. Those are for the clown loaches and cories to duck into when they want some peace. Also the bolivian rams will sometimes claim their territory in them.

One of the reasons why I have the plants in the center is merely to make it easier for me to clean the sides of the tank (mag float).

If you mix neons with Angels, start off with small angels so they don't gobble down the neons. Then do have a LOT of plants for them to hide at night (they will lie on their bellies on the floor of the tank at night unless there's lots of plants for them to lie and rest in) By the time the angels are big enough - so will the neons be. This is how I've been able to keep angels with neons and cardinals.

This tank has only been up for about a year and a half... I finally combined two community tanks - wanting to save time on all the tank cleaning I was doing!! I had the gouramis and angels in one tank... and then platys and rams in the other. So they all got put together. There's really so much room that they all carve out their own little territories.

I thought I had put up a photo of a glass cat - but forgot to upload. I love glass cats!! They're very hardy and cool fish.

I've seen those in the pet store recently. My kids like them because you can "see the guts"! Where do they come from? I'm going to consider Glass Cats.

-andy

Hey Andy...

I got them because my brothers used to have them in their aquariums when I was a kid. I blame all my involvement in fishkeeping on them! They never let me help out. I had to grow up and set up my own tanks to play. ;)

I agree with the statement in the link below - I try and always keep glass cats in schools of 6 or more. They really do better than kept singly (otherwise they tend to hide).

But I disagree with another statement - I find they're very hardy fish - hardier than you would expect from their appearance! LOL

They always face into the current in my tank, btw... They don't school across the tank, but stay on the far end swimming "upstream".

Here is a link that might be useful: glass cat profile

They're so cool, Sky. Unusual for a catfish to stay around the middle of a tank. Just another species to put on my wish-list.

thanks!

-andy

Beatiful tank Skygee,
I use to have a tank like yours 9 years ago. Oh! am I showing my age, I hope so. heh! heh! I like your idea of floating surface fake plants. It give another dimension for your fish to enjoy and for you to view. Your fish are beautiful. Have you thought of puting a Discus in there? They are soooooooooo beautiful. Wishful thinking...since I use to have them.
Theresa

Nonono!!! No Discus!! There had been much discussion regarding with the 42 gallon tank I emptied when combining those fish with a 25 gallon to make up this tank! _He_ wanted discus in the 42. I said fine - but only if you do all those water changes and water testing ! I love looking at the discus in the stores, but I really felt I didn't have the time to keep up with them! ;)

Soooo... the fancy goldfish got the 42, mollies and guppies got the 25!

I really am a gourami freak. I just love gouramis (although not the kissing since they're a tad too aggressive in the comunity for my tastes!)

I feel that for me to have a good community tank going, it needed to be balanced out - bottom, middle and top fish dwellers. So I feel like I've accomplished this in this tank!

Don't get me wrong... I WILl have fish deaths from time to time... and then of course bring in fish replacements, or try out new fish. I only started up with aquariums again these past 4 years. The moonlight and pearl gouramis are my oldest fish since they've been with me from the very start of this recent obsession!! LOL I really got the larger long tank for the gouramis. The oldest moonlight is now about 6 inches long!

Sky, last year I had a Giant Gourami in my 65 gallon. Named him Pippin. Well, Pippin started out at 1" and a year later he killed everyone in the tank and was 10"!!!

Had to give crazy Pippin to the pet store...very sad.

-andy

Andy - that's why I stick to certain gouramis!! LOL - the Moonlight is the largest I have... Pearls only get to be about 4 inches long. And kissing, aside from being aggressive can get huge, too!!

Hey - I was over at that Petworks again... their sailfins are STILL going for 3.49... soooo much cheaper than anywhere else I've seen!! (some places want 9-10 bucks for them! Regardless of colour)

You get so attached though...ya know? I thought...it's just a gourami, what can he do that's so bad? Well, he was one tough hombre!

-andy

I made the mistake of getting a cute little "sun cat"... it was like 2 inches long. VERY cute!! Of course he grew into a MONSTER since he was a regular catfish!! I had to give him up, too. :( Was getting way too big for my tanks (at the time the largest tank I had was only 25 gallons!)