120 Litre Set-Up...from Lake Tanganyika to South America

[talldutchie]

Well.. there's different styles in aquaria. some like plants, some like decorations. With a scape like this the main challenge is avoiding neatness and patterns.

Firefly is shooting a canon 550d, that's rebel T2i to the americans. Lens seems to be the kit lens.

[CrazedMichael]

B-E-A-UTIFUL.

Wish i could grow plants as well as that. But they just wilt

[~firefly~]

Well.. there's different styles in aquaria. some like plants, some like decorations. With a scape like this the main challenge is avoiding neatness and patterns.

Firefly is shooting a canon 550d, that's rebel T2i to the americans. Lens seems to be the kit lens.

Spot on, yeah, it's very hard to NOT stick to patterns or lines. Humans are naturally inclined to look for pattern.

Anyone familiar with Dutch style planting? I'd not really been a fan but all my plant species are in sections so may end up looking Dutch in 6 months' time.

[talldutchie]

I'm familiar with the style. Difficult to say from this angle. Possbily. You can let it grow out if you want to but you can also keep it wild if you prune and replant

[~firefly~]

Would you prune and replant in the same area or mix it up completely? I'm in two minds with what to do. Hmmm...here's the sections now (quite clear from the top). These snaps were taken with my cheap compact...it seems to make the light look very green so just ignore that!









I might move bits and pieces around at a later date, but would welcome any suggestions/critique on the look.

[~firefly~]

And here's that val behind the amazon sword.



I'm tempted to swap them around and bring the vals forward, but I'm a bit worried the sword won't like the lower light in that corner (especially as it's struggling a bit where it is now).

[~firefly~]

I've just noticed something. You'd never guess there were 50 fish in that tank!

[Taurus]

Beautiful tank firefly! I've noticed that the cherry barb males have turned a darker red over time? I was quite surprised to see how pale they were when you first got them. Do you think you might have some albinos mixed in?

Please don't take that as a criticism. It's just that I've never seen male cherry barbs that light in color. Mine are all a deep, dark red.

LOL...the photo of the fat female is interesting. I've got a fat female that looks the same in my tank as well.

[Taurus]

B-E-A-UTIFUL.

Wish i could grow plants as well as that. But they just wilt

LOL..same here.

[~firefly~]

Beautiful tank firefly! I've noticed that the cherry barb males have turned a darker red over time? I was quite surprised to see how pale they were when you first got them. Do you think you might have some albinos mixed in?

Please don't take that as a criticism. It's just that I've never seen male cherry barbs that light in color. Mine are all a deep, dark red.

LOL...the photo of the fat female is interesting. I've got a fat female that looks the same in my tank as well.

If you were looking at the first photos of them in this journal - they were taken a few hours after they were first put in the tank so yes, they were very pale. Very hard to tell apart actually!

I find that cherry barbs lose a lot of colour when stressed and/or moved. The females I bought recently were very pale on Saturday, now they are almost a bright orange as the older females.

The males are almost all dark red (with a few that are very, very dark with rich brown fins). I guess they express themselves with colour.

I've also noticed they lose most of their colour when the lights go out. Energy saving

All the older females are VERY fat - if the males weren't all so slim I'd think they had parasites...but I think they're just full of eggs. They spawn regularly, although nothing ever survives as they all get gobbled up.