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Well for the first time ever I'm posting pics of my tank. I've never really ever aquascaped it before so I've never thought it was actually presentable. So over the past month or so I've been redoing it. I got a bunch of rocks from the yard, a new piece of wood, dug up some wood out of my storage, and other stuff. It's not super, but the tank definitely looks way better than before (one piece of wood, two flower pots, and a few rocks). I'm probably going to leave it this way for a while and just wait for my plants to get a foothold and grow in. If some of the plants propagate, then even better, so I can spread some of the plants around to some of the currently unplanted areas. I've seen some growth already, which is reassuring; I can worry less about all the plants dying within a month.

Either my camera sucks or I just don't know how to use it. Nikon Coolpix 4600. Pics usually don't come out any good unless I use flash, which I don't like because then it doesn't look like how the fish look to me at all. And of course if I'm not close enough to the glass I get a supernova effect. Nonetheless, I took all the scape pics without flash, although you see some of them still came out a little blurry even though nothing is moving, except me of course.

FTS


The Java Moss raft in the upper left hand corner. My thought is that it'll look cool when it grows in, but so far it's a dirt magnet...


Left end of the tank. A lone dwarf sag I got the other day I'm hoping propagates so I can get some foreground action. On the other hand it might die, but let's hope that doesn't happen. It's in a sand pit because I've read they do better with fine substrate.


Left side of the tank, with cave and plants. The cave's main structure includes three rocks, as well as another rock to close off the back and another rock on the bottom of the cave to reduce the space inside so the plec can squeeze right in for a snug fit. The plants are an Anubias barteri, an Anubias barter var. nana, Wisteria, and...


Behind the cave are some Crypts I'm hoping will grow in. The ones on the right are C. wendtii, but the ones on the left were just marked as "Crypts". I think they're C. crispatula var. balansae. I'd like them to grow to the top of the tank, but that's going to take a while.


Here's my Ozelot Sword. It isn't growing too quickly, but I'm hoping it'll gain a foothold soon enough. I've moved it around a couple times and that probably wasn't any good for its roots. I'm hoping it grows to fill out the gap between the tall piece of wood and the Malaysian wood.


The middle of the tank has a nice piece of Malaysian driftwood. I love this stuff.


Java fern on top of the wood, with some moss to hide the rubber bands; there actually are two rhizomes here so I guess two plants. The ferns themselves haven't really shown me any growth, but one of them is putting plantlets out like mad. Some of the plantlets finally have leaves too.


I guess the other fern is happy if it's pearling.


The right side of the tank has this random rock and wood formation. Once I get more plants I'm thinking of filling up behind the rocks to form a gravel pit that the plants can grow in. Might not work very well depending on how the plec feels about that.


On to the fish! Here's a size comparison between my largest fish (plec) and one of my smallest fish (panda cory on top of the cave).


The L330 took to the cave pretty well right after I put it up. What you don't see in my tank is that almost all the plants are anchored to small rocks buried in the substrate; there wouldn't be ANY way to do this tank without doing something like that because the plec is just a bulldozer when it swims through. Luckily this fish hasn't decided that any of the plants are especially tasty, although you might've seen some rasped marks on the Anubias.


The Syno shares the cave, but is usually out of sight by hiding behind the plec. The plec decided to shift so I grabbed the opportunity.


My Black Lancer hides out under the right end of the Malaysian driftwood. I got this piece of wood because I knew it would make a good hiding place.


Zzzzz... The Entomocorus radiosus picks random locations to sleep. Sometimes in corners, sometimes behind rocks, sometimes in Java moss. Here in the Anubias. One time he was hiding in a clump of java moss that was stuck to the filter, haha.


The trio of Panda Corys. They don't really hang out all together that much, usually it's a pair of them and the other one is off by itself. I'll get a few more soon, hopefully. I feel like they've already grown, and it's only been about a week.


In the meantime, they have six sterbai's to keep them company. Unfortunately, the sterbai's move way faster than the pandas, so I can't take pics until they slow down and rummage through the gravel or sand. Honestly, the sterbais are all over the place, spending most of their time swimming around against the tank wall rather than the bottom. They're exceedingly difficult to photo because they just don't stay still, but they're much more fun to watch because of it.


And here are a few of my debauwi cats. My new african glass cat likes to hang out with them, but it's considerably slower at swimming. And there's a sterbai that just happened to swim through. I say "happened", but since they're all six of them are swimming all over the tank it's usually only a matter of time before a sterbai swims through the debauwi cats. BTW, I used the sports function on my camera to get this one, because they just move so darn fast! I had to fix the pic with "Auto Correct" so that you could actually see anything, though, since the original shot comes out very dark, even with lights on.


As fun as Corys are, at night is when things are happening. Everyone else comes out at night. Unfortunately it's also harder to take pics in the dark.

Entomocorus radiosus is in fact quite an active fish. It can't keep up with debauwi cats but it's quite up there and terms of speed. When awake, this fish doesn't stop moving!


Debauwi catfish are said to be diurnal, but once the lights go off they shoot off like rockets. Here are a few "on the hunt". They use the whole tank to its fullest extent at night, swimming as fast as any danio. I am of the opinion that these fish don't really sleep.


The Syno comes out only at night as well. As you can see, it is missing one fin. I don't identify the species because I am unsure. I am under the current belief it is a hybrid.


The belly of the beast! So to speak.


Here's a kinda cool pic. The African glass cat opens its barbels out while foraging, and it looks pretty cool while it's doing that.


I tell you, fish do NOT like having a camera pointed at them at all. The Black Lancer ducked into the cave because of me chasing it around with my camera.


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Well, a couple days later, the tank looks like this. I got a Crypt spiralis for the left corner whilst the balansae grow in, and I got Water Sprite as a floating plant (finally!).


Hope you liked it!

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

To look at the first tank pic, it's hard to believe there are many fish at all in it.
Lovely pics, thanks for sharing.

Thanks. All the fish that move around during the day are little guys so compared to the size of the 6' tank they're pretty small. You can see some of their blurs, though, lol.

Well so much for my plec not thinking my plants are tasty. Woke up to find today the Ozelot sword destroyed, leaving just tattered leaves around the tank. A plant can only take so much beating up and while I'm thinking this is probably it for the plant, I'm crossing my fingers because life can sometimes be surprising... Some nibbling is apparent on one of the wendtii leaves (this one leaf is probably done for) and maybe some of the balansae leaves as well, but considering the fact the plants are still standing it probably means the plec is done with them; if the plec wants to eat, it'll pass the food right out of its gut and continue to do so, so I think I'm pretty safe if it turned up its nose to them after some nibbling. Dwarf sag was uprooted, don't know if it tried to chew it or not... I'm crossing my fingers that it won't chew everything up now. Then again, I've been giving pretty fair warning considering it is an herbivore... I guess I should've fed it last night; I've been pretty good about feeding so I thought it wouldn't be too hungry. Guess not.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Great start Shin! I like the diversity of your decor. Also nice collection of fish. I wish you future luck with this tank.
What a great size to work with!

Hey thanks! Didn't really think about my decor being extremely diverse, kinda just thought about it as wood, rocks, and plants. Thanks for your comments! The 125 can be somewhat difficult; I can't quite reach the back edge of the bottom of the tank... Well, good thing I pseudo-terraced it in the areas I want plants, lol.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Nice tank
Great pics too..especially of the glasscatfish and the Royal

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I know human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully.

Needs less open space and more siluriformes ;D.

Nice to see more catfish on this board.

Thanks for the comments!

I'd say that open space is only because catfish hate lights, but technically most of my catfishes are diurnal. Am I to assume you have something in mind to fill empty space? It's kind of hard to get catfish when some of the current catfish are so small since most catfish have such huge mouths, lol. Royal Plecs are herbivorous, Black Lancers have tiny mouths, and S. decorus is known as a gentle giant (not that this is an S. decorus, but I assume it has some S. decorus parentage). Small fish wasn't the direction I was originally going to go, but after I got E. radiosus I decided it wouldn't be so bad to have a tank with small fish. In any case, things are getting quite active with over 20 fish going about their business at varying times of the day (or night).

There's a Pimelodella that's been at the LFS for months, but I don't know how much I can trust one with the Corys. It's also rather drab, I assume because he has no friends to school with, and it's not like I have any of those either.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Hmmm...depending on how cool the tank is (78ish), you could opt for a number of very interesting hillstream cats. The cobblework in the tank really suit them quite well. Astroblepus comes to mind for your large tank. Of course, nanobagrus and chiloglanis are nice too-my experience with them are they that are far hardier than often reputed and as a plus, they are weird (chiloglanis can be difficult to find, though).

Or better yet, maybe some mid strata swimmers-corydoras robinae, siluriidae, and frankly, I would suggest getting the pimelo. I had a pair (not sexed) of gracilis and they were amongst my favorite hepts, far more personable than brachyrhamdia and rhamdia. Also, they were housed with a number of danio feegradei. No troubles with predation, and profiling would suggest that they'd go down much easier than the awkwardly chapped callichthyids. Also, they are shoalers at best, so you really don't have to worry about companionship.

A showcase syno (angelicus? A trio of flavies?) would be cool, too.


Or loricariids .

Yeah, the temp is 78-ish. Hillstream cats, Astroblepus, Chiloganis, and Nanobagrus are some catfish I've never had the chance to see in person. I can't imagine the LFSes around here getting anything like them in, you must have crazy selections at your store. I haven't even seen these fish sold online.

The sterbais I have hug the aquarium glass and thus often swim above the substrate. Of course, they're tiny, so they don't really fill up much of that empty space, and they do descend to the bottom from time to time as well. Dunno if my sterbais are weird or not, but that's what they're doing right now. C. robineae are also quite attractive, though. I suppose Flagtail Catfish might be a nice alternative, now that I think of it, since I think they might swim midwater too. Haven't seen them in years, though... The only common silurid around here is the glass cat; I am thinking of getting a group of them, but am in no rush considering how common they are. The debauwi cats might be an issue as they swarm the surface once they realize flakes are coming. Hmmm.

Dunno about S. angelicus... The LFS has one less than 2" for $60, which is a rather pricy fish. Plus, I've also heard of them being aggressive, depending on the fish. Quite nice looking fish, though. Could really go for flavitaenitus as cool as they are, though on the other hand it's a fish I haven't seen and who knows what price they'll attach to such fish, and also whether I could even consider a group. Would be sweet... I've also thought about some other riverine Synos, such as S. brichardi or S. schoutedeni, which I think I can get if I take the trip over to That Fish Place.

And of course loricariids.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

We get a fair share of uncommon stock due to the vicinity of SD, which is a rock's throw from LAX. Astroblepus and nanos are pretty common for specialist stores. I've seen them on stocklists reasonably regularly, and several dedicated online stores (notably frank's and crs have them on hand). Angelicus are definitely bossy fish, although no more so than your cf. nigrolineatus. Schouts are often considered even nastier (potentially, as temperaments vary) by many die hard mochokid fans. The ones at the store was quite placid--the again, so was my angelicus.

Also, brichardis are pretty sweet.

well done shini,looks cool,and i must say i just love your plec,now hes cool,also the cave you built for him,what are those rocks called,they are VERY nice,i think the lighter colour rocks,really make the green plants stand out,i just recently added some plants to my tank,althought my texas says different

Yeha, the Panaque is pretty pushy. It even fights the bubbler sometimes. I'd rather avoid too much fighting going on. Didn't know that about schoutedeni. The LFSes here I guess aren't specialist enough, or maybe they just don't order in many catfishes. One of the LFSes has a row of tanks just for catfishes, but they mostly stock more common types of catfishes. Rarer types of catfishes around here simply don't seem to sell, with the exception of plecs. I mentioned a Pimelodella that's been at another store around here for months, but the same store also hasn't been able to sell a Pseudomystus siamensis, some type of Trachelyopterus, probably galeatus, and a few Batrachoglanis raninus; I think they also haven't been able to sell a single Zamora woodcat, but I haven't been paying attention much to that single specimen. Plecs seem to sell quite well, though, despite prices I can hardly consider.

Yeah, I love my plec too. I have no idea what the rocks are called. I just pulled them out of the backyard, lol. My plec also disagrees with all the plants, or at least swims through them and uproots just about all of them. I've attached most of my plants to rocks to try to prevent this, and so far the plants aren't complaining too badly about that; luckily my plec doesn't make it a habit to eat much of my plants so far, it's just the swimming through the plants that uproots them.

The rocks are getting a coating of brown diatoms. Not sure if they're going to be light-colored for long... As long as the diatoms don't overtake the glass I'm okay with it.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Wow shini! I cant believe i missed this!!!!! I gotta say this is an awsome tank! I want your E. Radiosus....and black lancer....and...well all of them! but the tank really looks nice. i cant wait to see how it looks when those plants start growing in! and i really really like the picture of the african glass cat with its "whiskers" extended! good job!

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.

"Trachelyopterus, probably galeatus"

....

Aside from the jags, these guys are the auchen holy grail.

sora, yeah, it'll be nice when those plants start growing in. Over the past week or so my C. spiralis decided to melt quite a bit, and the balansae haven't caught on to growing yet either. On the plus side, the C. wendtii, Anubias, and Java Fern appear to be doing fine. The other plants have maintained status quo or aren't doing anything spectacular. Haha, I wanted all those fish too... and that's why I got them! Except for the Entomocorus species which is just something that happened completely by chance, you will run into them eventually. I mean, my stores are good but they're not the best, so if your stores are any good they might be able to order them, but decided not to because they're not sure if there's a demand for them.

Cup, really? PlanetCatfish calls them "common woodcat". This isn't the only one I've seen, either; I saw another one or two of what appear to be the same fish at another store. Doesn't look like anything special. The stores just call it a "wood cat", which is undeniably vague in the face of the fact the entire family Auchenipteridae common name is wood cats.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

My bad. I meant taeniatus.

Make that Trachelyopterichthys. Man, I am having an off day.

My goodness that's an attractive auchenipterid.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.