Update!
Okay, last fish post for a while, I promise. I was going to do this last night, but I've become a worry wart, and honestly I wanted to make sure everything made it through the night.
We hit up Dolphin yesterday to get some more cover for the ground and some new fish. We ended up getting two new plants and an urn with lots of hidey holes. As for fish, we knew we wanted to get a pleco, but we didn't know what kind. My big concern was finding one that wouldn't outgrow our tank, and wouldn't be an eyesore. There was a small albino pleco, but yeesh! The other, normal-colored plecos were of the right size, but when we noticed the max sizes, we had to pass. 12", 18", 19"... 4.75"??? SOLD! A bristlenose plecostimus apparently only reaches a max size of just under 5", which is fine for our tank.
After that, we wanted some pretty fish. Our plan was either a pair of guppies, or a half-dozen tetra. There were several gorgeous tetra breeds, I was particularly fond of the neon variety, but each of the "pretty" breeds had the disclaimer "no guarantees" next to their names. Maybe another time, but I don't know if I'm up for fish that could die overnight. Then we spotted two different Moscow guppy breeds. A fiery orange and an off-purple. We decided on the orange pair, a male and a female. The males are much smaller than the females, and have these gorgeous, flowy tails that they flick around when they're nervous.
You can see we re-arranged the tank a bit. Michelle found a way to put the log so that it makes a little cave in the back, and she leaned the urn up against it so that there's a lot of little places for fish to hide.
Here's a close-up of the urn. I really like it, it adds a surreal quality to the tank. I'm really glad that Michelle was doing the re-arranging, because I was sure that we wouldn't be able to fit both the log and the urn in there.
I was thinking of getting a silk plant, for the looks, but I couldn't find anything that actually LOOKED nice. So we opted with this one. It's a little different from the grass plants and the seaweed plants, so I put it in front. We also picked up another red seaweed plant, a 12" one, and put it in back.
Here's a pic of a male Red Moscow Guppy. That big tail is beautiful, and when we put ours in our tank, he was shaking it menacingly at all the danios, chasing them away from the female (who I think is pregnant).
Yes, this is a case of function over form. The pleco isn't much to look at, but it is kind of neat to see him dancing around the tank, trying to find some muck to suck on. I guess our tank is pretty clean, 'cause he hasn't really found a "spot" yet, and has been bouncing from wall to wall. He's digging the urn, though, and there have been a few times when I couldn't find him, only to realize he was upside-down in the urn.
Current Tank:
6 Long-Finned Blue Danios
3 Spotted Corydoras Catfish
2 Red Moscow Guppies
1 Bristlenose Plecostimus
We hit up Dolphin yesterday to get some more cover for the ground and some new fish. We ended up getting two new plants and an urn with lots of hidey holes. As for fish, we knew we wanted to get a pleco, but we didn't know what kind. My big concern was finding one that wouldn't outgrow our tank, and wouldn't be an eyesore. There was a small albino pleco, but yeesh! The other, normal-colored plecos were of the right size, but when we noticed the max sizes, we had to pass. 12", 18", 19"... 4.75"??? SOLD! A bristlenose plecostimus apparently only reaches a max size of just under 5", which is fine for our tank.
After that, we wanted some pretty fish. Our plan was either a pair of guppies, or a half-dozen tetra. There were several gorgeous tetra breeds, I was particularly fond of the neon variety, but each of the "pretty" breeds had the disclaimer "no guarantees" next to their names. Maybe another time, but I don't know if I'm up for fish that could die overnight. Then we spotted two different Moscow guppy breeds. A fiery orange and an off-purple. We decided on the orange pair, a male and a female. The males are much smaller than the females, and have these gorgeous, flowy tails that they flick around when they're nervous.
You can see we re-arranged the tank a bit. Michelle found a way to put the log so that it makes a little cave in the back, and she leaned the urn up against it so that there's a lot of little places for fish to hide.
Here's a close-up of the urn. I really like it, it adds a surreal quality to the tank. I'm really glad that Michelle was doing the re-arranging, because I was sure that we wouldn't be able to fit both the log and the urn in there.
I was thinking of getting a silk plant, for the looks, but I couldn't find anything that actually LOOKED nice. So we opted with this one. It's a little different from the grass plants and the seaweed plants, so I put it in front. We also picked up another red seaweed plant, a 12" one, and put it in back.
Here's a pic of a male Red Moscow Guppy. That big tail is beautiful, and when we put ours in our tank, he was shaking it menacingly at all the danios, chasing them away from the female (who I think is pregnant).
Yes, this is a case of function over form. The pleco isn't much to look at, but it is kind of neat to see him dancing around the tank, trying to find some muck to suck on. I guess our tank is pretty clean, 'cause he hasn't really found a "spot" yet, and has been bouncing from wall to wall. He's digging the urn, though, and there have been a few times when I couldn't find him, only to realize he was upside-down in the urn.
Current Tank:
6 Long-Finned Blue Danios
3 Spotted Corydoras Catfish
2 Red Moscow Guppies
1 Bristlenose Plecostimus