Over the past month I've taken the 55 gallon aquarium that used to belong to the pond goldfish and created a lovely tropical fish aquarium. I've had tropicals in the past, and I missed the beauty of a nice tank. I set it up, got the temperature regulated and the nitrogen cycle going and then planted it with live plants for a couple of weeks to get them started. It looked nice. Then, when we went to get some fish, we settled on Buenos Aires Tetras. They're a schooling fish so I had to get a dozen of them. The kind fellow who sold them to us was just netting and bagging them trying for approximately 12. We have 16 or 17 instead. That's fine. Then, what I later discovered, is that they're voracious eaters. That's ok, too, but they love to feed on live plants. Sure enough. The live plants (that only cost about $60 all together) make a great salad bar for them. Aaaarghhhhhh! It's tough to research your fish before you go to the shop because you don't know what they have at the time. So I had to supplement the live plants with plastic. I hate plastic plants in aquariums but it's either that or no plants and we wanted a mixed community tank.
We then bought 2 Dwarf Flame Gouramis. I've had luck with them and have even bred them in the past, so I feel good about them. So we had top eaters (the Tetras), mid-tank eaters (the Gouramis) and I picked up two tiny Black Spot Corydorus Catfish who are bottom feeders and who will help clean up food before it can rot. I feel good about the tank. There's just enough rock, driftwood and bottom sand to look really good, I have a heater and a backup heater, and external Fluval filter and a Hagen and a CO2 generator for the plants, so I'm hoping for good results. I think it's set up to sustain a good community. When/if I get a good photo of it I'll make sure to post it here...
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