Well, this is it. This is my latest "hobby". I worked at a pet store when I was 16 and helped in the fish department. I've always loved aquariums and have had one up and going most of my life. I've taken the last 5 or 6 year off, though. But, now I'm back in and I guess you could say I'm "all-in" this time since I've decided to try my hand at live plants. I've always wanted to try live plants, but never had the courage. We'll see how it turns out.
This is a 42 gallon, bow front aquarium with 2 Penguin 400 filters on the back. It's been in the garage collecting dust for the last 5 years or so. I set it up this time with the intent on making it an African Cichlid tank for my wife. We've had africans before and loved them!
I used 6 feeder goldfish and a small, regular pleco to cycle the tank. After a couple of weeks, all 6 goldfish had died, but the pleco held on. I had the water tested and they said it was "good to go". The pleco has since doubled in size from 2.5" to close to 5".
I initially had several fake plants in here along with a large decoration that looked like the base of a tree and roots. It was a plastic / resin piece that was hollow. There were 3 holes in it to help displace air when submersing it (relevant soon). I recently got a M/F pair of Dwarf Bristlenose Plecostomas as well as a White Dot Plecostomas at a semi-local pet store called Pet Smiths in Bixby, Oklahoma. (So much for making this an African Cichlid tank). I thought it would be fun to try to breed the pair of Bristlenose Plecos as a hobby within the hobby (more on this as well). The Bristlenose both decided it would be fun to aggrivate me and hide INSIDE the fake root decoration I had in the aquarium. So, in an attempt to remedy this problem, I watched and waited until I saw them both out. Then I took some fake plants that I had and stuffed them in the holes of the decoration to keep them from going back in it. This seemed to work well and actually looked nice too.
Along with my plecostomas, I also got a small bunch of Java Moss and a couple of strands of Anacharis. Since then I acquired a couple of large bunches of Cabomba and decided it was time to go all-natural. The day I added the Cabomba, I removed the plastic / resin decoration. My aquarium was finally looking like I wanted it to...
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