From Snails to Killies

[Evergreenblue]

Hello everyone,

I recently joined, and many of you have already welcomed me and suggested I start a thread for each tank, so consider this my first "build" thread! I have a 10 gallon set up for my pair of dwarf puffers... this thread is not for that tank. I also happen to have a little 2.5 gallon on my countertop that I've used for the purposes of breeding snails to feed my puffers. It's doing well, I have likely over a hundred snails and every week some of them go to their "forever home".

So here's my plan, I want to do something with this tank, since it's just sitting there. I'm thinking of getting epiplatys annulatus and using this tank for them. I saw this fish in a store a few months back and really liked it. I've since dived into reading about killies and want to use this tank for a pair (or two) of these little guys.

Here's the tank as is:

I'm thinking of dropping the water level, adding some mosses around the piece of wood, maybe something taller behind it, and removing that larger floating plants but keeping a mat of the smaller stuff.

I'm extremely open to any suggestions and look forward to giving a new purpose to this tank!

Thanks

 

[VickiK]

Your options are UNLIMITED! Excited to see where you go with this. No suggestions from me. I groove on other folks' creativity.

 

[Loren]

Hello everyone,

I recently joined, and many of you have already welcomed me and suggested I start a thread for each tank, so consider this my first "build" thread! I have a 10 gallon set up for my pair of dwarf puffers... this thread is not for that tank. I also happen to have a little 2.5 gallon on my countertop that I've used for the purposes of breeding snails to feed my puffers. It's doing well, I have likely over a hundred snails and every week some of them go to their "forever home".

So here's my plan, I want to do something with this tank, since it's just sitting there. I'm thinking of getting epiplatys annulatus and using this tank for them. I saw this fish in a store a few months back and really liked it. I've since dived into reading about killies and want to use this tank for a pair (or two) of these little guys.

Here's the tank as is:

I'm thinking of dropping the water level, adding some mosses around the piece of wood, maybe something taller behind it, and removing that larger floating plants but keeping a mat of the smaller stuff.

I'm extremely open to any suggestions and look forward to giving a new purpose to this tank!

Thanks

I like your plans. Go for it and if it doesn't look the way you want you can always change it around.

 

[Evergreenblue]

So, my friend just gave me a clump of some moss... I think he said it was fissidens? I tossed it in the snail tank, free-floating for now... the snails seem to love it!

Anyway, I'd like to make a mat of this on the sandbed... Any ideas? I don't like the idea of attaching it to plastic, but I was thinking of using some mesh or something... I'd love to hear some feedback.

 

[Evergreenblue]

Ok... New additions coming home with me...

 

[Evergreenblue]

I hope this works!

 

[VickiK]

Wow. I hope that works! Pretty cool idea!

 

[Evergreenblue]

I'm a little concerned with the size of the mesh, but if it doesn't work, I have a backup plan. I'm going to let this sit for a week or two and see how it develops before deciding if the tank will be ready for inhabitants.

 

[Betty]

Interesting -- what kind of mesh is that? I was thinking of trying something similar with some java moss I have, using plastic canvas.

 

[VickiK]

Interesting -- what kind of mesh is that? I was thinking of trying something similar with some java moss I have, using plastic canvas.

It looks like window screen mesh to me. I have a roll of it in the shed......

 

[Evergreenblue]

Yep, it's window screen mesh... I too had a roll in my garage. I'm a little concerned that perhaps the mesh size is too small, which is why I cut the slits in the mesh. If it cannot (or won't for my lack of experience) grow for me, I'll probably try a different route.

 

[Evergreenblue]

OK... I couldn't wait for the moss to fail, so I changed it already. My friend who gave me the moss (confirmed, fissidens) noted that the moss structure would have prevented it from growing through the mesh, so I tied it down to some plastic canvas. I'm having issues with photobucket again, so I'll have to post pictures later. I think I'll put in the order for the killies this week though!

 

[VickiK]

Ah.. thanks for the update!!

 

[Evergreenblue]

 

[Evergreenblue]

Just put in the order for the fish today! A pair of Aphyosemion austral 'gold'!