Hello everyone, first post.. been reading/watching/researching for abit, still lots to learn and do but i got the hobby underway over the weekend buying 4 used aquariums for 90$. Biggest is about 35g, roughly 36x18x12, and a 15g and 2x10g's.
Anyways i setup the 35g, i have 10 feeder guppies in there, 10 ghost shrimp.. they've already settled in, and today i bought a spotted gar. As I'v been doing research figuring out what i really wanted, the gar came up right away as a must have fish, its awesome! Seeing as i only have a 35g at the moment when i saw the spotted gar initialy in the store i didnt buy it, but ended up getting it on my second visit after talking to someone who worked there who said they very rarely get them in, maby less then once a year. So i pulled the trigger, i'm going to be getting a much larger tank anyways.. probably 220g minimum but i have my eye on a 500g used aquarium that i might get in the next month or so. I think the 35g will do me ok for a few months anyway, its only 12" high so its more longer/wider then a regular 35g, the spotted is about 4-5".
I added a cory catfish with the gar aswell, hoping that doesnt die but i dont really care about the guppies, i hope they get eaten! for the sake of my gar's good health anyways.
I'm running a top-mounted overflow(i think) water filter thats rated for 50g so its abit more then i need which is good, has a bio-wheel built into it. Have an airpump pumping air through an airstone buried under the substrate. I tried to go for a more natural look, eventualy when i get my bigger tank i'm going to make it a native tank, im thinking of going back for another spotted gar so i have 2, they are only 20$ ATM which i think is pretty good.
I also 6 water lettuces that are floating at the top and you can see in one of the pictures, and i got some underwater purple plant which i forget the name of, but it had purple in the name, anyways im hoping these plants help with the bio-load.
So far my gar hasnt really done all that much, he/she's only been in there for 10 hours or so and i imagine its abit stressed but for the most part its just been sitting on the bottom of the tank, it moves every couple hours to a different spot in the tank and then rests again, doesnt seem interested in the feeders/shrimp at all, im hoping it just ate before i got them and that its just abit stressed and will start eating later today/tommorow.
Water temp is about 21-22c, water is hard as its from a well and im working on getting a water softener/reverse OS for the future but not here yet, water is slightly alkaline around 8.5, im hoping that goes down as the tank adjusts, although im open to suggestions to get that in line quicker.
Anyways here are the pics, sorry for poor quality its mostly the lighting and abit of reflection from glass.
water lettuce in above pic, there is also two plastic plants in the tank.
Purple plant above.
Thanks for your time.
Anyways i setup the 35g, i have 10 feeder guppies in there, 10 ghost shrimp.. they've already settled in, and today i bought a spotted gar. As I'v been doing research figuring out what i really wanted, the gar came up right away as a must have fish, its awesome! Seeing as i only have a 35g at the moment when i saw the spotted gar initialy in the store i didnt buy it, but ended up getting it on my second visit after talking to someone who worked there who said they very rarely get them in, maby less then once a year. So i pulled the trigger, i'm going to be getting a much larger tank anyways.. probably 220g minimum but i have my eye on a 500g used aquarium that i might get in the next month or so. I think the 35g will do me ok for a few months anyway, its only 12" high so its more longer/wider then a regular 35g, the spotted is about 4-5".
I added a cory catfish with the gar aswell, hoping that doesnt die but i dont really care about the guppies, i hope they get eaten! for the sake of my gar's good health anyways.
I'm running a top-mounted overflow(i think) water filter thats rated for 50g so its abit more then i need which is good, has a bio-wheel built into it. Have an airpump pumping air through an airstone buried under the substrate. I tried to go for a more natural look, eventualy when i get my bigger tank i'm going to make it a native tank, im thinking of going back for another spotted gar so i have 2, they are only 20$ ATM which i think is pretty good.
I also 6 water lettuces that are floating at the top and you can see in one of the pictures, and i got some underwater purple plant which i forget the name of, but it had purple in the name, anyways im hoping these plants help with the bio-load.
So far my gar hasnt really done all that much, he/she's only been in there for 10 hours or so and i imagine its abit stressed but for the most part its just been sitting on the bottom of the tank, it moves every couple hours to a different spot in the tank and then rests again, doesnt seem interested in the feeders/shrimp at all, im hoping it just ate before i got them and that its just abit stressed and will start eating later today/tommorow.
Water temp is about 21-22c, water is hard as its from a well and im working on getting a water softener/reverse OS for the future but not here yet, water is slightly alkaline around 8.5, im hoping that goes down as the tank adjusts, although im open to suggestions to get that in line quicker.
Anyways here are the pics, sorry for poor quality its mostly the lighting and abit of reflection from glass.
water lettuce in above pic, there is also two plastic plants in the tank.
Purple plant above.
Thanks for your time.