When speaking of the art of aquarium keeping, i've found personal taste rules the day of course. Having said that, out side of bio-type or natural replication aquariums, be they monster tanks or nano, the aquarium is dis-served by housing more than 3 to 4 fish.
Allow me to elaborate. The eye wanders too much when an aquarium is overstocked - but overstocked is a crude word that carries with it too many negative connotations - when an aquarium is filled to capacity is a better term. This observation is not connected to whether its right or not to over stock or fill a tank to capacity, and frankly overstocking is not really what i'm talking about. And i'm not talking about water quality or filtration. Or aggression or care requirements.
Further complicating matters is decorations within a non-bio-type tank. Unfortunately they add to the visual noise if not properly employed - i'd go as far as to say they become part of the total life mass within the glass cube.
One key in aquarium design overall is negative or better yet empty space. For the viewer to appreciate the specimens contained in the tank, empty space must be liberally applied, and the hobbyist should really err on the side of too little decoration and fish mass as a whole.
But its not really about visual noise, rather its about the relative space between dis-similar objects within the tank.
It sounds like i'm advocating for wet pets within empty glass cubes, and perhaps I am. Perhaps i'm anti-decoration, and anti-overstocking. I'll allow that observation, however a clean glass cube with a few rounded rocks and 3-4 fish pleases me. But so does a solid lava rock wall in a tall tank leaving mere inches of space between glass and rock, with a few fish exploiting that wall.
The rule i'm suggesting is that if you are going to keep assorted fish, especially large assorted fish, the space between moving masses within the tank becomes unworkable the more fish above 3 or 4 you go. In fact, if the fish tend to be stationary, this only amplifies the lack of space, which sends further alarm sounds to the artistic core of my brain. But its not physical space, but persevered space between moving or stationary masses.
Schools of one type of fish work, but schools of dissimilar fish which are not found in nature, displeases me so.
You dig, or am i loopy on too many colas in my cube at work?
Your thoughts??
Allow me to elaborate. The eye wanders too much when an aquarium is overstocked - but overstocked is a crude word that carries with it too many negative connotations - when an aquarium is filled to capacity is a better term. This observation is not connected to whether its right or not to over stock or fill a tank to capacity, and frankly overstocking is not really what i'm talking about. And i'm not talking about water quality or filtration. Or aggression or care requirements.
Further complicating matters is decorations within a non-bio-type tank. Unfortunately they add to the visual noise if not properly employed - i'd go as far as to say they become part of the total life mass within the glass cube.
One key in aquarium design overall is negative or better yet empty space. For the viewer to appreciate the specimens contained in the tank, empty space must be liberally applied, and the hobbyist should really err on the side of too little decoration and fish mass as a whole.
But its not really about visual noise, rather its about the relative space between dis-similar objects within the tank.
It sounds like i'm advocating for wet pets within empty glass cubes, and perhaps I am. Perhaps i'm anti-decoration, and anti-overstocking. I'll allow that observation, however a clean glass cube with a few rounded rocks and 3-4 fish pleases me. But so does a solid lava rock wall in a tall tank leaving mere inches of space between glass and rock, with a few fish exploiting that wall.
The rule i'm suggesting is that if you are going to keep assorted fish, especially large assorted fish, the space between moving masses within the tank becomes unworkable the more fish above 3 or 4 you go. In fact, if the fish tend to be stationary, this only amplifies the lack of space, which sends further alarm sounds to the artistic core of my brain. But its not physical space, but persevered space between moving or stationary masses.
Schools of one type of fish work, but schools of dissimilar fish which are not found in nature, displeases me so.
You dig, or am i loopy on too many colas in my cube at work?
Your thoughts??
