Just sharing an experience, and open to ideas and critiques.
I started a bowl about three months ago, I think it's 18" in diameter with 3-4" of gravel. A dumb cane, guppy grass and couple of rocks decorated the bowl. Dumb cane was planted with roots in gravel, stem in water and leaves above. No filter, and heater, lighted by a LED desk lamp. 5 or 6 endler's guppies of both sex were added to the bowl a couple of months ago. OK, the dumb cane was converted to water culture before adding to this bowl, gravel and water from an established tank.
In these two months, the guppy grass grew like weeds and most fill the whole bowl, couple of new leaves sprouted out of dumb cane, and I think there're tiny baby endlers but hard to tell with dense guppy grass. No water changes in these three months, only top up. Feeding with fakes 3 to 4 times a week. I used to do daily water test, now reduced to weekly. So far nothing to worry about with almost no nitrate reading. The bowl is not heated, average room temp about 70F.
Questions:
should I trim the guppy grass? endlers seems to do fine but they don't swim laps around the tank like they used to anymore. Water is 68-69, should I add a heater? Dieffenbachia are poisonous to cats and dogs, do I need to worry that the endlers may get hurt when they tried to chew on the plant or roots?
I started a bowl about three months ago, I think it's 18" in diameter with 3-4" of gravel. A dumb cane, guppy grass and couple of rocks decorated the bowl. Dumb cane was planted with roots in gravel, stem in water and leaves above. No filter, and heater, lighted by a LED desk lamp. 5 or 6 endler's guppies of both sex were added to the bowl a couple of months ago. OK, the dumb cane was converted to water culture before adding to this bowl, gravel and water from an established tank.
In these two months, the guppy grass grew like weeds and most fill the whole bowl, couple of new leaves sprouted out of dumb cane, and I think there're tiny baby endlers but hard to tell with dense guppy grass. No water changes in these three months, only top up. Feeding with fakes 3 to 4 times a week. I used to do daily water test, now reduced to weekly. So far nothing to worry about with almost no nitrate reading. The bowl is not heated, average room temp about 70F.
Questions:
should I trim the guppy grass? endlers seems to do fine but they don't swim laps around the tank like they used to anymore. Water is 68-69, should I add a heater? Dieffenbachia are poisonous to cats and dogs, do I need to worry that the endlers may get hurt when they tried to chew on the plant or roots?