My Polys! And some other lovely fish. (pic heavy)

[Mighty Wizard]

So I've been wanting to post pictures of my setup for quite some time now, and since I'll be moving in a couple of days the fish will go in separate tanks and such as i finish moving in, and setting up my newer, bigger tank, while this one will hopefully become the new home of my Channa bankanensis. Figure I'll keep you posted about that as well. I decided to post these pictures here in the poly section, as it is first and foremost meant for my Polypterids, and this is, after all, the place I spend most of my time here. Besides, I don't think any of you have anything against gars, snakeheads, and wolf fish.

I'd also like to add that the tank is in a rather sorry state at the moment, I've been half-assing the upkeep lately as I'm moving soon anyway. So that's why some of the plants look like ****, if you're wondering.

The tank is 200L, and they're rather crammed at the moment, but they'll endure a little longer. I'm running dual internal filters, and I'm never doing that again. Those will be torn the hell out and replaced with proper external ones, for this tank and all future tanks. Although I am considering a sump for the next poly tank, I might instead save it for what I like to call "the final solution".

Anyway here we go, enjoy.

Full tank shots.


The Delhezi, pretty sure it's a she.

The Polli, lazy bastard. (and a cameo by John B. Ristlenose)

The Senegal, fun little dude.

My Florida gar. His tail has gotten a little munched on, by the Delhezi and Wolf, but as he's still behaving normal, and growing quickly, I'll wait and see before seperating them. Rest assured I am keeping a close eye on him.

Burmese Snakehead! She's not exactly beautiful, but she's something.

I nearly **** my pants back when I ordered this guy and opened the box. It was nearly full grown. A wolf fish, biggest fish in the tank. Luckily he/she turned out to be quite alright, although the shiny gar sometimes gets a little jab or a shredded fin.

The biggest Ropefish taking a peek and the Senegal.

Snakehead and Senegal chilling in the plants.

Polli and Senegal looking stupid.

Polli and Snakehead having a stare-off perhaps.

This is the middle sized of the three big ropes. You might be able to spot that his lower jaw is all messed up. Back when I ordered him, with two others, the fool at the wholesaler had put all three inside a small bag, and this one, who was the biggest then, arrived with his jaw torn off. It's healed rather remarkably however, and I'm very curious to see just how well it will grow with time.

 

[Mighty Wizard]

Delhezi, Polli, and smallest Rope.


Minus Delhezi.


Heil Hydra?

An apple snail! Because they're incredibly ugly and very fun to watch.

 

[Vancouver_98683]

Everything looks great! What country are u in? Curious as u r bangin with a nice channa/snakehead.

 

[Mighty Wizard]

Everything looks great! What country are u in? Curious as u r bangin with a nice channa/snakehead.

Thanks! I'm in Norway, pretty much all species of fish are legal to keep here. I also have 3 C. bankanensis and a C. stewartii, they're fun fish.

 

[thefredpit]

I'm jealous of the snakehead

 

[Alexkoj]

Thanks for sharing, cool collection prolly an amateurish question but how do you keep your plants alive and thriving?

 

[kno4te]

Very nice Mighty Wizard !

 

[Mighty Wizard]

Thanks for sharing, cool collection prolly an amateurish question but how do you keep your plants alive and thriving?

Thanks! It's quite simple really, so long as you choose proper plants and have enough lighting. I like to go for a mix of hardy plants, and plants that grow fast. I don't use root tabs or any co2 mumbo-jumbo, fish poop and the odd fertilizer will be more than enough to make your plants grow, the only really important thing is lighting. If you employ various snails, then they will happily munch up any rotting plant matter that you can't get to, so I would definitely use snails with a planted tank. And snails such as ramshorn snails won't ever eat healthy plants, no matter what anyone says. They're not physically able to. As I mentioned in the OP my maintenance haven't been all that great lately, you can put together a nicer tank than this one without much effort. Just be patient, and expect some plants to die while the setup matures, these can just be replaced by other other plants. There isn't much upkeep other than trimming a few leaves, removing ruined leaves, and replanting the odd floater. Usually I do this with water changes.

 

[clm08k]

First off tank looks AMAZING. It’s nice to see some more polys and plants. Love the goofy pics of the polys too. I second what T thefredpit said...Very jealous of both the snakehead and the Florida gar.

Love the heavily planted set up! magpie check it out.

Thanks for sharing, cool collection prolly an amateurish question but how do you keep your plants alive and thriving?

+1. I was wondering the same thing!!! My plants are not thriving, but the Mighty Wizard ’s look well “mighty.”

 

[clm08k]

Thanks! It's quite simple really, so long as you choose proper plants and have enough lighting. I like to go for a mix of hardy plants, and plants that grow fast. I don't use root tabs or any co2 mumbo-jumbo, fish poop and the odd fertilizer will be more than enough to make your plants grow, the only really important thing is lighting. If you employ various snails, then they will happily munch up any rotting plant matter that you can't get to, so I would definitely use snails with a planted tank. And snails such as ramshorn snails won't ever eat healthy plants, no matter what anyone says. They're not physically able to. As I mentioned in the OP my maintenance haven't been all that great lately, you can put together a nicer tank than this one without much effort. Just be patient, and expect some plants to die while the setup matures, these can just be replaced by other other plants. There isn't much upkeep other than trimming a few leaves, removing ruined leaves, and replanting the odd floater. Usually I do this with water changes.

Did you get a special substrate for plants?
What plants do you have?
Lighting schedule?
What type of snails do you have?

I’m currently trying to do a low maintenance/ “low” light set up. Still trying to figure it out and I am dosing chemicals, that id rather not use. I have Val’s and swords that were doing well, but not recently the past few months(had an algae bloom). Thinking of stripping the substrate and starting over with a bunch of plants.