(If you want to read about my aquarium as it developed through the spring, click here)
Why do we build fish tanks?
We build fish tanks to house fish, of course. It was always my goal to house some living vertebrates in my aquarium, but a certain fear of moving prevented me from doing so. The thought of having to pack my fish into buckets and travel across the country filled me with so much anxiety that I couldn’t bring myself to buy some fish, regardless of how small. Well, my situation has changed for the better. I have what some might call *stability*. I didn’t post anything in August because I was very busy sorting out my life. I did a little traveling, applied to jobs, and generally tried to distract myself from myself, and the results were amazing! By sheer luck, I managed to acquire a teaching position with great pay and settle permanently into an apartment with my grandfather. You already know what this means: Money + Residence = Fish!
I am tempted to purchase a fancy camera, because my old Android is woefully inadequate for representing the fine beauty of my new pet. The above image is one of my better captures. The specimen pictured is a sparkling gourami, a relative of the popular betta fish. Gouramis and betta fish are both labyrinth fish; fish that have adapted a special labyrinth organ for taking in atmospheric oxygen. It is because of this trait that you’ll typically see bettas placed in such shitty conditions at pet stores–they don’t need highly oxygenated water to survive since they can breathe straight from the surface. The sparkling gourami is less immediately flashy than his cousins, but they are brilliant fish in their own right. If they capture a beam of light at just the right angle, the gourami will truly sparkle. Its eye glows bright blue, and tiny flecks in the scales running down its body will illuminate and dance as it darts about the water. This fish is extremely agile. It can turn on a dime, literally twisting its body as it weaves through dense foliage. When my gourami wants to stop short, he extends his fins (including two “feelers” that sprout from the base of his belly) and instantly drops his momentum to zero. He’s a curious fish, too. His bright eyes are always roving in their sockets, and he will come right up to the glass when you approach and watch you. If you stick your finger toward him, he’ll puff up and try to act tough. Sometimes, he’ll dash back and forth in front of the glass to show off his glittering splendor.
People that aren’t in the know tend to think that fish are boring pets. I think these people merely mistreated their charges. A fish given adequate space, good water, and plenty of plants to explore will become very active. At the very least, my single gourami is one of the most active fish I have ever seen. He is constantly roving his territory, and will always emerge to play when I sit by him. He has quite the territory to explore…
The tank has finally reached jungle status. Sometime after my previous post, the vallisneria on the right went wild. I suspect a significant portion of the root system finally broke into the nutrient rich soil beneath the gravel cap, because the blades suddenly soared with growth. I knew vals grew like crazy, but I really did not anticipate that they would wrap around themselves like this. It is a tangle. The blades a carpet along the ceiling of the tank. Combined with the hornwort and the duckweed, which just won’t stop growing, a rich canopy of green has overtaken the surface of the aquarium. This is an ideal environment for the little gourami, whose natural environment includes shallow ponds and slow moving streams. He is well equipped for navigating the tangle of foliage in search of flakes that I scatter along the breaks in the surface. The leftmost vallisneria is a smaller variety that has decided to grow horizontally rather than vertically. It has propagated into a dense forest.
The other plants are doing decently, but not thriving. My original tuft of hair grass is turning brown and starting to dissolve, but it is at least spreading. Smaller blades poke through the gravel and form small tufts here and there. The crypts that I had planted months ago are not growing larger, but new leaves are sprouting. Perhaps someday they will crack into the richer soil and start going big. Otherwise, I may need to trim the canopy to allow them more light. For now, I am going to let them chill. The algae isn’t terrible, but thick clouds continue to dwell around the base of my vallisneria groves, and there are some strands of hair algae growing up in the canopy. The solution to this is still growing. Observe:
Better pictures of him will come with later posts, but the skinny white guy beneath the gourami is my amano shrimp! Her scuttles through the water and along the surfaces of plants and rocks with his many legs. His whisker-like antennae are constantly swirling about as he gathers microbes and algae into his mouth with his front mandible things. He never stops eating. You can see the buildup of plant material through his translucent carapace, and it eventually forms a long dark line in his intestines before being released as a strand of waste. He is a machine of an algae processor, but he can’t do it alone. Next time I visit my LFS (local fish shop), I intend to get a few more alongside some little cherry shrimp. A 10 gallon tanks needs quite the cleanup crew.
The third new member of my aquarium ecosystem is actually not so new. The gourami and amano are probably a little over a week settled in, but I had actually purchased a nerite snail some months before. I never bothered to make a post about him, but there wasn’t any drama to tell of. He settled right in and started scraping the glass for algae. Nerites are slow, peaceful, and probably the best scrubber you can find for a natural aquarium. He doesn’t even emerge from the safety of his shell.
Here is another picture of my gourami. Someday, I’ll have a nice photo shoot and try to capture his glitter dance in action.
The 10 gallon is still at my parent’s house. Before the weather turns cold, I need to transport this thing to my permanent home. I’m living in Malden now, just north of Boston. The LFS nearby has a nice supply of gouramis, so my little guy will have some friends soon enough I’m sure. I’d love to breed them!
Meanwhile, in Malden…
What’s this?? A second tank??!
The hobby grows and grows…