Scapexghost Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 (edited) This has been a pretty eventful week as I just moved into my dorm after transfering universities. This has been a great and terrible time. College is fun, exciting and terrifying. Being 300 miles away from my family outways being 300 miles away from my fish tanks. But, while I can't bring a tiny version of my parents, i can bring a tiny version of my fish tanks. The dorm allows tanks up to 5 gallons, but i don't play by the rules so i got a 5.5. Now a 5 gallon tank is gonna have to be pretty awesome to make up for the 5 tanks I'm leaving behind. So, for starters, I decided to do a dirted tank. Mainly because I have never done one before. My understanding is one of the main downsides of a dirted tank is that you have to tear it down after 12 months or so, but i have to tear this tank down anyway in 8 months. Since i have to tear down this tank in 8 months, i have to do something to jumpstart the plants, since I don't want to tear down the tank once it starts looking good. Hopefully the dirt does this. Deciding on the fish was difficult. I thought about a pea puffer, but i didn't want to have to make frequent trips to get frozen foods since i don't have a car and my fridge is barely big enough to fit my food. I thought about a betta of course, specifically a black and white crowntail, but i didn't think a single betta would be interesting enough. I settled on a pregnant purple dumbo mosiac guppy, which is either from twin city guppies or a decendant of a guppy from twin citys. I had her for a couple months now as she was just sitting in my qt tank. I didnt want to put her with my other guppies as to not contaminate the line, and my other tanks had fish that would be to aggressive to keep a guppy in. So, taking her with me was actually convenient. I know keeping a guppy in a 5.5 is somewhat controversial, but she doesn't look cramped and as it is my only tank, I can pretty easily stay on top of water quality. Obviously, the guppies will overpopulated the tank, but I can always pop the extras in my home tank or sell them to my local store. I also brought a nerite snail for algae control. Every tank needs a nerite. Unfortunately, my local store didn't have a great selection of plants the week i left, so i had to make do with whatever my home tank can spare. This ended up being some anacharis stems, a handful of water lettuce, a little bit of micro sword, and a single dwarf sag. I'll probably order some dwarf hair grass once the coop gets it back in stock, but this is what i have to work with for now. The rocks i actually picked up on the way in santa rosa nm, the hole town is covered in these rocks, and i got these from a local lake, and you cant get much more realistic than that. It's a pretty place btw, definetely worth looking around if you are driving through. The hardware is a nicrew classic led, not the strongest light in the world but such a small tank doesnt need the strongest light in the world. The filter is some weird pseudo internal filter designed for 3 gallons, hopefully not strong enough to suck in any babies. I have a tiny 50 watt heater and the tank itself is one of those generic aqueon tanks. The lid is a diy disaster. I forgot the silicone at home and the glass cutter a got was terrible, so its basically three pieces of broken glass glued together. If you want a 5 gallon dorm tank, just get the fluval flex kit. Setting it up was kind of hectic since by the time i finished moving in i was up for over 24 hours and i hadn't even painted the background yet and the poor guppy was in a little bag for like 12 hours. But, somehow, i managed. Somehow i didnt contaminate the tank with my paint covered hands either. After a few days i biked over to my new local fish store to get some dwarf hair grass. Unfortunately, they didnt have any. I didnt want to leave empty handed so i got 4 cherry shrimp and a little susswassertang that came with them. In retrospect this tank is no where near seasoned enough to support shrimp. My best idea is to feed a little heavy in hopes of making up for it. Tl;dr this is the tank: Inch of organic miracle gro (although more like half an inch after being smushed by the gravel) Inch of gravel (originally planning two, but tjis tank is small enough as it is) Rocks One pregnant female purple dumbo mosiac guppy One nerite snail 4 cherry shrimp (i think i female and 3 males) Anacharis Water lettuce Microsword Dwarf sag Nicrew classicled Filter(?) Heater (dont know the temp, forgot to get a thermometer) Water parameters: ? Probably should check, especially in a new tank, but the shrimp look fine even after a couple days so they cant be too bad, right? I know this forum has a bit of a no unsolicited advice policy, so while im not specifically lookibg for any advice, i am open to it, so feal free to post any questions, suggestions, comments, or critiques. Edited August 25, 2022 by Scapexghost I have no idea why the second photo is upside down lol. Its not upside down on my phone. 7 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 You've made that tank look a lot bigger than 5.5 it looks great. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted August 26, 2022 Share Posted August 26, 2022 On 8/25/2022 at 4:36 PM, Scapexghost said: The dorm allows tanks up to 5 gallons, but i don't play by the rules so i got a 5.5. Ha! Rebel 😁 The tank looks great. I like the idea of using an internal filter in a dorm tank because they’re generally silent. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted August 26, 2022 Author Share Posted August 26, 2022 On 8/25/2022 at 9:44 PM, Patrick_G said: Ha! Rebel 😁 The tank looks great. I like the idea of using an internal filter in a dorm tank because they’re generally silent. Right. Wouldnt want to drive my roommate nuts with a loud filter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted September 4, 2022 Author Share Posted September 4, 2022 First Update: babies! Guppy finally dropped her fry. A good amount from the looks of it, but im not gonna bother trying to count them. I'm not sure if she dropped her fry today or yesterday, since I wasnt in my dorm much yesterday. She last dropped fry on 8/5, making it almost a month exactly. This is my first time trying to colony breed guppies, or any fish for that matter, so it'll be interesting to see. On the rest of the tank, most of the plants have grown very little, except the ancharis and water lettuse. The water lettuce covered the entire surface, so I removed some of it to improve gas exchange. I left most of it to give the fry places to hide. I don't think I'll do much more with the plants until the fry are larger. I do want to order some plants, specifically dwarf hair grass, pink flamingo, and more microsword. Also one of the shrimp died :(. Not sure why since none of the others died yet that one died almost immediately. Worst part is it might have been my only female. 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anitstuk Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 Floating plants growing really long and should be fun for the fish to swim through! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 More baby pics: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutBout Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 For a 5.5 gallon tank that looks to be almost 10, so congrats on making it appear larger than it is! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted September 6, 2022 Author Share Posted September 6, 2022 On 9/6/2022 at 4:13 PM, OutBout said: For a 5.5 gallon tank that looks to be almost 10, so congrats on making it appear larger than it is! Thanks, i was actually tempted to bring a ten, bc i figured a non fishkeeper wouldnt be able to tell 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutBout Posted September 7, 2022 Share Posted September 7, 2022 On 9/6/2022 at 2:33 PM, Scapexghost said: Thanks, i was actually tempted to bring a ten, bc i figured a non fishkeeper wouldnt be able to tell Seriously! My wife wouldn't be able tell a 55 and a 75 apart unless they were next to each other. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted September 9, 2022 Author Share Posted September 9, 2022 Small update, babies are getting bolder. Perhaps to bold, they're daring momma to gobble them up, but at least i have a better idea of how many there are: at least 12. Water lettuce is out of control and the anacharis needs a trim, but i don't want to lose any cover while the babies sre so small. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted September 28, 2022 Author Share Posted September 28, 2022 Quick update. Sorry about the brurry photos but i wanted to post something b4 batch #2 is born These are a little better 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Congratulations on your fry! (I know it sounds like I'm awarding stuff for great French fries) 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted October 8, 2022 Author Share Posted October 8, 2022 (edited) Big update, since both thursday and friday were quite eventful. Monday, I order a plant. I ordered the plant from this cute little mom-&-pop store in washington call Aquarium Co-Op, make sure to check them out if you havent heard of the 😉. Thursday, the plant arrived. It was a microsword. I had a little micro sword in the tank, but i wanted some more. Hopefully it'll be able to carpet before i hsve to tear the tank down at the end of the semester. I also removed most of the floaters to let light reach the new and old plants. I also cut and replanted the stems. I also did my first water change in the tank since less than a week after setting it up. This was mostly to combat the tannin build up rather than nitrogen build up, as the floaters and stems handle that. I almost dumped my last cherry shrimp down the sink drain, trying pick the wet little bug out of the sink as it jumped around without crushing it was... interesting. Friday, a month and two days after her last one, mamma guppy dropped another batch of fry! This is the forth since she came into my care and second since moving to the dorm with me. This happened around noon so I caught a few be born, but the month old fry, while not big enough to eat the newborns, we're plenty big enough to harass them. I turned of the light so the little guys could spend their first few moments in relative peace, and it looks like things are going better as they learn to get along with their new little brothers and sisters. Next: I'vd created a lot of guppies, a lot of ramshorns, and a lot of water lettuce. Next, I want to create a ton of cherry shrimp. I haven't had crazy success with shrimp in the past, I've created a few but never had a thriving colony. Hopefully this kind of setup will help change thst as I order some shrimp from aquahuna this weekend. Pictures: Edited October 8, 2022 by Scapexghost The tank isn't upside down irl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 It so cool seeing you put so much effort into maintaining a little part of nature in an urban jungle (international proverb thing) and I just want to say: Good Work!!! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted October 26, 2022 Author Share Posted October 26, 2022 Update: shirmp. I ordered some cherry shrimp from aquahuna last monday. They came in yesterday but i wanted to wait a day for them to color up before taking pics for the journal. I bought a few shrimp before, but all but one died. I assume my tank wasnt ready for shrimp yet, but one was a trooper and managed to last until the tank was ready. That guys been thriving for 2 months now, so pretty confident these will fair better. Still, with the amount of guppies in the tank rn, i wonder if a thriving colony is possible. What do you guys think? Is there enough cover for the baby shrimp to survive, or will i need more? Another question, whats the ideal amount of floating plants to have? I like that they clear the water column and provide cover for the fry, but they block a lot of light. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 From the pics at the top of the journal I can see that you have a decent amount of floating plants and other stuff, so I expect you might be able to gat a decent increase in numbers. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 Maybe try some guppy grass for your shrimp to hide in. I have micro swords in both tanks and they are doing very well! Sometimes the runners are unruly and come up and float when I vac the substrate. Sometimes I tuck them back in, sometimes I don’t. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted November 11, 2022 Author Share Posted November 11, 2022 Update: more babies! It's that time of the month and the guppy momma has had another batch. I don't have crazy high hopes for this batch since their older brothers and sisters are starting to reach the size where they might threaten the little ones. In other news the shrimp seem to be doing well, the females are saddling. The microsword is starting to carpet as well. Unfortunately, this journal is reaching its end. The semester ends in about a month, and ill be tearing down the tank. My plan is to redo the 20 at home to look like a scaled version of this tank, since im quite happy with it. Hopefully within the next month ill get some shrimplets and the first batch of guppies reach sexible size. No promises, but at the semester i might give away some of them. So look out for a post in the trade forum at the start of next month. Until then, enjoy some pics: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted November 11, 2022 Share Posted November 11, 2022 On 11/11/2022 at 6:16 AM, Scapexghost said: Update: more babies! It's that time of the month and the guppy momma has had another batch. I don't have crazy high hopes for this batch since their older brothers and sisters are starting to reach the size where they might threaten the little ones. In other news the shrimp seem to be doing well, the females are saddling. The microsword is starting to carpet as well. Unfortunately, this journal is reaching its end. The semester ends in about a month, and ill be tearing down the tank. My plan is to redo the 20 at home to look like a scaled version of this tank, since im quite happy with it. Hopefully within the next month ill get some shrimplets and the first batch of guppies reach sexible size. No promises, but at the semester i might give away some of them. So look out for a post in the trade forum at the start of next month. Until then, enjoy some pics: Sad to hear that you'll have to tear down the tank!?! It's been a pleasure following your journal and I admire how despite the workload you get at University you have managed to keep a functional aquarium looking great 👏👏👏, I'll try and replicate that in a couple of years time 😁. May I ask what you're studying at University? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted November 11, 2022 Author Share Posted November 11, 2022 On 11/11/2022 at 12:27 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: Sad to hear that you'll have to tear down the tank!?! It's been a pleasure following your journal and I admire how despite the workload you get at University you have managed to keep a functional aquarium looking great 👏👏👏, I'll try and replicate that in a couple of years time 😁. May I ask what you're studying at University? By tear down, i just mean take everything down and take it home. I would leave the plants, but youre not allow to leave anything plugged in at the dorms over the break. Im glad youre enjoying the journal, ill start another one in january for the next tank. I am studying electrical engineering. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted November 11, 2022 Author Share Posted November 11, 2022 On 11/11/2022 at 12:27 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: I'll try and replicate that in a couple of years time Can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted November 11, 2022 Share Posted November 11, 2022 On 11/11/2022 at 3:26 AM, Scapexghost said: am studying electrical engineering Does that mean you know how to make the cords from all the aquariums look good?! Because I need to be schooled on that! 🤣 But seriously, that’s cool. That’s what my brother studied too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapexghost Posted November 11, 2022 Author Share Posted November 11, 2022 On 11/11/2022 at 3:36 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Does that mean you know how to make the cords from all the aquariums look good?! Because I need to be schooled on that! 🤣 But seriously, that’s cool. That’s what my brother studied too. You should see me dorm floor is coveres with extention cords and power strips😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted November 11, 2022 Share Posted November 11, 2022 On 11/11/2022 at 3:26 AM, Scapexghost said: I would leave the plants In a window yes? They will get some light? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now