The sad tank

[nabokovfan87]

I think we all end with one eventually tucked in a corner somewhere. Maybe it was that tank you thought you needed to home fish for a period of time or maybe it was just a location that isn't easy to work with.

Whatever the reason, please feel free to share your sad tank. Give it some love today.

I was watching a tour and saw these two.... One was difficult to work on because of the access (too tall) and the other was a project that lost the male fish, likely due to a nutrient deficiency based on the comments by the author.

 

[Guppysnail]

Funny you post this. I’ve been super swamped with tons of fish projects the past 2 weeks. I have a 5.5g on a bottom shelf that is a misfit tank. 
Usually just shrimp. I put the 2 least killi fry I missed when selling the colony in it last year.  They formed another colony I sold last week. It always houses the odd CPD fry I find in the parent tank. It has my black tiger badis my friend asked me to take. 
Currently we are back to just shrimp. I feed this tank but embarrassingly sometimes even forget that. Tons of microfauna so nothing actually goes hungry. It’s the sad tank that only gets water changes and gravel vac when everything else in the fishrooms are done and I’m not to tired. 
 

This morning I made this tank a priority and started giving it the full love treatment. I even moved in my little Buddha girl and Torii gate to give me motivation to pay more attention to it. 
 

Im half way done. 

 

SAD TANK COMPLETE 🥰

[nabokovfan87]

This is mine. Not neglected as much as very low stocking and I just want it to do it's own thing. I try to keep the sußwassertang clean, but the main reason it looks the way it does is just because I need to replace the filter (or add a second one).

I could use something like my tidal to go ahead and run fine filtration and it'd be great, but it's a tank meant for a single fish, potentially a second colony. Undecided and so right now it just stays put.

It also needs better substrate. This is the ridiculously fine moonlight sand.

Edited August 26, 2023 by nabokovfan87
trying to find the right photo

[PineSong]

My sad tank is this 'hospice' tank for my neons who have neon tetra disease +2 guppies who were poorly. So far, all the fish are still alive; the guppies look much improved although the neons all look worse.

Removing deceased fish before others eat them is an important part of limiting this disease, so I don't like how overgrown this is. The bottom is entirely covered in  botanicals because it was originally a shrimp tank. There are lots of areas where I cannot see if a fish is down. I've been counting them 2x a day to keep track, but I think it would be better to put them in a bare-bottom tank.

{{Overthinking alert}} But then I think "what if the tannins from all the wood is what is keeping them alive?" I mean, these fish look like a zombie apocalypse but they have good appetites and behave as normal. I hate to upset any balance that is helping them. So then another day passes without my doing anything. 

Maybe I can split the difference and move them to a 10g with a few pieces of cholla and 1/4 of the najas. Poor guys.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by PineSong

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/26/2023 at 9:23 AM, PineSong said:

{{Overthinking alert}} But then I think "what if the tannins from all the wood is what is keeping them alive?" I mean, these fish look like a zombie apocalypse but they have good appetites and behave as normal. I hate to upset any balance that is helping them. So then another day passes without my doing anything. 

Very understandable! I am on team "the wood is helping".  Find a nice piece of mopani and just toss it in a bare tank and you'll have tannins for a long time. Add something like catappa leaves if you need to or some other botanical just for the antifungal and antibacterial properties.