Time to plant! The ammania gracilis and the Christmas Moss were both taken from the home tank but everything else was bought online! I got the lucky bamboo from amazon and the other plants from this seller on eBay. Everything showed up in great condition and I highly recommend them!
Ammania gracilisMoneywort (bacopa monnieri)Dwarf Water Lily (nymphaea helvola)Water lily bulb.
These three plants are the ones I put in the background of the left side of the tank. The gracilis and moneywort are interspersed around the water lily in the center. The water lily bulb is not fully buried in the substrate, as that’s how most other aquatic bulbs are planted. My other nymphaea bulb in the home tank isn’t buried in the substrate at all. Then in the foreground I have some dwarf sagittaria subulata. I didn’t really include a mid ground plant as I wanted it to look more foresty and highlight the decoration.
Dwarf sagittaria subulataLeft side of the tank.
On the right side I added lucky bamboo I had cut down to size. It looks a bit too short now, but once the nodes grow leaves it will look better.
Right side of the tank.
Against the side of the tank I have lobelia cardinalis, a mid ground plant. I also added a couple stems of it to the left of the temple. Then in front I have alternathera reineckii as little accent bushes. And I didn’t get a good picture of it but I put a tiny bit of Christmas Moss on a rock in the front right corner.
Lobelia cardinalisAlternatherareineckiiFull tank a couple hours after planting.
For the next 3-4 weeks I’ll just update every few days. There won’t be much to do while I wait for the tank to cycle and for the plants to start growing. I’ll do occasional 20% water changes but I’ll mostly just be leaving it alone. I have the light set to full spectrum at medium-high brightness for 13 hours a day. I’ll be keeping a close eye on all the plants and taking pictures so stay tuned and wish me luck!
This is the start of my planted, self-sufficient, experimental, 10-gallon, guppy tank! I have big plans for this little tank, including some things I couldn’t find info for on online. That’s the reason I started this blog! I thought I would document my experiences in case anyone else wanted to try the things I’m trying.
So my main experiment here will be to grow a dwarf water lily! Specifically, nymphaea helvola. I couldn’t find any accounts of growing one in an aquarium, mostly just in dedicated containers. There are plenty of other species under nymphaea that are grown in fish aquariums, but not this specific type that flowers on the surface. So I’m giving it a try!
Now let’s start with the equipment! I got a pretty standard heater, air pump and stone, and filter. I’m pretty fond of the light I got, though. It has a few different modes and a built-in timer.
For my aquarium lid I measured the dimensions of the indented area the lid would sit on. Then I accounted for a half inch gap in the back for the tubing and wires. I took those dimensions to my local hardware store and got a custom cut of 1/4” thick glass for $9. Then I sanded the rough edges and added some cute command hooks and we were done! A cheap, effective aquarium lid that will contain any evaporation.
For substrate I started with Flourite Dark, varying from an inch to an inch and a half deep. Then in half of the tank I added another half inch of white aquarium gravel.
From there I filled the tank with dechlorinated water using Seachem Prime. As well as 2 1/2 cups of water from the Home tank. It was pretty cloudy but the filter went to work!
Just after adding water.A day and a half after.
On the second day I drained half the water, added my decorations, and replaced the drained water entirely with water from the home aquarium. Now it’s back to being a cloudy mess.
My lucky bamboo came in the mail from amazon early today! So I’ll be adding that tonight after the water clears up a bit. And that’s it for the first two days with the Stray Guppies aquarium!
Oh, the meaning of the name! I love Stray Kids, the kpop group, so I’m getting 9 guppies named after the original members. Don’t judge me I’m just here to create a little ecosystem.
I will admit that I did not follow all of the formal fish protocol with my tank. I did not wait for the full cycle to be completed naturally, nor did I quarantine any of my fish. All things considered, though, I don’t think that it would have been necessary. I have lost three fish thus far (more details on why later).
When starting my tank I was advised to get a small school of hardy fish that I didn’t mind losing to aid in the cycle. I chose cherry barbs! I’d been attached to the cute little guys since I first started researching what fish to add. I got seven of them and during the cycling process I lost two. I haven’t been able to find their bodies, though, so I’m guessing they’ve been eaten. There was one male and six females, so I named them Satoshi and his harem. They were extremely shy at the beginning, thus I don’t have very many good pictures of them. They also didn’t exhibit very much schooling behavior until more recently.
I was in the process of peeling off the default background. An arduous task.A rare shot of Satoshi (circa 2020).
Since the barbs were small, shy, and antisocial I opted to get more fish about a week later. Before doing this I had added supplements to the water to speed the cycle along and tested the nitrate/nitrite levels to find them…acceptable. My second choice was mollies! I actually hadn’t been planning on getting these but I saw them at the pet store and found them to pretty to resist! I got three each of dalmation and creamsicle lyretail mollies. They got along with the barbs swimmingly! If anything, they made the barbs much more open and social. I was seeing a lot more activity in my tank. For the most part they school within their colorations, but they socialize frequently.
Spot (black male), Blot (half-and-half female), Dot (white female), and Duchess (cat paw).Clarence (male), Gertrude (darker female), and Millicent (lighted female).
Fast forward another couple weeks and I ended up getting some dwarf gouramis. I had read a lot of conflicting opinions on whether multiple dwarf gouramis could be together or now and decided to go for it. All in all I have been successful. I got two different variations of the standard dwarf gourami, one powder blue dwarf gourami, and one flame red dwarf gourami. All male. Within a couple days of getting him the powder blue showed signs of dying. He was hovering near the top or hiding away, staying very idle, and ignoring food even when it was dropped on his head. As such, the other three started picking on him, perhaps sensing weakness.
RIP
Ultimately I decided to isolate the poor guy to live out his last days in peace. It didn’t take him long to pass on. In this case I believe I got him sick. I decided against getting another as the three that remained seemed to get along and I didn’t want to risk disrupting that. These gourami have also had their names changed approximately three times, so it’s fortunate I’m not trying to teach them their names.
Dwarf Gourami. Dimitri (left) and Lucian (right).Flame Red Dwarf Gourami, Byron.Lucian from a different angle.
They will still chase and nip at each other occasionally but for the most part they cohabitate and even socialize just fine.
Gourami and mollies.
Yesterday I finally added my bottom feeders. The panda cories. I find Cory catfish absolutely adorable and spent a lot of time agonizing over which ones to get and whether or not they would be okay on gravel. The general consensus was that they are more comfortable with sand but will do fine with standard aquarium gravel. So I got a school of five panda cories. As it’s only been one day I can’t say a whole lot about their behavior and relationships to the other fish. From what I have seen thus far they seem mostly healthy and active. They got to exploring the floor of the aquarium right away. I have decided to address them as standard middle aged white males. I’m unsure of their actual sexes, but as of right now they are all Carl.
Carl.Carl snacking.
My last unexpected addition to the tank are some babies! I have both dalmation and creamsicle molly fry now. They may possibly be hybrids between the two, but only time will tell. It started with spotting three on March 4th but now there are eight!
First fry seen.
At first I was expecting (and somewhat hoping) them to get eaten, but they’ve remained strong and grown quite a bit! I’ve also grown quite attached to them, so it’s looking like any remaining stock I had left in the take will be occupied by more mollies! If another generation pops up I will definitely have to do some population control but for now I’ll just enjoy the larger schools.
More fry one week later.
For now I believe that will complete my community tank! I certainly don’t have much more room but we shall see what the future holds. This leaves the count at:
This is my first aquarium! In my adult life, of course. (When I was in middle school I had a 1.5 gallon aquarium with a koi fish but we don’t talk about that.) I started it February 13, 2020. There were several decorations and a few plants and it has since come a LONG way. Here is the first day vs a little over a month later.
I added way more plant life and changed up the decorations and the background. Now I am incredibly pleased with it. I see a few more minor changes to be made but overall this will be the final arrangement of the tank.
I will be making separate posts detailing the equipment, fish, and plants! I’m tagging any posts related to this tank “home sweet home“ in honor of a sign that I will soon be hanging there. This will also be my main, “home” tank.
I am a beginner aquarist! I started my first aquarium a little over a month ago, so I will be using this blog to track my progress. I currently have a 75 gallon aquarium and I’m planning a 10 gallon one soon. I’ll be trying some different things with them and keeping logs of my fish, plants, equipment, and process! Hopefully this will keep me organized and help me in the future as I learn from my mistakes. And if you’ve stumbled upon this blog maybe it will help you too! Or if not you can at least be slightly entertained.
Sofishtication 