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Aquarium
Style Choices:
Fresh
water tropical ideas -
Imagine the Amazon, with tangled roots, Amazon Sword plants swaying,
impressive Angelfish or Discus (Amazon Cichlids) swimming in between
the plant stems, with a school of 100 or more tetras darting too
and fro as a school, adding life and beauty. Finish off with catfish
and/or loaches on the bottom and a few hatchetfish on the top.
Or
for beautiful fresh water color - you can't get closer to Salt water
color than with a community tank of assorted African Cichlids. A
carefully chosen tank of mutually agreeable (i.e. they won't kill
each other) African Cichlids can be a wonderful sight to behold
without the high fish equipment and maintenance cost and time of
salt water aquariums.
Or
if a smaller tank is what fits your decor, consider a tank filled
with colorful guppies, platties and/or swordfish with catfish such
as albino cory's on the bottom.
If
the extremely colorful betta's are your choice, we recommend a customized
apartment block. Bettas are often kept (to their discomfort) at
room temperature in tiny bowls that should be cleaned daily or more
often. While it is true the betta's will often survive in this environment,
they will neither thrive nor, according to careful observers, be
comfortable. Having a apartment (or condominium) design with each
of the sections sharing water allows heating to a comfortable level
and proper cleaning while showing these beauties off to their best.
Another
colorful choice would be the Killifish. There are two general categories,
the annuals and the perennials. Sounds like plants don't they! The
annuals only live one summer, breed as the water is almost gone,
lay eggs that need to be kept moist (not underwater) for several
months, and then "planted" in a tank. Some of the varieties
of Killifish might better be called "Kill" fish - they
like to be the only fish in the tank and will fight to the death.
(Why is it that most of the really pretty fish like to kill each
other?) Fortunately there are many varieties of this colorful fish
that are more peaceful and do not have to be dried out at the end
of summer.
There
are hundreds of options that are practical in the tropical freshwater
world. They range from the low cost, friendly and easy to feed,
to the not very friendly (but still beautiful to many) piranhas.
With Fresh water aquariums you can choose between a very natural
look all the way to wildly unrealistic with neon gravel and unlikely
ornaments, all depending on your preferences. If you want more ideas,
here are some selections by geographical area
Cold
water tropical ideas -
Brightly colored, oddly shaped, graceful goldfish. Large and colorful
Koi. Great if you want to allow your guests to feed. While the choices
here are a lot more limited, remember that, unless you want many
tanks, you only have to find the choices that make you happy!
Salt
water fish ideas -
The always popular lionfish (with the right companions - fish too
big for it to sting and eat), brightly colored shrimp, dancing anemone
fish in golds, reds and browns, with or without the anemones. This
is the Rolls Royce of the aquarium world. The brown anemone fish
looks like the rich interior of leather seats in an antique Rolls
Royce - who would have thought that brown could be such a vibrant
and beautiful color. If bright supersaturated color is what you
want and cost is not an issue, a salt water fish tank is the way
to go.
If
you want a smaller tank and are willing to deal with fussy eating
habits, there are a couple sizes of seahorses that make for extremely
interesting tanks. Because they don't swim very well, they need
fairly small tanks. The pygmy varieties do best in a 5-10 gallon
(20-40litre) tank, the larger varieties in a 10-30 gallon (40-120litre)
tank.
Salt
water reef ideas -
The beauty of live rock. The majesty of marine invertebrates. The
slow - but real - growth of corals. Animals that look like plants.
The high cost of a reef tank comes with a very high reward to the
viewers.
Brackish
water ideas -
Your brackish water tank doesn't have nearly as many choices as
tropical freshwater or saltwater, but the choices that do exist
are worth the showing. A centerpiece of many brackish water tank
will be the Archer fish - which will shoot down the food you give
it on the side of the tank above the water line. Some people have
set up targets 2 meters (6') or more away, when the Archer hits
the target (they seldom miss) they are rewarded with a favorite
treat. Leave the tank open and you may find them shooting at you
to get your attention!. Mudskippers - fish that live a large portion
of their life out of water, wallowing in mud, climbing trees. The
brackish water tank affords many other strange and unique fish including
the extremely mean figure 8 puffer fish.
A fairly
large fish Anableps sp, when available the so called "4 eyed
fish" is a livebearing fish that can grow to 30cm (12").
It works well in a fairly long narrow tank, with a good deal of
the tank above the water level. Feeding this fish can be done on
land.
Indoor
Pond ideas -
Beautiful highly colored Koi will be the feature attraction in most
of these ponds. Bread for viewing from the top Koi are available
in a wide range of color patterns and price ranges. Of course the
more expensive ones are generally the most pleasing to the eye,
and many of the more expensive ones are only available by making
a trip to Japan (Oct/Nov being the best time of year due as the
fry are big enough to get a good idea of their characteristics but
small enough to have a very high probability of surviving the trip
back.)
Outdoor
Pond ideas -
Our winters are cold! But you didn't need to be told that! If your
pond is deep enough, overwintering can be done in the pond keeping
the filter systems going and an airhole through the ice to prevent
suffocation, or as part of our maintenance, we can overwinter your
fish, lilies and other plants in a cold (but not freezing) temperature
controlled environment that keeps your fish at their best for re"planting"
in spring.
Great
General ideas for all tanks. Incompatible species and unique tank
designs -
With almost all tanks a large tank is more effective, stable and
safe than a small tank, but what to do about fish that are not compatible?
The solution in many tanks is to have a divider that keeps the fish
separate, but through a variety of options, have the water flowing
through all sections. This gives a large water mass but keeps the
incompatible fish away from each other.
If
you have space for a large tank that is going to be against a wall
an effective choice is to put a piece of glass about 2/3rds to the
back of the tank. In the front of the tank put larger fish and plants,
in the back of the tank put smaller fish and more delicate plants.
Now, this may sound wrong, but the effect is one of depth.The "far
away" fish are small and this makes the tank look deeper than
it really is. Of course, if you want the small fish in the front
and the large fish in the back, there is nothing wrong with that
either, but we would probably move the glass to be only 1/3rd to
the back in this case.
If
you have space for a large tank that is going into a wall there
are other options to visually separate the back and sides of the
tank from the viewer, giving the tank an immense look while hiding
all the equipment out of sight.
There
are lots of other specialty tank options. For a living room, consider
a coffee table tank - a particularly nice option is a hexagonal
coffee table. Because the corners act as a visual barrier, this
allows a large water mass to be easily broken up into 2 to 6 sections.
Ideally the water will flow between the sections, but if your desire
is to have salt water in one section, brackish in one and fresh
in a third, that can be done by placing solid glass between the
incompatible sections.
For
a corner, consider a triangular or L shaped tank - this is another
design that allows for a very effective visual barrier. Or you might
want 2 tanks with the equipment hidden in the corner.
A tank
built into a book case with equipment above or below in the cabinet
works nicely against a wall or as a room divider.
What
about hiding equipment? This one is fairly easy. It all depends
on what tank design you want in general and whether you care about
hiding the equipment or not. Heaters can be hidden in the filter,
filters can be hidden behind tree roots or behind a backdrop.
There
is an infinite number of choices, let your mind wander, or let us
help you think up effective solutions for you.
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