Last year, we expanded on the inflatable aquarium by introducing real fish. Not just flopping about in the living room, I assure you. But real, live fish in a tank. We started with a small tank and the few fish that came free with it. You may remember them from the
tour I did of the tank. But my partner likes to think big and he had plans for something more epic.
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| Change is staring you down! |
The plan: Make an aquarium with a land mass full of plants. Add toy sharks and dinosaurs, because why the hell not. Complete with running river.
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| The land mass frame |
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| Adding the foam |
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| Testing it fits |
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| Painting it to look like rock |
It has taken him the better part of a year to make the land mass. It might have gone quicker if I helped, like I was supposed to. But a combination of struggling with mental health and an aversion to CDT made me more than useless. Just being in the garage stressed me out! And when asked on which would be the best materials and the hows of construction I got frustrated at my lack of knowledge. Rather wisely, I stepped back and let my partner work it out sans whinging.
I did help where I could. I make a very good hot squash! And I make an excellent sounding board for ideas and conundrums. Plus, I got to pick the sharks and dinosaurs, most important job if you ask me.
Was the plan achieved? Well, you tell me!
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| Pre-water |
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| With water! |
The land mass features plants sourced on walks around our street and top soil from the fella's mother's garden. Getting it to sit in the water proved difficult as the land mass was lighter than the water. Even with all the soil in! Thankfully, we had some spare diving weights which now rest under the soil and keep everything in place. The river leaked a couple times as well, but everything seems to be settling down now.
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| Face Hugger doing what it does best. |
From the original tank, we have Change the Silver Dollar and the Tetris Collective of Neon Tetras. Unfortunately, Cheryl Blossom the Gold Platy Fish died shortly before the aquarium was finished. But our fish now have plenty of new friends. Representing Team Cockroach, we have two types of shrimp: Bamboo Shrimp and Amano Shrimp. (Brownie points if you get the reference!) There are two Danios which are a pale pinky colour, named Al and Beano. Then we have two Otocinclus Catfish (or Dwarf Suckers if you don't fancy that mouthful) which are a lovely zebra colour. These fish hang onto surfaces with their mouths, so they've been named the Face Huggers. Lastly, we have a family of guppies - originally three females and two males, but one of the ladies died - who have already created a second generation! My Gruppies, if you will. (Grand guppies, gruppies, get it?)
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| Enrichment shark! |
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| View from the cave. |
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| Feeding time! |
We also have snails which were a happy surprise. There were snail eggs on one of the plants bought for the water. We found this out three days after installing the tank when there were suddenly wild snails out and about! They too have been busy on making the second generation.
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| Guppies! |
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| Snail, gen 2! |
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| More snails |
There are plenty of places for the fish to play, hide, and clearly boink. The underside of the land mass was designed to create a cave so that there was a sheltered area. Around the back of the land mass has become a nursery as that seems to be where the guppies go to have their babies. The plants have been placed together, making a nice little grasslands - Change likes to hide there. The Face Huggers have been known to attach themselves to the toy sharks! Hopefully, there is enough variety for them all to keep them happy.
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| Dinotopia |
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| Cave dwellers. Who else lurks in the dark? |
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| Pteradactyl's view - dinner is always just out of reach! |
Sadly, there are no pictures of the Tetris Collective as they are back in the small tank, being quarantined. They are poorly. Maybe when the baby guppies are little bigger and showing their tail colours we'll take another dip, hopefully with a well and present Tetris Collective. I'll leave you with a quick video tour!
Do you have an aquarium? Which fish do you have? Or do you prefer the outdoor pond? Lemme know, below!
On a side note, it is very hard taking pictures of fish! Some of these are from our phones, some are from the crosstour.
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