new tank what direction

[hooliganATV]

to day I got offered a good deal on a really nice tank.

its a bit of a wired one as it used to be a coral display tank, so dimensions are 39" long 27" wide and 12" tall, so not very tall at all.

my plan is to use it as a south american bio type for the

Batrochoglanis raninus

. it will give me about 50G and a great floor area. I need to build lid for it and I know filtration cause I always you the same method (creature of habit). Now I'm left with what else to put in there that will be fine with the shallowness of the tank and how I'm going to furnish it, oh the lighting will be natural,it will be sat right next to a widow ( similar to my dovii tank that looks amazing with the light coming through the window).

so any advice on furnishing, plants, sub-straight and tank mates really appreciated.

and the tank awaiting a good clean up

[racoll]

That's a nice sized tank for a group of those fish.

What I would do, is rather than a full lid, is make a partial lid, and then seeing as you are next to a window, try to grow some semi-aquatic plants from clay pots within the tank. Others will know which plants would be best for this. Bear in mind the temperature and humidity of the room.

Other decor would be the usual thin layer of silver sand (no more than 1 cm), lots of bogwood, a few dead leaves, java fern, java moss, floating plants (frogbit and Indian fern are both nice), broken pots etc.

Many options for tank mates. Not sure what's available in your area though.

[Jools]

Lovely shape of tank. Personally I'd have an open top tank with some loricariinae of some sort (sandy bottom, a couple of planted containers or a large arching piece of wood. Then some other dithers that won't jump maybe livebearers OSD?

In shallower water, fishes big enough to live safely with the

Batrochoglanis

may get a bit flighty and will certain need a lid as you say.

Biotodoma

would be my choice.

Jools

[hooliganATV]

I'm thinking now that I may make some sort of basket area so we can have some semi aquatic plants, I this ill silicon some perpex in to form a divide so the plants have water and the roots come in the tank but the fish cant jump out. maybe a planted corner around it so the divider cant be seen. the opposite corner will be manly gravel with some larger rocks, pebbles and bog wood, the centre of the tank or diagonal middle will be a mix of slate tiles and light sand, may be a centre root wood feature.

the dither fish can occupy the open areas and the cats will have a mix of areas and hiding spots to move between. natural lighting seem to work well with these fish, when they first arrived I had a synthetic light source and they hid all the time, with natural light when the sun goes behind cloud cover they move between hiding spots, its quite amusing to watch.

my only concern is the max size is some what vague, anywhere from 4-8" depending on local,just hoping the depth wont be an issue if they get to 8". once sub-straight is in and I have made the bracing for the lid I'm going to lose about 1" meaning they will have maybe 10-11" of water depth.

[hooliganATV]

so been doing some work on the new tank, and a new change in direction. please excuse the mess we keep the cats in the bedroom cause there is little movement through the day and we get to enjoy them in the evening as we both like to chill in there as we are up early for work.

so I got the back painted, went with a green so it lets light in but not to much but also blends with the plants when they are in there.



once I got that sorted I need to fix a lid of sorts so using some stuff I had lying around I fixed this in place. if it doesn't hold ill replace with glass. but looks good and should allow loads of natural light in from the top.





then I put in what I had lying around waiting for the tank. So far I got slated area and some drift wood. I'm going to do two planted areas with some moss tied to the drift wood and a couple of the rocks. one planted area is in the back left, this will be just over 1.5ft square and the second is the small area of fine gravel be around 1 ft square. should give the cat lots of hiding spots with a few more bits of wood, and dither fish should have plenty of space to get away but still not worked out what they will be.

[jodilynn]

Very nice job, I personally prefer shallow tanks (I have short arms and my son's 40 gallon cube is literally the bain of my existence!).

I am looking to get either a 180 or a 220 for my catfish tank (plecos, synos, pictus, etc.). L need more "floorspace" for caves and logs and such for my beasties to hide in, but I also need more swimming room as they continue to grow (and seeing how much they eat it probably will be sooner than later!).

Beautiful fish, I just have a quartet of "regular" SA Bumblebees and what little I do see of them I enjoy immensely!

[hooliganATV]

i think the shorty tank will be better for the cats cause of the ground space, its just proving a pain for dither fish.

[hooliganATV]

well the tank is now up and running, a few changes to the plan. I'm currently using plastic plants and my defuses didn't work how I wonted it so I went with then spray bar but I think it looks good.

[racoll]

Looking nice! I'd certainly add more cover for the catfish.

Maybe more bogwood, some clay pots or tubes perhaps? I think they will feel vulnerable unless they have at least one hiding spot each.

[hooliganATV]

Looking nice! I'd certainly add more cover for the catfish.

Maybe more bogwood, some clay pots or tubes perhaps? I think they will feel vulnerable unless they have at least one hiding spot each.

thanks, the drift wood is hollow, but if you look to the left and right of it there is two black pipes in there. the plan is to add some smaller bits and more plants (live ones to replace the plastic ones) this should create more cover.