any ideas?

[thom336]

i have a spare 16ins by 8ins by ins tank, which i know is very small, but i wondered if you lot had any ideas on what i could put in it. i have a choice of substrates for it: either peat, sand or gravel, a choice of filters: undergravel, sponge or box, a variety of plants i can nick from my other tanks, and others i can order in. i was just wondering if you lot had any ideas on how i should set it up, and what fish i should keep in it. other decor available could include rocks or wood, any ideas?

[Sensei_the_dojo]

You mentioned that you have other tanks. Are any of them used as quarantine/hospital tanks? This tank sounds like a good place to treat sick fish or isolate a new fish until you're assured it's healthy enough to join the general population.

Otherwise, you might want to go with a solo betta, or perhaps a betta with a bottom feeder.

As far as filtration/planting/decoration, I'd keep it as simple as possible.

[thom336]

im very lucky in the fact that all my lfs quarenteen all their fish for 2 weeks prior to offering them for sale, and they are all of good quality - so i do not place them under further stress of quarenteening them again. i used to...

as for a hospital tank, i do have one of those, i keep it dry when not in use, and when it is in use i carry out daily partial water changes instead of having a filter - as it is hard to keep the bacteria alive when there is nothin in the tank for months on end.

thanks for the suggestion of a betta, i used to have one in my community aquaria, i missed it dearly when it died. so i may go for one of them again, and possibly some cories on the bottom.

[ChilDawg]

You are lucky in that aspect, but I have read that you still need to quarantine fish after you buy them, since just the stress of moving them might cause some latent disease to rear its ugly head.

[thom336]

i think moving them from the supplyer, to quarenteen, to the shop, to quarenteen again, and then to final destination is too much for fish, and so when they are under my control i try to settle them down as soon as possible. but that is really just personal opinion, and i would strongly recommend quarenteen despite my not doing it. i have set the tank up for guppies (which i used to keep, and look forward to keeping again), with silver sand substrate; broad leaf amazon sword, another unknown sword, bronze bacopa and parrots feather as plants; a halogen desk lamp for lighting; and the sponge filter. the tank will be kept at ambient room temperature, and i have reserved some mighty fine guppies at my lfs. females are so much more colourful these days to when i first kept them 6 or so years ago, its amazing how quickly things change...