Hey guys - thanks again for the compliments!
Misled Youth: I think the way I get the plants to spread out like that has a little to do with how I "plant" them. When I stick them in the gravel I usually tilt them a little bit one way or another, because nothing in nature grows straight, so why should aquarium plants? Also, I have good filter flow, so the current makes them flow. Also, I actually take my hands and stick my fingers into the base of the plant where all the leaves crop out and I fan them out or forcefully spread the leaves apart. I'll actually sit there rearranging and pulling at the leaves until I get them how I want. I also try to plant them in places that a plant might take root. I've got one planted in between a nook on that log, which looks sort of cool, and a bunch adjacent to the back of the log. I also mix in the sizes and shapes of the plants too. Try to make it look as messy natural as possible. If you look in a pond in the summer, its a tangle of weeds in some places, or in less weedy areas you'll see a clump here and a clump there growing with each other flowing all over the place.
Ghpr1957 - Rams are a Dwarf Cichlid. Like a lot of Dwarf Cichlid types, they're fairly peaceful. You can def keep them in a community type tank. Even with some semi-aggressives, nothing too aggressive, just semi. Like Angelfish, or certain Gouramies. These are German Blue Rams. I think they're one of the most colorful fish in FW. The blue iridescent colors are incredible. One thing to be aware of. There are strains of this fish that come from Asia. I have heard they are not as hardy and more sensitive to water parameters that aren't top notch. I had some Rams years ago that I got from a Petco, that I believe may have been of the Asian strain. They only lived a year or so even under good conditions. The RAms I have now come from my lfs and he gets them from a breeder in FL. So try to track down an independent fish shop and see if they have any/can get any for you from a reputable source.
I'm going to put a few more pics here that came out a little better.
The first pic, I threw in there because I wanted to show you guys one of the Blue Angels I got. Its the only pic where you can sort of see the colors. The top of his head has a blue-ish hue, and when he's got his fins spread out they're a smokey blue color; very cool. @nd one is another view of the whole tank. 3rd pic, sort of shows what I'm talking about with spreading the plants. If you look closely at the top of the log, you can see I planted the long leafed plant behind the log, but I purposely spread its leaves out and under and through the appendage section of the log. As if the plant spring up there and is growing up and past the log. Also another leafy plant in the fron right corner of the log is growing out from under a corner of the front of the log in a little nook. Just to the right of the small green Sword plant. The I threw a cool shot of my Pearl Gouramie in and another shot of one of my ram's up close. Hope that sort of shows/help show how I try to spread the plants a little bit.
Thanks again for the kind words guys!
Mark
