Here's some pics of my 55 gallon tank at home. My mom got it from two of her friends who moved to Florida in 1997, they had it for 4 years before we got it so the tank is 14 years old. The pleco in there is 15 years old, when they bought him he was 1 year already and he's been in that tank all his life just about. He's a big healthy critter. There was a bit of a debate about what species of "common" pleco he is. Some argued his growth was stunted and others say there are varieties that can go from anywhere to 10" and larger. He's about 8 inches long, the other pleco is maybe 3-4 years old now. The silver dollars are all about 2-3 years old, two of them I got from walmart and they lived and grew huge, when it didn't seem like they would make it. There's 5 short finned black skirted tetras, and two long finned gold skirted tetras. And let's not forget the Gouramie and the irredescent shark (who has also gotten quite huge).
And yes I know the tank is dirty, and not well organized. When we got the tank it had a red tailed shark in it as well as some huge gold fish that we had for a few good years, but my mom foolishly bought african ciclids, not knowing how aggressive they were. They killed off everything except Mr. Pleco. He had his fins nibbled but they grew back. We had the ciclids for years, they actually bred in the tank and all the blue ones lived and the yellow ones died off. Eventually they all died of old age, leaving just the pleco. My mom was afraid to really clean up the tank too much cause pleco had been through a lot and she didn't want to risk killing him by messing up the tank conditions, so she just cleaned up the plastic plants and rearranged things, threw in some marbles to try to make it look a little more colorful. Algae grew, pleco feasted, and we got new fish. And so this is why the tank is a mess, please, no flames. We have a big magnum bio wheel filter, the water is perfect and the fish we have thrive and live for many years, so even if it looks bad, the fish are happy and healthy and that's what matters the most. So now on with the pictures!
And yes I know the tank is dirty, and not well organized. When we got the tank it had a red tailed shark in it as well as some huge gold fish that we had for a few good years, but my mom foolishly bought african ciclids, not knowing how aggressive they were. They killed off everything except Mr. Pleco. He had his fins nibbled but they grew back. We had the ciclids for years, they actually bred in the tank and all the blue ones lived and the yellow ones died off. Eventually they all died of old age, leaving just the pleco. My mom was afraid to really clean up the tank too much cause pleco had been through a lot and she didn't want to risk killing him by messing up the tank conditions, so she just cleaned up the plastic plants and rearranged things, threw in some marbles to try to make it look a little more colorful. Algae grew, pleco feasted, and we got new fish. And so this is why the tank is a mess, please, no flames. We have a big magnum bio wheel filter, the water is perfect and the fish we have thrive and live for many years, so even if it looks bad, the fish are happy and healthy and that's what matters the most. So now on with the pictures!
Oh and we did put real plants in the tank once, the silver dollars ate them all up o.o; My little pirranas!! ^__^
My mom always kept fish since I was a baby so I've grown into a fish freak lol
