~ 10 gallon Community Tank ~

Size (US Gallons): 20
Material: all glass
Lighting: one 20 watt fluorescent bulb
Filtration: one Aquaclear 200, one submersible small in-tank power filter
Substrate: medium-fine grain random tacky leftover gravel from past lives
Plants: a ton of hornwort, java fern, java moss, duckweed, anacharis (elodea), a small Aponegeton etc...
Fish: many mollies and guppies, one Corydoras catfish, one starry night Ancistrus, three or so Apple Snails and 3 juvenile angelfish
Maintenance: 30% water change every month or so. Filter media is rinsed in a bucket of old tap water. Because the tank is on the floor, water is scooped out by the bucket-ful, and gravel is not vacuumed (it's only a thin layer anyway).

Notes:

January 21, 2001

This is a peaceful tank with little live-bearing community fish. It currently houses a random assortment of fancy and not-so-fancy guppies, some somewhat wild-looking mollies, and some other random fish that I don't have room for elsewhere. I have a lot of respect for guppy breeders but personally, I kind of like just throwing them all together and seeing what happens. The kids are rarely as spectacular as the parents, but they are still pretty cool looking. Free love, ya know?

I am growing out three angelfish in this tank too. I'm sure there won't be a lot of guppies with happy childhoods in the tank as long as these angels are in here, but I'm hoping their stay will be brief. They are growing VERY quickly in this tank. Eventually, I'll bring them all to the tank at work in CIT... or might keep two myself, we'll see.

We feed these fish mostly bits of flake food (I use a 1/4 tsp. measuring scoop to scoop the tiny stuff from the bottom of the flake container for them). We sometimes throw in a few Tetra Bits ("color bits") for the snails and angels. Occasionally, they get frozen or freeze-dried bloodworms.

Here are some photos of our fish. I hope to add to this soon - it's tricky focusing on fish so small. I need a stronger light source too. Click on any photo for a larger view. These pictures were taken in the fall of 2000:

A juvenile molly

A molly and its reflection in the glass

One of the angels as a wee baby

These photos were all taken with our Nikon Cookpix 990 digital camera (scaled down and compressed for the web). Feel free to write to me for more information or with any comments. Please do not copy or use these photos without contacting me for permission first. Thanks!