Planted 150

This is my Oceanic 150 tall (5' x 2' x 2') Craig's List find, which needed a coat of paint for stand and hood and new hardware, but otherwise was a steal and in great shape. The plants are moved over from my (overplanted!) 55, as are the fish, which include Boesemani rainbows, Endler's, white cloud minnows and Corydoras trilineatus. Plan on angels or discus in the near future, along with Chaetostoma sp (rubberlip pleco) or Ancistrus sp. (bristlenose pleco). Substrate is play sand and lighting is 4x65w CF.

 

There are actually 3 fancy guppies in the tank - there are pure Endler's as well, many, many Endlers! They have not been together long enough to have any hybrid babies produced yet, but I am sure I will begin seeing them in a few weeks.

I used to belong to an Endler's forum (EndlersRUs) and traded wild caught Endler's from other hobbyists, so I know what I have are pure, for the moment!. They came out of a species tank I keep on my desk, with overcrowding controlled by selling, trading or moving them into my other community tanks. I've been swapping Endler's with people for the past 8 years or so. I used to fret over keeping the strains separate, but I've been keeping them for so long now that I am not so concerned, and am interested to see what interesting hybrids will result from the addition of these (garishly colored PetsMart) guppies. The Endler's R Us folks would be horrified....

I put the guppies in the brand new setup sort of as "canaries in a coal mine" to be sure the tank could support fish - I did not want to sacrifice my own precious babies! I needn't have worried, and I don't usually worry when I set up a new tank, but for some reason I wanted cheap, tough fish and on impulse got the guppies.

For the room that the tank is in, I wanted a light-colored stand. The stand and hood were flat matte black and scratched, and that color in my somewhat dark room with lots of leather and wood made the tank seem very imposing, looming over the room ominously, lol. I primed it first before deciding what color to paint it, and liked the light color so much that I went with kind of a cream color. I know it looks rosy in the picture for some reason (heat lamp for the gecko tank, I think) but it is a semigloss cream and goes with the room very well.

 

I am one of the original members from back in the day when it was just a handful of us, but lack of time and running my own business made have to drop most of my forum memberships. This is the first time I've posted on a forum in a good while, with a new name and new perspective....

 

Here's another pic of the rainbows. They are about 3.5-4" and are about 8 years old:

 

What was the consensus? This was sold as "Amazon sword" but it is some sort of hybrid - not ozelot. I used to know all of the various cultivars but that info has been lost in the depths!