Llana's Vivarium

My birthday present this year was a 55 gallon aquarium! I was thrilled. I've been wanting to build a habitat for water critters and fish for quite a while.

To the left and just below are pictures from day 1.

Posted Monday, May 19, 2008

That's my frog Piper. He's a Rio Grand Leopard Frog I adopted from Petsmart circa 2003. He sings like a dinosaur and dines on crickets.

To the right and the next row beneath are pictures from
Day 3.

I'm very driven when starting a new project. Its a struggle to keep my impulsive nature in check, but I did do some planning here, and I'm very happy with the results so far.

I got my construction inspiration from a How-To on BlackJungle.com

The tank has come along nicely these past few weeks. I'm looking forward to adding new plants to the waterfall area on the left. Here are some recent pictures.

There has been a shocking development in the tank that you CAN'T see in the pictures!

I suddenly have fish in my tank. Babies that I imagine came in egg form on some plants I got from my sister.

The plants were out of water for hours, knocked around, pulled in and out of the water. They were NOT handled delicately. Plus, they were there when I put the tank through it's first "revision."

I can't imagine how anything survived all this. But I now have not one but at least two mystery baby fish (fry) in my tank. We're keeping an eye out for more.

Wow.

In other news, the plants and frog seem very happy in here. Its very hard to tell but in the last picture here you can sort of see the moss tendrils rising up.

The tendrils are new growth and look really cute. If I can get a better picture, I'll post it here.

The bromeliad has moved too! Its turned itself to face more directly up at the light.

I've also added some daphnia to the water that got into a water plant bowl of mine through our tap water. They seem to also be doing well, and a few have taken up residence in the center of the bromeliad via my "rain" system in the top of the tank.

Fun stuff. I'm thoroughly enjoying all of this.

Here is another link to a cool aquarium concept site:
http://www.walkongrass.com/photos/aquariums.htm

I rearranged the tank again. I had to make it fish safe enough to have fish in. I am pleased to say after working on it for 2 days, it is infact reasonably safe for all the creatures in it. What more can you ask?

And now that the water is safe, ammonia levels under control, and has all its minerals and fish coats, and plant fertilizers (the special fishy safe kind), I have added more critters.

I have a big yellow snail, and a couple types of little plant hitch hiker snails. I have Ghost Shrimp, and a handful of plain female Guppies. I also have an assortment of Daphnia and Fairy Shrimp culture on its way, so there should be plenty food for everyone and a nice little ecosystem stabilizing.

I also fed Piper (the frog) a bunch of crickets to make sure he doesn't turn on the fish for food. He never has eaten fish before, but I saw him possibly take a shot at one of the baby Killi's and got worried, so we'll see how it goes. If he's full, it should be ok.

All the excitement has made Piper a big jumpy. Pardon the pun...

The baby Killi's have been hiding like pro's.

The Guppies are acting like Guppies, the Golden Retrievers of the fish world.

The Ghost Shrimp started eating the moment they hit the gravel.

This whole vivarium thing has become such an addiction for me. I actually sat and watched all the goings on in it for about a half hour today.

Its so soothing and hypnotic. I love it!

I am looking forward to messing with it less and just observing it more.

June 10, 2008 Update

I added FISH!!!!

Harlequin Rasboras
and
Flame Tetras
(aka Von Rio Tetras)

I almost got a shot of one of the larger baby Killies but it hid before I had a chance.

I also thought a game of 'Where's Ghost Shrimp' would be fun too, but they kept bailing away from the camera.