I've never owned fish.. I've never been really that interested, but I came across the Aquascaping works of James Findley (and then Amarno) and I am not sure I have ever seen art that cool before. These aquascapes are self sustained ecosystems.
And I guess, as I've been reading too much about the plastic ocean and all the terrible things going on in the climate, I sort of just have become really interested in planted tanks. I've not taken a new hobby for many years, and it's a nice feeling when you get excited about getting into something new.
So I've spend a couple of weeks reading, studying and learning. My knowledge was zero- I didn't even know that you had to do weekly water changes. Kinda shows how ignorant I've been, but looking at the aquarium reddit, I see so many posts about people who get fish and then they immediately because they don't know about cycling or water changes.
I've learned about greedy pet stores, people who get Finding Nemo/Finding Dory fish as a pass time and then get bored with them.
I discovered King of DYI and was totally floored by all his tips and tricks on how you can make all sorts of filters.
I had a lot of stereotypical perceptions on fish keeping, but I think it's really really cool. I totally see I had no idea.
My thing is that at the same time, I discovered these fascinating creatures (I had seen a picture once, but had no idea people kept them as pets, or that they were basically extinct), called Axolotls ("the Mexican Walking Fish").
They are technically Salamanders, but they never evolve beyond their Larvae stage. So they are this weird combo of a fish and a salamander. People say they are relatively easy to keep, but unfortunately they don't make good tank mates with anything. Small fish nip at their gills (those fluffy things) and they will eat any fish that is smaller than the size of their head.
The lake they come from in Mexico is totally poluted and destroyed, so they are basically for all intends and purposes extinct. They are illegal to release in the wild as they could wreck havoc on the ecosystems. At the same time, they are in abundance in captivity and the are used in labs all over the world.
These guys regenerate like Wolverine on Steroids. If they get their leg bitten off, they will regrow a new limb in a month.
But what is more is that, you could reattach a limb (like a leg or foot) and then attach that to the Axolotls body, and the new limb would function!! These guys.. They look like pokemon but have unnatural abillities.
They are cold water animals so you don't need a heater, but they are very sensitive to water quality. So this is one of my big concerns. I would like a total planted carpeted tank (
The Monte Carlo looks amazing). The thing is, since these animals breathe through their skin, root fertilizers, and CO2 could kill them.
I've spend a lot of time trying to read back and forth between the people who say you cannot have a low tech planted tank that looks really good without high light/CO2/ferts, and those who say that it's possible but you just need to give it more time.
My plan was to make a very shallow tank like this in the Iwagumi style:
I would want to make it almost 17-0 foot long, and 15 inches in depth and 15 inches in height. Since Axolotls mainly use the sea floor, having a shallow tank could reduce the amount of water needed for water changes, and it would be easier to make water changes, cut the carpet frequently and clean the tank if its so shallow. Having a shallow tank also decreases the amount of glass thickness needed. The price of custom glass increases quite significantly if you need really thick glass, but at a shallow aquarium the pressure is less, and 5-6 mm of glass thickness would be okay from the charts I've seen.
Axolotls don't have eyelids so they are not that happy with lights. They need to have hides, and they don't mind being in the darkness. For that reason I think I would put the tank in my bedroom over a custom drawer. With no natural light, algie is reduced, and it would be more dark more of the time. I also think it would be cool to go to bed and be able to just look at them and enjoy them with a very very dim blue fluorescent light as they are nocturnal and active at night.
It's a shame they cannot co-exist with anything. Shrimps and snails will get eaten, and some of them can get stuck in the axolotls mouths. The axolotls can't have gravel bottom as they will suck up the gravel and possible die from contraction, so they need very fine sand. Algie eaters and suckers can remove their slime coating and be detrimental to their health and other schools of fish can just stress them out.
The only two groups of fish I've seen that people have with them are gupies and white mountain mannows. I think both of these are cool, and it would be fun to have a separate breeding tank, where you could transfer a few gupies once and a while into the axolotl tank and give the axolotls a treat. In a heavily planted tank, you might have that the fry survives and can sustain a population.
But people also say that Gupies are not the best bet, simply because Gupies are tropical, and while they can live in colder temperatures (Axolotls need 60-70 degrees F- Any higher and the will very likely die), they don't thrive.
The white mountain minnows though are perfect as they are also coldwater fish, and would do well in the axolotl tank. They are also talked about as being a well behaved schooling fish that doesn't nip. They are well documented as being a good breeding fish.
But I don't know if that would be something I'd do. Most of all I am really interested in having a planted carpeted tank with axolotls. That's my goal
Question is if I can do it, with a T5 Medium Light.
People hype up the aquasoil as being really really good, and its supposed to be safe for Axolotls. Looking at the logistics, I think the amount of soil and the plant pots will be one of the biggest expenses.
As for Filters I've looked at the Fluval U4 submerged filter. Perhaps having 2 of them, with the flow being aimed towards the glass ( Axolotls don't like a lot of flow). They are quite big, but it's a 100 gallon tank, and I think these filters are less ugly than many others.
I just wonder if it will be realistic to get a planted tank without the CO2 and ferts. if you get a tank, and use money on plants, and then the plants die right away, that would suck.
I think this "dry start" method was interesting.
