Billsgate's 20 gal

[Billsgate]

This tank has been up and running for almost two years now.
Just cleaned it out and added a tiger lotus to it. Inhabitants are 6 young keyhole cichlids, 4 baby guppies and 2 otocinclus. Plants: Java fern, Java moss, tiny crypt plantlet, waterweed, tiger lotus, (Curly?) Valisneria, and 2 stern plants which I don't know ID's of.
Hope you enjoy!

 

[Fluff]

Nice looking tank Thomas. Good job!

 

[rich311k]

Awesome!! Tank looks great.

 

[Billsgate]

Thanks!!!
It's hard with this tank to have foreground plants in the foreground, and background plants in the background.......since I can see through my tank from both front and back......there is no fore or background!

 

[imahawki]

I thought Cichlids and live plants were a no-no. Is that not the case?

 

[Simpte]

Nice looking tank! The stem plant in the back is Cabomba carolina (frilly one) and the other is hygro green. If the cabomba is growing well then kudos to you!!! Not the easiest plant to grow.

 

[RoK]

I thought Cichlids and live plants were a no-no. Is that not the case?

I believe that's with only some cichlids. Keyhole's are peaceful and I think leave plants alone.

Awesome tank! The keyhole's look to be growing up quite nicely.

 

[Zagz]

Wow that is gorgeous! I'm going to have to figure out how to make live plants work. LOL, I can grow outdoor plants and gardens like mad but aquarium plants die on me.

 

[rubysoho]

very nice!

 

[BrianNY]

Yep. And the keyholes are looking great Thomas.

 

[verucaproduce]

Absolutely beautiful!

 

[Billsgate]

Thanks for the comments

It is not that hard to make live plants work.... There's only 15 watts above that 20g(+reflector). Although you will never get lush, dense growth going, it is sufficient to keep plants. Some, like the waterweed, will grow great under these conditions. Others will go much slower, but they grow as well......you just need some patience

The keyholes are growing nicely, There are 7 left. For those that don't know, I artificially raised them from eggs to youngsters....When most were around 1 inch, I brought around 50 to my lfs, and kept 10, to grow out further, and actually get some money for them when they are big enough......didn't get anything for the 50 small ones. Space is an important issue if you want to grow out allot of cichlid babies...

I had to 'kill' 3 small keyholes: 2 because they really stayed behind on growth allot...the other ones were already 3 times bigger, and 1 because he had a gill plate/cover that was missing, never formed during growth. That would cause it to be an easy prey to infections, and it didn't look nice either...Hope I did the right thing! :?

 

[Jchillin]

How on earth did I miss this??? Everything was going well until I got to the last paragraph.

Overall, I would say that your success rate is incredible and I'm proud to have chosen you to raise my keyholes.

Have some additional kudos.