water change

The whole tank became nothing but plants, mostly dark green Thai moss that gets between everything and sucks up all nutrients and acts as biologic water filter and water oxygenator and dominates along with vertical sword grass type running rampant throughout. The fish like it that way, ensconced in a protective jungle, bound up from exercise and unknown overhead threats. All that was grabbed and tugged from the gravel lifting dense clouds of fish debris. Four times more plant material is removed than is left growing.

The widowed angelfish cannot take another moment of abuse. It just gave up and played dead as its body compressed in the patch of grass as the water drained. Fine with the fish if it had just died. No struggle at all. Later its fins were stuck in the filter intake, really stuck, it did take more strength to release it than the fish has. Then it just sat there near the intake like it didn't care if it happened again. It doesn't want to swim anymore. It has slipped into a deep fish-malaise. It always was ridiculously overly ornamental and lazy. I did not know they came like that. Whoever is doing this breeding is terrible. Most of that excessive fin growth that splits and curls is shredded off by vigorous swimming and tearing around the tank when they were younger.

From the pov of the fish, they've all been transported to a new environment with a new atmosphere. They're all a bit shocked. None of them will be interested in flakes. Who can eat at a time like this?

fish

Their lights go out and they do this each night, a regular thing since the lights are on a timer. They do the same thing around noon without a cue from the lights; bunch up in the middle of the tank and hang there in space for hours on end.

When they wake up they're hungry. For flakes. Flakes, flakes, flakes, flakes, flakes, that's all they ever eat. They're very picky. I tried to turn them on to other things, but they're not having it.

Half of these fish originate from the Rio Negro. I just checked the temperature of Rio Negro, one chart shows a range from 50℉ to 68℉. That is colder than I thought it would be.

Seems like I just stripped this thing out and now it's overgrown again. The fish like it overgrown.

Tanked

Tanked is a television show on Animal Planet channel about a family owned business in Las Vegas that constructs specialized aquariums. The family speaks to each other in brutal New Jersey accent but their affection for each other shines through.

(I had the show on tonight in the background while preparing a batch of Anasazi beans and red Swiss chard but this is irrelevant to the subject at hand.)

One of their accounts was for a dining room table that displays all the fish from the top. A technical problem is the table must be filled completely with no air gaps or else condensation would fog the view from the top, and there needs to be surface agitation to create air exchange, so they designed a centerpiece shaped like a square vase that does all that with an insert that holds another vase for an impressive floral display. And all of the pipes must be concealed.

They did a beautiful job.

At wrap up one of the sons said to his father in unvarnished rough imperative, a tone I would never use with my dad, "Now you gotta use your etiquette experience and set the table by yourself." Then he leaves. The father addresses the camera directly, smiling broadly and in his own gruff accent."

"Now is my time to shine."

The clients were thrilled with the result. "Now everyone can see our products."

Notice the practical problem? 

Takashi Amano

Nature Aqiarium World: How You Can Make A Most Beautiful Aquarium Vol. 1

Oooooh too bad, no discounts for you. This book has become a collector's item, it seems. It is quite expensive now so just forget the whole thing. You can do as well by buying the whole set in one.

I have three of his books. They are based on size of aquarium, from nano cubes to huge hundred gallon tanks.

He applied the knowledge he gained in 3rd grade level science and asked would it help the plants to add CO_2, and would it hurt the fish? 

By asking, he changed the whole world of freshwater aquarium plants. 

He began answering his own question by adding bottled soda water and tonic water to his tank. The additional CO₂ did not hurt the fish but Amano quickly learned he must increase light to power plants underwater.

_{That is the key, increased light, good substrate, additional} CO_{2 for improved plant life.}

Until eventually his whole Tokyo apartment was filled with empty soda and tonic water bottles.

The above tank is in his home. The whole room is devoted to the tank. The roof is skylight for the tank. 

The answer to the above question is never! The whole line of specialized substrate, frameless tanks, and hardware is incredibly lucrative. And there is no point in messing around, you get best results with extravagant volumes. Everything counts in large amounts.

Every aquarium enthusiast knows this many angelfish in one tank invites problems. They pair off as they mature and it is nothing but breeding cycles and territorial disputes after that. All the unpaired fish are held at bay in a corner while the breeders fiercely dominate the tank. Then the mated pair clears out all their young for the next mating round by eating them all within minutes once the impulse kicks in.

In Amano's tanks the fish are always in schools, and as if the fish are incidental to the plants. 

Because they are!

It makes me want to change out my whole tank continuously. I never get tired of it but then I never get tired of changing it.

Plus, right now I could have neon tetras happily breeding all over the place every day in exceedingly soft water but the snails gobble up the eggs. The eggs need only survive 24 hours but they can never make it that long because of the snails. The snails come in with the plants. I haven't figured out yet how to get cool plants without also bringing in snails.

There are fish that eat snails but when they are done they eat everything else, taking nips out of fins of fish that are sleeping.

It's a problem.

Now there are competitions for the whole of Asia for aquariums in this Takashi Amano style. [AGA 2014] They're not finished this year, entries will be at the link. Results in November.

[AGA 2013] Results are by tank size. In liters, 200 L is 53 gallons. A 50 gallon tank is a nice size. 100 gallon tank is quite large and 20 gallons is hardly worth the trouble.

So, 200L-320L group,

2013 #1 in 200L-320L category. Oh, my goodness, they are all fantastic. Everyone is  much better at this than I.

Underneath is a black and white key that helpfully names all the plants.

Rotala Sp Green

Rotala rotundifolia
Rotala indica
Limnophila Vietnam
Hydrocotyle triponita
Collitriche sp.
Hemianthus calitrichoides cuba
Hotonia palustris
Hygrophilapinnatifida
Microsorum pteporus sp.
Ludwigia glandulosa
Bucephalandra sp.
Staurogyne repens

You can buy all these plants here. And here. And many other places too, the whole field has grown impressively and mostly because of Takashi Amano.

One of the reviewers to one of Amano's books wrote that while traveling to Tokyo specifically to visit Amano's Aqua Forest Aquarium Store and taking in other tropical fish shops while there in the city, it was odd and eerie and wonderful hearing the Latin names for plants and for fish rattled off in the shops integrated with Japanese language.

My sense is most of the aquarium scenes look to be landscapes underwater. Here are the same pathways and arroyos and streams created underwater.

This one titled "Verdant Hills and Green Waters." The fish look like geese flying across. And I must add, verdant and green are the same thing. If water is green it will be from photo plankton, moss, algae, what have you.

All this came to mind by the item in Ace's sidebar about the cenote Angelita (little angel) with its halocline, a geologic situation caused by a strong vertical salinity gradient, that is, bodies of water mingling with profound difference in concentration of salinity. The result is an obvious river underwater with its own fog, that looks like an aboveground landscape with a river or swamp but is entirely underwater. 

My tank spilled water onto the carpet the other day while I was filling it. 

Turned on a timer but set if for six hours instead of six minutes. Became engrossed reading. Heard splashing. Hastened to shut off the water before gallons spilled out. Luckily the carpet cleaner with its powerful vacuum was right there. More powerful than a shop vac.