18gal Tall Grecian Paradise

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#1
Ok, so I bought this tank a few weeks back on Craigslist. It came with some clown puke gravel, a driftwood cave thing, a piece of wild-collected driftwood, a tiny sword plant (looks just like my Argentine swords that were in the Hex5, so I think that's what they are) and an AquaTech 20-40 filter. The guy wanted me to take the SIX 3-4" goldfish that were in there, but I said no. lol Anyway, I tossed around stocking ideas for this tank a lot. I knew I wanted an upper-level centerpiece fish (went with a flame dwarf gourami), a small schooling fish (like harlequin rasboras or celestial pearl danios) and a bottom-level centerpiece fish (the tank's footprint is too small for cories). I was originally going to do scarlet badis as the bottom-level centerpiece fish, but I couldn't find any on AquaBid (well, I found some, but the price always got driven through the roof by the end of the auction) and I wasn't going to pay $10 per fish. Enter the GBR. My LFS started carrying them with some regularity, so I bought a pair for the 29gal and one for the 18gal. So, here is the tank is in all its glory. *BOUNCINGS *BOUNCINGS

Tank Specs:
18gal tall glass tank (20"x10"x20")
AquaTech 20-40 filter
Penn-Plax "The Guardian" 110W heater
2x CFL bulbs (one 19W and one 10W)

Substrate:
1" layer of Flourite
1/2" layer of black gravel

Decorations:
1x Greek temple ruins decoration
3x single Greek columns
1x double Greek columns

Plants:
4x Argentine swords
3x Dwarf Sagittarius
2x Frill

Stocking:
1x flame dwarf gourami
1x German blue ram
6x Von Rio tetras
3x otocinclus catfish

Before:

After (sans fish...need to fix a couple of things before I can add them):

 

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#3
Originally it was going to be a small school of scarlet badis for the bottom, but they're just way too expensive. So instead, I have a single GBR for the bottom.

Stocking is:
1x flame dwarf gourami
1x GBR
6x Von Rio tetras
3x otos
 

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#10
Orange...I'm not arguing with you, but anywhere you look them up, they sell them as "scarlet badis" (okay, technically they list them as "scarlet gem badis"...the only place I found that sells them is liveaquaria.com), but it'll usually have the "dario dario" as their scientific name. Even on aquabid.com they were listed as scarlet badis. Just sayin'.

Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums: Scarlet Gem Badis

That's neither here nor there, though. I didn't get them, so it doesn't actually matter.
 

Feb 27, 2009
4,395
0
36
#12
Orange...I'm not arguing with you, but anywhere you look them up, they sell them as "scarlet badis" (okay, technically they list them as "scarlet gem badis"...the only place I found that sells them is liveaquaria.com), but it'll usually have the "dario dario" as their scientific name. Even on aquabid.com they were listed as scarlet badis. Just sayin'.

Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums: Scarlet Gem Badis

That's neither here nor there, though. I didn't get them, so it doesn't actually matter.
Those that breed/sell this fish often call it by the correct name and some who are looking to purchase them may find them that way. The fish used to be classified as Badis badis bengalensis but in 2002 it was moved into a newly formed genus.

I did not mean to offend you or anyone else, bassbonediva.
 

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#13
Thanks, Jaime. I have fun doing aqua-scapes. :)

OC...no worries! I wasn't offended. Just pointing out that most people know them as scarlet badis, not dario dario (when I was looking for them, I looked under both names).

Bad news...my ram died. I fail at the rams!
 

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#15
What's weird is that she was absolutely fine in the 20gL! I put her in the 18gal and the DG (named Little Bugger 'cuz he keeps ripping up my plants!) completely ignored her. The tank was cycled (used an already cycled filter on the tank) and parameters were 0, 0, 20. I'm going to go back to the LFS today and see if they have any more rams in. I am determined to get a ram to live for more than a week, dang it!
 

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#19
Got the temp cranked up to about 87F and added a little bit of salt and an airstone. She seems to be doing okay. She's sitting on top of temple decoration. Her tail looks a little ragged, but I don't know if that's from the gourami (he's avoiding her, picking at the frill) or from the half a million platies she was in with when I got her (didn't notice if it was ragged or not because her fins were clamped from the time she got home).