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These are my Soviet-style very very long-term plans. Plans which have actually come to (relative) fruitition are in italics. 12-5-04: Tropheus colony .... 08-17-04: Here's another "boy, wouldn't it be cool if ...." I'd like to set up something like a 180 gal with a 100 gallon sump. Why the sump? Stuff that with live rock so the top can be an old-style FO look tank, with those really art-deco fake corals, just a few, but still well-filtered. Sole occupant: a Picasso Trigger. A pet fish for sure (although if I could keep one safely with that one other marine fish I utterly covet, the Gray Moray, that would be extremely cool), much more my style than an Oscar (although there's nothing wrong with oscars). 08-4-04: One fish I intend to absolutely keep some day is Enantiopus sp. "Kilesa" or the closely related E. melanogenys. When I next have the room and resources to set up a (second) 6' tank, these guys are going in it. Sand, water, and gorgeous fish - who needs anything else? 04-14-04: I'd really like to have a biiig multi or similis colony. Perhaps a 240 with multis or similis on one end, occies or summat on the other, Calvus(?) in the center, and Cyps all across the top - jumbo Cyps for sure, or lots lots lots of regular ones. Hmmm. 03-10-04: Let's flesh these out a bit more, shall we? Thisis basically a list of "wouldn't it be awesome to have ..." but, hey, scale some of them down and ta-da, excellent set-ups. First off ... a Redtail catfish tank. I think everyone wishes they had space for this. Other than goldfish, I'm not much of a big-fish fan, but these guys are, well, too cool for school. Rubbermaid doesn't make a 1000 gallon stock tank but someone must, or I could build one. How to filter it is the real question ... Betta barracks! Or, something centrally filtered. I don't know if I'd go back to breeding bettas. The problem with it is that 90% of your fish are inferior and barely saleable, where with fish that aren't being selectively bred, like killies, every healthy fish is worth pretty much the same. Actually, let's be clear on this, if 10% of your betta fry come out very saleable, you're doing very, very, very well. So, central filtration, for ... killies? Discus? Clownfish? Practically anything, that's the beauty of it. A few racks in the basement, a huge stock-tank sump, and every 5 or 10 gallon tank suddenly has the water quality of a 1000 gallon tank. Nice, that. Goldfish! C'mon, it's an obsession, I can't be blamed. Those 240 gallons are particularly great for this; you could easily put 8 adult goldfish in there. That's, hmm ... a red oranda, a white, a red-cap, a blue, a chocolate, a calico, a red-and-white, and then some other. Excellent. Or, Ranchus. Or a mix! Although I do worry ... I used to dislike all fancies, and then I only liked Fantails, and then just Fantails and Orandas, and now I love Ranchus, too ... Bubble-eyes aren't that far down the road! Or, ick, Celestials! Save me! Intervention, intervention! Also, how about a 300 gallon tank so I could keep a few comets indoors, and look at them from the side. Were goldfish meant to be veiwed from above? Yes. Are they freakin' pretty from the side? Yes, absolutely. Although it must be said, Koi are just ugly from the side. It's rather like Tom Cruise; he's cute from the front I grant you, but from every other angle, just funny-looking. 100 gallon tank full of some small tetra. Neon Tetra species tank. Or Rummynoses. Or Embers. Or Black Neons. Ca m'est egal, I love them all. Ooh, pygmy cories! Or a huge tank just stuffed to the gills with some mid-water killie species! A. australe, eh? Shark tank. I think this needs no further explanation. I've calculated that if we dug out the portion of our backyard we never so much as walk through to an average depth of ten feet, we could have a 100,000 gallon Koi pond. To which I say: man, the zoning board would kill us. And what's the point of a huge koi pond if you have to put up an 8-foot fence to keep people/animals/cars from drowning in it? So, there goes that. But, maybe a more reasonable 5000 gallon pond someday .... that's a good 15 adult koi, with space left over! 03-08-04: A huge Koi pond, Discus, a 240 gallon goldfish tank, all sorts of killies, Fronties, more goldfish ... and, oh yes, more goldfish. ;) Just wait - I'll buy and install a 75 gal this summer, and then say, "Forget the mbuna - look, space for Ranchus!" |
