# 55g SA re-scaped and ready for first show. Rotkeil update...



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

5 x Elodea Densa 
1 x Aponogetum Crispus
10 x Amazon Sword
5 x Twisted Vallisneria
5 x Hygrophylia Polysperma
10 x Mayaca Fluritalis 
5 x Ludwigian Natans
5 x Hydrilla Verticiliata
5 x Echinodorus Latifolious
5 x Rotalla Macrandra
5 x Cabomba Caroliana
5 x Ludwigia Mullerii
5 x Cryptocoryne Wendtii
5 x Straight Vallisneria
10 x Sagittaria Natans
5 x Rotalla Indica 
5 x Bacopa Monnerii 
5 Eleocharis Parvulus (Dwarf Hairgrass)

Most plants mentioned are in this tank, the rest are in a 40 gallon that isn't ready for showing yet.










Lighting is <1WPG on a cycle as follows:

7am - 12noon ON
12-1pm OFF
1pm-6pm ON
6pm-6.30 OFF
6.30-10.30 ON

This keeps algae at bay pretty efficiently whilst allowing the plants plenty of light.

Obviously a sand substrate, nothing in it by now in regards to nute's - needs enrichment but I haven't got the time to go out and get it. Red Sea Daily Dose is all it gets at the moment actually, I'm out of the other half of the mix but it doesn't seem to matter...

The Rotkeil, chillin'
_Click to see them properly!_









Killin' (pellet hunting)









Frame fillin' (show-off).









Three pretty distinct moods eh! -->  :drooling: :x

Waiting to hear on potential WC Bolivians  Ahem, I'm ahem, also getting some tank raised to go with my male

Shhh.

:thumb:


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## terd ferguson (Jul 31, 2007)

That last shot is great. That's a good looking fish. :thumb:


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

Pretty sweet looking tank. Beautiful fish :thumb:


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## jcushing (Apr 6, 2008)

the Sev doesnt have a taste for tetras? they look about snack sized for him...

beautiful tank btw


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Very nice rescape Blair. Good to see your Keyhole has some new mates. :thumb:


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## kingpoiuy (Jun 9, 2008)

Love it!


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## fishkeeper93 (Jan 23, 2008)

they are great pics love the colour of the sev


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Thanks everyone!

*jcushing* - he's a gentle giant, rarely will he chase any fish, it doesn't matter where they are or what they are. I think since I've had him he's only eaten a couple, he loves his NLS pellets and even if I haven't fed him for a few days he still waits patiently..... His preference is shrimp, he loves shrimpin' like I love weekends...

G'day (evenin'?) Peter, yeah he's got some little buddies to terrorize for a while :lol:. Actually he's really well behaved and all but ignores them - I'm telling you the big Keyhole is convinced he's a young severum, too many classic moments where the Rotter goes to the surface looking for food and just behind him you have this little (big) keyhole imitating the exact position :lol:, he's a funny one:










One of the really young'uns (a pair who stick together and share the same pit at night, very entertaining).









In fact everyone just leaves each other alone, the P. Taeniatus need to come out and go into another tank as they are about the only aggravating force and they really do dominate everyone, Rotkeil included. With them gone about 1/2 the groundspace is back! Waiting for them to raise their fry to a point where I can hoik them out...

This tank is only a couple of weeks into this scape so I'm waiting for the foreground plants to spread, another couple of weeks and I should be on the way.

:thumb:


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Blair, I tried to stop myself from looking...You stress me out with your pics!

I see now why I can't do a planted tank. You need a _schedule_ and a _plan_.

I'm not great at either.

But I do want a severum just like that one!

Looks great, but I knew it would, without even looking!


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Hehe, thanks for your kind words Kim.

I'm sure you could master a planted tank in no time, shoot, I'm barely here at the moment, it's probably just something in my water eh! I know you like to dismiss your abilities but Kim, I bet if you _really_ wanted a planted tank, you'd have an amazing one. :thumb:

Just to tie the two in, I will continue this discussion in this thread here (forum was having issues on posting time out's - apologies for the resulting multiple postings.)
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... 54#1181354


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

No, Blair, I kill anything green. 

We have houseplants, but I'm not allowed to touch them.

I've tried the planted tanks. In fact, we had a fish geek party last summer and someone asked me how I kept my plants in such good shape (in my SA tank). I laughed and said that I just ran out and bought them the night before to replace the dead ones before they all came. She thought I was kidding. I wasn't.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

:lol:

Kim, I love your style.

I reckon it's the water, that's what it is, must be that Ontario water that does it . What exactly is the problem with your planted tanks? I found that less = much more, as I said earlier - this tank has no root ferts for the plants and so far I have only dosed nutes on two different days (24hour replenishment nutes) so it's essentially without nutrients, our water here is the best in the UK and has very little of anything in it, so I figure the answer is in the low level of light.

As soon as I get around 2wpg things start going nuts and plants either really take off or just die completely/get covered in algae and I find it a real pita to upkeep that sort of growth rate. It's a dedication that takes a lot of time I just don't have, when I have more time I'd look at it. But my preference is the nice and easy lo-tech, gets on it with it, no complaints, cheap and cheerful route.

The SA tank is the one you wanted planted, do you remember what plants you tried? How much light is over it and what spectrum (I semi-recall going over this way back when but can't remember the specifics)? Finally - what's your water like out the tap? Can you measure the TDS/EC? I reckon you'd have more luck with plants under less light, potentially..... Unless it really is in that Ontario water!


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I don't remember all the plants...I'm also terrible with names. The bulbs I was using were for planted tanks, but I don't remember the wattage, either. :lol:

I'm not sure what I ate for lunch yesterday, for what it's worth...Or did I forget to eat lunch???

I know I had some valisneria, and they did horribly. There was one plant that I had semi-success with, "cry-something or another"??? Kind of mossy, grew really fast?

I have no idea what TDS/EC are, so odds are, I won't get proper measurements! :wink:

I had sand substrate and added some of the flourite in the plant areas, and used "Flourish" by Seachem weekly, but only at half the recommended dosage...That's what someone suggested to me, but I can't remember who they were either...

See how frustrating I can be?

I like silk. It's nice. :thumb:


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## remarkosmoc (Oct 19, 2005)

that sev is georgous tank looks great too!


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## cuddlefish (Jul 16, 2005)

Love the new 'scape Blair!

Man, your Rotkeil is looking spectacular. :thumb:

*Kim:* I have the same problem with greens... Despite all my efforts, I can't keep plants alive. For some of us it's just not meant to be I suppose. :lol:

At least we get to enjoy the success of others; even if only in pictures. 

Keep up the great work Blair!


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Oh Kim, you're not at all frustrating, funny, but definitely not frustrating. I suppose it's just as well you like silk eh! :lol:

Thanks *tannable* for the nice comments!

*cuddlefish*
Hey bro good to hear from you, thanks for dropping in!

The new scape is growing like mad I have to keep pruning it back every couple of days to stop it from going totally nuts - got the _aponogeton_ flowering and got 3 nice lily pads hitting the surface - a new one every 3-4 days so it's getting there. Frankly I was really shocked with this low level of light but there you have it.

Some more pics - this time of the young Keyholes:



























They're the best of buddies, it's very funny and the larger Keyhole just seems completely oblivious to their presence, either that or he's got himself so convinced that he's actually a Rotkeil that he doesn't see the issue.... :lol:

Updated tank shot after the WC and prune tomorrow.


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## LJ (Sep 12, 2007)

Wow I am impressed....less than one watt per gallon and enough growth to require pruning...congrats! The set-up looks great. My planted attempts are never so successful, but I won't stop trying.

Those keyholes are freaking sweet looking. I really need to quit messing around and get a pair.

A question, how did you get the picture of your keyholes to look like that.....where the fish are really defined and the background is pitch black....I've been trying for that look and can't get it down. Is it all about camera quality or technique?


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Hi LJ, thanks for your kind words.

Keyholes are funny little guys with bags of personality and plenty of erratic behaviour to keep you amused, I've found them to be fairly laid back and easy SA community fish, but it does depend on the individual character a lot as well. You should get some....

Re the pics - you have a flash positioned above the subject and also use the onboard flash to fill from the front. Because we expose for the flash, the light outside of the flash is not bright enough to "expose" the film - hence the black background. Occasionally you will find that some reflective bits show through (ie a silver fish in the background) and these are simply removed with cloning or are "burnt" out during the post production stage.

For those interested, I use a canon EOS 20D with the standard 18-55mm lens, onboard for fill, Â£5-10 rollei external flash for overhead.

With flash I usually shoot at: 
ISO 100
s/s 160/s
f-22

EDIT- The pics above were actually quite blue in colour cast, the update I performed has gone through and the ones above should have the correct colour balance.

:thumb:


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## andrew__ (Aug 5, 2006)

love that sev of yours, just wish mine would get along with plants a little better!! Do you find the low lighting makes yours less skittish?


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Thanks Andrew,

You know it may be the low light level that helps keep him so calm, but honestly I don't know, he's just a completely chilled out dude. If he wore clothes they'd probably be made from hemp...

:lol:


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## andrew__ (Aug 5, 2006)

:lol:

mine's usually fine, right now I can see him cruising around the tank looking great, but he does not do well with sudden movement but will come back to the front once he's figured out what's going on. Fortunately he gets along with other fish just fine and everything, he's just skittish and eats plants (especially loves Aponogetons). I think my lighting's closer to 3W/gal since he's in my planted tank, I'll have to see how he does when I finally get my 65 running with lower light (and probably just java fern/crypts/l. sessliflora for a bit of cover.)


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

How much cover do you have for the Sev?

I know a few commented with me about how they were surprised how relaxed he was without any real recluse in which to dart off to, this may be part of it, maybe not. But they are pretty smart fish and I think that if you can fix a notion into their head then it usually sticks pretty well. Therefore by showing the fish repeatedly that it doesn't need cover and by rewarding it when it responds positively to situations where normally it may have spooked, you enforce the notion that they are safe and that this is a good place to be and that certain behaviour is rewarded positively.... This has worked and so my sev is completely relaxed in the tank even though he does not have one particular area he claims, he is no longer completely shy of strangers (it still takes a minute though) and he's generally spooky fish free.

A good example would be mine with my plants, there is absolutely no doubt that he has proven that he is capable of learning what is good, what is bad and what means trouble - to the extent that simple, strong (and consistently used) hand signals act as the single deterrent nowadays. He eyes up a plant, I point at him and he immediately stops and gives me that nonchalant innocent look....

Before this stage it took a month to teach him using one particular stick that I would use to chase him away from whatever he was trying to destroy (never hurting the fish of course, simply deterring it) and I would guide him to the same corner and he would sit there on his own accord for a couple of minutes before coming out again, initially he'd go back for the plant but after a while he learnt and that was that, no problems since.


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## andrew__ (Aug 5, 2006)

He's got a lot of cover but in his new tank he'll have a lot more swimming space so hopefully that'll help as well (I'll be moving him as soon as I can track down a spare heater after my move :lol: )


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## hey_wood1981 (Apr 7, 2004)

that severum is one beautiful fish! could i put one in with 2 breeding angels and some bolivian rams in a 90 gallon?


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Heee bud! Really a wonderful tank and fish Blair :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: I don't expect something diferent of you. :wink: I was so convinced I already responded to this treat but today I discovered it was in an other treat where you posted the pics.

I absolutely agrea on the low light levels! Just like most of the planted tank owners I read quit a lot abouth conventional plant growth and a lot abouth the aquascaping stuff. Some basics I agrea on but huge light quantities ask for huge amounts of nutrition's. Only a little bit slowing down in the plant growth can couse huge problems like an algea explosion. Besides that you need to spend a lot on CO2, nutrition's and fertilizers as well as tube lights of HQL or what ever. Your electric bill will definitely increase (even more). So,....I see some advantages in the use of CO2. It does help you to grow even the more demanding plants. I do suggest to keep the levels of CO2 on the low side. The natural CO2 level will be around 7 (depends on temperature and water chemistry and movement. If you keep around 10 to 12 your plants still grow like mads. More important is the type of plants and their needs for nutrition. Most plants will take their nutrition from the water but some species takes them from the substrate. If you fertilize (every once in a while when plant growth slows down) you need to put in the fertilizer that works for the species you grow. Light levels can be low and I have a very densely planted 50 gallon with amazon swords and only 0.6 Watt/gallon. The tank looks a bit messy right now becouse I removed 5 flower stems (from 3 large echinodorus) with approximately 35 new plants. I also use a light schedule that does have something in common with Blair his schedule,......a dark period in between two lighting periods. To the fish this is no problem at all. During a thunderstorm in the tropics it also becomes night during the day. Keep in mind that a light period need to be at least 4 hours. If the period is shorter the plants won't grow becouse the process for growth was to short. This can couse problems for the plants! So always use light periods of 4 hours or more.

Here the schedule I use.
9:00 - 14:00 on 
14:00 - 17:00 off 
17:00 - 23:00 on 
23:00 - 9:00 off

Kim, Cuddlefish and others,....I'm also convinced everyone can succeed in growing plants. You do need to take the effort and the patience to find the best lighting/ferts/schedule for your particular tank. What works for me doesn't have to work for someone else. Mostly slight modifications will result in the best plant growth. A planted tank is a complex ecosystem and it will need time to establish it selves. You are one of the parts in that establishment. Regular water changes, ferts, feeding, cleaning of filter and so on contribute to this ecosystem.

A very important thing to know,....aquatic plants and swamp plants (most of our aquarium plants) grow best on a orange light spectrum. Those plants have the ability to adjust to light spectrum's. Algae grow best on blue and UV light. Algae don't adjust well on a diferent light spectrum! But,....once they find the good circumstances they easely outcompete plants and create even better circumstances for their own specie (lots and lots of oxygen) Algae also like high oxygen levels and a lot of surface movement. I suggest to use lighting with a high orange spectrum and a low blue / UV spectrum. Warm white and bright white TL tube lights are perfect for the job. They are good availeble and cheap as well.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Hey bud,

Good to hear from you, I tried to PM you the other day but it wouldn't send, I think the forum was having a funny five minutes. I read of your loss in another post you made and I hope you are managing well, I know it has been difficult so I hope you have some more time for yourself to get things sorted. Good to see you on the boards with some long posts, obviously enjoying yourself .

I want to see a pic of this low light tank of yours.....


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Heee bud. I manage. To post on this board is a good distraction especially when people post such wonderful pics of stunning fish and scapes :thumb: I'm sure you have seen pics of the tank on the BRC treat. It is the Bolivian tank I'm talking abouth. Right now it isn't at it's best becouse of the large size of the Echinodorus and the new plants I removed. Besides that I was very short on time for the last couple of months. It's not a masterpiece like your tank but the real opinions I leave up to the visitors over here. The camera let the tank look brighter especially in the top layer were light get reflected but it gives an idea. The tank is a 50 gallon 40 long and 20 high. The echinodorus leaves stretch abouth 4 inch and even more over the water surface.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Oh yeah I remember, I love that tank. Ruurd who says it is not a masterpiece, and who says mine is.... Your tanks inspire me, I hope as much as mine inspire you!

I'd forgotten that it was quite such low lighting but it sure is impressive as everything is so clean, vibrant and healthy. Certainly it shows that you don't need huge amounts of light as long as you provide the correct spectrum, a light schedule with breaks in to discourage algae and a tailored nutrient schedule. In my case that's no nutes due to them being almost unnecessary as they would only really encourage algae at this rate of growth (mind you it's not exactly slow either).

Water changes are your friend with plants, I've certainly found that to be the case in my tank, with regular water changes I just don't get algae, if I leave it for that extra week it starts to show up.

Anyhow, here's an update as I've just done the prune and WC rounds:









Be well!
:thumb:


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

The tank is not exactly what I planed and the plants grow larger. Even a smaller Echinodorus that should be 30cm to maximum 40cm grow to the size of abouth 60cm! So the structure is diferent and to me the tank looks to messy and thats why I don't label it as a masterpiece. Your tanks always look perfect Blair, clean and well maintained with great depth and a lot of nice details! Thats a gift and can't be learned out of books! So I admire you for your aquascaping capabilities! Your tanks definitely inspire me. Especially the tank with the leaves you set up a year ago. It made me cook leaves just like a lot of people on this board :lol:

One thing I should tell abouth the planted tank,...I do use CO2 on it. Not a high dose but somewhere around 10 or so. The substrate is a clay based plant substrate and on top 2 inch river sand. The plant substrate is a mix of sand, fine clay grains, some peat fibres and added minerals. So lots of nutrition for the Echinodorus,....those need the nutrition at the roots.

What is your water change schedule Blair? Mine once a week 40%. Inhabitants are 7 Bolivians and 2 fry, 9 Oto's (always hidden) and abouth 200+ cherry shrimp.


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## wmayes (Oct 22, 2007)

Whats in the tank to the right side?


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## jcushing (Apr 6, 2008)

i got to say your tank has me drawn to sevs now, my tank has been thinned out due to a parasite infection so once i have it 100% beaten i think i might look for a sev to fill the void. nice to see one in a planted aquarium with tetras and have it work (the reason i discounted larger cichlids in my SA tank before)

i saw you said you "trained" your sev not to go after the plants, i dont expect ill be able to do that but you have any tips for adding a sev to a larger version of this tank (i have a planted 110 with a very similar stock list )


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

:lol: Well I'm all ways glad if I can get people trying something new, I did find it entertaining to think of so many people boiling leaves at one time Ruurd, almost like we were united in our actions, lol. I find it interesting that you use CO2 with such a low amount of light, how much difference have you noticed in terms of plant and algae development with and without the addition of CO2?

I do a 50% WC each week on this tank, for the past month or so it has been more like once a fortnight, which bothers me, but I've been working solidly and if I'm lucky I get 4 hours at home each night before work again. However I have worked things out now so I have some free time and this means I'm back to 50% weekly.

Stocking is now reduced as I plan to breed the Bolivians so it's 1 Rotkeil, 3 cory. arcuatus, and will be a group of 5 Bolivians (with my male included).

The _Cleithracara_ went into a friends 8 ft display tank so they'll be more than happy with that. The 2nd generation of my _P. Taeniatus_ Dehane are also going into a display tank at the LFS where my friends work (it should be featured in Practical Fish Keeping) and the 3rd generation fry will stay in with the Rotkeil etc to let fate take its course.

The dither fish are to be _Trigonostigma heteromorpha_:









and _Paracheirodon axelrodi_.

*wmayes* - the tank to the right is my 10 gallon shelldweller tank, I'm just waiting on the Neothauma shells to arrive and it will be a pretty cool little biotope. The substrate isn't quite right still but I'm working on it as I find the pieces that fit:

Here's a vid:
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m15/ ... dscape.flv

And a pic:









I'm a secret Tang fiend.

*jcushing* - good choice bud, sevs are cool and I have a soft spot for Rotkeils, I just think they're particularly cool. Basically when it comes to Sevs and established planted tanks you have to accept a few things:

1. You will need to provide an area that is pretty much bare for him, it only needs to be as big as he is so that he can sit in there and not have leaves brushing against him as this really aggravates them.

2. He will choose this spot, you can get them to go into an area you've chosen but initially they won't get it and instead will rip out plants in the area that they want. You need to work with them on this.

3. They will shred leaves initially and occasionally they do it even after training, although it's nothing compared to the usual damage.

4. You have to be patient as the idea is not to freak them out otherwise they don't learn, it all has to be slow and gentle but firm - I would use the training stick as described before but if he was being particularly stubborn I would very carefully start pushing the side of his body and guide him to his clearing where I would then hold the stick above him, not on him, but above him, this dominates the fish and they will submit and lay their belly on the substrate, usually darkening in colouration. After a minute of this I remove the stick and the sev returns to normal almost instantly.

5.They usually then go back to the plant they were at and carry on the first few times, they are pretty stubborn, so it's just the cycle of point 4 and this point, 5, until they learn.

6. You have to be consistent - I would approach the tank with an aggressive attitude, ie feel aggressive, you will put out particular body language and the fish learn it, the reason you do this is that it means when you do go up to the tank normally, the fish don't freak, my Rotkeil can tell when I'm getting up to tell him off and when I'm just going up to the tank normally, I know this because of the way he quickly swims to his clearing when I stand up after he's nibbled a leaf, I don't even have to go up to the tank any more. However if I then walk up to the tank normally 5 seconds later he will come and greet me.

7. There are some plants that you just can't keep them away from, it's not their fault, so I let mine eat them and problem solved :lol:.

My Rotkeil hasn't seen the naughty stick since I had to remind him of his prior training (they do remember quickly, the reason mine forgot was that he was in the leaf litter tank without plants for so long). So I had to spend a week going through points 4 and 5 with him after I'd put the plants in, and he's not done anything to any of them since.

:thumb:


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## wmayes (Oct 22, 2007)

Well - I have to say that as much as I like the bigger tank that I like the small one more.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Thanks bud, here it is now that I have some proper shells, I'm getting more to create a proper shellbed but I'm actually waiting on the Neothauma snail shells from the lake itself. So the ones in there are the closest match but aren't quite true to the 'tope:









Ahem...


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## andrew__ (Aug 5, 2006)

I love that tang tank as well :thumb: I think my next tank (well, after the 65 long I still haven't set up) will be for some shellies, I've heard nothing but good things about them, maybe some caudopunks instead of the usual...


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