Your Dream Tank

[kagome]

I've had a hard week and I thought a little day dreaming would do me and possibly some other people a whole lot of good. If money, time, and space were no object, what would be your "dream tank"? You know, that perfect set up you've always had in the back of your mind that you knew that someday you would just love to splurge on. So let's be goofy and talk about our ultimate fantasy tank, or even tanks, you can have many more than one dream. I'll even start us off:

I want a 200g freshwater tank in the middle of the room so I could walk all the way around it and sit anywhere in the room and have a great view of it. I would want to build a series of rock caves in the center out of craggy black stone that basically formed a rough pyramid type shape that went up about half way to the top. I'd want a school of every kind of African lake cichlid that I could possibly get in there and let them all get to absolute max size. I'd like to have some of the big black African catfish, I think their Sinodontus. That would be totally awesome.

I have some other dream tanks too, but I'm waiting to here yours!

[jonv]

Interesting question really. As I really am into Africans much like 8 is, I'd just be in an African heaven more like if I could have a small lake then a tank really. While it would be in the best interest of my newer species I'm learning from, the Madagascar types, I'd prefer to do a Tangyangikan lake set up, and try my hand with Emperor cichlids as these are the largest of all the African types. You usually can't even think of keeping them in a tank unless it's at least 8 to 10 feet long. My personal view of this, if you're going to go that large, no sense to bother with a tank, might as well go pond, but since this is all what if, I say forget pond, go lake LOL.

The Synodontis you are referring to, are Tangyangikans too. 8 and I were talking about that the other week. I personally wouldn't mix them with the cichlids as in the lake itself, that species grows by following the mouth brooders into caring for their eggs and the mouth brooding cichlid ends up losing it's own fry in the process. There are cases where the female can't let the catfish out and the catfish even can eat the carrier too. I just thought you might want to know that is all.

I'd have to have something with Emperor cichlids though if I could. I'd try to layer the lake so it could imitate the depths that Tangyangika has. Would be quite a sight to have everything from shell dwellers, to Fonts to Emperors in a lake like that. The only draw back to something like this would be, being able to actually see what they are doing is all. I've never done any diving so I might have to learn about that in order to explore how they'd grow and act and live in a lake like that, but what a sight it would be!!!

[goldenpuon]

My dream tank (actually pond) would be a 10,000 gallon with about 20 12 inch feeder goldfish including the 10 I have now.

But I have more than 1 dream tank. Also a heavily planted 500 gallon with about 400 guppies of all strains and colors

Also, a 1,000 gallon heavily planted betta tank with about 200 bettas both male and female.

While I could never have those, maybe if I'm lucky enough to somehow afford that and hire people to clean enormous tanks, maybe I could get one as big as a 500 gallon. I'm hoping but I'm not expecting anything. Crazy dreams like that aren't alwasy meant to come true. lol

It's fun to wish though. lol

[kagome]

Hey Jon, while we're all dreaming anyway, why not dream that you have a glass bottom boat so you could go out and watch your fishies doing there fishy things?

My other dream tank would also be a pond, I guess I should have added pond to the list, too. I didn't mean to discriminate against our outdoor fish friends. I would love to have a beautiful Japanese garden, with Japanese maples, cherry trees, a Zen gate, a large stone Buddha, the works! And I'd like to have it terraced so that as you walk around the path you go around a terraced hill and on the other side you find yourself at the foot of an elegant red bridge that goes over a very large Coi pond that has huge coi who follow you around and beg to be fed at the surface. I would grow white and purple lotuses in my pond because they are my favorite flower and the Coi could glide in and out of the stalks that support the wide, smooth leaves, and fragrant flowers. I especially love the Coi that are bright yellow and the ones with rosy spots on a white background so I would have several of those. My dream pond would have several crimson bridges. The first bridge I would want to go a small island that has a gazebo with wooden benches for sitting and looking at the graceful cherry trees that swept their graceful branches over the water and dropped delicate pink flowers on the water's surface in spring time. Another bridge would connect that island to another small island that would have a small pagoda built on it that would house my private shrine with a Buddha. A third bridge would go from the Pagoda island to the other shore. I think that would be a paradise.

[bikeguy33]

i personally would love to have a 3000 gallon just like my local petstore has. i`d love it to have huge amounts of soft and hard corrals, anenomes, cleaner shrimp and about 6 or 7 horseshoe crabs. in with them i`d love 2 or 3 sharks, black tips, wobegongs, nurse sharks....just the smaller ones. my local pet store has that tank with 3 blacktips. i watch it for hours sometimes.

[babygeige]

I'd like a 100 gallon or something around that size. I'd have good lights so I could put lots of plants in there. I'd put lots of peaceful schooling fish in it like rasboras and celebes rainbows. Just something nice and relaxing to watch the fish.

[8 in the Corner]

I think my dream tank would be a show tank about 2' wide x 2' deep x 50' long. It would have a 180 degree bend in the middle and have enough room for me to have comfy chairs in between. It would have very calm water in some areas and current supplied by power heads in others. Lots of the dwarf cichlids and many different species of the small plecos. Lots of schooling fish like cardinals and danios would zoom from end to end constantly. It would be heavily planted in some areas and wide open in others. Any troublemakers would be removed and reprimanded sternly. All fry produced would be allowed to fend for themselves just like in the wild. Oh, and I would be rich enough to pay someone to clean it for me once I have it just the way I want it.

[murdock6701]

my kind of guy 8! of course, I'd also flood my basement and fill it full of cold water salt water fish - flounder, skates, squid and mackerel for a few....and eels and crab and shrimp and lobster, clams and scallops and starfish - as long as we're dreaming here, maybe a mermaid as well...... ;D

[Carl]

Since I mostly set up/designed tanks for others over the years, occasionally I would get to see my "dream tank" realized by someone else who could afford it.
John/8s post of 50 foot tank with a 180 degree bend reminded me of a not as large (8 foot) acrylic tank tank that I built into a bar for a healthy Chinese businessman in San Marino, CA. Yhe tank was a gentle 30 degree bend with a custom canopy acting as the bar top.
This was set up as a marine tank.

Another tank I really enjoyed was a 300 gallon Amazon River tank where this time "well to do" Pathologist where we had breeding Discus, angles, Rams and more. This was a really neat tank and the fact that this guy would spare no expense allowed for an awesome tank.

There were many others as well including a couple of cool 6000 gallon ponds too.

Back to rest:
Carl

[Crazy4Fish]

Mine would be, a 250 gallon with Red Tailed Catfish, Tiger Oscars, Silver Arowanas, it would have lots of live plants, caves, wood etc...

[goldenpuon]

Sounds great. Mine would have lots and lots of foot long goldfish. lol

[cashay]

i would like to make one wall in my house nothing but fish tank, or at least as long as the wall and half way up, (little more then half) not sure what kind of fish yet, Lots of colorful fish with long fins, are there such things as foot long BETTA's? ;D If there is I would have them, I don't know the names of the fish but I have a lot in my mind I would like to get... And it's funny this was just brought up, because the other day when I was in the Bass Pro shop in the mall, looking at that tank, I was day dreaming about a tank that size in my house, The wall size...

[kagome]

I think I have yet another dream tank. I think I need an entire dream house in which to keep my dream tanks. I'd like to have a 250g with pretty much every kind of loach that exists. The really cool part is they all could live together very happily. I would want it to have a whole bunch of decorative hiding places and I think I would make it a river set up with sponge intakes on one end and powerhead outflows on the other. Then I could have a bunch of the Hillstream loaches as well. I could have a big school of clown loaches and they would get huge and big schools of the smaller loaches like angelicus and zebra and they would all be really happy because they would all have tons of friends to hang out with. That would be totally awesome! Can you tell I love loaches?

Ooooooo! and while I'm dreaming I want a big 100g set up for Discus and Rams. With lots of amazon sword plant and driftwood. Biolif in the filter and a UV sterilizer. That would be neat and since the conditions for both kinds of fish are so similar they would do well in a tank together and they would be so beautiful. That would be one colorful tank.

[goldenpuon]

Another oen fo mine would be my whole house filled with water with all my fish in it. Then I would sleep with scuba gear on and my fishies would be nibbling at my toes all night! XXD They'd also grow huge and my guppies would go nuts breeding if the bettas didn't get all of them. lol

[cashay]

dreaming is fun.. isn't it

[kagome]

It is, that's how you come up with ideas to make the world a better place.

[cashay]

Dec 17, 2008 14:32:42 GMT -5 kagome said:

It is, that's how you come up with ideas to make the world a better place.

[goldenpuon]

Yep, dreaming is fun. I make a hobby out of daydreaming. lol