Well it's Easter Sunday, so I think it's quite appropriate to resurrect my tank with a new journal, and soon a new scape. Welcome to the Nymph's Pond!
My last scape, <The Nymph's Spring> has sadly ended in tragedy with a nasty rare case of fishTB/mycobacterium, and I don't have the heart to set up a similar long term scape yet. I want to do something short and exciting where I can learn a lot. It was a big low for this to happen to my last scape, and I sort of need to start this one soon and do something great with it to cheer me up. Starting a journal now to record working it out and gathering inspo from the start.
The dimensions of the tank are 90cm w x 50cm d x 45cm h, it's approx 200L. I could go high-tech or lowtech, rainwater or tap. I could go high flow, or lower. Lots of optional variables.
So, this scape needs to be:
This selection is quite short, I don't want the hassle of giving away the fish at the end of this scape, thus I've decided to go with fish that will live happily in my above-ground pond in the garden for the rest of their lives including winters. It is quite a protected spot, and they will go out before the temp drops so they can get used to it. Please let me know if any of these won't be suitable, as always the fish have to be happy, and definitely let me know if you have any more good suggestions! I will only keep one, maybe two of these species in the tank.
Roundtail paradise fish (Macropodus ocellatus) - very beautiful and remind me of apistos, apparently hard to find and are bastards so probably would just keep a pair. I do like that they're the OG aquarium fish too. This is the only paradisefish species that can is ok in british weather 365.
Medaka Ricefish (Oryzias latipes) - lovely fish, some of which I already have, maybe too expensive to get a big load more though annoyingly.
White Cloud Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) - These are lovely colourful fish and would give the pond scape a classic scape vibe with a proper schooling fish and great colours. I'm surprised they can be kept outside tbh!
Iridescent toothcarp (Aphanius mento )- Very beautiful unusual killifish fish, and I have a good source to get some juveniles from. You can't go wrong with a blue fish.
Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus) - Stunning fish, I LOVE PINK, though I'm not sure if they will get too big/active for this tank. Any thoughts?
3-spined Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) - possible to collect, these guys have funny faces and interesting behaviour. They have the face of a smart fish like apistos which I like, with fascinating breeding behaviour.
Common Minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus) - courtesy of my local stream, they can definitely survive and thrive. Not colourful, but still definitely pretty, and I find it quite fascinating to see what my native fish are like.
Scape Style Options
Here are some solid options, in all of them I'm planning to lower the waterline a bit so I can have more emergent plants. Ideally in all I'm using London tap to fill the tank rather than rainwater as I used to. Honestly a break from that would be good for a while.
British Biotope - sticklebacks & minnows with British native water plants. Could submit it to a biotope competition, though tbh I don’t really care for following other people's arbitrary aesthetic rules, so would still do what I want with these ingredients once I got them and make some weird stream/pond/garden/wild hybrid.
Classic scape mimic - a pair of paradise fish with a group of WCMM or ricefish and using cold/pond plants similar to those we use in our tanks already, I think this could end up looking interestingly similar to a classic tropical fish scape, but all cold. The paradise fish aren’t entirely unlike apistos which is quite nice, and they are probably the prettiest fish on my list.
Tropical plant wilderness - a group of blue aphanius mento, and growing plants which looks distinctly tropical and wild with big leaves, colourful flowers and a great bog vibe.
Ornamental pond - take inspiration from a classic pond, and recreate that with the same materials and plants inside, and keep a group of white and orange ricefish in there. A fun play on a slice of nature.
Stream tank - Lots of flow, lots of pebbles, probably lots of BBA. Long wavy plants, with a stream edge at the back for emergents. WCMM, shiners, minnows, all sorts of fish would work here. A big shame there don't seem to be any appropriate gobies for this.
Would happily do any of these or mix them up. It’s now time for THE GREAT RESEARCHING where I scour the internet for lovely pictures to work out my idea better. Part of what I find interesting about this tank is that I don’t really know what it will look like, but I’d like a solid direction. Please do post interesting pics and links in this thread, if you guys have any ideas I’d love to hear them! I know lot sof you have lovely ponds and I'd love to see them too for inspo.
__________________________________
Tomorrow I'll add in a list of plants I'm looking at, though it really is what's in the garden centers that will make the difference, I'm hoping to go to Wildwoods World of Water next week and see what lovely things they have!
My last scape, <The Nymph's Spring> has sadly ended in tragedy with a nasty rare case of fishTB/mycobacterium, and I don't have the heart to set up a similar long term scape yet. I want to do something short and exciting where I can learn a lot. It was a big low for this to happen to my last scape, and I sort of need to start this one soon and do something great with it to cheer me up. Starting a journal now to record working it out and gathering inspo from the start.
The dimensions of the tank are 90cm w x 50cm d x 45cm h, it's approx 200L. I could go high-tech or lowtech, rainwater or tap. I could go high flow, or lower. Lots of optional variables.
So, this scape needs to be:
- Different from what I've done before
- Cheap
- Short term (until Septemberish)
- Have fast growing plants
- Contain creatures that can go and live in my pond after
Fish
This selection is quite short, I don't want the hassle of giving away the fish at the end of this scape, thus I've decided to go with fish that will live happily in my above-ground pond in the garden for the rest of their lives including winters. It is quite a protected spot, and they will go out before the temp drops so they can get used to it. Please let me know if any of these won't be suitable, as always the fish have to be happy, and definitely let me know if you have any more good suggestions! I will only keep one, maybe two of these species in the tank.
Roundtail paradise fish (Macropodus ocellatus) - very beautiful and remind me of apistos, apparently hard to find and are bastards so probably would just keep a pair. I do like that they're the OG aquarium fish too. This is the only paradisefish species that can is ok in british weather 365.
Medaka Ricefish (Oryzias latipes) - lovely fish, some of which I already have, maybe too expensive to get a big load more though annoyingly.
White Cloud Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) - These are lovely colourful fish and would give the pond scape a classic scape vibe with a proper schooling fish and great colours. I'm surprised they can be kept outside tbh!
Iridescent toothcarp (Aphanius mento )- Very beautiful unusual killifish fish, and I have a good source to get some juveniles from. You can't go wrong with a blue fish.
Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus) - Stunning fish, I LOVE PINK, though I'm not sure if they will get too big/active for this tank. Any thoughts?
3-spined Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) - possible to collect, these guys have funny faces and interesting behaviour. They have the face of a smart fish like apistos which I like, with fascinating breeding behaviour.
Common Minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus) - courtesy of my local stream, they can definitely survive and thrive. Not colourful, but still definitely pretty, and I find it quite fascinating to see what my native fish are like.
Scape Style Options
Here are some solid options, in all of them I'm planning to lower the waterline a bit so I can have more emergent plants. Ideally in all I'm using London tap to fill the tank rather than rainwater as I used to. Honestly a break from that would be good for a while.
British Biotope - sticklebacks & minnows with British native water plants. Could submit it to a biotope competition, though tbh I don’t really care for following other people's arbitrary aesthetic rules, so would still do what I want with these ingredients once I got them and make some weird stream/pond/garden/wild hybrid.
Classic scape mimic - a pair of paradise fish with a group of WCMM or ricefish and using cold/pond plants similar to those we use in our tanks already, I think this could end up looking interestingly similar to a classic tropical fish scape, but all cold. The paradise fish aren’t entirely unlike apistos which is quite nice, and they are probably the prettiest fish on my list.
Tropical plant wilderness - a group of blue aphanius mento, and growing plants which looks distinctly tropical and wild with big leaves, colourful flowers and a great bog vibe.
Ornamental pond - take inspiration from a classic pond, and recreate that with the same materials and plants inside, and keep a group of white and orange ricefish in there. A fun play on a slice of nature.
Stream tank - Lots of flow, lots of pebbles, probably lots of BBA. Long wavy plants, with a stream edge at the back for emergents. WCMM, shiners, minnows, all sorts of fish would work here. A big shame there don't seem to be any appropriate gobies for this.
Would happily do any of these or mix them up. It’s now time for THE GREAT RESEARCHING where I scour the internet for lovely pictures to work out my idea better. Part of what I find interesting about this tank is that I don’t really know what it will look like, but I’d like a solid direction. Please do post interesting pics and links in this thread, if you guys have any ideas I’d love to hear them! I know lot sof you have lovely ponds and I'd love to see them too for inspo.
__________________________________
Tomorrow I'll add in a list of plants I'm looking at, though it really is what's in the garden centers that will make the difference, I'm hoping to go to Wildwoods World of Water next week and see what lovely things they have!
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