Last Updated: 2/9/21

Photos
Current Fish and Snails
Equipment

Note, this tank was set up on 3/18/07 and torn down on 3/20/07 due to a crack. The fish finally went into a new 65 gallon tank on 3/31/07. See these pages for more information:

Tank renovation - 40 gallon to 65 gallon
Tank defect

A lot of this page is a bit convoluted because it entails combining information about the animals when they were in the 40 gallon tank as well as in the 65 gallon tank. It confuses me!

65 Gallon Tank Photos

65 gallon glass tank setup 3/18/07, torn down 3/20/07 due to a crack (fish went back to the 40 gallon), and set up again in another 65 gallon tank on 3/31/07.

This tank was emptied on 8/8/20 and was sitting fallow. I set the tank back up and added fish on 1/27/21. For details, go to the new page for the 65 gallon aquarium. This page is for everything related to the 65 gallon aquarium before 8/8/20.

Photos are listed from newest to oldest.

65 gallon tank on 7/3/10. Aragorn (bottom) and Legolas can be seen.

65 gallon tank on 11/10/07. I had just finished the weekly cleaning but also had bleach soaked and dechlorinator soaked the fake plants so they look more new.

65 gallon tank - set up the second time, 3/31/07.
65 gallon tank - set up the second time, 3/31/07. Plecy was taking a gulp just as this photo was done! This caught him the moment he came down from hitting the surface so he has a bubble in his mouth.

Photo - 65 gallon tank all done!! This was the defective tank on 3/18/07.

Photo - 65 gallon tank with just the gravel in it. This is the defective tank on 3/18/07.
To see photos of the crack that the first 65 gallon tank that I got had, go to the 65 gallon tank defect page.

To see photos of the animals when they were in the 40 gallon tank, go to the old 40 gallon tank page. Some of the information on these two pages is redundant.

For photos of the individual fish in the tank, see the pages about that specific species.

65 Gallon Current Tank Fish and Snails

Update 8/8/20 = The tank is now empty. I put the remaining four fathead minnows and most of the ramshorn snails out in the 153 gallon pond. I then bleached the tank out to kill any remaining bad life forms.

The information below pertains to what used to be in the tank.

Update 2/14/20, the only animals in the 65 gallon tank now are black ramshorn snails. I am pondering what to do with them. On 3/7/20, I put wood frog eggs in this tank because I had yet to clean any of the ponds. Cleaning ponds with tiny tadpoles is a recipe for their death. After I cleaned the ponds, I started moving the tadpoles back out. By April, the tank went white with a bacterial bloom from all the tadpoles and food I had to feed them. By 4/7/20, there are maybe 100 left in there from the original amount of maybe 300. I hope to get them all out before they turn in to frogs! They are so hard to catch. I also started moving ramshorn snails out to the cleaned ponds as well. Eventually, the tank needs to go fallow for now.

Deceased common plecostomus named Plecy - one, sex unknown (male?), age unknown, bought on 1/28/95, 12.75 inches long as of 7/00, moved from 50 gallon to 10 gallon for one year and then to the 40 gallon tank until 2007 when the 65 gallon was set up. He may have killed a pair of gorgeous longfin rosy barbs (6/98) with him after a year of co-habitation in 10 gallon tank!! I measured Plecy on 1/13/07. He was 15 inches long! Plecy died on 2/14/20 and was 15 inches long.

My last indoor goldfish who was in the 65 gallon tank, Legolas, a fantail, died on 6/4/14. His friends were Frodo (died 10/17/09) and Aragorn (died 12/25/10) who were added on 1/22/06 (to the 40 gallon tank back then). They are/were all males.

I bought three fantails back in the fall of 2004 with the intention of putting them into my 1800 gallon pond in the fall of 2005 to replace some of the many (~20?) goldfish I had lost to the herons and a mystery illness with no symptoms that killed 14 goldfish. When the time came, the fantails were still about an inch long, and I knew they did not have a chance, so I kept them inside. My plan was to put them with Plecy when the danios were all deceased and hope they did not catch the fish tuberculosis. I planned to try putting the goldfish in, who were then a few inches long, on 1/22/06. Here are the pros and cons.

Cons of putting three small fantails with Plecy in the 40 gallon tank:

• They could catch fish tuberculosis.
  
• Plecy could suck on them or their fins while they sleep or rest on the bottom. Due to Plecy's huge size and their small size, this was less apt to happen than if the pleco were tiny and the goldfish huge.
  
• The water quality for the goldfish would not be as good as it was in the 20 gallon basement pond.
  
• Plecy slammed things around the tank. He could squish a goldfish. That worried me the most.

Pros of putting three small fantails with Plecy in the 40 gallon tank:

• The goldfish would have twice the room.
  
• The goldfish would warm up about 10 degrees F from about 63 in the basement to 73 in the tank. They had not grown or eaten much in the cold water.
  
• The goldfish would have more to see and do and explore.
  
• The goldfish would have more food variety (including Plecy's leftovers). I had only been feeding them plain flakes because the basement pond was far from my stash of fish foods. This was laziness on my part though.
  
• I would be able to actually see the goldfish aside from the few seconds of seeing them come to eat in the pond. In the tank, I would get to see them from the side for the first time.
  
• The tropical water lilies overwintering in the basement pond were dying from the goldfish nibbling on them. This might allow them to recover.
  
• I would be able to use the basement pond to quarantine some new orfe I really want for my pond.
  
• In the summer, I would be able to finally put up the basement pond. I never used to run it year-round. This means more time for me and less electricity to run the lighting.

So, I was going to take the risk. The goldfish were very healthy so it was just a risk for them and not Plecy.

On 1/22/06 around 9:30 am, I put the fantails in with Plecy. As of 1/28/06, every thing has gone better than I could have imagined. Plecy had been behaving himself. The fantails were very active, and the two larger ones (less than 3" long mind you) sprouted tubercles so they were male. The goldfish were eating like pigs, and everyone seemed happy! See my my indoor goldfish section for more information and lots of photos of the cutey pies! Update 1/22/07: So far, so good! The fantails and Plecy moved to the 65 gallon tank on 3/18/07, back to the 40 gallon on 3/20/07 due to a defective tank, and back to a new 65 gallon tank on 3/31/07. They loved the new tank! Plecy had not harmed the goldfish at all. Well, he did sort of harm the goldfish indirectly. He gave them fish tuberculosis. Plecy carried it but was somehow immune himself. Frodo died from it on 10/17/09. Aragorn and Legolas had symptoms but could live for another year. Poor Aragorn died on 12/25/10 after wasting away. Legolas was large and seemed healthy but had an exposed (open) tumor and died 6/4/14.

I put a few black ramshorn snails from my 153 gallon pond in the 65 gallon tank in the fall of 2011 and did not think much of it after that. Then, in late April, 2012, all of a sudden, there were a dozen ramshorns in there, some getting pretty big. They had plenty to eat, and Plecy and Lego did not mind! Plecy died on 2/14/20 at 26 years old, leaving hundreds of black ramshorn snails in the tank. I do not know what to do with them as they carry fish tuberculosis but I do not feel right just killing them!

65 Gallon Tank Equipment

Filter - Emperor 400 with 2 Biowheels (400 gph) - new one on this tank (old one was used on the 40 gallon); replaced old Emperor 400 with another new one on 3/21/15.
Supplemental Filter - Added 2/8/14 - Aquatop PF40-UV filter because it has a 7 W UV, 128 gph. This filter was removed sometime around 2018 after it leaked and warped the cabinet.
Heater - 200 W Aqueon Pro 200 added on 3/6/13 and set to 68 degrees F. The previous Visitherm Stealth heater added on 1/21/06 heated the tank up to 90 degrees F overnight (malfunctioned) in early February 2013.
Lid and Lighting - Glass lid with double strip light holding two 3' 30W fluorescent plant bulbs
Gravel - 30 pounds of natural colored gravel on top of a one inch layer of Flourite (about 20 pounds); the gravel got mixed up when I rinsed it out to redo the 40 gallon tank into the 65 gallon tank so it is no longer layered
Aeration - Two air bars run by an Airpod (which has battery backup when the power goes off) - added 4/30/09. Fresh air stones (silicon) added 3/6/13 as others fell apart.
A large piece of driftwood for Plecy held down by 2 large pieces of slate and his cucumber holder
A smaller piece of driftwood
Three resin fake rock turtle basking things that put together made Plecy a nice hiding place, and he loved it!!
One thermometer, some petrified wood, a plastic fake wood thing, 2 large fake plants, and 2 small fake plants
One 9 W JBJ Submariner UV sterilizer added on 10/31/09. I added the UV sterilizer because of the high bacterial load in the tank from fish tuberculosis, fish waste, and cucumbers. After the lamp died for the 100th time, I removed this machine once and for all on 1/19/13. I went through probably 40 bulbs and 3 of the entire systems over the last three years. The tank became cloudy but later cleared (it goes back and forth). At some point soon after that, I put in an Aquatop filter with a UV sterilizer. It worked great until it started to leak. Worse yet, I did not find the leak until the particle board of the stand was all soaked, expanded, and covered in black mold. I had to remove the filter. The tank water will have to go back to being opaque at times. I removed the Aquatop filter on 11/10/18. On 11/24/18, I put in a new in-tank UV sterilizer. It is an "AA Aquarium Green Killing Machine" with a 24 W UV sterilizer built in to it. You have to replace the entire unit for a new UV! I ended up replacing it once but it always kept clogging with snails, and then the unit smelled. I think maybe the bulb broke inside, and they make it so it cannot be opened.

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