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Last Updated: 7/10/08

Photos and Videos
Fish
Other Animals
Plants
Equipment

I need to update my tank pages. It is on my agenda!

20 Gallon Tank Photos and Videos

20 gallon glass tank setup since 1996? and re-setup on 6/20/01

Photos and videos are listed from newest to oldest.

Fish Room - 4892 KB, mpg movie.
This movie from 6/21/08 shows all of the aquariums in the laundry room. It starts on the just set up 3 gallon tank which was cloudy as a result, then to the 12 gallon nano reef where most of the corals were closed because I had just changed the water out, then to the 20 gallon freshwater tank, then the 50 gallon freshwater tank, close up on a leopard cory, pull back and then walk back to the 12 gallon nano reef ending on Nemo and a hermit crab who was not in focus.

20 gallon tank on 1/13/08.
Some 20 gallon tank animals on 1/13/08. The female, longfin albino bristlenose pleco is at the top. A tangerine shrimp is at the bottom. A panda cory is in the middle.

20 gallon tank on 12/29/07.

Fish in my 20 gallon tank on 10/5/05. You can see the male bristlenose pleco in the front right (died 1/17/07), the false Siamese algae eater (died 4/16/06) in the back, and the head of the young male paradise fish on the left.

My 20 gallon tank on 9/22/03.

My 20 gallon tank on 10/14/01. The floating fern has taken over and darkened the entire tank.

Picture of my newly setup 20 gallon tank on 7/14/01.

Photo of my 20 gallon tank, 11/29/98. The bottom was coated in java moss, and the female rosy red minnow can be seen half way up the tank about 30% from the left side.

Photos of my 20 gallon tank before (left) and after (right) it was redone on 1/16/00.

Note: There are photos of the various fish and shrimp that have been in the 20 gallon tank on those specific pages (see the fish index to choose a fish).

Note: On 6/16/01, all the animals in the 20 gallon tank were moved to the 50 gallon tank. The plants were set aside. All the non-living components of the 20 gallon tank were soaked in bleach to be re-setup with the former plants, 3 gallon fish, and later new fish.

20 Gallon Tank Fish

• 1 female longfin albino bristlenose plecostomus - added 4/19/06.
  
• 1 glowlight danio. History: Four added 7/5/03 and 3 of their babies released from the fry net on 2/28/04, 1 released on 4/17/04, and 1 released on 4/24/04. On 12/6/03, I found 5 fry that I am sure are these guys which now I think are glowlight danios and not fire bar danios. As of 12/9/03, I have collected 7 darling baby glowlight danios into my net breeder! I collected more on 12/13/03 for a total of 20 so far that are doing great (on 6 fry foods)! By 1/1/04, I have only about 8 left. By 1/11/04, there are 5 big glowlight fry, 1 medium-sized, 2 small, and 2 newborns as well as one newborn panda cory from my 50 gallon tank I found during the weekly gravel vacuuming into the bathtub. By 1/24/04 though, only 3 big and 1 medium fry were left plus I found 5 more newborns. The cory is doing well. On 1/31/04, those same 10 fish were still alive, and I added 2 more newborns. On 2/7/04, there were 3 big, 1 medium, and 3 small left as well as the cory. Two of the small ones died while being held in a cup apparently by the older fry running into them. I added one more newborn for a total of 6 danios and 1 cory. On 2/14/04, the 3 big and 1 medium glowlight danios as well as the cory were fine. Only one other small danio was alive that is now about 3 weeks old I am guessing. I found 5 more newborns but do not think any will have a chance (since the bigger fry probably eat them) until the 4 largest fish can be released. They are pretty big but I am so afraid of the frogs eating them. I released the 3 largest glowlight danios and the cory on 2/28/04, and they are doing great! The net now has the one fry that cannot swim right, 2 fry about 3 weeks old, and 4 newborns added 2/28/04. By 3/13/04, the net has the one deformed fry, one pretty big fry, and four others. The three fry I let go on 2/28/04 are growing really fast and doing great with their four parents. On 3/20/04, there were only one deformed fry, one pretty big one, and one other one. One was dead (I think I did it by accident in moving the net), and two had simply vanished. On 4/17/04, I let a fry out of the net, leaving only the older deformed one in there by himself so the frogs do not eat him. I let him out of 4/24/04 too. He was so happy to join them! So, now there are 9 danios in the main tank, and the net is put up. Update 9/10/05: Only 6 glowlight danios remain. Three have simply vanished in the last few months including the deformed one who was doing well. The week of 1/23/06, I found that the glowlight danios had signs of fish tuberculosis. I treated the tank with antibiotics but one of the six danios was missing by 1/28/06 and presumed dead. As of 10/21/06, there seem to be just 3 glowlight danios meaning two must have died and not been found. I saw two males sparing (gill flaring, mouthing each other, colors up, shaking) on 10/21/06 and think the other one is female. These three survivors are in better shape then they were the week before and might just make it. I saw four glowlight danios on 11/8/06 but one was dying and removed the next day. Three remain. I added four more glowlight danios on 1/14/07. This brought out the surviving older ones of which there were only two. On 6/17/07, the oldest/weakest old glowlight danio died after having trouble swimming for a few days. So, as of 6/17/07, I have five glowlight danios. On 8/18/07, I found two glowlight danio fry in the filter and put them into a net breeder. On 8/25/07, I put a new net on the net breeder as the other one ripped. This new one had larger holes so I was afraid the two babies (who are doing well) might escape. But wait! On 8/28/07, I counted three babies in there! That means a new younger baby swam through the holes and into the net! On 8/30/07, I counted four babies! On 8/31/07, I counted five! They keep coming through the holes! On 9/15/07, when I cleaned the tank and removed the net breeder, I only found three babies, one of the two older ones and two smaller ones. Two must have died or swam out through the net. On 9/22/07, I found the big fry, a medium fry, two small fry, and a small fry that seemed dead but may have recovered. So, in a week, I went from 3 to 5 fry. How? They swam through the net. I finally got a new net and put that on so no more will be swimming out but also none swimming out. On 9/28/07, there were two big and two smaller fry still alive. On 10/6/07, only the two big fry were left. On 11/10/07, I released the almost three-month-old glowlight danios from the net breeder. They were still small but joined the adults. By 1/12/08, I have seen the two young danios schooling with just four adults many times so it is obvious that one of the adults died. Actually, I was wrong! On 1/19/08, I found the body of a dead glowlight danio that had been dead a few days. I saw the remaining danios schooling, and there were six of them. That means until a few days ago, all seven were still there. On 2/9/08, I found the body of one of the old glowlight danios who had dropsy. Five presumably remain. As of 7/10/08, I think there is only one glowlight danio left. I do not know where they all went!
  
• 4 panda cories - one born at the start of 2004 and released from the net on 2/28/04. His parents were in the 50 gallon tank. The surviving panda cory in the 50 gallon tank was moved to the 20 gallon tank on 3/17/07. They are best buddies now! I added two young longfin panda cories to the tan on 1/8/08. They all love each other!
  
• 1 betta - my male betta, Homer, from my basement pond joined the 20 gallon animals on 3/18/08.
  
• 4 rosy danios - added 7/6/08.

On 5/14/05, I put 4 paradise fish fry (two days old) and possibly one egg that still might hatch from my 5 gallon tank into a net breeder in the 20 gallon tank. By 5/21/05, there are just two fry left but they are doing well (one was smaller and obviously not so well!). By 5/28/05, just one was left who is doing well. On 7/2/05, I let him out of the net. He vanished by early 2007; his body was never found.

The previous fish were moved to the 50 gallon tank on 6/16/01 so see the 50 gallon tank page.

20 Gallon Tank Other Animals

3 African dwarf frogs. Three were added on 2/1/02 but one died soon after. They are young and so cute! This is the first time I have gotten aquarium frogs (I have lots of outdoor pond frogs). I am feeding frozen worms, sinking frog food, and other foods. On 4/19/02, I bought and added another dwarf frog. A frog died on 11/27/03. I bought two more young African dwarf frogs on 12/7/03 and added them to the tank! One froggie was found dead on 10/14/05 so three remained. As of 1/22/07, there were two left. One was skinny, and one had profound dropsy. On 3/3/07, the frog with dropsy died. I had only one left. I bought two more little ADF's on 3/11/07 and put them in the 20 gallon tank. One of the frogs became anorexic and vanished by the end of 2007. On 1/8/08, I added one more African dwarf frog bringing their numbers back up to three.

4 tangerine shrimp. All of the shrimp below were gone by 9/18/07 when I added two tangerine shrimp to the tank. They did great so I added two more on 1/8/08.

The rainbow shrimp are all deceased. 1 rainbow shrimp was added on 7/8/01. They were labeled as rainbow shrimp but have spots on their sides, and I thought they might be Amano shrimp. They are definitely not the same as my other shrimp. These shrimp hide extremely well so I rarely see them and do not know how many are now alive. I found one in the filter in September, 2001 that must have got sucked in when he/she was smaller! I rarely see these shrimp. I think there is only one surviving as of 1/10/02. He does appear to be a rainbow shrimp.

The red-fronted shrimp are all gone. 2 red-fronted shrimp were added on 12/27/02 (there were three but one died on 2/23/03).

Two red cherry shrimp were added on 12/27/02. They all died. I bought two more on 12/7/03, and I think they were the only two red cherry shrimp in there. On 3/25/05, I added two more as the others were seemingly long gone. One of those was dead the next day.

Amano shrimp are all assumed long dead. 2 Amano shrimp were added on 2/1/02 (but are gone!). I actually put in three but one was dead the next morning. These guys are bigger than the rainbow shrimp. They seem to sit and pick stuff off the ground and even some algae off my Anubias nana leaves so that is good! Within a month, these shrimp vanished. I have not seen them, found an exoskeleton, or a body of any shrimp. They must have died and been eaten. The tank does not have much cover aside from floating fern so that would be rare. By 5/10/02, I have not seen the Amano shrimp in months so they must be dead. I did see the rainbow shrimp on 5/4/02 though.

2 shrimp of unknown species were added on 3/25/05. They were labeled as "assorted algae- eating shrimp." They were semi-dark, almost a little blue. They did not live long.

The previous shrimp were moved to 50 gallon tank on 6/16/01 so see the 50 gallon tank page.

On 7/25/01, I spotted not only a few pond snails (that I removed) but a large (half inch) ramshorn snail. I did not add snails. The first bunches of plants, I treated with dilute bleach, and it killed 90% of them so the last few plants, I only rinsed. Obviously, those plants had snails on them that I missed. I left the ramshorn in the tank, and it seemed to clean up algae and not eat plants. It grew to about an inch. Then, on 8/29/01, it died, apparently getting its body parts sucked into the Penguin filter intake. I was not sure what happened and waited until 8/31/01 to remove it from the intake and found it hard because its body was up the filter but still attached in the shell as well. This was very odd.

I added a small trumpet snail back on 12/27/02 that I found AFTER bleaching some new plants. I forgot about it until April 2003 when I noticed trumpet snails in the tank, at least 8 I counted at once. Since they are not bad to have, I was happy. They share the snail niche in this tank with some tiny ramshorns. All the trumpet snails in my 20 gallon tank are descended from the one original snail. Update 3/26/05: The tank has TONS of trumpet snails! They were killed off in early 2007 when I tried to treat the tank with a parasitic medication, not knowing what was wrong with the fish. I put a few from another tank in so that by 9/20/07, there are a good amount of trumpet snails in the tank again.

20 Gallon Tank Plants

After the previous 20 gallon fish were moved to the 50 gallon tank, the 20 gallon plants were all removed and the tank disinfected. After sorting through the hair algae, the following plants were recovered from the mess to be put back in on 6/20/01:

• Some floating fern
  
• One large anubias nana
  
• Two large java ferns
  
• Half a dozen small dwarf sagitarius
  
• A few pieces of small crypt
  
• Some java moss on the driftwood

The following new plants were bought and added to the 20 gallon tank on 6/20/01:

• One rotala indica
  
• One tropical sunset hygro (died soon after)
  
• One regular hydrophilia (died soon after)
  
• One tall crypt (I forgot to write down the name)
  
• One crypt wendtii red

Also, from the 3 gallon tank, a small piece of anubias barteri was added on 6/23/01.

The following new plants were bought and added on 7/8/01:

• One hygrophilia (I will try one more time)
  
• One rotala wallichi
  
• One rotata indica (grow like weeds in my tanks!)

On 7/27/02, I added a new rotala indica and a larger crypt to this tank.

:-) ------------------------------------------------------- (-:

Below is the history of the plants I had in the 20 gallon tank before. Most of these had died by the time the 20 gallon was set back up on 6/20/01. The only survivors are those plants listed above.

I redid the tank on 1/16/00. First, I removed the fish and shrimp. Then, I yanked out the tank full of java moss, java fern, anubias nana, an unknown crypt, mats of hair-like algae, and didiplis with a few other pieces of plants left. I added some plants so that the list below is for after the tank was redone on 1/16/00. Mostly, I added crypts because they and java moss, java fern, and anubias seem to do well in my other tanks too. All of these plants do well in established tanks with moderate lighting, laterite, and no carbon dioxide injection. Most other plants need stronger lighting and carbon dioxide injection to do well. I redid the tank because it was so dark and overgrown with java moss taking up a third of the volume! I took pictures which can be seen here with before on the left and after on the right. The spellings below came from the aquarium store and may be incorrect in some cases.

2 bunches of java moss from an old mega-mass
1 large bunch of anubias nana
2 large bunches of java fern
6+ floating ferns
Some duckweed (I tried to get most of it out when redoing the tank)
1 old bunch of didiplis
Unknown crypt bought 2/21/99
1 crpt walkeri bought 1/15/00
1 crpt cilita bought 1/15/00
1 crypt rose wendtii bought 1/15/00
1 corkscrew val bought 1/15/00
1 didiplis bought 1/15/00
1 dwarf sagitarius grass bought 1/15/00
1 red foxtail added 4/2/00

The following plants were in the tank in the past (1997-1999) and died off:
Hygrophilia (multiple tries), sunset hygrophilia (multiple times), baby's tears, broad-leaf sagittaria, ambulia, moneywort, cabomba, mosaic plant (ludwegia sediodes), rotala indica?, rotala willisi?, melon sword, water lettuce from the big pond, narrowleaf ludwegia, valisneria (multiple times and species including Italian val), and frogbit (which has taken over the 40 gallon tank in early 2000).

On 3/16/01, a bunch of anacharis and a bunch of hornwort were added to the tank. On 3/17/01, a wisteria and a golden Lloyoiella (or is it Lloydeilla?) were added to the tank.

20 Gallon Tank Equipment

Filter - Penguin 170 with Biowheel (replaced old Penguin 160 on 9/14/02 since motor was grinding).
Heater - 100 W Stealth heater added 3/10/07 (to replace 100 W Acura 1000); heater set between 77-78 degrees F (previously 72 degrees for old inhabitants).
Lid and Lighting - Glass lid with double strip light holding two 20W fluorescent Triton bulbs
Gravel - Natural colored gravel on top of a one inch layer of Flourite (about 10 pounds)
Aeration - Air bar run by half a Whisper 1000
Driftwood, one piece of rainbow rock, one small clay pot, and river stones
Barley straw in a mesh bag in the filter was added on 3/17/01 in hopes it might combat the hair algae problem. It did not work. When I re-setup this tank, I put in fresh hay.

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