Diana Louise Walstad - Ecology of the planted aquarium: a practical manual and scientific treatise for the home aquarist

COLOR PLATES

Color Plate 1. Blue Guppies in a 29 gal Tank. I can catch guppies and their babies easily in this 29 gal planted tank where one end has potted plants on bricks (see Q&A on ). Blue guppies like these are hard to find, so I bred them myself. I crossed a store-bought male of brilliant iridescent blue coloring with a healthy female show guppy with a large delta tail. Like many of the imported guppies offered in stores, the male did not last long. I kept him alive just long enough (using a bare quarantine tank dosed with antibiotics) to impregnate the female guppy. Afterwards, I kept the female separated from all other males; her second batch of babies was from the desired mating. By selectively breeding offspring from the planned mating, I eventually got the fancy blue guppies depicted in the photo.

Color Plate 2. Bluespotted Sunfish in a 45 gal Tank. The Bluespotted Sunfish (Enneacanthus gloriosus) is a small, beautiful native fish found in ponds and lakes from New York to Florida. They are hardy, unaggressive, and get no bigger than 2-3 inches. Ideally, they should get live food. They will not eat flake food. However, I have maintained mine for several years feeding them mainly freeze dried bloodworms and small cichlid pellets. They will go wild for fresh earthworms.

Color Plate 3. Juvenile Cichlids in a 20 gal Grow-out Tank. For many years, I raised and sold Tanganyikan cichlids. They tend to be smaller and less aggressive than the Lake Malawi cichlids. I obtained juvenile fish from cichlid breeders listed with the American Cichlid Association. I consider the cost of the fish (about $5-$25 each) cheap considering the fact that the fish I obtained were consistently healthy (not one succumbed to disease) and of high quality. At times, I kept over a hundred juveniles in this tank with a small hang-on-the back filter. Intense lighting and rapid emergent plant growth from the depicted Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides) kept the fish healthy with minimal maintenance.

Color Plate 4. Small Tanks for Pet Shrimp. I set up these two 2 gal tanks in 2009 using the Dry Start Method. That is, I grew the plants emersed for 10-11 weeks before adding water and the shrimp. As of 2012, the tanks and shrimp continue to do well. The Dry Start Method gives delicate plants a better chance to survive tank setup, which is always tricky. I describe the setup in my article Small Planted Tanks for Pet Shrimp.

Color Plate 1. Fancy Blue Guppies in a 29 gal Tank.

Color Plate 2. Bluespotted Sunfish in a 45 gal Tank.

Color Plate 3. Juvenile Cichlids in a 29 gal Grow-out Tank.

Color Plate 4. Small Tanks for Pet Shrimp.