Sadly, the OG arium, the shallow tank succumbed to The Great Move and the need to reduce the number of heated open topped tanks. Fear not though, for it has been resurrected in the glorious shape of an Aquael Leddy 60, meaning the imbellis have the same footprint but more water! Huzzah!
Here's how it looks now, excuse the reflections (it's a south facing room and it's sunny):
The eagle-eyed amongst you may spot the wall of hydrocotyle on the left, which was the emersed section at the front of the OG arium. I'm sure it will convert easily enough... Having been stored floating in the pond due to lack of anywhere else long enough for it to go, it now sports a small selection of livestock, including it's own colony of blackworms. Whether I can get them to colonise the tank before they're pickled off remains to be seen.
The hardscape is almost entirely made up of the ivy wood which was in the OG arium, plus the substrate, plants and filtration, so it was pretty much a straight swap with added rock. As per, my budget was for the tank only, so the rocks are from my garden. They are best viewed from the other side, though as this in now a 3 sided tank. This view also shows the filter branch (the wiggly bit of wood across the top) which I was happy to be able to include, but it also shows the equipment off well! Quick thank you to
@_Maq_ for giving me the confidence to chuck the cyperus helferi in here too, hopefully it'll grow
It wasn't all plain sailing though, as part way through, one of my dogs knocked a whole tub of shrimp food into a 12l fry tank (my bad for not putting the top on) so there was an emergency relocation of said imbellis fry into this tank. I didn't plan to raise them all with the adults, but no chance of catching them now! At least they're all alive, which is more than can be said for the poor fry tank (excuse for a rescape!) and they're being ignored by Mr Imbellis. Sadly, with imbellis being part of the splendens complex, even though they're known as the peaceful betta, Mr Imbellis wasn't very nice to the girls once they had served their purpose, and despite many hiding places, it wasn't enough. It was next to impossible to catch them, but I did manage to save two, who sadly succumbed to their injuries
There's a lot to be said for keeping peaceful fish! Still, the next generation is growing well and once they are sexable (as much as they are) I'll remove the males and leave the females in there with their dad. There are 20+ youngsters so they can't all be male!
