My office Aquarium

[drydem]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_TQqo0JY0o

I've since added three more otocincluses (a total of 4 dwarf sucker mouth catfish), one peppered corydoras catfish, two glass shrimp, a japaness moss ball, and an anubis plant.

The otos donot like the algae fishfood tablets and will eat only living algae, powdered Spirulina, and the very expensive aquatic driftwood I put in there. I've had one oto die of starvation because the snails ate all the living algae - hence, I've had to culled the snail population (that came with the aquarium grown plants) periodically to prevent the otos from starving. The glass shrimp are aggressive scavengers but will only eat living algae in a pinch. Glass shrimp will eat the fishfood tablets and the powdered Spirulina. When the glass shrimp eat the green powdered Spirulina you can see it in there intestinal tract (since they are transparent). The corydoras armoured catfish, the largest resident, will eat the fishfood tablets but is very shy (being the only one) and will not come out unless the lights are turned off and nobody is in my office area ( it can see and recognizes people outside the aquarium). The Amazon Swordplants leaves were pale and anemic until I added phosphate-nitrate based plant food tablets to the water (my initial choice of potash-iron based plantfood which was not enough). The aquatic plants appear to be greener and are now growing a bit since I switched from a regular 15w incandescent aquarium lightbulb to a brighter full spectrum 10w flourescent aquarium lightbulb, too. The aquarium light is controlled by a GE digital timer that is set to turn on the lights for 12 hours a day. This Aquarium also has a powered external carbon based filter to keep the water clean and a heater to keep the water at about 76 F degrees.

[drydem]

One oto has died of starvation so I'm culling the snails on a regular basis now. I've added an airstone to provide more oxygen to the tank. With the added aeration/oxygent the fish are more active. I'm using the fish food tablets as snail bait to capture and remove the snails. The Phosphate-nitrate plant food has brought back the aquatic swordplants and kyoto grass back to life.

[drydem]

For good feng shui - I've added one golden orange male guppy ( he looks like a goldfish). The peppered cory catfish is going nuts and uprooting the live aquatic plants ( hornwort, cambola) - this 5.5 gallon aquarium is too small for him.... the four midget sucker catfish(otos) are doing fine - the spirullina and 4 inch aeration airstone did the trick.