All animals fascinate me and we recently created an underwater world. In a post last month I spoke of this New Aquarium and thought why not share the progress. Not every post has to be about my first post on HIVE or cats amirite? To sum up the Aquarium, we have a couple of live plants, two African Dwarf Frogs, a Betta Fish and a Zebra Snail.
You can see the world is in harmony, everything has stabilized and the Betta and all the creatures do their own thing. For those who think Betta's and Dwarf frogs can't live together, well here is proof that they certainly can. We should all be able to live together and do our own thing.
These little frogs make surprisingly good pets. So far there is no croaking and they are rather active, they swim around like crazy frogs half the time and are quite entertaining. The random behavior and movement of the frogs make them even more exciting than the cat.
You can see them both, the frogs sometimes hang out at the surface, but usually, they are at the bottom. The distance from the substrate to the surface is about 14 inches or 35 centimeters which gives them all plenty of space to swim around.
We decided to leave the plants in the pots, it keeps everything neater. Because this is a small aquarium, 5 gallons, we have to keep it very clean and there isn't much we can do with it.
Despite how delicate they look, these frogs are surprisingly quick, they are excellent swimmers and it is not a struggle for them to surface. One of them is growing quite large but they are dwarf frogs so I don't expect it to get much bigger.
Here's a picture of Gary, our Nerite Zebra Snail. It has been doing quite well and does its thing actively moving around on every single surface possible. There is some sort of cycle so snails are good, I noticed a tiny one today and am leaving it there. A couple of snails would probably be fine in the tank.
This Marineland Portrait Aquarium comes with a 3-stage filtration system with pump, a two-mode light-pictured above in its night mode and a removable lid. It's very simple and ideal for beginners who want something attractive. Ignore the negative reviews, it does not leak, the pump is standard and the filtration is adequate.
For a five-gallon tank, I think it looks fantastic. We bought a heater for the back and a timer for the lights. I am also going to buy an auto-feeder for when we go away. Aquariums should be automated and adding a feed timer would make this a 20 minute per week hobby.
Thanks for reading and best of luck with your HIVE adventures!
I love frogs, I think they are great little creatures.
They sure are neat little critters :D
Moar frog pics please!
Some people overstock or get impatient. Healthy aquariums barely need active filtration after the nitrogen cycle is done. I mostly just run sponge filters on all mine and the water quality is pristine.
As for the leak, someone probably overfilled and spilled. But, leaks can happen, so best to put it somewhere that won't be catastrophic.
One day we will break out the good camera and do a frog photo shoot. Maybe once quarantine is fully underway, its the sort of thing one typically does when they run out of other things to do.
Aquariums are really tricky when it comes to photography. I find I can never aim directly at it and spend a ton of time trying to get the best angle. I need to fumble with the lights a lot in the room and the aquarium.
Consider using something like photoshop express because it's really difficult to get a perfect shot without some balancing or filters after.