life in 180

having spent a lot of time (prolly too much time) trying to set the 180 litre tank up satisfactorily. trying and failing to get it set up with enough hiding places to keep the fish happy but generally ending up with far too many nooks and crannys for the fish to hide in. they just hid all day long. so i left the tank for about a month to just settle and let the fish relax, maybe they will start to come out again.

they never did come out. so i decided to spend all afternoon yesterday to do a "once-and-for-all" job on the layout. what i have achieved i am most pleased with. i have used the largest piece of driftwood to cover the left side of the tank and redice the amount of direct sunlight entering the tank. i went about setting up the rest of the decor with the intention of leaving no hiding places at all. trying to get rocks and wood to sit next to each other with no gaps at all was rather difficult and invariably there are a few places where fish can still hide, but this is a good thing. i'll edit this post and put a picture up when the light is good to get a nice pic.

during the process of cleaning i noticed that i only had 3 silver-tipped tetras left when i knew i had 9 to start with. and that tawny-dragon catfish has grown very quickly, its not hard to deduce what has been happening here. ah well, i figured this would happen but didn't think it would be so soon. so i am left with a very spcious aquarium which now needs some new fish. i've decided to keep fewer, larger fish so next time i go to one of the fish stockists i will be asking them their opinions on what would be most suitable for my tank.