I currently have two fishtanks set up and a couple of spares in store.
The first tank I owned was a cast-off from my mother. She kept fish when I was small, then stopped, but didn't get rid of all the tanks. After ten years in the back of the garden shed (and a couple of years housing gerbils), she gave it to me and I put fish in it again.
Actually it wasn't quite that simple - the gerbils had eaten quite a bit of the silicone sealant gluing the panes of glass together. However, after some repair work it was set up first as a freshwater community tank with undergravel filter.
It housed all sorts of fish over three or four distinct setups, though mostly as a community tank. Once I had about a dozen kribensis - a breeding pair and a generation that had grown up to maturity in the tank. Amos lived in it for a short period, and for a couple of years it housed a T. miurus puffer called Caspar. Caspar is another puffer fish from the Congo, but wouldn't get on with Amos and the others (Caspar in the wild would live off catching fish) so got a tank to himself. Now the tank is once again in storage.
This was the first tank I bought for myself, and for several years was my main show tank. Amos lived in it for several years. It's currently my number-two tank, set up in my study.
This is my main show tank. Currently it houses four oscars and a gibbiceps plec. Before that it was densely planted and housed a selection of fish including angels, rasboros, danios, ottos, platties, cardinal tetras and siamese flying foxes. It had metal halide lighting, CO2 injection, and a sump filter. The five foot tank descrivbes how it was then.
To comment on anything (please do) email ian.web@astounding.org.uk