Tucked into the little alcove by the bookshelf, it gets just enough light from the window to make the Chihiros almost unnecessary some afternoons. Amazon swords anchor the back with buce and anubias tied onto driftwood up front, hairgrass filling the open ground. CPDs and endlers move through the top and mid water while the cherry shrimp, a good 38 of them now, clean up everywhere else.

A friend once swore this looked years old, not months. The otos still don't have names.

Java fern and bucephalandra tied to the wood, moss filling in around the base, guppies and rummynose keep it busy

Replaced a sad little starter tank that never held a plant longer than a week. Dragon stone anchors the scape now, with vallisneria and java fern actually taking hold instead of melting away. Rummynose and CPDs school through the middle while a small army of bristlenose keep the glass honest.

the shrimp are what i like watching most, theyre all over the java moss and driftwood picking at stuff constantly. bugs me a little that the crypts melted twice before settling, but the tetras dont seem to mind either way.

My partner still calls this the glass box with rocks in it - fair, since that's basically how it started. These days it's got the seiryu stone mostly hidden under moss, otos grazing the panes, and a crew of crystal red shrimp picking through the monte carlo up front.

Been running about a year and a half now, and it barely resembles that bare cube from the first week. Buce has finally bulked out on the wood, rotala keeps pushing new growth under the twinstar, and the otos stay glued to the glass most mornings. Started with just hardscape and controsoil, no real plan beyond seeing what took off. Blue rilis are everywhere now, way more than the original count suggests.

roommate named the shrimp before the tetras even showed up

Sits right on my desk so it's basically eye level all day while I'm working, which honestly makes it dangerously easy to get distracted by. Dragon stone stacked up one side, vallisneria swaying into frame, ember tetras darting through it. The amano shrimp do most of the actual cleanup.