The Dragon's Lair - New pics 10/24/10

[londonloco]

Very nice, love the tank. What kind of wood is that and how did you get it to stay that way? Really love the tank!

[cah925]

The wood is from Jake (badcopnofish) here on TPT. Several months ago I asked him to send me a big box of wood with various sizes. It's nice to have lots of spare pieces laying around for projects. The wood on the left is 3 individual pieces. 1 on the ground with anubias attached. The other two start behind the rock in the corner.

The middle piece just rests on the planter box, the upper piece is held in place with zipties attached the the PVC that feeds fresh water from the filter into the cave. This isn't the best pic, but you can kind of see the outline of the 2 zipties. I superglued a piece of java fern to the lower ziptie to hide it once it grows in. Even in person, it's hard to see the zipties unless you know where to look.


On the right side, there is basically 2 pieces. The smaller piece (in blue) appears to come forward over the rock like a root. The second piece (in green) is a very large piece that splits three times with 2 of the parts appearing to grow straight up. You can see it best in this older pic just after setup.


Here's today's pic for comparison.

[cah925]

I decided it was time for a name change on the tank/thread. My son and I were sitting around one day wanting to name the eels. Big Worm was the first thing that popped in my head. If you have seen the movie Friday, then you probably recognize the name reference. This was a hard one to explain to my 10 year old son but he thinks it's funny so it stuck. We are still tossing around ideas to name the second eel.

[Coltonorr]

Wow! Sweet tank. love the moss.

[hydrophyte]

That's looking great. The platies look good in there. Do you worry that the eels might eat them?

[smoq]

How could I miss this one. Great tank dude and definitely a rare choice of fauna

[dewalltheway]

Great job! You really did a nice job of placing the DW and plants and it looks so natural. Do you see the eels much or do they hid alot?

[trackhazard]

I would have gone with Big Perm!

Do you find your eel to be shy?

-Charlie

[chonhzilla]

doesn't that eel burrow?

[cah925]

Thanks for all the positive comments!

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

That's looking great. The platies look good in there. Do you worry that the eels might eat them?

I'm not worried about the eels eating the adults. I put the platties in the tank for breeding purposes. The eels mainly eat live food, but it needs to be small (for now) so fish babies work very well and I don't have to constantly buy live food for them.

Originally Posted by dewalltheway

Great job! You really did a nice job of placing the DW and plants and it looks so natural. Do you see the eels much or do they hid alot?

The eels stay hidden most of the time. They do come out in the early morning while we get ready for school when the house lights come on.

Originally Posted by trackhazard

I would have gone with Big Perm!

Do you find your eel to be shy?

-Charlie

They're not too shy. The skinnier, darker one spends more time in the open. Big Worm stays in the cave a lot. Both are very active when the lights first come on. They swim around for about 30-45 mins before disappearing into the cave for the day. Here's a video I took of them swimming around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls0a4kJHNAs

Originally Posted by chonhzilla

doesn't that eel burrow?

Yes, they burrow. I'm glad the plants had a chance to establish before I added the eels. Here's a quick pic.

[Wingsdlc]

Your son's voice in the background of the video is great! Very excited!

The tank is very neat! I look forward to watching it grow in.

[boltp777]

they usually hide when scared. their obviously very happy in this tank because he provided a very good home for them. i hate when people come to my work and buy them and try to put them in like a 10 gallon tank with blue gravel and all that jazz.

Originally Posted by chonhzilla

doesn't that eel burrow?

[trailsnale]

kudos on the unique tank! you've got great ideas.

[cah925]

Originally Posted by trailsnale

kudos on the unique tank! you've got great ideas.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by boltp777

they usually hide when scared. their obviously very happy in this tank because he provided a very good home for them. i hate when people come to my work and buy them and try to put them in like a 10 gallon tank with blue gravel and all that jazz.

I did my homework for quite a while before I even started to design this tank. Even after the build, I waited a couple months before adding the eels.

[bsmith]

What a great tank.

What do you think about putting a nice sword in there as a focal point? Maybe on top of the cave.