[Eldachleich]

I have a couple more of these now, and a tank. But this was my first ever fishbowl. It had a giant orange lava rock covered in java moss, sitting on top blue and green marbles. All surrounded by this ugly horrible jungle of anacharis. I was so proud of it I kept it like that for two years (I just got my first tank like a month ago, that will be posted soon). But having leftover substrate, a tiny bit more knowledge, and some plant clippings from my local pond store. I decided to give it a shot.
Ok so specs:
Tank - 6 gallon vase form HomeGoods (with everything in it about 5.2 gallons)
Substrate - CaribSea Moonlight Sand
Filter- none
Fertz - none
CO2 - none
Stone - stone found in a pile in my front yard (tested it first)
Lighting - natural. It gets whatever the sun gives it. About 4 hours in the morning, a hour at noon, and 3 hours in the after noon.
Flora - Water Shamrock, Red Stemmed Parrots Feather, Parrots Feather, Java moss, What the pond store said was an immersed Rotala Indica, Corkscrew Val, Java Fern, Anubias Nana), Water Hyacinth, Greater Duckweed, Lesser Duckweed, and a stem of something my friend called Frill.
Fauna - 5 Blue Pearl Juveniles, 1 Ghost/Glass Shrimp, 1 Halfmoon DoubleTail Betta, and 1 Baby Fish (think its a guppy, sneaked in with the ghost shrimp), 1 Zebra Nerite

Sorry for the bad pictures. The battery kept dying and I don't know where the charger is. When I find it I'll take better ones.

 

[Bree]

That looks quite beautiful, and a nice size for your lovely betta!

As long as he can still get some air past those floating plants!

 

[Eldachleich]

That looks quite beautiful, and a nice size for your lovely betta!

As long as he can still get some air past those floating plants!

Thank you!! He can, you cant see it but there little pockets missing duckweed on top so he can get air and find food. Stuff grows fast, I have to scoop some out once a week.

 

[CKJ]

My cat would so love it if I did that but then i'd have a broken vase and a dead fish. She's such a little monster!

 

[Eldachleich]

My cat would so love it if I did that but then i'd have a broken vase and a dead fish. She's such a little monster!

Lol... my kitchen counters are one of the two surfaces on my property my cats know not to ever go on. So hes pretty safe up there... Though they watch him like a TV show during the day...

 

[Chrisinator]

I wish my family would actually let me get a bunch of vases from Michaels. They have awesome looking ones there!

 

[Eldachleich]

I wish my family would actually let me get a bunch of vases from Michaels. They have awesome looking ones there!

Dude.. this is bigger than anything they have at michaels and it was only $8.. try homegoods... or marshalls

 

[Eldachleich]

That title is very unexciting.... Anyone got a better suggestion?

 

[Eldachleich]

Replaced the anacharis with Java fern, and put Anubias under the rock... I'll try and get an OK cell phone picture... Its night and my camera isnt great so no promises.
Anyways... Did my first water change today. Initial cloudiness was already gone, but to plant my java fern and anubias I had to lower the waterline anyways. Now the water is crystal clear. I mixed the previous gravel with the sand to transfer the bacteria. The marbles came out clean and the tank seems to be insta- cycled. Waiting for the rotala to acclimate to being underwater and start to bush out. Right now its a blank patch with a few stems. Also waiting for the parrots feather and shamrock to acclimate and start growing..
Hoping within a month or so the bowl will start to fill in, and the water hyacinth will have worn some and possibly boomed.

 

[hydrophyte]

Do you have any kind of screen top you can put on there? That fish might jump out. I lost a betta earlier this summer that jumped through a tiny 1/8" gap.

 

[Eldachleich]

Do you have any kind of screen top you can put on there? That fish might jump out. I lost a betta earlier this summer that jumped through a tiny 1/8" gap.

No screen. I've had him for 3 years and hes never jumped once. He's actually a very shy peaceful betta.. Also the duckweed and water hyacinth I have noticed tend to keep betta's in their tank. Makes it feel covered and safe I think. My mom's betta had a jumping problem till we added some duckweed in. To be honest that might not work with every betta though. Not with how much their personalities vary.

 

[Eldachleich]

Heres those bad cellphone pics.... The anubias and java fern are in there now.. hoping to have a new charger for my camera by the time everything fills in... The parrots feather I'm rethinking now... I might want to replace it with something else. I was thinking maybe red ludwigia. Who knows though, I might like its submerged state...
I'm gonna shoot for another bad cellphone picture of Ghastly later today. So that you guys can see he is more than a black smudge lol..

 

[Eldachleich]

Final one...

 

[Eldachleich]

So far everything is good. I'm having an outbreak of green algae. I think its transferred over from the anacharis. Which isn't good.. Algae is really hard to beat in this bowl. Because of the the large amount of sunlight it gets... Not sure what to do.. Preformed a water change, I'm hoping the plants will start to out compete it. The red stemmed parrots feather has shot up a good 5 inches above the rest. No sign of acclimating to being underwater. Same with the water shamrock. They both are currently trying to send shoots to the surface daily, despite my constant clipping. The rotala has put out a couple new leaves. But hasn't shown any sign of acclimation to being submersed either. The rest of the plants are doing just fine. I saw the blue shrimp juveniles for the first time in about 2 weeks... Good to know they are all doing well and alive. My nerite has to have at least doubled in size. The baby guppy that sneaked in is still small but doing well. I half hoped my betta would eat him, but he swims right in front of Ghastly's face. And ghastly doesn't do a thing. Wonder if that will change by the time hes older. The parrots feather that I got as a free floating bunch still hasnt grown at all or rooted. All the parrots feather pearls in an awesome fashion though. They get giant, and I mean giant, bubbles in the very center of the tip. Hoping they start to shoot up and shade my lowlight plants...

Here is a pic of my tank in the sun, I'm hoping to get a picture tomorrow of the progress and algae lol.. And possibly a photo of my betta showing off his colors. He follows me around and will even eat out of my hand, but as soon as I approach with a camera or phone he hides in the duckweed. Go figure...

 

[Eldachleich]

Just noticed today that the parrots feather (not the red stemmed) is turning brown at the tips. In the past all my parrots feather turned brown at the bottom and melted up, before the tips started growing submerged growth. So we will see what happens with this one. If it doesnt take I'll have to go buy a pot of rooted parrots feather along with some more rotala. Aren't pond stores just the best? I didn't even have to pay for the water shamrock, I just take the clipping from when they trim the side of their ponds. The algae is slowing down in growth.. I think the plants are starting to take more of the nutrients now. The rotala has thrown out a few new stems as well, I;m really interested in the fact that they have yet to turn into more of a needle shape. They are still round in shape even though this new growth occurred underwater. Perhaps they haven't acclimated yet? I'm going to take some pictures tomorrow, for now I have an optometrist appointment.

 

[2in10]

Very nice set up, it will be nice to see it grown in.

 

[Eldachleich]

Very nice set up, it will be nice to see it grown in.

Thank you!!.. It's going slowly... But It's going...

 

[Eldachleich]

The algae has turned a dark green color.... However a large portion is missing. Way to go nerite!!! I do need a better algae team than one nerite snail... Perhaps a couple oto's. Though I'm not sure if there will be enough algae for them to eat in the long run. I wonder what an efficient algae team for this bowl would be.
Pics tomrorow of algae breakout, parrots feather growth, my water shamrock trying to reach the surface, and if I'm lucky my betta showing off his colors.

 

[Eldachleich]

I didn't get any pictures today because of my suddenly grey weather... Any picture resulted in a black foreground and white background.... So hopefully tomorrow it clears up and I can get nice picture... My algae seems to be aging... now its a dark green... However on the bright side it seems to be slowly receding... The water shamrock had to be clipped down to remove some dying leaves and the two stems that had almost reached the surface... I had no idea it would try and go up that high. Next week I'm buying a whole pot of rotala and putting it in that one spot.. I cant stand how empty it is with one stem of rotala. Plus I need some for my nano upstairs. Figured it was worth it. Might also buy a pot of parrots feather to replace the back. Not sure If I want red stemmed or regular parrots feather. I would also be using it upstairs in my nano... So I'm leaning towards regular... Waiting for my LFS to get oto's in and buying some for upstairs.. considering putting 1 or 2 in the bowl... Depends on plant coverage...
The water hyacinth has been choked out by algae on its roots.. Starting to brown and die on the edges. Possibly buying A new one tomorrow and letting that one recover in my container pond outside...

 

[Eldachleich]

Algae is most definitely going away... All the plants shot up 5 inches in one day. All growth was submersed. Except the water shamrock. That is still trying to reach the surface.. trimmed all but one leaf hoping it would get the message and start growing submersed... Water hyacinth has started the throw out new leaves and roots, same with the duckweed. rotala has bushed out and grown alot. I removed the "frill" and replaced it with more parrots feather. It was growing nicely.. But didn't fit in. Just did a major trim on everything to create a nice bush...