Plastic Container Aquarium

April 19th 2022.

I got an old 3 liter plastic food container - which is in great shape if you would ask me.

Buy Plastic Container Aquarium on Amazon (paid link):

https://amzn.to/3SPL0om

 Let's use this container for making an aquarium.

The first and the most important is to measure the narrowest side of the tank.

Divide it by 3 and you know the maximum length of a fish or any critter you may keep in this tank.

It is suitable for fish up to 5cm in this example.

I set up all my aquariums with gravel and aged algae rich water.

Let's put a couple cuttings of fast growing Guppy grass and Hornwort.

I populated all my aquariums with snails - here they go too.

Live plants and simple critters like Ramshorn and Bladder snails make a good start for any aquarium.

I also like to add a couple slow growing Marimo balls.

And let's add scuds (Gammarus).

Snails and scuds are one of the best critters for self-feeding self-sustaining aquariums.

I cover all my aquariums to reduce water evaporation and to grow land plants with roots in water.

Though, this time I want to try without a land plant on the top.

All set and ready on April 19th, 2022.

I've been exploring local ponds for all possible candidates for culturing as food for fish and newts.

Ponds in Central park of New York have Bladder snails and blackworms.

And there are many other tiny critters...seed shrimp, daphnia and such.

 Here I see some wriggling worms and...some sort of bugs dashing through the water.

I am curious to find out what those bugs are.

Let's get samples for identification.

Here you can take a closer look at the critters.

I took some pictures and uploaded them to the iNaturalist app for identification.

These bugs are known as water boatmen.

I wonder if boatmen would survive in my aquarium.

So, I put about a dozen water boatmen in the two month old tank on on June 29th, 2022.

July 15th, I am adding a breeding family of Blue Star Endlers fish in this about 3 month old tank.

I also added a Cholla wood in this tank.

The water boatmen did not survive a month - I may try them again the next year.

Take a glimpse of my other tanks.

Here is the cube tank.

There are two paludariums on the top and a bunch of containers with live food for newts.

Getting live food for newts is a crucial part of the preparation.

My Endlers, snails and scuds have been doing great in this plastic container aquarium.

I provide the same aquarium fish care routine as for all my sustaining aquariums.

The cover prevents water evaporation - I don't have to refill the tank for months.

About once a month or two I remove spare plants and use them to make fish food flakes.

Simply air dry the plants with whatever critters get caught with the plants.

I also pull out some snails and scuds for feeding my newts once in a while.

My fish hunts baby scuds, but there are always some breeding adult scuds to support the colony.

A couple times a week I feed fish with flakes made of what grows in my aquariums.

Bacteria, algae and plants keep the water clean better than any man-made filters.

And so it goes month after month.

March 1st 2023.

The almost one year old aquarium looks all good.

I am moving all the fish into a 29 gallon paludarium with newts.

I need more nurseries for culturing scuds.

This 3 liter container has an almost an year old colony of scuds.

Removing fish is a sure way to boost scuds population.

Let's put the fish in the large tank.

And here you can see one of my newts.

My newts don't eat the fish...well, I've never seen newts hunting for fish for sure.

Though, newts and fish feed on scuds.

So, I am going to culture scuds and snails in this plastic container aquarium for my newts.

And this aquarium makes a great backup nursery in case of an emergency.

I feed scuds and snails with dry leaves.

They love mulberry leaves.

This 3 liter tank makes a great aquarium for critters and small fish.

No water changes, no heaters, no noisy pumps of any kind.

Hussle free simple sustainable aquarium that I can move around at a whim.

It looks great as a stand alone aquarium or as a supplemental tank for a larger tank.

Have fun and happy aquariums :)