when i think lake tanganyika i think about one of my favorite lakes in africa not only is the second
oldest freshwater lake in the world it's the second largest by volume and the second
deepest but when we take a closer look i think jagged rocks i think detritus and i think sand
i also think how easy this would be to replicate in the home aquarium and then stock it with some
of the most fascinating and interesting fish on the planet now you guys will remember that we have
a tank full of frontosa you'll also remember that over a month ago we got some more frontosa
but these are black widows of course you'll also remember that they've been inhabiting the same
tank for a few days and now it's time to escape their aquarium but we have to keep a couple of
things in mind we're also going to be adding in some lake tanganyikan african shell dwellers
creating an absolutely fascinating habitat that we will be able to compare to not only the shell
dwellers and how they're acting and interacting with an environment containing natural predators
which we've kind of done before but we're also going to leave behind half the colony
in a 40 gallon breeder for something to compare to now the rocks that i'm going to be using are
just common rocks that i found on the side of the highway in fact they were under a bridge
i grabbed a handful of them i tested them i treated them and then i washed them mind
you i'm not going to go over that in this video because we've already done it in the past and if
you want to see me and dad jeans go ahead and watch that video the information and knowledge
that i applied there literally still applies to today now i started off this 180 gallon aquarium
of course by building out the filtration and then on the base of the aquarium i added some basic
egg crate or lighting diffuser is what it's most commonly known as this is going to allow me to add
in some really heavy rocks without adding any specific pressure points to the aquarium now
given that this is a glass tank this egg crate or lighting diffuser whatever you prefer to call it
is incredibly important i wanted to start this off by mimicking what i see in videos that i
see on youtube that you guys have seen a hundred times as well and if you haven't i highly suggest
you uh searching up whatever your favorite fish is or whatever your favorite location is
followed by you know keywords like underwater in the wild stuff like that and just go ahead and see
what you're actually trying to mimic because a lot of the times it's going to be an eye opener but
for me i knew i was going to use some jagged rocks just kind of stacked up the rocks that i collected
i only actually got a couple of big ones i i think it was actually three the first rock that i used
its purpose was going to be to prop up a really my favorite rock of the bunch it's like the 60 pound
rock is what it felt like i didn't measure it but i wanted it to kind of slant upwards because i was
going to create something that in my opinion looks like a rock fall like all of these rocks start at
the back and kind of collapse and fall down and and tumble and crumble if you get what i'm trying
to say as the escape progresses you'll definitely understand what i mean i had to make sure that
this rock was positioned in a way that not only created a dramatic slanted wet uh appearance but
also the fish could swim around in all directions because in my mind and in my heart i think
the frontosa will occupy the left side of this aquarium so i'm going to escape it knowing this
and knowing what the shell dwellers are going to need and where they're definitely going to be i've
kept shell dwellers on and off for like 20 years i definitely know how they're going to interact but
it's going to be fascinating to see them in this aquarium the first three rocks were incredibly
important for placement because they set the tone for the rest of the tank the rest of the rocks
are pretty basic regardless of how you put them in or your level of escaping expertise and i'm not a
skater i don't care about the rule of thirds or whatever i just do what i think looks good to me
and what i think the fish are going to interact with the best and of course what's going to be
visually appealing but for me the number one thing is always going to be what do the fish need now i
walk into a lot of my scapes knowing the fish that i'm going to be keeping in it prior to doing it
and what i do and what helps me a lot with setting these tanks up is i literally visualize the tank
filled with water and the fish in it and every rock or every ornament or every piece of wood that
i add into it i imagine them swimming around it and how they're going to interact with it
so again these first three pieces of rock were going to be incredibly important followed by
then all i'm trying to do is create a bunch of caves and trying to make it look like this
might be something that naturally happened now if i were to do a lake malawi tank which is also
uh found in africa the malawi river or i'm sorry the malawi lake seems to have more rounded rocks
doesn't it but lake tanganyika has more jagged both of them have equal amount of detritus and
debris all over the place and the same type of sand but when it comes to the differences between
the two i always envision a lake tanganyika tank having jagged rocks and i'm curious to think
uh i'm curious to ask what you guys think as well do you also think that lake tanganyika has jagged
rocks do you believe or do you envision it as being a deeper lake um do you think of lake
malawi having the rounder boulders i'd love to hear your guys's thoughts so give me some feedback
in the des in the comments below because these are some of the things that i think about all the time
now the sand i used is gonna look like it's a bunch of different colors but some of it's
wet because i'm taking it from another aquarium that i recently shut down versus new sand that uh
is the exact same brand and the same type except it's dry so it's gonna look a little whiter but
once we added some water it's gonna look uh perfectly fine one of the things that i'll do
is i don't really focus on adding the substrate to places that we can't see but i will sprinkle
a bunch all over the rocks just to ensure we get a little filler in there because we will see this
sand is uh not a fine sand it's probably a step up so it's probably like two millimeter um and i find
it's literally the perfect sand or substrate for the african shell dweller whether you're keeping
simulus or multifaceted or any other any of the other types of shell dwellers and i'm telling you
when it comes to lake tangika the shell dwellers that you have seen are not the only species
uh lake tagica might not have the most colorful types of fish but in my opinion they definitely uh
have some of the most fascinating now as we look at the scape now it basically
it basically did end up being what i thought it was going to look like
a bunch of rocks this tumbled down it's nothing it doesn't look man-made to me
and that's incredibly important at times when i'm trying to create some sort of biotype um because
you don't necessarily want it to be man-made but you also want it to be functional i have
to think about the water flow in the aquarium how it's going to interact with the scape versus how
the fish are going to interact with it but i did think this was missing something after i kind of
sprayed off all the rocks i thought you know what i got so much anubius let's add some in now i
posted this to the members only they've already seen this tank fully stocked and fully escaped
and they saw the fish and they saw this a month ago and they all agreed that the anubias added a
little bit something to it now what might happen with this anubias is it might overtake the rocks
over time but i'd also like to get your guys idea do they do you think the anubias ruined
it or was it too much should i just should have stayed with just the rock and did a hardscape
i mean this is uh this is a make or break thing with the anubius it was beautiful
without the anubias but the anubis does add in a splash of color refuge for some of the fish
heck it might even be some food for some of the fry i do find a lot of the roots of anubias do
collect detritus and i do find uh and see some of the fry from uh some of the shell dwellers
nibbling on it and eating off it and cleaning it and so i guess i kept that in mind as well
now of course with the skate fully done all we have to do is fill it up set the filter up and add
the fish mind you where are we going to add in the shell dwellers they're going to be to the base of
the scape itself they're going to stay to the right side like i said i hope the frontosa stays
to the left and the shell dwellers stay to the right and then i hope to see some natural behavior
out of those shell dwellers with a natural predator in the tank it's going to be incredibly
fascinating to see the differences between this aquarium and the aquarium where they occupy it all
to themselves i'd love to know your guys thoughts on this tank though and if you're excited about
seeing what's to come and how everybody interacts and of course if we made the right choice here and
do we need any more fish added i guess in one of the next videos we'll of course get that filter up
and going and add the fish in and see exactly how these fish will interact with escape and
i got to admit you know the oscar tank was amazing the the brackish water archer aquarium was
different and and so fascinating for me the the piranha aquarium was my favorite of the three but
i'm back to leaning on this one this is now my favorite aquarium out of the last three that we
set up or four i guess but it leads me to wonder we have two more 180 gallon aquariums and i have
no clue what i want to do there i have some ideas but i'd love to get your guys feedback as well so
let me know in the comments section below i'll see you guys in the next video and if you're
impatient you can't wait to see what's next just join the members only click that join button right
below this video and you got a lot of catching up to do i'll see you guys in the next video