picture of the CIT fish tank

~ The CIT Tank ~

Size (US Gallons): 55
Material: all glass
Lighting: two 40-watt shop lights
Filtration: one Aquaclear 500 power filter with 2 sponges
Substrate: Chicken Grit
Plants: Java fern, java moss, vallisneria, various stem plants
Fish: 1 Tilapia (black chinned chub), 1 black tetra, 1 eel, 1 corydoras catfish, 1 otocinclus, 3 juvenile angel fish (not pictured yet)
Maintenance: The tank gets a 20% water change every two-three weeks.  Fresh city tap water is filtered to remove chlorine and other impurities.

Notes:

January 21, 2001

This tank is maintained by Doug Varney, with a little help from Jessica Dion.  It was set up in the lobby area of the CIT basement in 1999 or so, using equipment donated by Doug and Jessica, or purchased by the folks in CIT.  Most of the fish came from the Tropical Fish Club of Burlington or were purchased at the Green Mountain Aquarium in Shelburne, VT.

The lights are on a timer, and the fish are fed by a few employees in CIT (mostly Ellen Nims).  They are not fed on the weekends, so they are always happy to see us on Monday morning!  They are fed mostly flakes, with some dried bloodworms and other treats on occasion.  The hood was made by Doug, and can take four 40 watt lights.  We are using only two now, because we had some problems with algae when all four were on.  Since Doug started filtering the water, there have been no problems with algae in the tank.

Here are some photos of the fish.  Click on any photo for a larger view.  These pictures were taken in the fall of 2000:
 

Tilapia in tank
Black-chinned chub (tilapia)
black tetra
Black tetra
otocinclus - close up of belly and mouth
Otoconclus sp. - close up
otocinclus reflected in glass
Otocinclus sp. reflected in glass
farlowella
Farlowella
photo of eel face
Eel eyeballs!
farlowella mouth on glass

Farlowella mouth close up
profile of eel
profile of the eel
Corydoras sp.

Corydoras sp.
Furry algae on java fern

Furry algae on java fern (quite pretty actually)

These photos were all taken with our Nikon Cookpix 990 digital camera (scaled down and compressed for the web).  Feel free to write to me for more information or with any comments. Please do not copy or use these photos without contacting me for permission first.  Thanks!