Nano No Nos (and some "Yes Yeses" Too)

"Nanos? What's a Nano"? Been out of the hobby for a couple decades, my friend? Or completely new to fishkeeping? Well, Nano "tanks" are aquariums that are typically 20 gallons or less (at least in my opinion, although some list tank size as high at 30 gallons). These smaller tanks are no longer starter tanks for a baby turtle or Timmy's bullfrog collection. With the right mindset and planning, these tanks can be the bonsai of fish keeping and can be extremely rewarding! How do I know? I've kept nothing but Nano tanks until the age of age 57, when fate gifted me a 40 gallon corner tank. So come join me in the Way-Back Machine Sherman, and travel to the year of our nano, 1974. Here I am, ten years old and a mandatory nature nut - mom locking me outside for hours at a time ensured that. With no neighbor kids to play with, I was Mowgli-ette from the Jungle Book - running through the New Hampshire "jungle", catching things like snakes, frogs and toads; rolling logs and rocks looking for bugs and salamanders. We had small snow creeks running out back, and I would check water from them with my high school grade microscope. And at that time, there were no ticks in those woods! It was paradise, of a northern, sciencesy, dirt-and-pine-sap-covered sort.

About this time, my mother decided she wanted to try fishkeeping. I'm not exactly sure what made her decide to do this. I think this was after I set up a huge cardboard terrarium, full of toads, in my open concept elementary school. The bottom of the box fell open when I picked it up, after the principal told me to get it off the new school carpet (toads went everywhere. Three months later, I saw one hopping through the school library. I'm pretty sure mom heard about that). Or was it after I brought home a guppy in a mason jar, from I-can't-remember-where? I'm not sure what inspired her, but my mom never does anything small. She started the hobby not with a goldfish bowl (Nano No No #1- Five gallons should be the minimum nano size, for the safety and comfort of your fish. Hey hey, ho ho, goldfish bowl have got to go!), but with a complete 20 gallon set-up (Nano Yes Yes #1 - 20 gallon is your best first tank or nano tank value. Watch for those $1-Per-Gallon aquarium sales at major retailers) tank, heater, filter and lighted hood. She also got a scrollwork cast iron aquarium stand, a big thick hardcover book on tropical fish, and a lally column. A what? A lally column! A lally column is made to provide pin-point stability under a floor joist, to prevent heavy weight (usually a refrigerator) from bowing the floor. Looking back, it was probably overkill for a 20 gallon tank - but then, the cottage was probably built with all the construction savvy of a tree fort built by 8 year old boys. We lived in, shall we say, a "non-standard build" cottage.

My parents worried that the cottage floor wouldn't hold the aquarium weight - which would cause the floor to destabilize, and somehow crack the tank and flood the basement ( which flooded anyway but not from the tank - but that's another story). So... unless your house is as crappy as ours was, a lally column for a 20 gallon tank is generally not needed (Nano No No #2 - don't spend your money on equipment you don't need). Hmmmm. Maybe that lally column was the reason I stay'd nano all these years (fear of getting a 55 gallon and having it drop through the floor)! By the way, your nano tank doesn't need a fancy metal stand, either. Remember, anything that says FISH or AQUARIUM on it will always come at a premium cost! A tank stand is nice, but a good sturdy piece of wooden furniture from a second-hand store (like a wooden dresser or a sideboard) is even better. You've get storage underneath (Nano Yes Yes #2 - You need storage for all your nets, siphon hose and fish food - preferably with a door, to keep pets and children away. I have one dog who eats fish food and another dog who think aquariums are water bowls with snacks. Storage saves the day)! If a guy weighing about 250 lbs can sit on the furniture and it remains rock solid and stable without bowing, and it is large enough to totally support the bottom of the tank, give that furniture some serious consideration. Those second hand store got some deals!

Back to my mom's original nano tank. This being the 1970's and all, the latest thing in the hobby was plastic plants. So nary a living plant entered my mother's tank (at least not on purpose). And since harvest gold, avocado green and burnt orange were the color scheme of our lives, guess what color the gravel substrate was? Well, it was painted - a bright burnt orange! The harvest gold and avocado green were found in the plastic plants. It was a VERY GROOVY tank, man. My mom's color & decor choice for the tank still confuses me and yet mesmerizes me to this day. I can't help but wonder how incredibly toxic the decor must have been to the fish (Nano No No #3 - avoid materials that could leech poisons into the water. Even brand name painted decorations that are sold currently can kill fish, if they can ingest the paint. Beware). Back then, a beautiful show tank looked like nothing lived in it. If anything untoward start mucking things up, you could just rip out the plantic decorations, clean them, and put them back in (Nano No No #4 - don't make the hobby a drudgery for yourself. Let real plants make life easier for you, and better for your fish). But that was (and still is) a lot of work!

Today thoughtfully, tastefully aquascaped minimalist tanks (with real plants, wood and stone) are the go-to look for freshwater aquariums. The plants and wood keep our fish at ease in a naturalistic environment, and the plants help keep the tank clean. Algae is now a bonus - it adds to natural look and provides food for everything alive in the tank (Nano Yes Yes #3 - Nature knows what she is doing. Work with her), Ideally, the challenge of 'scaping a nano tank would be to make it echo the feel of a much larger tank, using very tiny 'scape and fish (Nano Yes Yes #4 - this is an artistic and biological challenge). Thus, instead of a betta splendens, choose a beautiful Endler or hybrid Endler/Guppy as your largest showpiece fish. Have a tiny swarm of Dwarf Rasboras instead of Cardinal Tetras. Make it look like someone shrank a 75 gallon tank, and put it next to your desk as a work space partition (a 29 gallon on a 20 long stand is great for this, or as a focal tank in a small apartment). Keep the plants neat and trimmed to maintain the effect for doki-doki nano suizokukan bonsai! Snails and shrimp will help keep the tank balanced, too.

Did I mention substrate? There are several that market themselves as perfect for nano and shrimp tanks, and I've tried several types. All of them do the basic job. Some of them are hideously messy no matter how many times your rinse them, and should be avoided at all costs. Now please understand I shill for no one but... I like Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum. It's expensive but you can economize: place it only here you want plants. By using it this way, you could use one bag of it (expensive) as a plant base for several small tanks! Cover with a thin layer of whatever gravel you like and all around it, to give a unified look to the tank. Or, like mulch around a flower bed, don't cover it and let the dark color patch be an accent. Finally, you can pour the whole bag into the tank and just plant the plants. There are benefits and drawbacks to each substrate method - study up, and decide if any of these suggestions work with what you'd like to do (Nano Yes Yes #5 - Research is your bestest friend). Btw, I have also used CaribSea Eco Complete Black Planted Aquarium Substrate as a "total" substrate in two 20 gallon+ tanks, and like it also.

A word of moderation on the substrate and building the aquascape in a nano tank: Leave room for the water. Seriously. If you have a twenty gallon tank, it is no longer 20 gallons of water once you add all your 'scaping goodies. Aquascape sparingly, volume-wise - just enough substrate for the plants to root well, an allow anaerobic bacteria to flourish. Estimate how many gallons are left for water, and base your stocking limit on that - not the gallon size of the tank! More water = more fish. (Nano Yes Yes #6 - Remember, it's an aquarium , not a terrarium. Keep it mostly water in there).

Anyways, back to the 70's... or Forward, into the Past...

My mom was all about having a peaceful community tank. She had a lot of interesting fish in the tank - including many that didn't belong in a nano tank. My mom had no concept as to what should go in a nano tank together and - just like many beginners today - she asked the wrong questions to the pet store owners: "Is this a peaceful fish?"(Nano No No #4 - peaceful compared to what, exactly? Even a piranha is peaceful, by itself). "Are these three angelfish ok in a community tank?" (Nano No No #5 - "Sure Lady!" - but of course they never told her the those dime-sized angels would grow to over 6" apiece - and that's not counting the fins!) Maybe she asked no questions at all, and just picked what she liked, and matched the tank's decor (Nano No No #6 - Okay, might as well just throw your money away. Store keepers and tank jockeys need to educate their customers better. Unhappy customers will not buy from you again). Still, I got to experience hatchet fish, red tail sharks, silver dollars, neon tetras, chinese algae eaters, glass catfish - so many fish over the years.

I remember mom constantly had orange Mickey Mouse platys in the tank, and that they were happy enough to give birth. One baby actually made it into adulthood, which pleased me greatly. It was kind of a miracle that it did! That's because the community also consisted of (at different times): red tailed sharks (Nano No No #7 - this species is endangered in the wild and grows to 6 inches. Not a nano tank fish), three angel fish (Nano No No #8 - See Nanno No No #6), a puffer fish that Mom named after my father, who terrorized everyone in the tank (and so decided she didn't want it anymore. Instead of giving it to me, flushed it ALIVE down the toilet - did I say my mother was perfect? No) (Nano No No #7 - this is animal cruelty. Be enlightened, and never do this to a live animal). Mom did however take me to the lfs with her, and let me pick out some fish as I got older. I got to see other fish and fish diseases, and learned how to pick out healthy fish.

Eventually, mom got a second tank that fit below the first, on the iron stand - I don't remember the size, or what she kept in it, but the gravel was colonial blue, to match the living room. It also had an undergravel filter (which I later learned that Khuli Loaches love to breed under). I did enjoy watching the fish in the tanks, and I actually learned a lot during the time mom was keeping the tanks, including the following:

1) Fish are very relaxing if (and only if) you don't have to maintain the tank or break up fish fights (because you picked the wrong fish in the first place).

2) Siphoning water out the tank can be tricky business the first million times you do it.

3) "Wormy" fish (Kuhli Loaches) are incredibly cute, and their favorite place to live is in the filter. Mom hates to get them out of there.

4) Fish tanks - you can't have just one.

5) Read Exotic Aquarium Fishes William T. Innes (1966) like I did, cover to cover, several times. Or get reading on the interwebs. Lots to learn out there!

6) Fry + Community Tank = Disaster

7) Stock your tank with species that won't outgrow your nano tank. To do otherwise is cruel to the animals in the tank.

8) Don't flush fish you dislike, especially ALIVE! Give them to your child instead - set up a simple, bare five gallon for incompatible species or a hospital tank.

9) Clean (no ammonia), treated (de-chlorinated) water = happy fish. Many ways of getting there. Do your research!

10) Don't shop willy-nilly. Do your research; buy only what you need. Save your money for the fish.

Your nano tank will have it's own story to tell, and you will learn as you go. Maybe you've just learned a few things already? Enjoy your hobby!

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