Basics can be fun.....

I've kept aquariums since I was nine.  That was a few decades ago....

Back then, tanks were metal-framed, slate-bottomed and lots of fun.  One of the best tanks I had in the mid-60's was a 2 1/2 gallon I got for $1 BRAND-NEW in the old Family Bargain Center in Auburn, NY.

That little tank lasted 26 years... through high school, college and my children when they were little.  An unfortunate placement in the basement fish room in 1994 led to its demise...

In its day, it served as a guppy tank, a hospital, a breeding tank for small corydoras, a fry tank for several types of tropical fish, a quarantine tank and of course, a killie tank for several species of "Panchax."

Now that I am ready to do a new fish room in a new house in 2011, I thought I would revisit my old friend, the 2.5 gallon tank.  Given the recent trend in nano and pico tanks, dwarf shrimp and new discoveries of small tetra and characin species, the time is right for a re-start for the little tank that could....and, one other thing...I don't have a lot of space to work with...somewhere around 3 1/2 feet by 4/12 feet.

Now you know why I am focused on the good, old 2.5!