Mario Bros Fish Tank

Intro: Mario Bros Fish Tank

Hello I had an empty tank so I decided to do something creative with that, I want to have african cichlids may be a julidochromis or other smallcichlid so I thought of something that was functional and attractive, one of the ideas that I had was a Mario Bros the other was a shingeki no kyojin tank, but I chose the first since the PVC pipes simulate the caves from the native habitat and Mario is really popular.

I take the idea of an essay on the reproduction of the cinotilapya frontosa where the pvc pipes was used as caves to reduce their aggressiveness and some ideas for the desing in google.

STEP 1: Do a Model

I use PS photoshop to design the model and put into full-scale all the decoration.

In the back pipe I hide the heater and in the front pipe I did a mini filter.

STEP 2: Materials & Tools

Fish Tank
and all the supplies for the aquarium (filter, thermometer, heater,antichlor, etc)

PVC pipes

PVC fittings

Acrylic paint

Adhesive paper

Scotch tape

Brushes

Cutter, Xacto Knife or Scissors

Printer

Meter

STEP 3: Cut and Paint

Just cut the pipes and the fittings as you want you can use a handsaw after that you need to clean it very well.You can use any paint acrylic paint this paints have water-resistant when dry, epoxi or one with waterproof just check if they are not toxic after drying, anyway I recommend you test the paint with the leftovers of the pvc to look the final appearance and know the drying times also you can use a test fish like a betta to check if there is any problem and for cycle the aquarium.

STEP 4: Print and Paste the Decoration

I use normal paper on the clouds and the floor, after cutting it I used adhesive paper for a waterproof just in case if it get wet and scotch tape to paste it above the aquarium.

In the background you can use 1 poster paper and paste over it the letters if your tank is larger than a letter sheet, if not just print all in one page.

STEP 5: Fill Up the Tank and Put the Supplies.

Congrats you have finished :3

Comments

[holymoses]

May I suggest leaving out all that artificial and probably poisonous stuff and therefore introducing natural parts like gravel and plants and whatever?!?

[rcooke1]

may i suggest some bettas / fighter fish you could have 3 of them 1 male and 2 female or all females, good companion for a betta are otto sucker fish , platies and maybe a clown loach. for cicilids i would suggest a electric yellow or blue as they can be cute and shy.

you cannot have more than 1 male as the males usually fight while the females make a pecking order with the boss in charge.

i have 1 purple and yellow male betta nicknamed pimp and has 3 bitches one blue and red and black the other two are black with stripes

[Willard2.0]

Bad advice all around. Male bettas should be kept solo. Sometimes you can keep males with a couple females, but it depends on their personality and if he decides to harass the females.

Clown loaches can reach 16" in the right environment and are very social fish. They really need a 125g+ tank with at least 5 of the species together. They would outgrow that small tank within 6 months.

The tank is nowhere near big enough for those cichlids. They are 'cute and shy' because they are stressed out and are just trying to hide and stay alive. Put them in a large cichlid display and you'll see them out and about all the time.

Just trying to keep bad information from being followed.

[rcooke1]

I keep my bettas with females and no problems been 4 months since i got them and treated them for finrot.
I think my loachs growth was stunted when i got him - he sleeps next to the bettas at night.
The one cicilid i have has 70 ltres of room but im not sure if he is a schooler or not .
I have 2 gold tux platys a female and male.
Did have 5 neon tetras but one was ery tiny and i assume he was eaten.
Alot ofthe fih i own i got from bad petshops and i treat the sick ones.
. My wter is around nuetral and i hve my temp set at 25'c i also have a 5wTt heater and a large led bubble bar down bottom

Just a Q i cant seem to keep the gold apple snails alive they keep dying in my tank both my 70 litre and 24 ltre tank. My water is cycled, treated filtered And i do my 30% water xhange weeekly .
What could i be doing wrong? Its the only thing that dies in my tank ive been using sinking algae wafers and i have a large plant in there that all the smaller fish hide in durig the night

[Willard2.0]

Could the betta be nipping at your snail's antennae? Clown loaches are also known snail eaters. Yours could be picking at the snail when you're not watching. Maybe?

[rcooke1]

My snails i have are too big for the clown loach mu clown loach is no bigger than my pinky and i havnt seen any groth since i got the litle guy.
The bettas dint touch the snails. They still have antennas and stuff they just float or look like the body is falling out of the shell. As a experiment i put a snail on its own in my starter tank i had 6 month ago with water from the big tank and it still hapened.
Any clues? I do feed my fish a pea or two every now and then.
And i feed my fish mossy larvae from a bucket i have out side my caravan.
Are apple snails coldwater or tropicle is the only thing i can think of. All my fish are tropicle.
If your interested i could email some picks of my aquariums and my ladt snail that i assume is dying

[Willard2.0]

As everyone pointed out, acrylic paint is not fish safe. Krylon Fusion spray paint is aquarium safe. It bonds to the plastic and becomes a part of the plastic. Many reef keepers paint all their internal plumbing with Krylon Fusion and they haven't had any problems.

Just rough up the PVC with sandpaper and spray a couple light coats. Let it dry for 48hrs and it'll be fish safe.

[laura.hall.102]

For anyone concerned about toxic paint, Minecraft using logos would work well because they are already colored, although more expensive than PVC pipe.

[kittyasauras]

You need to use aquarium paint, you can't just use whatever you want in a tank. Stuff that says 'non toxic', may be to the touch but not if ingested. Lots of items and materials leach out chemicals into waters over of time.

[Tuttleo]

If you'd like to kill your fish there are less expensive/time consuming ways of going about it. This tank isn't appropriate for cichlids. Even the dwarf varieties need at least 20 gallons, and prefer sand to root around in. And using a "test fish" is horrible, you should look into fishless cycling.

[vbanaszak]

I don't think that acrylic paint is good for fish. I would check with a place that makes tanks to check and be sure before spending money on adding fish and have them die off because of toxins. Other than that a great and fun idea.

[suboxygen]

awesome turned out great!

[stupidname]

Could also be a flappy bird themed tank

[Nexus of Crisis]

Crazy good idea.

I would have used a background from a water level though.

[fernanda.baraalva]

kawaiii =3

[DeathxMx]

sure :)

[Wired_Mist]

ha ha sweet ! love the graphics on the outside. I don't supose this tank will have a turtle in it?

[DeathxMx]

is a nice idea :3

[peppypickle]

so incredibly clever! I love this! Thank you for sharing!

[DeathxMx]

thanks :)