I debated posting the thread here or on /lit/, but decided it was a bit closer to here. I wanted to make some ideas for various tanks that are themed to literature. I came up with a few ideas I wanted to share for feedback, as well as ask if there were any other good ideas to go with.>Alice in WonderlandStock-Glass Catfish-Upside-down Catfish-Rabbit SnailsDecorations for this one would include laminated playing cards, teapot, and Dwarf Hairgrass.Very straightforward idea, combining "quirky" fish species with the Alice in Wonderland motifs. I debated on others, like some shrimp to dd more color, or maybe even a ropefish, but I worried those wouldn't do well wth the catfish species.>Call of CthulhuStock>Blind Cave FishDecorations for this would would try to capture the surreal idea of an ancient city that can't be described, ideally with an MC Escher-esque 3D-printed background mixed with rocks and a standard Cthulhu statue half-submerged in the substrate.Another straightforward one, and the most "oceany" one here. The blind cave fish dominate the tank and I couldn't think of any tankmates that could coexist with them and fit the theme, but they do well enough as a centerpiece fish.>Jurassic ParkStock>African BullfrogDecorations for this one would be largely plants to create the jungle look. Small models for humans, cars, and fences could be used to create the illusion of scale, though they'd be all placed against the wall and high up to not be in the bullfrogs "area".The only non-aquarium idea here, the bullfrog works really well as a stand-in for the T-Rex thanks to its massive mouth, size, and lethargy. Also the fact that the Jurassic Park dinos were made with frog DNA is a nice bonus touch too.
>Where's WaldoStock>Various solid red taiwan bee shrimp, solid white, and a single red and white striped taiwan bee shrimpDecorations for this would be fairly light, though maybe having white sand, red plants, and red-and-white themed objects placed inside, like fake candy-canes or barbershop poles. It'd be fun to commit to the red and white only theme, but I don't know how well the shrimp would do without more greenery. One way to compensate is make the tank look like a small town, and have the greenery look like grass and trees, maybe a tropical town? This one could also work with minimal theming, as even in a pure shrimp tank, the gimmick of the tank still worksVery straightforward idea but also I think one of the best, since it captures the idea of the books and encourages the viewer to instinctively do the same.What do you think of these anons, and do you have any ideas of your own? In general for my ideas, I tried to follow a few ideas. One being making it /lit/ themed obviously. I tried to make everything feasible to make, so no hyper expensive set ups, and I tried to avoid stories that were already fish or ocean themed mainly because it was really hard to represent those in a satisfactory way. People already have an idea of what an aquatic Moby Dick looks like, for example, a giant sperm whale. Making a tank-size stand in for it feels less satisfactory than most other things. It also runs the risk of feeling samey.
>>5090419shits tacky as hellyoure doing this for yourself rather than the for the animal
>>5090421You know that actually is part of the point of these ideas, trying to push tank decorating in a fun way. Most people these days tend to focus on naturalistic tanks with virtually no traditional decorations, and I do prefer those. However, I wanted to think of ways to make fish tanks that had more traditional decorations yet could still look good and interesting (ideally by eschewing the traditional tacky look of aquarium decorating where people just buy a few tacky cheap ornaments from walmart and put them all in the tank on multi-colored neon gravel).>youre doing this for yourself rather than the for the animalThe act of keeping any pet is done for yourself rather than the animal, what's your point?
I like the blind cave fish idea a lot
>>5090433None of that is literature related you uncultured swine
>>5090419I think JP would work better as a wet/dry terrarium kinda thing with a bigger focus on various herps. Like you could add in some skinks, maybe some day geckos, variois species of frog and salamander, you get the idea. Oh and a plecco. Those guys look pretty prehistoric and shouldn't bother the herps too much.
>>5090419>Alice in WonderlandIf you're willing to venture into reef stuff, there's lots of surreal and quirky stuff there. Honestly it could be a thread on its own.>Call of CthulhuThere was a guy in /aq/ that was mulling around this idea with nightmare-ish stuff (tentacles, stuff active at night). Anemones, Tort/hammer/frogspawn coral, brittle starfish (comes out of the sand at night), nassarius snails (comes out of the sand when it smells food), random weird reef stuff, of which there is plenty.>>5090420The issue with this tank is that they start breeding and you lose coloration in successive generations. You could also do a shit ton of tetras. Dozens of neon tetras and one green tetra, for instance. There are a lot of varieties of tetras that are very similar shape and size but with just a difference of coloration. Neon, green (which aren't actually green), bloodfin, blue diamond, rummy nose, black line, blueberry (which is actually waaaay more red than blue), Cardinal. Plus sides is the stocking is readily available and cheap, and a big shoal is a really cool thing to have in a tank.
Mexican Tetras are Dunwich Horror coded, not CoC
