I was not happy with the original lamp I’d intended to use for the aquascape bowl I set up on my work desk this week. It was not tall enough and it was also too bright. The reflection off the glass was terrible. It was actually a desk lamp I’d bought to use for hatching bring shrimp anyway. So, I bought a new lamp that I like much better and set it up today.

It’s a 24″ flexible LED desk work lamp that I got from Amazon. Here is a link to it. It’s perfect because it doesn’t take up a lot of space and it doesn’t give off too much heat. The price was decent and so were the reviews, and I’m well pleased.

This bowl has a Penn Plax micro filter that I decided to try out just to help with maintenance since this bowl is at my work and I don’t want to spend too much time tending to it each day. I’m also not there on the weekends. I love the filter, and the pump is very quiet. It came with a release valve that I used to control the frequency of the bubbles so there’s been no splatter so far outside of the rim.

The big debate now is fish. I thought about adding some of my white cloud minnows but would hate to put less than six since they like to swim together, but the bowl is too small for that many. Then, I really got obsessed with pygmy gouramis after seeing those in the pet store but I’m worried the temperature won’t be stable or warm enough for them. I don’t want a betta because I had lots of those as a kid and although they are pretty, I think they are boring. I’m thinking about maybe just two or three male guppies. If I could find rice fish locally, I’d even go with those just to have something different. I’ve got some time to think about this since I’m on vacation next week and won’t be adding anything until after that.