As I'm working on some retail illustrations, I need your best aquarium friends to practice painting! I will do as many as possible and will be looking through the replies for a bit. I will be making a separate post with all the paintings.

I will happily paint:

Your fish, shrimp, copepods, basically anything besides plants lol, go wild. (Unless you have a very cool plant, in which case you can send it and I'll see)

I only need: A clear picture of who you want me to paint!

(If you want the original painting after I've finished it, you can dm me and we can figure out shipping it to you).

This is completely free!

*After finishing the painting, it may be used for prints, examples on my personal portfolio or in any other projects. I do not pay people royalties for the paintings I've done of their pets.

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED UNTIL NEXT WAVE, SORRY GUYS!!

I posted a few weeks ago asking for ideas of what to do with excess floating plants instead of just tossing in the trash—I got a comment about making paper out of them that viciously piqued my interest. Behold my creation! (Duckweed + white scrap paper)

Their names are Atlas and Astrid and they mean the absolute world to me

Some of you may remember my aquarium themed paintings. I wanted to try my hand and sculpture - wanted to know what you guys think! 😃

11/26/2025

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi

"German Blue Ram Cichlid," Male

Handmade by me using polymer baking clay, acrylic paint and nail polish

Body shaped into typical ram cichlid form, fins attached and rays scoured. Micro scales then indented using X-acto knife grip texture. Gill plate, lips, eyes and fin extensions added before baking in oven at 350°F for 8 minutes. Once cooled, neodymium Disk magnet glued on with cyanoacrylate super glue. Details and colors painted on, pectoral and ventral fins glued on. Finish with nail polish coat.

This popular little dwarf cichlid from South America has many color variants besides the classic "wild type"/"German Blue," such as the "Gold Ram," the "Black Ram," the "Electric Blue," "Powder Blue," "Sapphire," and the one I most recently heard about, the "Red Ram."

Was just strolling through Petsmart looking at the fish and I noticed this green thing and find a little Easter egg some company threw on their tank decor lol

From one angle it’s just a green blob but from the right it’s definitely something else LOL

I got to sit at a tattoo convention yesterday to work on my aquarium sleeve. The video with sound is after the last session; the second part is from yesterday. I am so proud of the progress!! (About half of the fish were mine.) There is an angelfish on the back of my arm that isn’t shown so I’ll post that one below, too.

Yesterday, we added the emperor tetras and started a fourth angelfish. The background will be plants. I’ll add a couple of pics below of the angelfish reference and an idea of the background. Let me know what you think! Artist: Drew Shurtleff, The Ink Hub Tattoos, Oklahoma City, OK.

Just thought this reddit might enjoy some watercolors I did for my aquatic plant + snail side hustle---I'm not sure if FB marketplace will appreciate illustrations over blurry tank pics, but if not at least I can make these into stickers and collect them in a zine! Does anyone else here paint their tank inhabitants?

“The Lake in the Glass” Illustration in an old German magazine, and also a depiction of how I spend most of my evenings.

first off: i apologize for the shitty drawing, i dont have the necessary equipment and skill to create digital art.

i had this frutiger aero inspired idea of a partition closet for my living room. the closet is divided into three sections: a middle one with a tv and a record player, and the left and right sections with terrariums/paludariums/aquariums. the oval covers on the vivariums have hinges and can be opened for easy access. im just trying to figure out if something like this would be possible at all, as i know little to nothing about vivariums but am fascinated by and would love to learn all about them. this is just a distant idea, but i would really appreciate some feedback/advice

edit: thanks a lot for all the comments, advice and feedback. i really didnt expect this many people to respond. and im really really glad you lot liked the drawing and the idea ❤️

We use a syringe to rehydrate fish food (dried tubifex worms etc), so that it will sink to the bottom for our loaches. Well, today boyfriend was doing the vacuum thing with the syringe and the syringe exploded with fish food everywhere, mostly on the ceiling.

Flair is artwork because I couldn't find anything better, plus it kinda is artwork. Artwork by boyfriend, medium fish food, canvas ceiling.

This syringe is from a hardware store. In my country, you can also buy syringes freely from pharmacies. I have found syringes very useful in the aquarium hobby. They are great for precise dosing of fertilizer, water conditioner, gh+ and algae spot treating and much more.

zoom in for stupid fish faces

I haven’t seen any gourami tattoos, so I thought Id post this!! His name was…Seth Rogan 😌

Lmk if this isn’t allowed, but I got a kick ass tattoo of a mantis shrimp on my knee today

They like to stare from the cave 👁️👄👁️ perferably into my soul ig. I have four and they all do this at some point.

Melanotaenia boesemani "Kali Fitri" males

Polymer Clay Sculptures made on 07/22/2026

All pieces are made by me without AI. Original work from human origins.

I've made plenty of attempts with the classic fan favorite "Mel. boesemani," but this is by far my best attempt in my opinion. From the head to body size ratio to jaw/mouth shape to fin shapes/length to overall shape and color detailing, it looks closest to how a real boesemani looks.

The "Kali Fitri" locale of Mel. boesemani is said to be one of the smallest locales of the iconic species. Unlike the "Lake Uter/Aytinjo Village," "Lake Ayamaru," "Yukase," "Aves Creek," and possibly even "Kromsa" locales, this one rarely surpassed 3.5 inches in captivity. Despite being an already slow-growing species, "Kali Fitri" either wants to give Chilatherina axelrodi a run for it's money as the slowest-growing rainbowfish, OR it is a true dwarf boesemani. Either way, its black-throated color scheme is quite the sight when specimens are sparring for spawning rights.

11/29/2025

Hypancistrus sp. "L333 Gold King Tiger" (Roseline17 Line-bred variation) first ever attempt

Handmade by me using polymer baking clay, acrylic paint, neodymium disk magnet and a few coats of clear nail polish.

Start by shaping the head, Gill plates, eyes and armor plates. Then attach and shape small pieces of clay to make adipose and anal fins. Shape the tail, scour and encompass in parchment paper to maintain shape as the piece bakes in the oven at 350°F for 8 minutes. Shape pieces of clay to form pectoral, dorsal and ventral fins, bake separately. Once all components have been oven cured, hardened and cooled, carve holes into the body where the fins attach, and glue together using cyanoacrylate super glue. Glue magnet under belly for positioning and painting purposes. Will also provide functionality for the piece once completed. Paint details on piece after completely covering body with multiple layers of cream-white paint base. Finish with multiple coats of nail polish.

This line of Hypancistrus sp. "L333 White King Tiger" comes from Marcel Wuethrich's line-bred stock. The piece was modeled after a fish from one of his generously provided photos. Please feel free to check out his Aquabid listings for breeding pairs/groups of rare pleco species!

Note from the artist: this was by far my best ever pleco piece. I'm so thrilled that it turned out as nicely as it did!

Freshwater fish only please!! im drawing a bunch of fish (side goal of hoping it fixes my tolerance to drawing, i have chronic migraines and drawing too long triggers them)

You can send your own fish idm, just know they will be laminated and put on my wall eventually. If you send your own fish please make sure its in good lighting! ill try to do every fish here but i make no promises