#MyTankMonday


NAME: Derek Tweedie

AGE: 32

LOCATION: Mayfield (Edinburgh)


Hi Guys, I know its been a while since we last had a MyTank Monday so I'm very happy to be able to bring this one to you today. First of all i need to thank Derek for taking the time out to help me with this one. Derek baby girl was recently born and Derek has been very busy taking care of family life but still managed to answer some questions to share his hobby with us. Thank you! and congratulations on your little girl coming home!

Derek has been in the hobby for about 20 years. He has been around aquariums since as long as he car remember. His Grandfather and Father both kept aquariums and Derek firsts fish was a goldfish he rescued from the fair. He looked after this goldfish for many years.

Derek now runs DT Tropicals which is a shrimp orientated aquatics business but his personal aquarium is a 130 litre shrimp/planted tank with some otocinclus catfish and Endler Guppys along with some Blue Carbons which were originally culls from the shed. The boss of the tank is a Blythii Archer fish. The main focus of this tank surrounds plants and shrimps. Derek enjoys aquascaping and recently attended our George Farmer event and his Dad was the lucky winner of the finished aquarium str the end of the night.
George Farmers aquascape

In Dereks main set up he has the following plants...


  • Fissedens
  • Pelia
  • 3 different type of Crypto
  • 2 kind of carpeting plants
  • Blyxa (Dereks favourite)


Blue Carbons
Being a shrimper, Derek was hard pushed to name a fish he would love to keep however he did say that a big lottery win would surely change his mind on the subject. Derek agrees that nowadays the vast amount of different species and tank equipment makes it possible to achieve almost any kind of setup you desire! This is something Derek loves  about the hobby.

Over the years Derek has seem some darker times especially when he flooded his bedroom as a teenager. More recently he has experienced almost a total wipeout of his shed stock and lost almost all his shrimps
Blythii Archer fish
With the experience of 20 years behind him, the best advice Derek could give someone just starting out would be to buy the biggest tank you can afford and research as much as possible too. This is definitely a hobby that you never stop learning about.

Derek dream job was always to work in the aquatics trade. He applied to various stores around Edinburgh but never really got anywhere. One day He decided to go for it himself and started to build the shed and created DT Tropicals. This is his second year running now and he is looking forward to many more to come.

Below is some photos of DR Tropicals being built. We will be running a feature in the near future. Derek is happy to answer any questions you have on shrimps or the building of fish sheds. We are also lucky to have Derek coming along to our Table top sale on the 24th April. Derek will be part of the Shrimp show too.

Thanks for reading any remember, if you would like to share your setup  with us all, email lothianfishkeeper@gmail.com for info.








Popular Posts