# Opinion: Mirror Back, Aquarium



## Buckleigh (Jan 25, 2012)

Tell me what your thoughts on having the back of an aquarium be a mirror. I was thinking that it would give an illusion of a larger tank, but then I thought it might cause some anxiety for the fish. 

What are your thoughts ?


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

I've seen another member on here that did that! It looked really neat! It made the tank look a lot bigger, and made it look like he had larger schools of fish as well! From what he said, the fish weren't stressed. 

You could try putting a small mirror at the back to start and see if it stresses them at all. If it doesn't, then just do the entire back as a mirror.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

You can't do it with any territorial fish, as they fail the mirror test - they don't recognize themselves. A Betta splendens can exhaust itself fighting its reflection, and I've seen some Cichlids probably concuss themselves charging mirrors.
Schooling fish would probably be okay. You might not if you look like I do when I feed my fish in the morning though.


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## DanDeLion (Jul 26, 2012)

I have a mirror behind my aquarium but I left a gap of about 4 inches between the back of the aquarium and the mirror mounted on the wall behind so the effect still makes the aquarium look larger but the reflection is far enough away that the fish dont seem to be affected by their reflected counterparts


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