The aquarium thread

“Who here has aquarium set-ups at their houses? I have a 45 gallon with African Cichlids (blue kenyi, two electric haps, and a spotted catfish). Going to add a few more now that I've moved.”

“I had an aquarium once when I was a kid. I had 2 gerbils in it.”

“We ahve two Bettas and 4 Danios”

“I had one for 12 years when I lived at home.

8)”

“I'm thinking that OPIE has a nice one at home.

OPIE ?? Tell us about it.”

“I have 1 29 gal tank with fancy goldfish(orandas,moores,fantails)and 2 plecos.
i also have a 20 gal tall with 3 oriental firebelly newts and 2 firebelly toads

2 10 gal with an eastern chain kingsnake in each

and an 8'x4'x4' cage with an 8.5' colombian redtail boa .

and im currently building a cage for an emerald tree boa that ill prolly get by fall. Streamweaver”

“I have a 55 gallon marine Fish Only tank that currently only houses Blue Devil Damsels, a Peach Damsel, 20 or so blue legged hermits, and a few astrea (margarita) snails.
I'm running a fluval 404 biomax canister filter on it...2 powersweep powerheads, a dual strip light hood, and a seaclone 100 skimmer. I will soon be adding a few sand sifters (starfish, gobies and more snails)
And will add fish when i decide which "theme" to go with ie...(predator, butterfly, angel, puffers)

In the Kitchen is a 20 Gallon Reef tank. No filter needed for this tank...just have 1 striplight with actinic light, and 1 with 60,000K daylight
Also has a large powersweep powerhead, and a airstone going in it till i can order the seaclone 100 skimmer for it.
it currently has 40 pounds of Gulf Live Rock.....a medium sized anenome...1 large Banded serpent starfish, several small bristle star fish, 2 emerald crabs, a sally lightfoot crab, several ghost tube worms, 2 featherduster worms, about 50-60 blue and dwarf hermit crabs, 20 astrea snails, 14 turbo snails, several colonies of ivory branch coral, hidden cup corals, and a large live brain coral dome.”

“I had a small aquarium as a kid. My parents made me clean it out. I think they were TRYING to teach responsibility. Not sure that worked. Frequently the little guys were floating belly up. Want any advice from me? :->”

“Damn,OPIE - a gear head describing fish aquariums - cool.

I had several cichlid aquariums for years. They're mouth breeders (keep eggs and babies in mouth) and they reproduced a lot - had hundreds of baby cichlids.

Stratdewd is THE cichlid expert.”

“i have a 20 gal aquarium with a weatherloach, a red algea-eater and a shubunkin goldfish”

“Opie, wouldn't it be easier to seal the doors and windows in your house, fill it up with water and fish, and move around with scuba gear?

You have some very cool sounding setups!”

“whatever you do don't ask Miss Opie for help..she has a real nice 10 gallon freshie tank..with tiger barbs, silver dollars, and bleeding hearts....but she's killed more fish than Cap'n D's, long john silver..and mrs pauls put together!!!”

“During my college years, I had five aquariums with assorted tropical fish. Then I started adding gamefish of which I caught to add to the mix. The bass quickly put an end to the tropical fish. It was sweet. I had largemouth, small mouth, and rock bass, bluegill, catfish, crawdads, and a bunch of minnows and mosquito fish. Then the Loma Prieta quake hit and destroyed all the aquariums and not a single dish fell out of the cupboard. Weird how that works.”

“I used to have a couple of tanks but I decided that killing that many fish was just cruelty so I gave 'em up. Perhaps Miss Opie and I could compare notes?”

“compare notes?...you mean you'd like a library card to check out some of her volumes?...she could give hitler pointers on genocide.”

“Hey OPIE it sounds like you have a very cool set up at your house.I some day want to get a real big fish tank in my house one over 100 Gal's.I think that would rock.

8)”

“LOL!”

“Vol I Fill tank with water

Vol II Add fish

Vol III Watch them die”

“You forgot Vol IV... eat fish.”

“Well hell, I don't know where to start. I have kept fishises since i was a kid & my dad would take us to the creek & we'd seign them & put them in the tank. Well I got into them more & more & finally got a job doing aquarium maintenance for a killer pet store in Dallas. I worked there for a couple years & then started my own maint. service. I had lots of doctors & lawyers & rich people for clients so you can imagine some of the setups I worked on. It was really cool because they would buy all the best equipment & fish. I did koi ponds, giant reef tanks, had one guy with a 500 gal with 1 large mouth in it. My favorites at my house were these 2 freshwater stingrays I had for a couple years(my 3 yr old killed them with dawn detergent). They would eat nightcrawlers out of my hand. Then somehow, i got into africans (chiclids) & started breeding them. At the peak of production, I had twenty-seven 40gal tanks, a 110, a 20 & two 10 gal...all either full of babies or parents. I have tried most every african there is, & of course have lots of favorites. When we moved to Ark, I couldn't transport all of them so I just sold all of them before I moved. Our house here doesn't really have room for tanks, although I have been jonesing lately. My wife, in a fit of rage, threw the 110 out on the carport one day & someone stole it while we were at work. I also got into keeping darters caught from local rivers. They have colors rivaling the prettiest salt water fish. Very challenging to keep though.

The End”

“in other words.... I know EXACTLY what opie said. We could pprolly talk shop all day opie, lol”

“Skullcap is that what happned to you?

That sucks!

8|”

“what sucks?....the plecostomus? BWAAAAAHAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA ! ! ! oh man, i still got it! that was a knee slapper.”

“I have a 25 gallon in my shed, empty. It used to house two large gold sevrums, a bumblebee cat, a pleco, ghostfish and a really kewl rope fish. I got tired of moving it every year when Birch and I upgraded apartments. Now that we're in a house I could set it up again but don't really have the desire to take care of more pets. I have been thinking about getting a beta for Abby. She digs fishies. I'd do one of those peace lilly set ups that don't require the bowl to be cleaned ever. Fish have a calming on me. I get all mellow watching them.”

“what's up with the business practices of most LFS's??...they sell chinese algea eaters...but when they get a few months to a year old...they no longer eat algea..and start after the other fish..or can't compete with the faster ones. And don't get me started on Salt water fish that shouldn't be sold

Sucks though..the 2 peppermint shrimp and donky dong cuc didn't survive the airplane ride from tampa

Strat...my big tank had red cyno bad...but i cut down on the light, feedings, and added the crabs and snails....well the red cyno is undercontrol now....but now i have black slime/hair algae on the agronite substrate real bad...it clumps the sand up, and the hermits and snails don't seem to like it. I'm guessing i might have phosphate probs..but i haven't checked...any other hints/clues? Cutting the light for 2-3 days helps a little.”

“please don't torture a betta in a flower pot....that has to be one of the most inhuman thing...besides letting skully and miss opie have one.

Bettas come from the rice patties of asia...they are used to frequent water changes due to rain, and runoff. Half a bowl should be changed a week. I know friends that have never changed the water in 2 years...they just add to what has evaporated. Also they mainly eat live insects..,,,they are carnivorious..they are not bottom feeders..this can be seen by their upturned mouths..which they use to catch bugs on the waters surface. They also must be able to breath air at the surface..so never fill the bowl up all the way...and the water temp should be kept in the 80's and out of full sunlight...

hehe..sorry for my lil rant on the poor beta

it's like putting a dog in a kennel 24/7 with no heat and nothing but strained carrots to eat”

“I've a 10 gallon (?) aquarium with only 3 little fish (tetra something) with 1 big bottom feeder. When the 3 little ones die off...I'm going to get some swordtails. Originally I had about 4 tetras, 4 red eyes, 6 neon tetras and 6 black neons ...that was 2 years ago.”

“opie, I suspect that you have high phosphates. It's pretty common in such a small tank. You can't really filter them out, so dilution via partial water chances is yer best bet. Also, try finding some macro-algae(hair & brown slime are micro-algae) like caleurpa(there are many species). You don't see it every day at fish stores. You may wanna order some online or from a fish magazine ad. It ships well. The macroalgae cosuumes phosphates better than anything & will use it up so the micro algae can't thrive. I have a theory based on all this, which is to use plants to filter phosphates out of freshwater rivers here in arkansas. They say the high phosphates levels are from all the chicken houses. Anyways, check into it, macro algae...it's your secret weapon.”

“oh..and my 55 gal..i can almost fit in with my scuba gear...i just leave the tank outside and stretch the reg into the water with me...the bcd and wetsuit are in the closet..damn being landlocked!!”

“hmm..i have some nice macro algea in my 20 gallon..i'm gonna transplant some of it..THANKS for the ideas...i'm thinking of trying a lion in my 55 soon..either that or puffers”

“lions n puffers go well together.”

“Artex - I do Africans also. But I have Lake Tanganyika fish only - Lamprologus Brichardi, Cyphotilapia Frontosa, and Julidochromis Transcriptus. I also have a backyard pond and up to 8 other aquariums at any given time. I had a marine aquarium at one time, but I felt is was too much work.”

“Hey, my beta was so happy to have me for an owner/caretaker that he committed suicide. Hmmm...I guess that's not exactly reflecting favorably on me, is it?”

“ya'll ever try tropheus?

opie, please double check this, but i think tridacna clams cossume phosphate too. i have short term memory issues, so check into it first, since they cost like $400, lol.”

“I don’t have any tanks set up right now though it used to be an obsession. My largest tank was 135 gallons.

I mostly kept South American cichlids. I successfully bred some nice discus. I also bred and sold quite a few angels – I had some beautiful wild caught angels with red spots that grew to about 12 inches tall – amazing. I made some money on the fish but what actually made money were the plants. I liked to make my tanks as much like the natural environment as possible and ended up with more (and larger) plants than I knew what to do with.

I admit at one point that I fantasized about waterproofing and flooding my basement to create an aquarium.”

“what do you think?

RARRRRRRRRRRRRRR

meat meat meat...”

“Okay, I am resurrecting this thread because tonight, I lost my female molly to dropsy...all this time I thought the damn fish was pregnant. Now I am doing all this research on tropical fish and finding out that what I have in my tank may or may not be compatible when they mature, however, they are fine for now.

What I have that I can think of at the moment without turning the light on and disturbing them is:

1 Royal Pleco
1 Clown Loach
1 Skunk Loach
1 Glass Fish
11 Neon Tetras
1 Bleeding Heart Tetra
1 Blood fin Tetra
1 Lemon Tetra
2 Rainbow Bali-like sharks
1 Albino shark
1 Unknown loach like thing
2 Puffer fish that are very small
2 Gouramis
1 Balloon molly (male)
1 Black molly (male)

I think that is it. The male mollies ARE NOT getting another female. Too much trouble to take care of...the black molly needs Macryn doses every other week cause something stresses the dude out and I am not quite sure what it is.

I am quite attached to the puffers as they remind me of the Gremlins in the Steven Speilberg movie...cute one minute but can be satanic the next (but not til they get a little more mature)

I have a 55 gallon tank that has a castle in it, some driftwood, and FAKE plants because after spending 100+ bucks on live ones, and having them torn to shreds by who knows who in the tank, they never worked out well.

I feed flake, and frozen brine shrimp and once every 4 or 5 days, I throw three algae tablets in for Royal Pleco who is VERY cool!

Anyone else here keep an aquarium? I have had pretty good luck so far with all of the fish, my water is good, and I have two filters plus areation strip. Just losing my female molly has made me a little upset.”

“Wow Wolf that is alot of fish, I thought my 55 was crowded. I used to have a small tank with some mollies and they didn't do well either.
Some of those fish might get big and alittle agressive. It has been along time since I have kept regular tropicals though. I have my tank full of African cichlids. These fish are cool. They are mouth breeders and it seems like one of them is always holding and getting ready to spit out 20-30 babies. I try to save some but I only have one small tank set up. The rest become fish food.


Good luck with your tank.”

“Don't worry about the bigger fish.
They will take care of the little ones. ;-)”

“Thank you Mr. Stove Stomp...just what I needed to hear...truth is, is that they probably will. Too bad Daffers the dog does not like fish...or deer, either...which reminds me...

A friend of mine has her dog on an allergy food which consists of deer meat...I was there one day and she offered to feed both dogs...no problem...well, my dog, the Daffers that I have raised to be very polite, went over, sniffed her dish of allergy food that contained wholesome deer meat, proceeded to turn around, aim her arse towards the dish, squat and pee right in the dish of food...I was so proud of her for expressing her true feelings, I forgot to apologize for her rudeness.”

“LOL, that's too funny wolfeyes...

We have bettas. We had a mating pair, then messed with the tank heater before heading off for a few days and they died. We now have a couple living together, but he doesn't seem mature enough to mate. Just got another male the other day.”

“That dog isn't spoiled, is it? LOL”

“Anyone have an aquarium and want some riccia fluitans?”

“That's beautiful stuff, but I don't think it would last 5 minutes with my koi or Japanese goldfish. I'm willing to try a little in an aquarium setting though.

After reading about that plant, I think it would be a great houseplant too, for cleaning/ enriching the air.

My biggest concern is that it would get cooked before it got here, it's so hot. Could I try growing some after the weather cools off?”

“









”

“Treebait, it ships fairly well. 8 months ago, I ordered some from South Dakota, and it was about an ounce. Today, I have it growing everywhere and hate to just keep throwing it out when it might benefit someone else. I am not sure how it would grow inside as it is an aquatic plant. It floats and needs to be secured with fishing line, thread, etc., to rocks, slate, or wood. It then spreads and makes a carpet along whatever you plant it on but it does break off when it grows, and floats to the top. That is what I am accumilating.

I have over 60 fish in my 55 gal tank, and none of them seem to bother any of the plants. Neither do the snails or shrimps.”

“Beautiful wolfie!
You are an artist.”