Aquariums and fish, anyone?

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by sharky

Mollys if memory serve are a tropical fish ... Goldies are cold water... mollies alone in a 20 would be nice

You're right that they need warmer water. They're a fish that one can put in with a betta (have in the past).

Petsmart just sent me a bunch of coupons, there are several for smaller tank kits (5-16gal) that are tempting me (along with recent threads) to get another betta.

 

[adriana]

Oh okay. I think I might just get a bigger tank and get some different types of goldfish then.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

I have a 10 gallon tank, mostly for my daughter. It has a goldfish, dalmatian mollies, a few danios, a pleco and a chinese algea eater. We had a few Balloon mollies too, but they had died. We came to the conclusion that the ammonia from the goldfish was too high for them.. so we may have to consider eventually getting another tank for the goldfish.

The goldfish came before the fish tank and was kept in a bowl... I think he's grown some since being moved to the tank- so he will need something bigger, eventually.

I'd love a big tank- 55 gal or larger, to put either oscars or chiclids in.

On a recent trip to the petshop to get the danios and mollies, my BF saw a Piranah in one of the tanks. He just couldnt believe that you can actually get a pet piranah... and has been hinting at wanting one. The fish was only $15- tempting, since they ussually sell for $50 or higher. I envisioned curious cats getting a few missing toes tho.

 

[krazy kat2]

I love fish, but don't have the time to care for them any more. There is something so calming about watching them. I miss my tanks.
DH worked in a tattoo shop in KC that had a huge koi pond in it. The owner shopped around for the most beautiful koi he could find, and he had some real beauties. They would take food out of your hand. If you stood next to the tank, they would gather around and watch you as you were watching them. It was amazing.

 

[haitwun]

Here is my brackish tank. It has 3 monos and a couple of puffers. I keep the salinity at 1.01 which the fish seem to enjoy.

 

[alicatjoy]

I was going to come and update this thread, but I see you all have done it for me

! But, still, I do have an update...

In my first post to this thread, I talked about possibly getting a 40 gallon tank. Well, unfortunately, due to my not working and the fact that the tank I was supposed to get was no longer available, I decided it was not a wise decision to upgrade right now. However, that still left the issue that I had a 5.5 gallon desktop tank that was overstocked (with 2 small veil tail goldfish and a shubunkin). My roommate, who has a crazily overstocked 20 gallon, wasn't willing to do anything to help her fish, but I was not going to allow my fish to suffer and so I rehomed them to a friend who had a pond outside (for the shubunkin) as well as an empty 20 gallon (for the veil tails). I can report that I've seen their set-ups and that they appear very happy and healthy. And, that makes me happy.

But, what to do with my desktop tank? Well, I decided to get a betta fish. I guess it was all the talk here on the forum that made me interested in getting a betta again. And, so I cleaned my tank, set it up and let it cycle, and brought home my beautiful male betta yesterday! Unfortunately, I can't get a decent picture of the tank or the new inhabitant due to glare and the little guy moving around so fast, but I think it looks amazing. I didn't plant it, but it's decorated very tastefully with multi-colored gravel (pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow) and some silk plants. I could've gone with a real realistic looking tank, but this seemed much more fun and was more in tune with my personality. And, while I only have my one fish (who has yet to be named), I still find my tank very relaxing and the kitties still find it very entertaining.

My betta is just your regular, run-of-the-mill male betta. No special fins. But, he is beautiful. He's a dark blue, almost indigo color and is just stunning to look at. He looks iridescent and you can see so many layers to his color when he's flaring his fins. He truly is both unique and gorgeous. I don't care whether he has a fancy fin or not, he is special to me and he needs an equally special name to go by from here on out. So, that being said, any suggestions?

I'm loving my new companion and he seems to enjoy his spacious tank. I think 5.5 gallons for a male betta and a mystery snail is more than adequate. Not only does it give him ample space to swim, hide, and show off, but it also is a beautiful space to showcase him. And, coming from having an overstocked goldfish tank, it is a dream to maintain! I'm so thrilled with my decision to get a betta -- I had forgotten how truly amazing they are. And, it's all thanks to this thread that I made the decision to get back into bettas. It doesn't get much better than that...

Thank you all! Hopefully, I'll eventually be able to capture a pic of the tank and my betta. But, in the meantime, can you help me think up some names for him? I'm thinking names that are synonymous with colors? And, as I said, he is almost iridescent -- mostly blue-indigo with even some pale blue and green tinges. He's gorgeous and needs a name worthy of that beauty. So, please, help

!

 

[nurseangel]

Originally Posted by haitwun



Here is my brackish tank. It has 3 monos and a couple of puffers. I keep the salinity at 1.01 which the fish seem to enjoy.

What a beautiful fish tank. My friend and her husband had two before they split and I could have watched those fish all day. I used to ask her all kinds of questions about them...she told fascinating stories about a rock breaking shrimp she worried might turn up in her aquarium (sometimes things would show up that came when they put in coral, like a little starfish).

Originally Posted by Alison Joy

I was going to come and update this thread, but I see you all have done it for me

! But, still, I do have an update...

In my first post to this thread, I talked about possibly getting a 40 gallon tank. Well, unfortunately, due to my not working and the fact that the tank I was supposed to get was no longer available, I decided it was not a wise decision to upgrade right now. However, that still left the issue that I had a 5.5 gallon desktop tank that was overstocked (with 2 small veil tail goldfish and a shubunkin). My roommate, who has a crazily overstocked 20 gallon, wasn't willing to do anything to help her fish, but I was not going to allow my fish to suffer and so I rehomed them to a friend who had a pond outside (for the shubunkin) as well as an empty 20 gallon (for the veil tails). I can report that I've seen their set-ups and that they appear very happy and healthy. And, that makes me happy.

But, what to do with my desktop tank? Well, I decided to get a betta fish. I guess it was all the talk here on the forum that made me interested in getting a betta again. And, so I cleaned my tank, set it up and let it cycle, and brought home my beautiful male betta yesterday! Unfortunately, I can't get a decent picture of the tank or the new inhabitant due to glare and the little guy moving around so fast, but I think it looks amazing. I didn't plant it, but it's decorated very tastefully with multi-colored gravel (pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow) and some silk plants. I could've gone with a real realistic looking tank, but this seemed much more fun and was more in tune with my personality. And, while I only have my one fish (who has yet to be named), I still find my tank very relaxing and the kitties still find it very entertaining.

My betta is just your regular, run-of-the-mill male betta. No special fins. But, he is beautiful. He's a dark blue, almost indigo color and is just stunning to look at. He looks iridescent and you can see so many layers to his color when he's flaring his fins. He truly is both unique and gorgeous. I don't care whether he has a fancy fin or not, he is special to me and he needs an equally special name to go by from here on out. So, that being said, any suggestions?

I'm loving my new companion and he seems to enjoy his spacious tank. I think 5.5 gallons for a male betta and a mystery snail is more than adequate. Not only does it give him ample space to swim, hide, and show off, but it also is a beautiful space to showcase him. And, coming from having an overstocked goldfish tank, it is a dream to maintain! I'm so thrilled with my decision to get a betta -- I had forgotten how truly amazing they are. And, it's all thanks to this thread that I made the decision to get back into bettas. It doesn't get much better than that...

Thank you all! Hopefully, I'll eventually be able to capture a pic of the tank and my betta. But, in the meantime, can you help me think up some names for him? I'm thinking names that are synonymous with colors? And, as I said, he is almost iridescent -- mostly blue-indigo with even some pale blue and green tinges. He's gorgeous and needs a name worthy of that beauty. So, please, help

!

Paraiba is the name of a beautiful neon blue tourmaline mined in Brazil. Does that sound like your fish? Or Zander, for the gemstone zandrite, which displays amazing color changes. Or you could call him Speck, a name synonymous with great beauty.

 

[essayons89]

Man, where to start?

I got back into the hobby in 2001, but for the past year I've been cutting back on fish and tanks trying to get out of it. I just don't have the time to put into it like I used to, and having a bad back doesn't help matters.

I started off with a 29 gallon. A few months later I added a 55 gallon....then the bug hit. Before long I had fourteen tanks up and running in a one bedroom apartment: two 75 gallon, two 55 gallon, two 40 gallon, two 30 gallon, one 20 gallon, one fifteen gallon, and the rest were 10 gallon tanks. One of the tank was exclusively for growing extra live plants with the trimmings from the other tanks. I had it bad, but not as bad as some people I know.

I lost count long ago, but I think I've kept between 50 and 60 different species of fish.

South/Central American Cichlids: Oscar, Firemoth, Severum, Bolivian and German Blue rams, Angels*, Discus*, Geophagus

African Cichlids: Neolamprologus brichardi*, Neolamprologus leleupi*, Neolamprologus tretocephalus, Julidochromis regani*, Altolamprologus calvus, Julidochromis transcriptus, Paralabidochromis sp. "Rock Kribensis"*, Kribs

Anabantids: Gourami, Dwarf gourami, Betta

Loaches: Clown, Yoyo, Skunk, Dwarfs, Botia robusta

Tetras: Bleeding Heart, Black and Red Phantoms, Neons, Head-and-tail Light, Serpae

Cyprinids: Red-tailed Black shark, Cherry barbs, Tiger barbs

Catfish: Bronze cories, Peppered cories, Scleromystax barbatus (bearded cory), Corydoras loxozonus, Featherfin Synodontis, Striped Raphael, Flash pleco, Common pleco, Gibbiceps, Snowball pleco, Gold nugget pleco, Clown pleco, Bristlenose pleco, Queen Arabesque pleco, Royal pleco, Leopard Cactus pleco, one unidentified pleco.

Livebearers: Mollies, Swordtails, Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl, Limia vittata, Limia tridens, Xenoophorus captivus, Orange-finned Halfbeak*

That's all I can remember right now. The fish with * by their names are the fish I have bred.

 

[larussa]

I love fish too but I never had a fish tank. I always thought it was way too much work and wouldn't be able to keep up.

 

[essayons89]

I forgot a few: Apistogramma caucatoides, Chocolate gourami, Three-striped African Glass catfish.

Eventually, I want to get back down to one heavily planted community tank like I did when I bought my first 75 gallon. I'll try to find a pic to post of that tank.

 

[cmedeiros17]

I will have to post pics later as I do not have them here at work. But my husband and I have 2 freshwater planted tanks. One is a 29 Gallon BowFront. That tank has one male apisto, amano shrimp, pearl celestials,otto's, rosy loaches (these are funny little guys) and some livebearing snails. Its a beautiful tank.

We also set up a 20 gallon freshwater planted in our bedroom. This contains Apisto's only....along with some snails.

Also, our tanks have no filtration- its based on an all natural idea by Dianna Walstad. It is amazingly easy and the plants really take off.

I will definitely post some pictures later!

We had a 75 Gallon Saltwater (minireef) tank in the past. But unfortunately we had moved and the new house took priority at the time. So we sold it. Salt water was hard.....but beautiful. We think we had some creature that stowed away in the rock and ate our fish. I swear every time we got a new fish it was gone the next day.......no body....no evidence. We also had a bristle star.....that thing was creepy!!!! I remember him trying to crawl out the top of the tank once lol.

 

[silva_unt]

Originally Posted by cmedeiros17

Also, our tanks have no filtration- its based on an all natural idea by Dianna Walstad. It is amazingly easy and the plants really take off.

I will definitely post some pictures later!

Wow, no filtration?!! How does the tank stay cycled? I guess the plants eat up the ammonia... Can't wait for the pics

 

[david's steph]

oh, this is a timely thread for me, as I have a lone plecco (algae eating) huge fish (named Catman) who after 9 years living with me has grown HUGE in my 35 gal. tank...for a couple of years now I kept saying I need to rehome him back to the "petstore" where I bought him from, today when his filter broke, I was like, "I'm going to call the petstore to have them take him away", but I just could not do it..I cried just thinking of it, so I broke down and paid 45 dollars for a new filter..I'm just not ready to give him up yet, even though he is huge..I don't know what would be best for him, I have a hard time cleaning the tank, but I do it, don't know what's best for HIM (?) no more fish for me after Catman, too sad and too much work, and they don't belong in a tank, they belong in the lake/sea/ocean..

 

[cmedeiros17]

OK- I have attached a picture- hopefully it works! Its not the best pic but the only one I had available on my phone. I will try to get some good pics with my real camera and get them up here. Its a pic of my male Apisto and some plants in the background. I tried taking some pics this morning with my phone but there was a glare in most of the pictures grrrr.

I've never had apisto's before but they are great little fish. I have a male and two females and they spawned within the first week of being in the tank. Crazy!!!

And yes- no filtration.......the tank takes care of itself pretty much. You can google All Natural Planted Tank and find tons of info- just look for Walstads name. I only have a small powerhead for some water movement but that is it.

 

[hillbillywoman]

I know this is a old thread but I just came across it. And thought I would add my fish tanks, no pics yet, my old computer crashed and this is a new one and haven't got photos on it yet.

But my boyfriend is the fish keeper here and he has

1 - 75 gal with 5 wild caught discus
1 - 150 gal with 9 adult discus, each is about 6-7 inches
1 - 240 gal with 7 juvenile peacock bass. They are about 6-7 inches now, but will grow up to 18 inches, this tank will be overstocked before too much longer and he will need to find new homes for some of them.

 

[etiqueta]

Ahhh, this is a bad thread to look at! I've been fishless for a few months now after my last Betta died.

I own a little under 200 gallons worth of tank at the moment. I tend to hoard them because I have plans of breeding Bettas again. xD

Sometime in the near future I'm hoping to set up two 5 gallons (a hexagonal and a "retro" slate bottomed and stainless steel edge tank) and put a Betta in one and something in the other. I haven't decided what I want fish-wise. I may just wind up with 2 Bettas.

 

[notacatperson]

I've had fish tanks around most of my life. I remember when I must have been no more than five having a ten gallon in my room with some mollies, tetras and swordtails in it. My mother took care of it at the time, I learned from her as I grew.
She also regularly took me to her work, where she was a water/wastewater operator. In the front lobby/entrance of their office at the wastewater plant, there was a large (at least 100+ gallon) tanks which contained three large oscars and a pleco. Cool thing about that tank though was that the water (and all filtration for the tank) was directly from the wastewater plant. It was reuse water. They had the tank set up as a show of how clean the wastewater actually was after having gone through the plant. So pure that there were no chemicals in it harmful to fish, and clean enough to drink. They didn't actually put the water back in the water pipes though, they had huge spray fields (natural swamps really) where the let all the water go back out to nature. The tank was always a huge hit with any of the visiting school classes - this was of course many many years before 9/11 and before water/wastewater plants became veritable fortresses.

I cared for a 55 gallon semi-aggressive tank for some years, it had various gouramis and ornamental sharks in it, along with a rather large pleco who turned out to be the meanest thing in there.

Then I got bit by the saltwater bug when I took Marine Science in highschool - perks to going to one of the highschools on the coast of Florida. I quickly moved into the honors classes, whose actual responsibility it was to take care of all the tanks and their occupants. I couldn't tell you how many species I worked with for those four years. Though my favorite was an oyster toadfish by the name of Pumpkin (was the same color as one). She loved me rubbing right behind the opperculums with my finger. Nevermind that she was actually venomous and no one else dared touch her, she was a cool fish.
Among the other more notable things I did in that class was hatch and raise a pair of bamboo sharks, care for several species of puffer fish and learn to deal with their eccentric eating habits, and care for several hundred baby seahorses - of which twelve survived to at least one year, a rather good number for seahorses, especially considering we were just a group of teenagers with no prior experience.

Since then I've mostly stuck to betta fish, not having the time with college and work to do saltwater tanks anymore. Though its been about two years now since I had those as well. I still have a couple ten gallons, I'm thinking with this new cat addition in the house I should set up at least one of them again. Get something simple but flashy enough to keep the cat entertained. Good thing I still have lid clamps - though those were originally for keeping octopus in, not cat out!

Here's a couple pics of some of the bettas I had over the years.

Doubletail Crowntail red male - I wish I could find more bettas like him! He was terribly camera shy though, this was a picture of him in his quarantine tank.

Mr Rufflebutt the pineapple veiltail - Yes he really did have kinks in his fins, only betta I've ever seen like that. Was a happy active fish though.
HalfMoon Black/green male - pic's a little big for posting in the forums, but he was all black, save for his green head.

 

[my4llma]

I used to have a small fish tank in my room when I was a teenager. I had a variety of different fresh water fish in them.

Then I got into Betta's (Siamese Fighting Fish) and had about 18 of them in seperate little fish bowls. I used to love watching them puff out at each other, or either their own reflections. Then 1 of them caught something called fish rot, and I didn't realize it at first. I used the same net to clean each of their tanks. The fin rot got killed every one of them. I even named them all I remember: Clyde, Fin, Fins, Casper, Rainbow.

I was so upset about them dying, that I didn't have another fish for a long time.

I did get 1 last betta, kept him in a huge fish bowl on the counter. Sure enough we got a mouse in the house, and the mouse was on the counter, Lynxx chased him. The mouse wound up leading Lynxx right to the fish bowl. Ever since Lynxx discoverd the fish bowl, we had to constantly keep an eye on him so he wouldn't kill the fish. Luckily Lynxx eventually lost interest, but it took a few weeks.

After the fish I decided to go with hermit crabs. I had them when I was little. But I wound up getting 1 sick 1. Once he died, the others died right after him.

I've had gold fish, guppies, snails, but never really had any luck with them.

 

[quill_luv]

I still keep bettas, only down to six though, since some have passed on and I've had to give a few away very recently. Right now I have three short finned plakats (pink butterfly male - Pallas, Giant green female - Anona, platinum white female - Luthien Tinuviel) and three VTs (Orange dalmation - Om, green with redwash - Theta, steel blue -Murdoch). I used to also have two halfmoons and a crowntail but they've been given to my cousin, who absolutely loves them!

All of them are petstore buys, each in 2.5 gallons or more, all heated but with no filters ... I have no more outlets! They're all very happy little fishies.

I'm planning to put my giant girl, Anona, in my old 15g which has sat empty for nearly a year. She truly deserves all the room I can give her since she was in horrible store conditions. For now she's in a 5 gallon tub recovering from white spot.

Luthien is one of those rare little souls that gives meaning to my life. She's a total doll and there are no words to describe how much I love her

Pallas was labelled as a female and he just needed a home before someone else got him and put him in a sorority. He shows some past wear and tear, but he has blossomed into a gorgeous little fellow, even though he's pink. But it's a MANLY pink

OM is calm and sweet, just a pretty little fella. He loves to play hide and seek.

Theta is my youngest veiltail. He's absolutely tiny compared to the other guys, but his fins are long and flowing. He'll need more fattening up since he's also a little thin after battling parasites.

Last but not least, Murdoch was terrified of people when I had him at first. He's come along by leaps and bounds in the past few weeks and now comes up to to surface when he sees me. He likes his coffee cup and his plant, and I think he's happier, but he's still very shy.

Anyway, those are my current bettas. All of them are beautiful in their own special way. Quill likes to watch them swim around, but he knows they're not to eat. I'll post pics soon!

 

[sleepyflower]

To the people saying the maintenance is a hassle, get a pleco, I havn't had to do the glass in months. Their are beasts when it comes to eating algea! lol
I have 3 tanks right now and one I can't remember the last time I wasn't scared to put my hand in. The biggest tank. Most of them are bigger then my hand(oscar,gar).

90g, Oscar,fire eel, gar, snakehead, polyterus, jack dempsey, green terror and the convicts we bred for feeders.
75g, irridecent sharks, clown loachs, silver dollars, gourami, geophagus and a servurm
30g. For the breeding angels

I'm not sure if you can click the link,
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...um.php?u=72306