The Chronicles of Dashie (All fish keepers/lovers welcome!)

[lykakitty]

Some of you may know that aside from my cats and dog I keep many pets, notably fish. My boyfriend and I are a little obsessed with aquariums, and I thought it'd be fun to keep a running chronicle of my baby Dash's growing up and share it with you guys, because I know a lot of you keep fish, too.

My boyfriend is much more of a fish expert than I am and most of the fish are his, but I have 2 babies, Dash (aka Dashie) and Alpha. Alpha is a (male) juvenile half-moon betta fish who has a palace all to himself, but Dashie is today being moved from her private 7-gallon tank to a 75-gallon community tank that will hold 2 plecos, a few upside-down or featherfin catfish, tiger barbs, and a redtailed shark.

Dash is a young female pleco (plecostomus, sometimes called sucker fish, the little speckly ones who stick to the glass and eat algae) who we suspect to be a spotted pleco but can't be sure of at her current age. She was a rescue from a local aquarium store that shut down and was sending all their unsold stock to various chain pet stores. We don't know her age but know she's young still and is going to grow a ton. We estimate currently that when she's full grown she'll be close to 2 feet long.

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• lykakitty
• Mar 8, 2016

This is the first picture of Dashie taken last December on the day I got her. She was about 4 inches from nose to tail at the time

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• lykakitty
• Mar 8, 2016

(I apologize for the dark picture) Dashie's current tank, a 7-gallon. Her favorite spots are beneath the bridge and on the driftwood (the big dark blob on the right side, which she's attached to in this picture). If it gives any good indication of her size, when she's on the bottom of the bridge and her sail (top fin) is fully extended it touches the gravel.

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• lykakitty
• Mar 8, 2016

Dashie today, going on 5 inches long

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• lykakitty
• Mar 8, 2016

Dashie's new home-to-be. She'll be the first resident. When she moves in we'll also move in her bridge and several pieces of driftwood.

So does anybody else keep fish? Anybody else love plecos? Any cool aquarium setups? Please share them! I love to drool over them.

 

[margd]

No fish here, but I remember when Dash came home.  Her new home looks quite wonderful and I'm sure she'll be happy in it.  I hope you'll keep posting pictures of her as she grows.  And since she's going to be two feet long, I guess her aquarium will be growing as well! 

 

 

[lykakitty]

Oh, it absolutely will be! When we have the room and money I want her to have her own tank, probably a 100 gallon, but that'll be an expensive setup. Luckily she has a ways to go before she'll get too big for the 75. I'll hopefully be getting a new picture of her size evrry couple weeks so I can keep track of her growth, so I'll post them all here.

 

[lykakitty]

Dashie is officially in the new tank!

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• lykakitty
• Mar 8, 2016

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• lykakitty
• Mar 8, 2016

You can see a little of her tail behind the filter. She's reacting well but she is a pleco so she's hiding.

 

[raina21]

lykakitty

Omg I'm OBSESSED with fish. I currently have a 125 gallon tank and a 10 gallon that my Betta has full reign of. I don't rally have a pic of the 10 gal at the moment. But here is a pic of the 125:

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• raina21
• Mar 8, 2016

In the 125 gallon, I have 8 freshwater angelfish, 14 pristella Tetras and 3 Panama Red/ Calico Bristlenose Plecos.



Four of the angelfish are 4-5 inches long (the ones I bought from my LFS) and the other 4 are stunted but I took them off of someone who didn't give them proper care when they were young (they kept all 4 of them in a 20 gallon tank for nearly a year!!! I was amazed that they were still alive) so 3 of them are maybe only 2-3 inches long and 1 of them is between 3 and 4 inches long. The 2 largest ones in the tank are the ones I bought when they were the size of nickels and they have only ever been kept in my 125 since I brought them home from my LFS. And they have been growing and thriving ever since!

I didn't quarantine because my LFS quarantines everything they get for a minimum of 3 weeks to a month and they usually de-worm them in that time period also. They never sell fish that look sickly. It's the only fish store I have ever been to that I have NEVER seen a single sick or dead fish in any of their tanks (and trust me, I check them all whenever I'm there).

One of the bigger boys swimming with his stunted veiltail mate :

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• raina21
• Mar 8, 2016

But anyway, I am in love with Bristlenose Plecos! Out of the 3 that I bought, Only one turned out to be male, so I only have one that has the cool pronounced bristles on his head. They were less than 2 inches long when I got them and now they are closer to 4 inches. Here is a few pics I took of my male a few days ago:

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• raina21
• Mar 8, 2016

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• raina21
• Mar 8, 2016

 

[lykakitty]

They're gorgeous! I love angelfish. They were one of our top choices for the 75 when we were planning what to put in it but we decided to wait for a bigger tank for them since we couldn't have many in the 75. That's so sad that yours were treated like that, I hate it when people get fish without bothering to learn how to take care of them (or any animal, for that matter). I'm glad they have a good home now though!

We have a 10 gallon with a male bristlenose pleco and he's awesome. He's probably about 3 inches right now. I'll try to get some pictures of him soon but he's fast and good at hiding. We had a period of bad luck in that tank and at the moment he's all alone while we figure out what to do with it.

 

[raina21]

lykakitty


Yeah, unfortunately misinformation is abundant in the fish keeping hobby. The lady I got the 4 angels from (a lady who works at the credit union at my college, she had a 20 gallon long sitting on her desk) had the typical excuse of "Well they guy at the pet store said I could put all 4 of them in there and they would be fine!" I then spent 45 minutes explaining to her that her fish were severely stunted and that adult angelfish should be 5-8 inches long, that the tank they were in was much too small and that it wasn't tall enough to keep angelfish in and that they were lucky to be alive.

I'm Autistic and Animals are my special interest (Cats and Freshwater fish in particular) and every time I have thought about adding new fish to one of my tanks (I used to have 4 tanks, downsized to 2 because I really needed the space for my work) I would spend weeks researching different species and what their requirements were as far as tank mates, water temperature, alkalinity, and the general temperments/personalities of the species.

Also, what I've found with angelfish is that you should either keep just one in the tank or keep groups of 6 or more (which you could comfortably keep 6 in a 55 gal so keeping 6 in a 75 would be fine, even with a few other fish as well) because when you try to keep them in small groups there is waaay more agression during spawning time, and they also are much more territorial. When I just had 4 in my 125, they would chase each other around and act territorial all the time and certain fish would get picked on a lot, but since I've added 4 more, they are much more peaceful and when there is agression, it is much more spread out and I don't have one fish that's getting picked on constantly.


My friends and parents say that I should get a second job at a fish store but I don't think I'd be able to handle all the stupid people who want to do things like keep multiple common goldfish in a 5 gallon tank with a common pleco, or buy bettas and pUT them in small, unheated, unfiltered bowls. I'd probably get fired for refusing sales too often.

2 days ago, a friend of mine texted me telling me he was setting up a 29 gallon tank and he was asking advise about all the things he needed to get. And he was asking what types of fish he could put in there. And after talking about the things he'd need (filter, sand, possibly a heater, aquarium siphon, bucket, fish net- you know, the works) he told me, "I knew I could ask you about this because you're basically an encyclopedia when it comes to this stuff and I don't really trust the people at petco because of the things you've told me about them in the past." And I was really happy because this will be his first tank and I'll be helping him set it up the right way!

 

[lykakitty]

Dashie is settling in nicely and getting new roommates. We now have a tiny rubberlip pleco named Daniel (not a new guy, moved over from another tank), a featherfin squeaker (african featherfin catfish), and 2 baby rainbow sharks.

We've named one of the sharks Zazzles (because he's zazzy), but the other shark and the featherfin are currently nameless.

Pictures to come.

 

[lykakitty]

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• lykakitty
• Mar 13, 2016

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• lykakitty
• Mar 13, 2016

The sharks. Zazzles is in the back and the unnamed one is in the front. You can't see it very well in these pictures, he moves too fast, but Zazzles has a torn fin. He swims well despite it but definitely swims a little weirdly. We think it's a birth defect but it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

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• lykakitty
• Mar 13, 2016

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• lykakitty
• Mar 13, 2016

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• lykakitty
• Mar 13, 2016

The featherfin. She's a young female, between 4 and 5 inches (so close to Dash's size) and beautiful. She and Dashie are already friends and share their cave.

 

[margd]

They are really beautiful.  Their tank looks like a very inviting home for them.  I've never seen rainbow sharks before - such lovely coloration.  How big will they be when they're full grown?

 

[lykakitty]

They'll probably get to between 4 and 8 inches long. 6 is pretty average. They're about an inch and an inch and a half now, so they have some growing to do.

 

[kitty chew]

How cute! I love bristle nosed catfish. I had one named basil. I kept fish for years. I also love clown loaches. They have so much personality. No tank is complete without a couple of these jesters. They rest upside down. And i had a red tailed shark, sylvester, among many other fish over the years.

 

[parisinthe30sx]

Beautiful photos!! I know this thread is a month old but I had to comment. I love fish but as I can't afford all the things it takes to make a tank thrive I haven't got any. I had a betta in a 20ga tank but he passed on. I now have a red ramshorn snail(that I got by accident on a live plant) he's in a two gallon at the moment but I'll be upgrading soon. They're cute little buggers, a lot easier than fish and less expensive.