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Post by Red Deathy on Mar 26, 2024 10:20:56 GMT -6
Does anyone else have a fish tank? I've kept fish most of my life and really enjoy the hobby. I currently have 2 fresh water community tanks. Tank 1 is a 100 g and tank 2 is 10 g. Both are planted tanks with live plants. I moved away from fake plants about 10 years ago, I prefer the natural look that live plants provide and was interested in the challenge of growing aquatic plants. It was a challenge, it took me awhile to keep plants alive and to grow anything but algae. I keep the usual community fish - angels, clown and yoyo loaches, a variety of tetra's and other non aggressive fish. I'm interested in discussing all things related to keeping a healthy and beautiful looking fish tank, equipment, favorite species of fish, etc.
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Post by DJ Davis on Mar 26, 2024 13:09:40 GMT -6
I used to have tank with African cichlids. Beautiful, colorful fish for freshwater. But they are so aggressive and territorial, that when I would try to introduce anything new, it was a huge problem.
Also the cleaning became an issue. I didn’t have an under-gravel filter, but maybe should have. I was told cleaning under that was a difficult process for obvious reasons … having to drain the entire tank and take everything out. The guy at the store didn’t recommend one, my buddy who keeps tanks did.
I’d love to have a tank but the self-maintenance is something I don’t want to deal with anymore.
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Post by markbelding on Mar 26, 2024 15:18:26 GMT -6
Yea I have a 75 gallon saltwater tank with a couple of fish and some soft corals. It makes it difficult to travel so I am waiting to until my fish die so I can beak down the tank.
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Post by Cool Papa Con on Mar 26, 2024 16:05:26 GMT -6
We currently have two Beta fish in separate tanks. I’ve had fish tanks in the past, but with two very young girls, we decided not to replace once they died off.
I’ll do it again, because I genuinely enjoyed it. It was a fun active tank with frogs, ghost shrimp, small blue lobsters, catfish, small crabs, guppies, tetras, neons, glofish, Bala Sharks, Angel Fish, 1 Beta, and live plants along with 2 large features (think Sunken Ship & Roman/Greek Ruins) and a medium, grouping of Roman columns in a cylindrical pattern.
I debated doing a saltwater take, but that might be too much work and too costly
Good topic!
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Post by DJ Davis on Mar 26, 2024 16:12:04 GMT -6
We currently have two Beta fish in separate tanks. I’ve had fish tanks in the past, but with two very young girls, we decided not to replace once they died off. I’ll do it again, because I genuinely enjoyed it. It was a fun active tank with frogs, ghost shrimp, small blue lobsters, catfish, small crabs, guppies, tetras, neons, glofish, Bala Sharks, Angel Fish, 1 Beta, and live plants along with 2 large features (think Sunken Ship & Roman/Greek Ruins) and a medium, grouping of Roman columns in a cylindrical pattern. I debated doing a saltwater take, but that might be too much work and too costly Good topic! I also enjoyed the crabs and lobsters. But you can’t put them in with cichlids. Attack-fest all day … by the fish. We had a mountain that extended out of the top of the water. The “king” crab would always find his way to the top. He would do his “king dance” raising his pinchers up and down like Elaine from Seinfeld doing “Steeeelllllllaaaaa” The crabs and lobsters would also always escape the tank through the filter gap. We’d get up in the morning, and they’d be crawling across the kitchen floor. |
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Post by Cool Papa Con on Mar 26, 2024 16:19:47 GMT -6
We currently have two Beta fish in separate tanks. I’ve had fish tanks in the past, but with two very young girls, we decided not to replace once they died off. I’ll do it again, because I genuinely enjoyed it. It was a fun active tank with frogs, ghost shrimp, small blue lobsters, catfish, small crabs, guppies, tetras, neons, glofish, Bala Sharks, Angel Fish, 1 Beta, and live plants along with 2 large features (think Sunken Ship & Roman/Greek Ruins) and a medium, grouping of Roman columns in a cylindrical pattern. I debated doing a saltwater take, but that might be too much work and too costly Good topic! I also enjoyed the crabs and lobsters. But you can’t put them in with cichlids. Attack-fest all day … by the fish. We had a mountain that extended out of the top of the water. The “king” crab would always find his way to the top. He would do his “king dance” raising his pinchers up and down like Elaine from Seinfeld doing “Steeeelllllllaaaaa” The crabs and lobsters would also always escape the tank through the filter gap. We’d get up in the morning, and they’d be crawling across the kitchen floor. 😆🤣😂 We did not have an escape, but our one crab used his massive claw to snap a neon in half |
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Post by DJ Davis on Mar 26, 2024 16:36:14 GMT -6
So, if we’re telling tank stories, here is one. Disclaimer, we were college kids at Mizzou, not zoologists.
My roommate set up a 75-gallon terrarium. Half water half land. This was like Lord of the Flies. Anything he could find to put in there, he did.
This was a lineup for the ages. We’re talking Australian Dumpy tree frogs. Grey tree frogs. A leopard gecko. A long-tailed lizard.
In the water, albino clawed frogs. A salamander. Various small fish.
And, a chameleon.
This was a free-for-all. The salamander disappeared. One day, I saw one of the albino frogs puke up his head and arm underwater and eat it again.
The dumpies are straight up killers. One ate the long tailed lizard and gecko. The also attacked the chameleon to where it disemboweled itself. From stress.
This was all my roommate. I was just an observer. I am not proud of this, but it taught me quickly to be more responsible of taking care of animals. And it wasn’t out of spite, but ignorance. You place animals trapped in a cage, the results can be quite disturbing.
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Post by Red Deathy on Mar 26, 2024 16:38:59 GMT -6
I used to have tank with African cichlids. Beautiful, colorful fish for freshwater. But they are so aggressive and territorial, that when I would try to introduce anything new, it was a huge problem. Also the cleaning became an issue. I didn’t have an under-gravel filter, but maybe should have. I was told cleaning under that was a difficult process for obvious reasons … having to drain the entire tank and take everything out. The guy at the store didn’t recommend one, my buddy who keeps tanks did. I’d love to have a tank but the self-maintenance is something I don’t want to deal with anymore. Never tried keeping African cichlids for the reason's you mentioned plus the fish were kind of expensive. I've read they have picky water parameters. Cleaning a big tank can be a pain, I found the easiest way is to use a large plastic trash can with wheels (40 gallon) and a cheap submersible pump. Pump the water from the tank to the trash can and then from the trash can to a drain. Fill the trash can with clean water and then pump it back into the tank. I've always used canister filters in my big tank - currently running a Fluval FX4. On the 10g I have a small hang on back filter and a sponge filter. When I had gravel in the bottom of my tank I used a gravel vacuum - those work well and don't cost much. |
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Post by Red Deathy on Mar 26, 2024 16:41:36 GMT -6
Yea I have a 75 gallon saltwater tank with a couple of fish and some soft corals. It makes it difficult to travel so I am waiting to until my fish die so I can beak down the tank. Never dabbled with salt water/reef tanks - mainly because it seemed complicated and expensive, especially fish. |
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Post by Cool Papa Con on Mar 26, 2024 17:41:36 GMT -6
So, if we’re telling tank stories, here is one. Disclaimer, we were college kids at Mizzou, not zoologists. My roommate set up a 75-gallon terrarium. Half water half land. This was like Lord of the Flies. Anything he could find to put in there, he did. This was a lineup for the ages. We’re talking Australian Dumpy tree frogs. Grey tree frogs. A leopard gecko. A long-tailed lizard. In the water, albino clawed frogs. A salamander. Various small fish. And, a chameleon. This was a free-for-all. The salamander disappeared. One day, I saw one of the albino frogs puke up his head and arm underwater and eat it again. The dumpies are straight up killers. One ate the long tailed lizard and gecko. The also attacked the chameleon to where it disemboweled itself. From stress. This was all my roommate. I was just an observer. I am not proud of this, but it taught me quickly to be more responsible of taking care of animals. And it wasn’t out of spite, but ignorance. You place animals trapped in a cage, the results can be quite disturbing. No judgement From my perspective. We had a similar thing happen when keeping mice in college. The only reason I ended up with one was because my buddy felt guilty feeding Roberta to his snake for a third try. Turned out she was pregnant.  It was actually pretty cool, until they started savage attacking each other one night. We thought by separating them, we’d be fine, but even the females killed each other. I’m not surprised by the frogs, mostly because I once took my girls to a coy pond and saw a frog eat an adult bird. It blew my mind. I had to look it up later because I was in such disbelief. |
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Post by Red Deathy on Mar 27, 2024 6:11:58 GMT -6
I have a tank story. First, here is a pic of my 100g tank, it's a couple of years old.  The tank sits on a wooden cabinet and there is a big canister filter stored inside. The filter hoses go up the back of the tank. My wife put up a large piece of decorative metal artwork on the wall above the tank. A few years ago when I was at work my wife called in a panic. The artwork fell off the wall and on its way down pulled the return hose out of the tank which emptied 90% of the water on the floor. When I got home there was just enough water left in the tank to cover the fish. No casualties except for the hardwood floor. Most of the water ended up in the basement. So far that is the only time I've ever had a flood from a fish tank. |
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Post by Red Deathy on Mar 27, 2024 6:47:33 GMT -6
When I was younger my friend and I used to go crawfishing in St Charles county. We used crawfish nets and had about 30 of them. We used beef kidney for bait. We would fill a big chest cooler full of crawfish in a couple of hours and then go back to his house and have a crawfish boil. Sometimes we would catch a few blue crawfish so I decided to take 2 of them home and put them in my tank which was a 45 g back then. They were a cool looking electric blue and big. None of them ever lived long, they molted a couple of times and then died. I put small locally caught sunfish in that tank, too. They got along with the tropical fish. None of them ever lived long either, a few months at most. I gave up putting locally caught creatures in my tank. It was a dumb idea anyway, native fish require different water parameters and no telling what diseases or parasites they might have.
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Post by markbelding on Apr 3, 2024 15:37:43 GMT -6
Yea I have a 75 gallon saltwater tank with a couple of fish and some soft corals. It makes it difficult to travel so I am waiting to until my fish die so I can beak down the tank. Never dabbled with salt water/reef tanks - mainly because it seemed complicated and expensive, especially fish. Like everything, it depends on what you do and how complicated you want to make. I have long given up any kind of routine water testing except for salinity. I use live rock so it takes care of the ammonia, nitrite, and phosphate. I change about a 1/3 of the water once a month to renew the additives and keep the PH buffered. |
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Post by Red Deathy on Apr 4, 2024 9:47:50 GMT -6
I do water changes every 7 - 10 days, 1/3 of the water. I use liquid fertilizers and have a lot of fish so regular water changes are essential.
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Post by Red Deathy on Jun 6, 2024 8:12:07 GMT -6
Word to the wise, don't buy or use cheap aquarium heaters. Get a heater with an easily readable LED display such as the one shown below. I've had good luck with Hygger brand heaters, easy to set and read and in my experience they have been reliable and accurate. A heater brand to avoid like the plaque is Top Fin- cheap junk that will fail or go wonky in a few months. Unfortunately it is the most common brand sold in pet stores.  |
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