Fish Tank Aquariums

Anybody wanna share their experiences with their fish tanks and fish etc? I wanted to start a new forum and DG said this is the way to do it. I currently have only 5 gouramis and 1 leopard cory cat in a 30 gallon. I just recently splurged on a new canister filter and love it. It works way better then the hang on back kind.

I used to have aquaria. I kept fancy goldfish. At one point, I had six tanks running from 2.5 to 70 gallons and I really enjoyed them. Then we moved and I gave up a lot of my fish and now I have a garden and dogs to take care of.

I have a 700 gallon pond in my garden but it freezes in the winter so I bring the fish inside. And I'm moving again, probably this spring, sigh.

How long have you had your fish? What kind of gouramis are they?

I don't know if there will be enough interest here for an aquarium forum but I'd be all for trying it out.

Some of my favorite fish events: breeding fancy goldfish, having cichlids spawn(they ate the babies), feeding live brine shrimp to baby fish, and hand feeding gold apple snails(they have a funny mouth!).

Sylvia

Hi Sylvia! I have had a fishtank all my life but had to give it up about 3 yrs ago when I moved to AZ from VA. I finally thought it was time to get one again. I went for a 30 gallon this time and filled it with 3 blue and 2 gold Gouramis. Our local Walmart doesnt have much of a selection and we dont have any pet stores. I have been doing research on getting snails and have thought about Mystery snails. Know anything about them bersus Apple snails? I want a species that wont pop out babies left and right and the Mystery snail doesnt seem to do that. When you move, do you plan on taking the pond with you? lol

Becky

There are many people on the Pets forum who keep tanks. You might start an ongoing thread there. Tanks and fish are often talked about there. Not to discourage a separate forum, but we do talk fish quite a bit.

I have been wanting a tank so bad! But a health issue is keeping me from taking "the plunge" right now. Want to be sure I will be able to do the work to keep one up in the proper way. Have been waivering on a 20gal tall or going right to a 55 gal. I am in LOVE with the Gouramis!! Entranced!!!! so, lovethydog, I envy you! In my research if I went for the 20 gal, I would have done 2 or 3 Gourami, and 3-5 cory cats. I have a cat, and I understand the cory cats are perfect for cats to watch. The Gourami would be for ME to watch! LOL....

Then I went through a period where I thought I would get two tanks.... one with all silvery barbs or tetras. I saw a tank like that in an aquarium store - a 90 gal. and it was amazing. It was planted, and stunning.

Lovethydog, do you prefer the canister to an undergravel filter? That's all I'd ever done.

This is of interest to me, though I haven't been able to have a tank in a long time. I had a lot of ideas about which direction I wanted to go after having three tanks (2-30s and a 10), then dropped down to one, then none. Dogs and gardening, like you, Sylvia, (I think the dust around here could fill a tank in two days!) have precluded them.

I think I have to go to outside fish, though now that my husband is working/living out of town, I think I can replace the TV with a tank. :-) 'Way more interesting. Except, no one wants to stay here with the dogs if there is no TV for the few times of the year I go away.

A 700 gal pond - how big is that? I don't know anything about pond critters. Do they escape and breed in the wild? Just what I'd need - more snails and slugs! lol

Daylily, I've thought tanks with all one fish, especially tetras (neons, cardinals) or barbs would be interesting. They stay moving, and planted tanks are so interesting. I didn't have a lot of success with keeping plants going for very long. Spider babies worked on the best. I'd just drop them in and let them do their rooting thing. Fish liked them, too.

What a drag to have to move! How far? I've moved tanks. Carried the gravel in one bucket and the fish in coolers with a battery operated air pump. The trick at the time was keeping the fish cool enough, as we were moving them from Western CO to Gallup, NM in early August. It was at least two nights they were in that cooler. I had 3, four year old clown loaches (my favorite), a horseface loach, a Bala shark, and some little fish. I left my tank when I moved to Bullhead City, AZ a year later. I decided I'd have to have the air conditioning on too much to keep the fish from boiling.

:-)

I wanted to do a cichlid tank , set up like an African lake, a river tank, a salt water tank, and have an Arawana.
http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10arawana.htm

lovethydog (love thy name!), you got me all excited thinking about these things again....
thanks! (I think...this can be a pricey hobby!)

Clown Loach...fyi
http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10loach_clown.htm

Hi Becky,
Funny you should ask about moving my pond - hubby has already said I can have a new one but he sure isn't digging this one up!

It is plastic preform in three sections that flow into each other. And no matter how big 700 gallons sounds when compared to a 20 gallon tank, it is not big enough! I want to go at least twice this size after the move. We are moving to Minnesota next spring, hubby is already there at his new job.

4paws - while it is always important to make sure your domestics don't escape into the environment, it really isn't a big concern in Michigan and Minnesota! Everything freezes to death. I only stock the pond with koi and water lilies, and drag them all inside each fall. I have had some wonderful experiences with wildlife coming to my pond even though we live in the city. I had leopard frogs, caterpillars, butterflies, birds, dragonflies, voles, rabbits, squirrels, and a groundhog all show up, which is a lot of wildlife for my area. The rabbits and dragonflies even had babies!

One of the biggest problems I had with planted aquariums was dead plants until I learned two things - most of the "aquarium" plants sold in the big box stores are really just houseplants that haven't drowned yet and adding LOTS of light to the tank really makes plants take off. CO2 helps too. If you want to see some amazing planted tanks, check out Takashi Amano: http://www.vectrapoint.com/main/photo/aquascape/aquascape.html
This link was giving me trouble, hope it works, his tanks are beautiful.

My favorite indoor fish is the harlequin rasbora. I had a 10 gallon plant tank with only 15 of these guys in it once, wow was it pretty.
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_rasbora.php

The Takashi Amano tanks are similar to the one I saw at the fish shop that was planted, and only had one or two types of fish. I wish I could remember the type of fish for you - somewhere I have the notes. It was about 1-1/2 inches long, sort of long and skinny, like a big neon tetra, only it was silver, with black spots either on the top fin or the tail, and also a red splotch on the top fin or tail. The red spotch was the only color in the tank. There was dirt in the tank, not gravel, and their were plants all over the bottom, you didn't just see "bare gravel" like in a lot of tanks. It was a big tank, and it was a big school of these fish in there. The lighting was not the typical flourescent. Very natural, yet bright. I believe there were cory cats or some fish on the bottom too - but you hardly noticed them. This school of fish was just awesome in this tank. Like a big moving liquid silver display with glints of red flashing everywhere. We stopped there on the way to the Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati, and it is this 90 gal, along with one other tank in that store that sticks out in my mind, not the ones at the Newport!! It was an Aquarium Adventure store in Southern Ohio somewhere...maybe near Dayton.

That sounds beautiful!

Hi 4paws! I do prefer canister over undergravel. I have only done the undergravel once and didnt have good luck with it. I've always used the hang on back filters until recently I purchased my first canister filter. I bought a Rena XP1. It seems to be working great for my 30 gallon and it got great web reviews. As far as being an expensive hobby, I got my tank from Walmart for 94.00 and it included most accessories. The filter I got from Petco (free shipping) for 65.00. Those were pretty much the most expensive items. I also watch the paper for yard sales advertising fish stuff. You can always find a steal there.
Sylvia - I had no idea about the plants sold. That is most likely why I have never had good luck with them either. I would like to have live plants but they always seem to die on me (again Walmart purchase). Should I buy from a specialty store online you think?

I found this website and I love it for reference : http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Other%20Stuff.htm
They have a great sence of humor and great pictures. I only wish they wer closer to me so I could go visit them.