Any other fishkeepers out there?

[reed1285]

This is our aquarium i keep for my 2 and a half year old daughter. Its a 36 gallon. Didn't want to go all out with a 50 or 55 gallon right now because this is our first larger scale aquarium. For fish right now all we have are platys. They are a colorful and active swimming tropical fish. They are also pretty hardy. I guess I'm keeping the aquarium up ok because they have yielded us two sets of baby fish, and they supposedly will only mate in optimum conditions. I look at it as free fish. They are a lot of fun to watch and my daughter loves them. She tells them goodnight every night before bed lol. Right now the tank is in her bedroom but when we buy her a new bedroom set before too long we are gonna move it into our living room for all to see. I think when we upgrade in a couple years or so I'm gonna get a 50 or 55 gallon and put a school of tiger cichlids in it.

Edited October 1, 2012 by reed1285

[vontar]

very nice.

[dralarms]

Nice.

Mine is a 125 gal salt water.

[reed1285]

^ i need pics!

[Jonnin]

sweet! We kept a salt and fresh (one of each) for many years but let it go last year, gave the few remaining critters to our favorite fish store. I still love them but its a lot of work esp salt.

[enfield]

Have you noticed that Platys are all born female, and later some of them change into males?

[mikegideon]

I have a 125 gallon fresh water tank. I have some pretty big fish in it, but they're all peaceful. No more cichlids for me. I've had Africans and South Americans.

[Jonnin]

Have you noticed that Platys are all born female, and later some of them change into males?

hah last time that happened, all i noticed were the 100000000 little guys in the tank, no time to check their gender. Those things can really go at it. The filtration system probably made for a 90% mortality rate and we still gave the fish store about 75 of them.

[10-Ring]

I've had several in the past but I haven't had an aquarium in years. I would like to get another one but the temp in my house fluctuates a lot in the winter because I heat solely with wood. I'm thinking that goldfish might work okay but I would probably have them in the same room as the fireplace which sees the biggest changes in temp.

I think my favorite aquarium that I had when I was a kid, though now illegal and probably was then too, a couple of bluegill/ sunfish and a painted turtle that I caught. I would feed the turtle minnows and it was lots of fun to watch him catch them. Unfortunately the turtle was killed by a couple of crayfish about 8" long that I stuck in there.

[tnhawk]

I had a few saltwater tanks years ago, but won't do it again untill I have backup filter systems in place. Every time a pump would fail, I'd loose the tank before I could get a replacement.

[DaveS]

I love fish keeping. I just sold off my last reef tank. I had four and they become too time consuming. As soon as I get my chiller, I will be setting up a 150 gal with rainbow trout. I can't wait!! Gravel bottom, a few rocks, moss and a couple of rainbows! I currently have a 5,000 gal Koi pond outside...love it!!

Dave S

[Sam1]

We've got a small 30 gallon community tank, been going through a lot of issues with it though with algae.. Finally broke down and bought a sterilizer and it's getting it cleaned out again. 24watt uv bulb in a small tank like that really does the job lol

[reed1285]

yeah if you notice in the bottom left corner of our tank is a live plant, we have to have a specific light for it so it will grow well. Something to do with the broad spectrum range of the light or something. I dont know, I just went in and saw it was the light I needed for live plants and bought it. Its working great too because between that light, and the plant food I put in once a week, its growing pretty fast. But yeah with those kind of lights your tank is more prone to algae problems. I clean ours once a month so havent ran into too bad of a problem with that. Im really looking forward to starting a bigger one. I think the biggest I may go is about a 55 gal, MAYBE a 75 gallon.

All these guys saying they have tanks post up some pics!

[Sam1]

Yeah we switched over to live plants and have growing lights on them as well, the problem was that those lights help anything grow including algae so it exploded a few days after installing them. Guy at the fish store said a uv sterilizer would work and it took a few days but it's almost clear again. Once it gets completed I'll get some pics. We've got some jar jar binks fish, Vanderbilt fish, couple of guppies, snails, cories, and my favorite are some catfish looking things that are black and grey spotted and the swim in any direction, usually they hang out under a rock upside down though. Not sure what they were called

[Sam1]

Everything finally cleared up the other day. The algae got so bad it killed one of the fish, but that UV thingie got it crystal clear again. Anyways here's a couple of them

These are what we call the Jar Jar Binks fish, have no idea what they actually are but they're pretty dumb and funny to watch

Emerald Cory (couple of these)

The Vanderbilt Fish (no idea what it actually is either looks like a molly though)

My favorite are these little spotted somethings, they swim upside down, normally.. just any way they feel like it at the time

[mikegideon]

A UV sterilizer will do more than kill algea. It also kills bacteria and parasites. A healthy thing overall if it's sized properly. Been using them for years. I keep two big catfish in my tank to keep the algea off the walls.

You need to test your water and make sure the nitrates aren't too high. Plants will help keep it down. I suspect that they might be high. Jungle test strips are my favorite.

[Sam1]

We have those little multi test strip things and they showed all clear on everything, then the fish store people wanted to double check before selling me the equipment and their test showed everything was good as well. The problem never came around until we got that plant light put in, then it just turned green on the first water change. Pet shop guy said we were probably keeping it under control by having a bit of salt in the tank, but he also said no more salt with plants so with all the changes, it caused a train wreck.

There's a lot more to these than initially thought... as with most things

Edited October 7, 2012 by Sam1

[mikegideon]

We have those little multi test strip things and they showed all clear on everything, then the fish store people wanted to double check before selling me the equipment and their test showed everything was good as well. The problem never came around until we got that plant light put in, then it just turned green on the first water change. Pet shop guy said we were probably keeping it under control by having a bit of salt in the tank, but he also said no more salt with plants so with all the changes, it caused a train wreck.

There's a lot more to these than initially thought... as with most things

Cool. The only reason I suspected is that the nitrates are plant food. The more there is in the water, the more algea will grow. The nitrate content in tap water is unmeasurable. Another good thing about UV... those white bacterial blooms you can get with a water changes go away too. You'll be happy you bought that.

[Sam1]

So that will get rid of the cloudy water as well? That's awesome because it's an open top tank and a lot is lost to evaporation. What actually causes that white stuff anyways? Read somewhere that it was from the good bacteria eating the bad, but have no actual idea.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Sam1