Fish Tanks

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:35 pm

So, I'm getting into the aquarium thing.

We have a 55gal, and I just came home with a 10gal to serve as a hospital tank, once I get it set up. I'm slowly preparing to plant the 55gal for real... right now it's got a few plants but nothing really fancy. Freshwater, tropical is what I've got right now.

I'll post pictures another day... anyone else have aquariums?

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:50 pm

I plan on getting a salt water tank some day. I really want an octopus and a starfish.

Actually, I'd like to get a few starfish and race them.

Heretic · Post by **Heretic** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:23 pm

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:26 pm

I'm pretty sure that's dead. An octopus, especially one of those large red octopuses, would be stronger and smarter than any starfish. It even looks like it's rotting.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:29 pm

look how pretty!

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:56 am

Octopus are very smart so you better have a good top on your tank or they might wind up in bed with you

TigerRaptor · Post by **TigerRaptor** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:23 am

We had a oscar and plecostomus in ours some years back.

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:17 am

woodchip wrote:Octopus are very smart so you better have a good top on your tank or they might wind up in bed with you

Very true! You know those ferret pvc pipe mazes you can build? I bet an octopus would like that too, if it were all filled with water. Maybe I could join two tanks with a large pvc pipe system, so the octopus could explore.

a topic for another day: I wonder if a dolphin could use a computer, if given the right UI and HID (DID?).

Tunnelcat · Post by **Tunnelcat** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:50 am

snoopy wrote:So, I'm getting into the aquarium thing.

We have a 55gal, and I just came home with a 10gal to serve as a hospital tank, once I get it set up. I'm slowly preparing to plant the 55gal for real... right now it's got a few plants but nothing really fancy. Freshwater, tropical is what I've got right now.

I'll post pictures another day... anyone else have aquariums?

Yeah, I used to have a 30 gal setup, but I haven't set it up since I moved years ago. Fish are fun to watch, so I might just set it up again. There are much better filter systems available than in the past, so I'd have to get some new hardware.

I used to have an entire tank of neon and cardinal tetras. Just spectacular visually. I also had a single Oscar at one time, but during one 4th of July, the noise from my neighbor's fireworks caused him to freak out and race around the tank, running into everything in fear. He so damaged himself that night that he eventually died. I kind of miss him because he would eat from my fingers like a puppy.

I like the Oscars and other cichlids because they are very smart. But Oscars get BIG, and you need more than 55 gallons to hold even just one when it gets full grown. Of course big fish means big appetite and big poop, so a lot of tank cleanings too. Large groupings of small, colorful fish are visually great and easy to maintain.

There's a guy that keeps a saltwater tank in our local paint store, the Miller's Paint Store if you're interested Grendel. It's absolutely gorgeous with high quality live corals, anemones and colorful fish. But gads those setups are a LOT of work to keep healthy and clean.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:05 am

Right now I have the following in our tank:

1 Blue Gourami
2 Yellow tetras of some sort
2 lampeyes
1 red tetra of some sort
1 chinese algae eater
3 swordtails
4 little baby barbs (they might prove to become trouble)
3 dalmation mollies

One (or two) of the swordtails has ich ATM... Working on medicating it. I also just got a 10gal to use as a hospital tank.

The dalmation mollies are not shy at all... they were trying to eat my arm the other day when I was doing something in the tank.

My hopes/plans: let the tetras die off, keep the mollies and sword tails stocked, and eventually get angelfish and add gouramis to the tank. I might have to re-home the barbs- maybe to the hospital tank, or craigslist or something, if they are proving to be trouble.

Also, like I mentioned, I want to fully plant the tank, and probably go CO2. I think that's about the 2 year plan, there.

TechPro · Post by **TechPro** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 12:26 pm

[Off Topic]

Isaac wrote:a topic for another day: I wonder if a dolphin could use a computer, if given the right UI and HID (DID?).

Reminded me of Larry Niven's book "Neutron Star" in which Dolphins are among the intelligent life forms in society thanks to a company that invented "Dolphin Hands" (described here, look for "Dolphin Hands")

[/Off Topic]

Tunnelcat · Post by **Tunnelcat** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 5:42 pm

snoopy wrote:Right now I have the following in our tank:

1 Blue Gourami
2 Yellow tetras of some sort
2 lampeyes
1 red tetra of some sort
1 chinese algae eater
3 swordtails
4 little baby barbs (they might prove to become trouble)
3 dalmation mollies

One (or two) of the swordtails has ich ATM... Working on medicating it. I also just got a 10gal to use as a hospital tank.

The dalmation mollies are not shy at all... they were trying to eat my arm the other day when I was doing something in the tank.

My hopes/plans: let the tetras die off, keep the mollies and sword tails stocked, and eventually get angelfish and add gouramis to the tank. I might have to re-home the barbs- maybe to the hospital tank, or craigslist or something, if they are proving to be trouble.

Also, like I mentioned, I want to fully plant the tank, and probably go CO2. I think that's about the 2 year plan, there.

Oh God, ick is hard to get rid of sometimes. If you treat your tank, raising the water temp a little will speed up any medication's effectiveness. Also make sure to discontinue any carbon filtration and use only filter media or floss until the problem is taken care of. It pays to quarantine new fish for 2 weeks in a separate tank.

Yeah, the Swords might be pests when they get bigger. Angelfish can be boogers at times when they get large too. They'll nip at long finned fish when they get a mind to it. Gouramis are nice looking fish and get along well with others. A single Betta might be all right in your mix, but they can be victims of long fin nippers, like angelfish, and sometimes they will go after other very colorful fish, but I had good luck with one in my community tank for years.

Plants are one of those things that can be hard to get established. They don't like undergravel filters either. One fish store I patronized sold this sandblasting media called tex blast that was essentially natural rock silica pieces about 1 to 2 millimeters in size. Beautiful stuff in a planted aquarium. Not too fine or coarse. It can be hard to find, so there is some stuff called Ivory Coast Sand that Amazon even sells. Going CO2 will definitely benefit the plants. You have to watch out for snail eggs on whatever you buy though, or you'll have a snail infestation to deal with.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:11 pm

Pictures!

Isaac · Post by **Isaac** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:16 pm

Wow! Nice! What are the ones that look like tigers?

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:52 am

Green Tiger Barbs.

They look cool, but also can be trouble.

snoopy · Post by **snoopy** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:54 am

You can see the ich on the tail of the front orange one.

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