Who is a aquarium hobbiest?

Whats kind of fish do you own, do you breed (the fish (together, not with them)?

Any pics? any goby luvers ;-))

I'll post pics tomorrow of my tanks, we set up two more this weekend another freshie and a brackish. right now my pops has my camera..

take some pics of you tanks, I need some inspiration on my next tank.

Also anyone use sand in a feshwater? I set mine up with sand and it needs vacuming daily.

I don't have any tanks now but I used to have about 20 - all freshwater. Tried brackish, the pufferfish were cute little buggers with cool personalities but the water was a bitch to maintain.

I prefer gravel over sand. The sand looks prettier but clogs the filter and shows dirt *really* quickly. Although you could get some sand dwellers to clean up for you, crabs come to mind.

I've always fallen back on gravel over a bottom grate filter with plecostomus, catfish and crabs to do most of the daily maintenance for me. And african cichlids, of course - fish with real brains and personalities. :)

PK has posted some great pics of her saltwater tanks over on GFY, she's got a lionfish that is simply gorgeous.

I really need to get a longer USB cable for my webcam, so i can actually reach the fishtank. I have African Cichlids. Electric Yellows, which have been breeding like rabbits, and my lithobates have just started to breed. Also got a male Johanni. I suspect the female fell victim to my cat. Caught him a few times sitting on top of the tank, swiping at the fish below.

I used to have a saltwater...kinda miss it.

but, I don't miss cleaning it :rolleyes:

my two favorite fish now are a lemon (yellow African) and these two bumblebee gobies.. the latter being the reason for the brackish tank - they are in the big freshwater now, and they fucking rock. We are just getting back into this, my wife and I both had aquariums before we met. I think I'm more excited than her because I can sit next to my tank and work on my laptop.. its just peaceful. you know like balance - porn and tranquility.

or maybe i have a god complex?

I used to have a marine set-up (112 gallons) but gave it up so we could spend a few years moving about.

I've been thinking about setting up a new one lately as the fish are simply stunning. I'd go for crushed coral over an under gravel filter (pulls all the crap down) with a protein skimmer, UV sterilisation and ozone.

The problem with the UV sterilisation is that it kills everything in the water so having a bacterial filter in the substrate isn't an option. Plus vitamins and minerals have to be added to the water but we used RO water anyway so we had many things to add as it was.

I've tried the live rock filtration system and it was a failure from the getgo so it wouldn't be an option

Maintaining the salt levels was a pain in the ass but we used to change out 10 gallons of water every week, so it takes no time at all to get the hang of how much salt to add.

We used to keep damsels, clownfish, boxfish with cleaner shrimp and a sea cucumber. We also had a few flute worms and a lionfish that gave me a nasty rash from it's sting so I wouldn't be getting another.


Damn I went off on one there... you've got me hankerin to get at it now :D



Last edited by Trev at Dec 9 2003, 12:40 PM

I have a lake - that's enough fish for me. :)

I love aqariums but I know myself well enough to know that I'd be thrilled with it for the first few months and then I'd be bored with the upkeep.

I used to have one; but the fish all committed suicide... :(



Last edited by Torone at Dec 9 2003, 08:55 AM

That kinda takes some beatin :D










edit: stoopid fingers :headwall:



Last edited by Trev at Dec 9 2003, 05:26 PM

used to have a couple with oscars about the size of my hand, it was fun feeding them small gulpies and gold fish. They would also eat out of your hands, pretty cool freshwater fish

I had many when I was young and a nice one recently for several years with about 9 fish who have all since past away. After these last fished died I retired the aquarium. Fun hobby, but a bit too much upkeep with all the other stuff I have to take care of.

My son keeps a 50-gal with some bala sharks that are getting quite huge. We did the salt water thing years ago when the kids were little but never made it past the set up stage. Our blue damsels ate the black ones. I figured that was enough "nature" for the kids and we packed it all up and took it back to the pet store.

I think folks who are really into aquariums have found an excellent hobby. Good point on balancing the tranquility of the sea life with anything - not just porn. We all need outside interests and hobbies if we want to avoid major burnout.

I love reading about other peoples' hobbies. Looking forward to the fish pics. :bdance:

Kath check your PM's please :)

You've got PM. :D

I find that one of the biggest gripes with people who own aquariums is the upkeep. My advice: Overkill on the filtration. I only have a 3 foot tank, but i use a filter that can handle an 8 foot tank. I don't have to do partial water changes nearly as often. I only do partial changes every 2-3 months, and a full change every 7 or 8 months. My tank stays surprisingly clean.

:okthumb:


Thats the best advice anyone could give...

We used a pond filter to pull to water out of the tank to go through the various filtration processes (skimmer, UV, ozone)… it could move the whole tank contents in less than 30 minutes... plus the return was perfect for tidal effects :D




edit: there's no goddam 's' in 'filter' :headwall:



Last edited by Trev at Dec 10 2003, 04:38 PM