Fish Thread for posting Pictures of our fish, tanks, ponds, and Q & A

[Chickerdoodle13]

Just found this thread! I love seeing pictures of all your fish! I don't have anything big right now, but I have a little betta tank set up. I think it's 2.5 gallon with a heater and a little filter. It requires very little maintenance, other than a cleaning evey now and then and some water changes. I have it set up like Bikini Bottom (Yes, I'm adult who loves Spongebob!) I don't have any recent pictures of my betta, but he's grown a lot since these pictures. I believe he is a half moon tail betta. These pictures were right after I bought the tank a year ago. My previous betta lived a nice long life of 4 years. I was very sad when he died!

 

[Chicken Frenzie]

I've got 7 fish! 3 Red Tetras, 3... neon tetras... possibly... and 1 Betta!
The red fish are the "Tomato" 's because I used to have 6 of them, and each was a letter spelling out Tomato. The Betta is named Ricky, and the blue/red tetras don't really have a name... I need names!

 

[cochins1088]

hmm.. This thread doesn't look very active, but I'll chime in!

I've got a 4000 gallon pond, 125 gallon tank, 55 gallon tank, 46 gallon tank, 2 20 gallon tanks, and a ton of 10 gallon tanks.

I keep mainly koi and goldfish, but I've had many other fish as well over the years such as guppies, swordtails, platys, mollies, bettas, pelcos, gouramis, cave fish, freshwater blue lobsters, knife fish, slef cloning crayfish, chinese algae eaters, nearly every variety of goldfish, and many others.

I'll post some pictures later.

 

[cstronks]

Hopefully this thread heats up again. Wow cochins1088, that is A LOT of tanks. Can't wait to see pictures of them. I have a bunch of tanks too. Currently only a 29 gal and 55 gal are running, which is less than 10% of my available tanks haha, but I don't have the time to maintain an aquarium room. I have kept many fish, mainly rams and south american soft water fish. Angels have been a favorite as well, but I'll always love my rams the most. I've also had various saltwater tanks stocked with easier fish like clowns, damsels, etc. Recently, I have thought about buying a stock tank to keep tilapia in and maybe set up as an aquaponics system, because it would just be awesome, and allow me to combine two of my favorite things (fish-keeping and gardening). Hopefully that happens soon!

 

[Andi]

cochins1088, I'm also interested. Before I moved I had a fish room myself (and miss it unbelievably). Please let me live vicariously through you. Pics, please!

cstronks, I've done the same thing with my love of aquariums and gardening. In college (Aquaculture) we raised tilapia indoors. They are a hoot! They have very curious and personable personalities. Some of them are quite beautiful. I'm surprised they aren't kept as pets. Anyway, I thought I'd share a little that I learned from raising them for food. They are a blast to feed! Expect to get wet! I'd toss the feed in and run so I wouldn't get soaked. After all, I was at school and it was Winter in Minnesota. They eat a lot and require a pretty hefty filtration system. Another thing that I thought was interesting is that tilapia naturally have the same bacteria on there skin that causes strep throat. Our class had it circulating most of the Winter. Weekly we would be taking sample measurement of the fish to document their growth. That along with regular daily maintenance gave all of us plenty of exposure. When we were doing lab work the instructor had us do some testing. That's when we discovered it. That turkey of an instructor just let us discover it for ourselves. After we did he showed us stories of increased rates of strep in Asian cultures, where they handle fresh fish almost daily. Neat info, just be cautious. Also, they get good sized. A stock tank won't hold too many. At any rate, I hope you do get some. Their personalities vary so much. You would easily be able to train them to eat from your hand.

 

[boskelli1571]

Hello all,
I have a question, well a few actually! I was given 2 goldfish several years ago and put them into a pond that I had dug. After the first night, I named them Norman and Mother (they seemed Psycho) - tore up the plants etc. Anyway ,they settled down and produced many babies over the years. We moved 3 years ago, dug out a new, bigger pond for Norman & his offspring, pond size is about 8x12 ft, bottom slopes from 15 inches to 3 1/2 ft. We have water lilies and other plants, a pond filter that should be able to filter the amount of water and a pump appropriate for pond size. So finally ........the questions!! Our pond looks like pea soup, we have tried many different 'surefire' cures and non have worked. The fish don't seem too bothered by it, we have frogs living in there quite happily. What's going on? Any suggestions for clarifying the water? I know it's the wrong time of the year, but I want to get an early start for next year.
All suggestions gratefully received, Sue
Lots of beautiful aquaria here guys - and the koi ponds are to die for!!

 

[Andi]

Hi Sue. The algae is helping consume an excess of nutrients that plants aren't able to consume fast enough. Increasing plant mass, reducing food, removing plant die back because of the season and/or water changes will help. As the water temp drops you want to switch to a low protein fish food. If it drops low enough stop feeding the fish because the fishes' digestive system stops functioning. The fish will naturally still want to eat. Unfortunately the food will rot inside of them causing the fish to die.

 

[boskelli1571]

Thanks for the quick reply Andi! I really don't feed the fish that much, even in summer. I stopped feeding around September because the temp. was dropping - not sure what they're eating, but they seem healthy (when I see them

). Are there any particular types of plant that work better?

 

[Andi]

The fastest growing plants consume the most. Believe it or not, duckweed is fabulous at consuming excess nutrients and goldfish love snacking on it.
I just thought of another thing that would help, circulation. That helps bring oxygen into the water column. Nitrifying bacteria work harder in oxygen rich environments. That's why biowheels are so efficient.

 

[boskelli1571]

Thanks. Plants will be high on the priority list for next year. I can get duckweed for free next door, so I'm set with that. The pump I have is supposed to circulate. I pulled the pump out today for it's annual check over, we're expecting a freeze soon, so I don't want to be wading around in freezing water. It doesn't do a thing for my disposition!

Sue