Keeping Fish

[LeafBlade12345]

For all those who would like to raise/keep/breed fish or already do, I have some helpful tips on how to keep your tank healthy.

Firstly, you want to prevent disease in the first place. So, I reccomend a quarantine tank. All it needs to be is a small, five or ten gallon aquarium with a filter, heater, and substrate, this is for keeping tropical fish, and you're set. When you bring in new fish. Leave them in the quarintine tank for the first few days or weeks if they will be breeders. Feed them twice daily at least, in very small amounts so as not to overfeed. Watch the fish carefully for signs of sickness: clamped find, raised scales, fungal growth, trouble swimming, little or no interest in eating, etc. If the need arises, you may need to drop in dissolvable fungus prevention tabs, or liquid ones. Clean the tank when new fish come in, replacing substrate if possible. If housing fry or very small fish, keep them in a breeder box. If fish show deformities, do not use for breeding. If you choose to cull, simply sever the fishes head, kill them with scissors, or smash them in a sock or wrapped paper towel with a hammer. I do not cull my fish unless in pain, when I use some plant snappers to decapitate or crush their brain cases. Once fish are introduced to the main tank, pond, etc., watch for any signs of stress, aggressiveness, or sickliness.

Now it's time to plan ahead. What should you have handy if you're fish become diseased or infected? Here are some items to have handy:

Methalyne blue
Anti fungul tabs
Aquarium salt

Very good. If your tank becomes infected, you now have the stuff you need.

What about feeding?
I feed my breeders and hobby fish krill, bloodworms, tubifex worms, brine shrimp, mealworms, crickets, dead fry, and full freeze dried meals, some with vegetation. I also feed my fry and sometimes adult fish hard boiled egg yolk, thawed or fresh peas, tiny carrot or lettuce slices, and extremely finely sliced apple or pear as supplements.

Breeding:
If you are going to proceed to breed fish, I am assuming live bearers right now, you need to be ready and equipped. Here are things you will need:

Breeder box/seperate baby tank
Hard boiled egg yolk for fry and gravid fish
Plenty of space for breeding fish
A good balance of male to female fish
Places for fry to hide when older
A filter
A heater
Safety from larger fish for fry, they will be eaten!

What kind of fish should I consider?
This depends. I highly suggest a freshwater or brackish tank, as saltwater fish and animals are often taken from the wild, destroying reefs and depleting nature's supply of wild animals.

For freshwater community tanks:
Guppies
Tetras
Mosquito fish
Cory cats
Upside down catfish
Plecos, or sucker cats
Zebra danios
Goldfish (they get over two ft, not meant for a tiny bowl)
Killifish
Koi (big tank or pond)
Rosy red minnows (mostly as feeder fish)
These following fish are meant for brackish water and will usually only live half their lifespan if kept in freshwater but breed very well;
Mollies
Swordtails
Platys

Brackish tank:
Mollies
Swordtails
Pipefish
Platys
Mosquito fish
Guppies
Some catfish
Oscars
I don't have much experience with brackish tanks/ponds, so I'd love any suggestions for fish to add onto this list.

Freshwater Cichlid Tank:
Almost any Cichlid that fits in the particular category, such as African Cichlid aquarium

WARNING: I DO NOT SUPPORT THE COLORING OF FISH OF ANY KIND. IT IS EXTREMELY CRUEL. FISH ARE INHUMANELY DYED WITH VERY HIGH DEATH RATES FOR OUR ENJOYMENT. THEY THEN ONLY LIVE HALF OF THEIR UNDYED COUTERPARTS' LIFESPAN. PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS. DO NOT BUY DYED FISH! IF YOU CAN, SEND A LETTER TO PETSHOPS THAT SELL DYED FISH AND TELL THEM THAT YOU WILL NOT BUY THEIR FISH. Thank you, I hope this thread helps everyone, from newbies to pros. Please ask if you have any questions or comments or are interested in possibly getting fish from our breeding lines.

 

[politicalcenter]

Thanks for the info! On my smaller ponds (130 gal above ground), DH finally made a bio filter with gravel and plants. It always stayed crystal clear, but the pumps were killing my electric bill. I think we'll go back to a plant bog type bio-filter. Seems to be working for you as well.

I just drained one of my ponds and separated out the goldfish. I took some bleach after sweeping all gunk out and gave it a good cleaning. It was a mess! I am filling it with a hose from the house and the water is clear for now. I have a whole house filter and I will start it up while the water is clear and hopefully it will keep it clear. It will filter out the pea soup but it clogs so quickly. Maybe this time I can get ahead of it. I want it for Koi only...and I want this pond crystal clear.



I am also going to get some vinegar bottles and sink them half way at the water surface for winter. Hopefully when the water freezes at night it will take the pressure off the walls of the ponds. We get very little ice and it is usually gone by afternoon.


Our problem is the Alabama sun. They seem to be clearing quite a bit now that the days are shorter and the sun is further south in the sky blocked by trees. All my ponds are above ground.


The pictures are from the construction phase. the dragonfly...etc... now has a yellow background.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

For ick I usually turn the heat up and cook it out, up to 90, and slowly turn it back down after I see no more, works just as good as meds and doesn't mess up the tanks bacteria. How big are you water changes, I used to have troubles until I upped my water changes, my tropical tanks I do almost 50% a week.

 

[dheltzel]

Dheltzel, many people keep Oscars in brackish tanks. I have not owned any brackish ponds, but many people who do keep Oscars. The pipefish are most definitely not for beginners or those who aren't ready to take care of such a complex fish. Thank you for your input, I will certainly research more before purchasing any brackish fish or tanks. Do you personally keep Oscars or pipefish? I know almost no one that manages to take care of them successfully, let alone breed them.

While it may be that oscars survive in brackish water, they never encounter that in their native habitat, unlike Poecilieds like "mollies" that live in coastal areas and can (fairly) rapidly adapt to changes in salinity. I believe that it would be stressful to the oscar's physiology to keep them in brackish water, so my recommendation would be to keep them in pure fresh water.

I've had Oscars, though I have never bred them. I have bred dozens of other species, including a lot of cichlids. As for pipefish, I have never had the time to properly care for them (or seahorses), so I avoid them. My personal philosophy is to keep fish only if I can provide really great conditions for them, another reason I avoided Oscars, they require large tanks and powerful filtration or abundant water changes to keep the water conditions good. They also don't coexist well with live plants and those are very important to me, so I tend to go with small, plant friendly fish like killifish, white clouds and bristlenose catfish. All those breed abundantly in planted tanks with little attention other than abundant food and great water quality.

I am not trying to be antagonistic, I just cringe when I think of either pipefish or oscars being recommended for beginners. They both take exceptional care and it does not serve a new aquarist well to suggest they start with either. There are far better species that are easy to maintain, leave these for the dedicated hobbyists who fully understand what they are getting themselves into. I despise the "throw away" attitude I find in pet shops, especially the chains. Just because a creature is cold blooded does not mean it's life is worth less attention than a cuddly animal like a dog, cat, or chicken.

I am (probably temporarily) out of the aquarium hobby, all my time is taken up with poultry now. But I am happy to help anyone with their aquariums. It's a shame that people get started in this hobby and fail to keep their fish alive. It's "easy" if you understand what is going on biologically, but it's doomed if you are just blindly following the directions of the pet shop helpers.

 

[3goodeggs]

Great thread.
We have had aquariums for decades, and outdoor ponds.
We are scaling back, even when everything goes perfectly, there is still maintenance that needs to be done.
I have cut out the outdoor goldfish pond.
I do have a small trickling pond for the birds and gambusia in it to keep the mosquitoes down. I feed the excess gambusia and snails to the turtle.
We have some comets in with him to keep him entertained.

And I bought some feeder guppies to have in the outside tank next to the turtle just because ...I don't know why.
They will get too cold soon. I will feed them to said turtle before that happens I guess. Guppies are pretty though.

The inside tanks are 50 and 90 gallon.
The smaller one is tropicals glass cats, rummy nose, blue and green neon's, cardinal neon's, hatchet fish, and a Betta.
The big tank is native fresh water fish, top water goldens, flag fish, swampdarters, bluefin killie fish, heterandria.
It is a long standing tank. I like it when everything balances out and the only real care it needs is to clean the glass and do water changes.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have found putting fish in a smaller container, like the ones they use in the store, I put mine in there and add some drops of quick cure, like five, and they pass pretty quickly, and quietly, within an hour, I can't do the sock hammer thing.

 

[politicalcenter]

Hi! How big are your ponds and do you use filtration? I have 600 gal koi pond with plants. Used a pool sand filter, thought I'd have nice clear water and easy cleaning with backflush. It clogs up several times a day. I can't get my water to clear, my plants are mad and I have brown algae.

I have a 2,000 gallon, two 1,500 gallon and a1,000 gallon pond. I also have two small ponds just outside the house I forgot about.

I tried different filtration systems and none seemed to work. I seem to have some green water no matter what. But I did try something new that really seems to help. At the last fishing trip I netted up a bunch of river shad. They are filter feeders and the green water seems to be clearing up. The ones that survived the trip went into the ponds and the ones that didn't went into my pigs.

I move the water around during the hot months but right now I have no filters running at all. It (to me) is a waste of money.

I do have one pond in a shady spot with a lot of plants in it that stays clear until I pump it into the other ponds and put green water in. I guess that is my filter.

Shade would probably help but that's another iron in the fire. I keep pretty busy and it is hard to keep up.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Not the best picture, I can keep multiple bettas in a tank this way, you can also keep a few platies with bettas too.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

I was just perusing some old threads and was a little irritated to see people laughing about flushing live fish. To me, my fish are just as important as any other animal. People can say they are just fish, but I could say that they are just chickens...thoughts?

 

[Shellybean02]

I love the pond jak! It's smart that you decided to put plakats in a community, they are designed to have almost nip-proof fins, and are quick in case they are bothered(fighting qualities, but in this case benefit them in the sense of nipping due to tank mates). The fish are beautiful!