Anyone else really into aquariums and koi ponds? Freshwater or Salt?

[cochins1088]

I've been keeping fish for 8 years now, with my first fish ever still here today at 8 years old. Fish are like chickens in the way that the hobby grows, everyone talks about chicken math which I am also guilty of. Started with 12 and then kept hatching chicks, though I'm now down to 28. Well for fish I started with a ten gallon tank with one goldfish and now I have 14 tanks and tons of fish. I have a 125 gallon, a 55 gallon, a 30 gallon, 6 - 10 gallons, 2 - 5 gallons, and 3 little 2.5 gallons on top of my 3000 gallon fish pond. I have never kept salt water fish but I want to so bad and will someday. I keep mainly koi and goldfish as well as gourami's and a few tropical fish. The koi aren't petstore koi. I ordered them from other breeders across the courty building up a beautiful, yet expensive collection. My favorites are the doitsu butterfly koi of different colors, particualrily the blues. Right now I am raising a bunch of beautiful blue shusui koi fry. As far as goldfish go, I have some of just about everything. Comets, Black moors, Ryukins, Bubble eyed, Orandas, Calicos, and many more. Some of the coolest creatures I've had were knife fish, electric blue lobsters, self cloning crayfish, blind eyed crayfish, and others. Well ya, I have lots of stories and thought it'd be cool if I found others with the same hobby to talk fish! Tell me what you've got!

 

[yinepu]

At one time we had over 30 tanks set up and running all at once. most were saltwater setups. We had everything from corals, anemones, seahorses and so on in their own tanks as well as a mixed reef tank (without seahorses). Since then we scaled down to just two tanks (both freshwater). One is a 55 the other is a 75. The 55 is holding goldfish for the pond we are in the process of digging. It would have been done by now but my husband is in JRTC and will be deployed in November for Afghanistan for at least 9 months.. so finishing the pond will have to wait until next summer.

 

[cochins1088]

Wow, 30 tanks, I can't imagine. I just love the saltwater tanks with all the beautiful anemones. Were you breeding fish? Our pond still isn't 100% done. Ours is above ground, we only dug in the center deeper area. We were worried about our labs finding the fish as tasty treats. We never finish the top block work, we will, it just keeps leaving our minds having to saw saw black to the right angle to get the right curve but the pond has been up and running with fish for a year now. We also have an add-a-sphere in it. They are the coolest things ever but they are bit pricey. I'll try to send a link on the bottom. It's not our pond, but it gives you an idea. We bought the biggest one and our fish love it, some i swear spend almost all day in it looking out at the world.

 

[yinepu]

We used to breed angels (freshwater) and seahorses. I had a lot of planted tanks (salt and fresh) but at that time most of the tanks were used for breeding seahorses.. the adults liked their planted tanks plus the planted ones (macroalgae) were great for growing pods for the seahorses and mandarins to eat

 

[eal847]

I've been keeping fish for 8 years now, with my first fish ever still here today at 8 years old. Fish are like chickens in the way that the hobby grows, everyone talks about chicken math which I am also guilty of. Started with 12 and then kept hatching chicks, though I'm now down to 28. Well for fish I started with a ten gallon tank with one goldfish and now I have 14 tanks and tons of fish. I have a 125 gallon, a 55 gallon, a 30 gallon, 6 - 10 gallons, 2 - 5 gallons, and 3 little 2.5 gallons on top of my 3000 gallon fish pond. I have never kept salt water fish but I want to so bad and will someday. I keep mainly koi and goldfish as well as gourami's and a few tropical fish. The koi aren't petstore koi. I ordered them from other breeders across the courty building up a beautiful, yet expensive collection. My favorites are the doitsu butterfly koi of different colors, particualrily the blues. Right now I am raising a bunch of beautiful blue shusui koi fry. As far as goldfish go, I have some of just about everything. Comets, Black moors, Ryukins, Bubble eyed, Orandas, Calicos, and many more. Some of the coolest creatures I've had were knife fish, electric blue lobsters, self cloning crayfish, blind eyed crayfish, and others. Well ya, I have lots of stories and thought it'd be cool if I found others with the same hobby to talk fish! Tell me what you've got!

I had 43 aquariums from 220 gal on down to smaller tanks for breeding. I have a lion head and black moor now 6" body length, used to show them., My other tanks are an assortment of loaches and synadontis cats mostly. 20 x 30 ft Koi pond with about 30 fish up to 2 feet. I've kept fish over 60 years and yes the can develope personalities like the other pets. Found a crayfish as I was walking the dog one day, he was still ther on the return trip so I carried him home. Set up an extra 20 gal for him and had him for 3 years until he had a molting mishap during the night, Also kept the knife fish, elephant nose, and various eels in the skin fish group. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

 

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

I don’t have enough water rights to build a proper trout pond on my property, but have been considering doing a small perch pond. Lots of state rules to follow or ignore.

Ultimately it would be cool to build a 10x20 pond inside a climate controlled greenhouse year round. Less depth needed for a number of reasons. Spend $2,500 on NOS solar panels and converter/inverter and some batteries and you could easily keep it above 45 degrees year round. Keep some chickens. Grow lights for vege. One could raise the power budget(or grid tied) and grow banana and oranges by keeping it very warm.

Any good sources of information are always appreciated. I live in Montana on a mountainside, offering some challenges different than folks in more temperate zones.

 

[Halfpasthen]

It's so fun to see what other people keep in terms of fish. I'll never stop being fascinated by the fish keeping hobby. I love that everyone finds their niche! I've been keeping fish for *gulp* 17 years now. Tried out lots of things. My preference is nano species and natives. I live in a pretty swampy place so there are lots of native aquatic plants and fish I like to collect. Freshwater planted tanks are my preference and I no longer mess with big tanks. Tired of hurting my back when I want to re-scape or move tanks lol.

 

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

I've been keeping fish for 8 years now, with my first fish ever still here today at 8 years old. Fish are like chickens in the way that the hobby grows, everyone talks about chicken math which I am also guilty of. Started with 12 and then kept hatching chicks, though I'm now down to 28. Well for fish I started with a ten gallon tank with one goldfish and now I have 14 tanks and tons of fish. I have a 125 gallon, a 55 gallon, a 30 gallon, 6 - 10 gallons, 2 - 5 gallons, and 3 little 2.5 gallons on top of my 3000 gallon fish pond. I have never kept salt water fish but I want to so bad and will someday. I keep mainly koi and goldfish as well as gourami's and a few tropical fish. The koi aren't petstore koi. I ordered them from other breeders across the courty building up a beautiful, yet expensive collection. My favorites are the doitsu butterfly koi of different colors, particualrily the blues. Right now I am raising a bunch of beautiful blue shusui koi fry. As far as goldfish go, I have some of just about everything. Comets, Black moors, Ryukins, Bubble eyed, Orandas, Calicos, and many more. Some of the coolest creatures I've had were knife fish, electric blue lobsters, self cloning crayfish, blind eyed crayfish, and others. Well ya, I have lots of stories and thought it'd be cool if I found others with the same hobby to talk fish! Tell me what you've got!

When I was 12, a friend and I decided we were going to build a cichlid/Oscar empire. We set up a small operation in his dads garage.

His mom derailed it pretty quick and it never got off the ground. I did keep a pair of Oscars for awhile in a 40? Gallon tank in my room. Then replaced with what I remember being Blue Cichlids. But a search shows a different Cichlid than I remember.

I want to dabble again with aquarium fish, but also like hobbies that partially pay for themselves.

Is there a realistic/legal way to sell home bred Oscars or Guppies or ? To recoup some expenses?

 

[Halfpasthen]

When I was 12, a friend and I decided we were going to build a cichlid/Oscar empire. We set up a small operation in his dads garage.

His mom derailed it pretty quick and it never got off the ground. I did keep a pair of Oscars for awhile in a 40? Gallon tank in my room. Then replaced with what I remember being Blue Cichlids. But a search shows a different Cichlid than I remember.

I want to dabble again with aquarium fish, but also like hobbies that partially pay for themselves.

Is there a realistic/legal way to sell home bred Oscars or Guppies or ? To recoup some expenses?

Cory with aquarium co-op has a youtube series dedicated to learning how to breed fish for profit. It really goes in depth and explains exactly how and what to do.

 

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

Cory with aquarium co-op has a youtube series dedicated to learning how to breed fish for profit. It really goes in depth and explains exactly how and what to do.

Thank you.

I’m both looking forward to and dreading what will likely balloon into a Rube Goldberg operation with a (3) dozen tanks. Eventually it will be simplified If I stick with it.

I’m 19 weeks into raising chickens and I expect I’ll balloon out to 100+ and then back down to 25.

At one time I owned 7 motorcycles (most older and niche). I now own 2.

Does anyone have any recommendations for channels or sites for the dark side of the aquarium fish industry?