The fish tank thread.

[redrooster99]

Hello everyone, redrooster99 here and I have a 5 gallon fish tank that I would like to share with my fellow backyard chickeners.

This is it right know. I am going to try and get more fish this weekend, which will be a surprise. I may even get more live plants.
The only fish in it right know is my long finned albino Pleco.

This is him.
Please if anymore of you have a tank please share it.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Hey! Nice tank, and cute pleco I love pleco's. I have a:
1 gallon with a bunch of leeches
2.5 gallon with 5 breeding ghost shrimp
3 gallon with a mystery snail and a betta
5 gallon with a betta and 3 oto's
10 gallon with a crawdad and 3 white mountain cloud minnows
10 gallon with a lampry, minnows, water bugs, and snails
10 gallon baby raising tank
15 gallon with a bristlenose pleco and 12 rasbora's
20 gallon with a clown pleco, ghost catfish (4), neon tetra's (9), and a blue gourami
20 gallon guppy breeding tank
55 gallon with a Red eared slider turtle, common pleco, minnows, goldfish, giant danio's, tiger barbs, and a rainbow shark

Well, believe it or not, this is almost half what i used to have. I used to breed mystery snails, minnows, and betta's.
Here are a few pic's:
the crawdad as a baby in a 5 gallon

the lamprey (the snake-like thing)

55 gallon fish (the pleco, dagger, is 12 inches)
the bristlenose pleco baby

one of the betta's (a halfmoon)

dagger on the side
dagger eating a wafer

rainbow shark

 

[waddles99]

Cool fish. Plecos are great, my favorite are watermelon Plecos. Nice pattern on them, I used to have massive Pleco before he died, head must've been the size of my fist and weighed at least 2-3 lbs. I have a 90 gallon, 55 gallon, 37 gallon, and 15 gallon. I used to have a lot more, lol. I am currently keeping trout in my 90 gallon. Cool fish if youre able to care for them.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Cool fish. Plecos are great, my favorite are watermelon Plecos. Nice pattern on them, I used to have massive Pleco before he died, head must've been the size of my fist and weighed at least 2-3 lbs. I have a 90 gallon, 55 gallon, 37 gallon, and 15 gallon. I used to have a lot more, lol. I am currently keeping trout in my 90 gallon. Cool fish if youre able to care for them.

watermelon pleco's are pretty...i would love to own one. My common pleco is only about 10 inches, but he is still growing! I wonder if he will get that big. I am searching for a cheap 100+ gallon tank, cause the turtle and pleco are outgrowing the 55 gallon. I've never kept trout...sounds interesting. How many can you keep in a 90 gallon? I am wanting to add a tank of piranha's, but don't have enough to get the proper tank set-up right now...i would have to get rid of some more tanks to make room as well, lol

 

[waddles99]

watermelon pleco's are pretty...i would love to own one. My common pleco is only about 10 inches, but he is still growing! I wonder if he will get that big. I am searching for a cheap 100+ gallon tank, cause the turtle and pleco are outgrowing the 55 gallon. I've never kept trout...sounds interesting. How many can you keep in a 90 gallon? I am wanting to add a tank of piranha's, but don't have enough to get the proper tank set-up right now...i would have to get rid of some more tanks to make room as well, lol

Watermelon, zebra, gold sunshine are my 3 top favorite plecos. The watermelon i had wasn't too long, maybe 14", but they are a very wide headed species of pleco. Driftwood eaters too, so not a good choice if you have some nice driftwood. Turtle and pleco is an interesting combo, Ive never kept turtles with fish before. I had some Eastern Painteds before but never with fish. IF you check CraigsList you may be able to find some nice deals on a 90 gallon. I got mine new from glass cages, big mistake on that one. Cost almost 800 dollars with tank and stand. Plus filter and equipment and I was already past $1K for a single tank. As for the trout, I get them at a local hatchery for 50 cents an inch. The have all kinds, beautiful trout. Golden is my personal favorite, but they are all so beautiful. I have Tiger, Brook, Rainbow, and Golden Rainbow. I overstock all my tanks, so I have about 10 8-10" trout in there. They seem happy enough. In the hatchery you have the trout crammed on top of each other. I think you could get away with inch per gallon with a UV sterilizer and dual filters. Thats what I have, 2 aqua clear 500's and a (expensive) UV sterilizer. On top of clear water you have to have current, so throw a couple powerbeads in there too. They are a very active fish, and love to swim against the current of the powerhead. With a nice light, they show great colors as well. ….and don't even get me started on piranhas lol. Love those fish. Maybe one day I'll get some more. I have had Red bellies, Caribes, and Elongatus piranha in the past. You can keep the Caribe and Red bellies in a school, but not the Elongatus. There are 2 main genus of piranha, Serrassalmus and Pygocentrus. The Serrasalmus are the more aggressive ones, have to be kept solitary(With some rare exceptions). The Pygocentrus are the less aggressive, but still very aggressive, schooling Piranhas, and the more well known ones. Pygocentrus Natteri, or the Redbelly piranha are the iconic piranha that everyone thinks of when they hear "Piranhas". They are the ones from the movies lol. I suggest if you're interested in getting piranhas, get a 40B or 37 Tall and growing out 5 caribe piranha, then thinning them to 3 piranhas when they get 6". Dim lights, low pH, plants and lots of cover, amazon extract in the water, you'll have yourself some nice piranhas. You can feed goldfish on occasion. Stick to frozen foods like silversides for the most part. Goldfish can be fed as a treat, maybe once or twice a month.

Sorry for the rambling haha. I love talking about fishes. Almost as much as goats and chickens

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Watermelon, zebra, gold sunshine are my 3 top favorite plecos. The watermelon i had wasn't too long, maybe 14", but they are a very wide headed species of pleco. Driftwood eaters too, so not a good choice if you have some nice driftwood. Turtle and pleco is an interesting combo, Ive never kept turtles with fish before. I had some Eastern Painteds before but never with fish. IF you check CraigsList you may be able to find some nice deals on a 90 gallon. I got mine new from glass cages, big mistake on that one. Cost almost 800 dollars with tank and stand. Plus filter and equipment and I was already past $1K for a single tank. As for the trout, I get them at a local hatchery for 50 cents an inch. The have all kinds, beautiful trout. Golden is my personal favorite, but they are all so beautiful. I have Tiger, Brook, Rainbow, and Golden Rainbow. I overstock all my tanks, so I have about 10 8-10" trout in there. They seem happy enough. In the hatchery you have the trout crammed on top of each other. I think you could get away with inch per gallon with a UV sterilizer and dual filters. Thats what I have, 2 aqua clear 500's and a (expensive) UV sterilizer. On top of clear water you have to have current, so throw a couple powerbeads in there too. They are a very active fish, and love to swim against the current of the powerhead. With a nice light, they show great colors as well. ….and don't even get me started on piranhas lol. Love those fish. Maybe one day I'll get some more. I have had Red bellies, Caribes, and Elongatus piranha in the past. You can keep the Caribe and Red bellies in a school, but not the Elongatus. There are 2 main genus of piranha, Serrassalmus and Pygocentrus. The Serrasalmus are the more aggressive ones, have to be kept solitary(With some rare exceptions). The Pygocentrus are the less aggressive, but still very aggressive, schooling Piranhas, and the more well known ones. Pygocentrus Natteri, or the Redbelly piranha are the iconic piranha that everyone thinks of when they hear "Piranhas". They are the ones from the movies lol. I suggest if you're interested in getting piranhas, get a 40B or 37 Tall and growing out 5 caribe piranha, then thinning them to 3 piranhas when they get 6". Dim lights, low pH, plants and lots of cover, amazon extract in the water, you'll have yourself some nice piranhas. You can feed goldfish on occasion. Stick to frozen foods like silversides for the most part. Goldfish can be fed as a treat, maybe once or twice a month.

Sorry for the rambling haha. I love talking about fishes. Almost as much as goats and chickens

wow...thanks for the info! Writing all that down in my fish notebook, lol.

Turtles are fun and annoying...when keeping fish with them, you kinda have to keep the mindset that a lot of them will become food I kept the pleco in a 10 gallon when he was a baby, and moved him to a 15 long, then a 20, and finally into the turtles 40 (at the time) when he was about 5 inches with the 3 inch turtle. now pleco is 10 and turtle is 5, and the get along pretty well...the pleco likes to suck on the turtles shell. Every now and then, the turtle will shred his fins a little in between where it is really thin, but the pleco has always recovered quickly and it does not happen too often. As for other fish, i use mostly minnows and goldfish because they are cheap and not horrible if i lose some. I once made the mistake of buying a 10 fish to put in the tank because he was bright blue and would be really pretty, and i bought 15 new minnows, but them all in at the same time, and the dang turtle ignored the minnows and had to eat the expensive fish. Well, i learned my lesson.

haha, no problem...i like talking about fish too.

 

[waddles99]

wow...thanks for the info! Writing all that down in my fish notebook, lol. 

Turtles are fun and annoying...when keeping fish with them, you kinda have to keep the mindset that a lot of them will become food I kept the pleco in a 10 gallon when he was a baby, and moved him to a 15 long, then a 20, and finally into the turtles 40 (at the time) when he was about 5 inches with the 3 inch turtle. now pleco is 10 and turtle is 5, and the get along pretty well...the pleco likes to suck on the turtles shell. Every now and then, the turtle will shred his fins a little in between where it is really thin, but the pleco has always recovered quickly and it does not happen too often. As for other fish, i use mostly minnows and goldfish because they are cheap and not horrible if i lose some. I once made the mistake of buying a 10 fish to put in the tank because he was bright blue and would be really pretty, and i bought 15 new minnows, but them all in at the same time, and the dang turtle ignored the minnows and had to eat the expensive fish. Well, i learned my lesson.

haha, no problem...i like talking about fish too.  

No problem, always nice to share knowledge with another fish keeper. As I said above I never kept fish and turtles together(or dared to) because of the very reason of them eating the fish. I wanted to keep a musk or mud turtle with my trout. My trout are big and can fend for themselves, the biggest one is almost 14". Maybe one day. I like them becasue I hear they don't need a basking spot. It was annoying when i had my turtles to always be sticking that awful basking pad back to the side of the tank. Plus it was ugly.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

No problem, always nice to share knowledge with another fish keeper. As I said above I never kept fish and turtles together(or dared to) because of the very reason of them eating the fish. I wanted to keep a musk or mud turtle with my trout. My trout are big and can fend for themselves, the biggest one is almost 14". Maybe one day. I like them becasue I hear they don't need a basking spot. It was annoying when i had my turtles to always be sticking that awful basking pad back to the side of the tank. Plus it was ugly.

man, ikr! That basking pad is so annoying! I hope to someday build a pond for the turtles outside so i won't have to deal with them in a tank anymore. I can never make the turtle tank look nice (except right after cleaning day) because he loves to "re-decorate" his living space.

He's not a good decorator.

 

[waddles99]

man, ikr! That basking pad is so annoying!  I hope to someday build a pond for the turtles outside so i won't have to deal with them in a tank anymore. I can never make the turtle tank look nice (except right after cleaning day) because he loves to "re-decorate" his living space.   He's not a good decorator. 

Making a pond can be involved but I will say it is well worth it. The reason it was tricky for me was I needed to clear out the pond site(3 boxwood bushes and ALOT of mulch), and I hit a couple pipes on the way down that needed to be moved. If it weren't for the initial clearing of the bushes and the pipes, the pond would've been a breeze to build. Only 150 gallons so it wasn't tough to dig at all. Threw a liner in there with some play sand from home depot, used a couple rocks to weigh it down, the filled it with a garden hose. I planted hornwort and anarchis, although the hornwort didn't do too well. The anarchis did a little too well and ended up dominating the pond, lol. I wish it had been a balance of the two but I dont really care. I also introduced a couple giant trapdoor snails to the pond. They helped control the algae and bred nicely. Then I put a couple catfish and Sunfish in there. I didn't filter it at all, or aerate it for that matter. Never fed the fish, the pond created its own food for the fish. Insect larvae and other stuff. 1 year later i disassemble the pond to move. I caught 2 catfish and a sunfish. Oh, and I also had this bullfrog in there. He used to sit on a log floating in the pond. I saw him from the kitchen window every day. It was fun. So yes, having a pond is very rewarding. My next pond is probably going to be a little bigger, and have some turtles too.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Making a pond can be involved but I will say it is well worth it. The reason it was tricky for me was I needed to clear out the pond site(3 boxwood bushes and ALOT of mulch), and I hit a couple pipes on the way down that needed to be moved. If it weren't for the initial clearing of the bushes and the pipes, the pond would've been a breeze to build. Only 150 gallons so it wasn't tough to dig at all. Threw a liner in there with some play sand from home depot, used a couple rocks to weigh it down, the filled it with a garden hose. I planted hornwort and anarchis, although the hornwort didn't do too well. The anarchis did a little too well and ended up dominating the pond, lol. I wish it had been a balance of the two but I dont really care. I also introduced a couple giant trapdoor snails to the pond. They helped control the algae and bred nicely. Then I put a couple catfish and Sunfish in there. I didn't filter it at all, or aerate it for that matter. Never fed the fish, the pond created its own food for the fish. Insect larvae and other stuff. 1 year later i disassemble the pond to move. I caught 2 catfish and a sunfish. Oh, and I also had this bullfrog in there. He used to sit on a log floating in the pond. I saw him from the kitchen window every day. It was fun. So yes, having a pond is very rewarding. My next pond is probably going to be a little bigger, and have some turtles too.

that's so cool that you've done one...i've done a bit of research and it doesn't seem too hard. How cold does it get where you are? My only concern is keeping everyone out there in the winter...it gets below zero at times where i am. Do you know how deep it would have to be for him to hibernate?

Haha, bullfrogs are fun. I had 2 small ones in a 40g long tank for awhile, they were entertaining to watch...really fun to feed them flies that i caught around the house or in the barn