Who here keeps aquariums as a hobby?

[bullyforme]

Roy Rooster, that's so awesome you can keep your puffer in a comm. tank. I don't have a tank room, the two larger ones are in my living room. I'll admit the 55 is the focal point of the room! The smallest tank is in my younger son's bedroom. My fish are all about 1 year old except for the catfish who is at least 7 (they can live to be 18 years). Our Jack Dempsey is the spoiled one who gets live worms, bugs (live and dried) and shrimp (frozen and dried). He's just gorgeous and has quite the personality.

I really really want a puffer tank! Just no place to put it! Also, my electric bill is already taxed to the max by our current three tanks.

I just love keeping fish, as does my son, which is why he has his own little tank. You should check out theexoticfish.com, they have a really great forum with lots of info. Your tank is so pretty and clean, too! How often do you clean or do water changes? Do you change filters often?

 

[bullyforme]

Binders, I wish I could keep live plants. I've tried and tried but always end up with algae blooms. I have to content myself with plastic, but they have such nice ones now it's really hard to tell. I am however thinking of adding some marimo balls. They're so cute!

 

[BurdBrain]

Hello, fellow aquarists!

I own three tanks.

One is a semi-agressive/peaceful mixed community 27g tank in the kitchen with a mated pair of Guppies, three Lemon tetras, nine Neon tetras, one Pearl gourami, six long-finned Zebra Danios, an elderly Otocinclus, and one Powder-blue Dwarf gourami.

The second is a peaceful 47g tank in the living room, which houses a small school of miscellaneous Discus (Checkerboard, Blue Diamond, Red Melons, soon to add Yellow Crystal), another Otocinclus, a trio of Peppermint tetras, and a trio of Flagfish.

The third tank is a 55g tank with a Red Severum, a mated pair of Angelfish, a gold Gourami, a Red-tailed black shark, a Spotted climbing-perch, and a trio of Giant danios.

 

[Kuntry Klucker]

Hey bullyforme.

I have a small beta tank in my boys room as well. They had to have their
own fish since mommy had her tank. They love to feed the beta and watch
him eat.

To answer your question, I do water changes about every 4-6 weeks.

My filtration system is in my opinion is one of the better one out there. I have a aquatech canister filter that
pulls water from the tank filters it then flows it back into the tank. I think it is a 7 stage
filtration system. It traps everything from food to small particles. I clean it about every 6 months or so.
Basically when the canister gets full and the filter is having a hard time cleaning the water.

Is has worked well for me over the past 9 years. It was almost as much as my aquarium, thus far
I have not had to replace any parts on it. It is self priming so I do not have to worry about
getting it to start after I clean the filter and change some of the media.


I will check out the website that you mentioned. Thanks!!!

 

[mom'sfolly]

I don't keep an aquarium, I keep a pond...about 500 gallons. I have 10 goldfish, 6 about 6-8 inches, one 5 inch, and three smaller fish. I have shubunkin, sarasas and apricot comets. I have a 2 X 8 foot bog for the filtration, with a small filter to keep gunk out of the pump and a 12 foot stream and waterfall.

I love the fish, especially the shubunkin and one of the goldfish who is really red with white fins and tail.

 

[Kuntry Klucker]

Wow!! a pond that is neat. Do you have problems with birds of pray taking fish in your pond?
I just wondered about that.

 

[mom'sfolly]

A couple of summers back I saw a green heron land in the yard. My chickens were free ranging, and Boss Chick decided to check out the newcomer, with the rest of the flock behind her. The small heron beat a quick retreat, and I haven't seen one since. The guys at the pond store said the bigger herons are not likely to visit because of the tree cover. I started with container ponds, and had raccoons clean me out several times, and I switched from nice gold fish to feeder fish.

Last summer my pond was pretty much down due to deer eating the lilies and messing up the pump. This year's yard project was re-doing the pond. I about doubled the size, made it deeper, added the stream, waterfall and bog. It still needs some rock work, because I can't stand to do heavy work in the summer. I haven't had raccoon problems with the new pond, and the only real issue is adding water and keeping the chickens away from the tasty bog plants they think of as salad. I have nice gold fish again.

 

[nurseshelly]

I have a 45 gallon with a mated pair of Calico Angels that have babies occasionally, a few corydoras, and some big cardinal tetras which happily they leave alone. Mine are all 4 years old.
In the past I've had saltwater, a discus tank, and a different big community tank. I had to sell them when I was in nursing school because it was just too much to take care of them the way I wanted to. Many of those fish were 7 years old when I sold the tanks. I did have a figure 8 puffer in my community tank and he/she did really well. It didn't bother any of my other fish, and LOVED freeze dried plankton and blood worms. I added some salt to mine too, but not enough to be considered brackish. I think with the figure 8's, some are docile and some are aggressive. If you are thinking of getting one, I think the ones that are not fed guppies are probably ones that have a better chance of not bugging the other fish.
With my tank now, I did have a Columbian Puffer, which is completely fresh water, and didn't bug my other fish (except for the betta, it had to move to a 5 gallon tank!). They are a bit higher maintenance than the figure 8 puffers. They need beak trimming, even when fed snails with shells (was raising snails in the 5 gallon tank that the betta had to move into, to feed the puffer). After having to sedate my puffer and trim his teeth, I decided that maybe I didn't need a puffer and found him a good home. It was really traumatizing for me!!! You dilute a small amount of clove oil in some tank water and put the puffer in until it's paralyzed, and then hold with a shrimp net so you don't damage the skin, and trim with toe nail clippers. The upper beak was really easy. The lower beak is really hard because you have to pull the bottom lip away from the beak, and it's really difficult to get to the beak. Then you put the puffer back in some clean tank water and hope it will recover. Mine swam sideways and like a drunk for a lot longer than expected. It was really stressful!

 

[ChestnutRidge]

All of your aquariums sound awesome, and I love the fish portraits in the OP!

I have a 29 gallon tank. It is heated fresh water. I started with my 29 gallon tank two years ago with 2 gouramis, 8 (ETA: golden cloud) minnows, and 4 cory cats. The gouramis did not do well, but the cory cats have multiplied like cory rabbits. Now, two years later, I have 6 of the original 8 minnows and countless cory cats, none of which have perished, so there are great huge matriarchs in there.

I looked for pictures, but I only have a few shots from when I began, just after the minnows joined the gouramis. The plants are mature now, so much so that I always thin them out when I clean the tank. I replaced the heater with an a better quality, adjustable one, but other than that, it is pretty much the same.

 

[conny63malies]

Quote:
i had three girls and a boy. THe store guy had ordered them for me.