Any aquarists present?

[Steve]

Anyone here keep fish? Kept fish? Pet fish, that is, not the eatin' kind! :)

I've had freshwater tanks up to 35 gallons and saltwater up to 65 gallons, in the past. Right not, I've got a little, bitty 1 gallon WalMart plastic tank with a county fair fish named Fred who has lived for 4 years, so far! But I do miss my big, old freshwater tanks.

Saltwater's a pain in the tookus, far too much maintenance, imo. I like a good, large freshwater tank with lots of plants and small, active fish. Very peaceful......


My worst disaster was coming home from work one day, seeing almost all the fish in the tank dead, floating belly up. The second I got close to the tank, I could feel the heat coming off it. One of the heaters failed, stuck in the "on" position :( Cooked them all right well.....

[Coot]

We divested ourselves of an 85 gallon freshwater tank when we moved up here. I miss it in some respects, but this house does not lend itself particularly well to that hobby.

[Lovehound]

I've been into aquariums for about 40 years, although not at present. I got rid of my last fresh water tank about 4-5 years ago, and decided to tackle reef tanks next.

I also want to get a koi pond separately. I've been putting off the kois considering moving and don't want to go to the effort until I reach my new home.

I think I had a disaster where a hose broke or filter clogged and started spilling, came home and the tank was only half full. Good news: my carpet was only half empty... No, I mean, I think I didn't lose any fish.

I hope to return to it soon. I consider tropical fish to be just as good as television but without the crappy scripts, without the reality shows, without the commercials.

What could be better than your tropicals on visual and Pink Floyd on audio?


Oh, Joseftu is a fish person. He'll probably chime in this thread.

[damonlab]

I had a ten gallon freshwater tank for over three years once upon a time. Fish are great to watch, but take much work to keep up, I learned a lot of basics, such as tank cleaning, changing tank water, and monitoring the different water levels such as temperature, chemicals, etc. I don't have any fish now, but have considered getting some again sometime.

[Lovehound]

I wish you hadn't brought up this topic Steve. I really miss my little slimy fish. :cry:

[Violet1966]

We have a nice 30 gallon tank. We had a nice 50 gallon octagon one but we got rid of it when we moved from NJ.

I've always had fish. We have ours in the living room. It's nice to sit on the couch and watch the fish. We've been getting catfish lately. Have a shark. Had two but one died. We just tried puffer recently and it didn't make it. It was too slow moving and went too close to the filter and the filter sucked it's fin off and it didn't last much longer. Have a few other types too, but can't remember off the top of my head.

My husband used to have a salt water tank and he said it's way too much work.

[Sam]

I had saltwater tanks for about 12 years. Some times 2 50+ tanks at once. They are more difficult to set up and the the right balance initially. However, once you get the right bio make up and proper filtration they can go forever with little effort. The last one I had, I would just add tap water to it as needed due to evaporation. I did that for about 4 years. Without adding salt. Once every 3 months or so I would give the glass a quick wave of the scrubby wand and that was it.

Please note: I had some really kick ass bio filters on that tank and sealife in it that aided in keeping it clean. I really miss watching my clowns play in the anemones! They are so cool.

[Lovehound]

Yeah, what Vio said! I've had freshwater tanks on and off since I was a kid. I always loved to set them up where they often became a better program source than my TV set. At least tropical fish never insult your intelligence, something that can't be said of the TV. I always get a feeling of peacefulness and tranquility from watching my fish cavort. One question, I thought sharks were saltwater. ???

The last time I disbanded my tank I decided to hold out for saltwater, get a reef tank next time. I have no practical experience with saltwater but studied it quite a bit, and my studies said exactly what Sam said about a properly set up tank going for a long time, particularly with big filters. I have the feeling that you almost couldn't put too much filtration in a saltwater tank. Also heard that the bigger the tank the more stable it is. Sam, just curious if you had any kind of UV in the filter to kill bacteria. ???

[Violet1966]

Well these are freshwater sharks. They are like a deep grey with orangish fins and on tail a bit too. The thing is weird too. It likes to take breaks and just lay on the castle we have in our tank. It just stops swimming and chills for a while.

[Lovehound]

It just stops swimming and chills for a while.
That's what I'm doing too! :)

[joseftu]

I raised African Cichlids (from Lake Tanganyika--I was never so interested in the Lake Malawi fish, although there are certainly some pretty ones). Then I converted to the reef tank hobby. That was a lot of fun, for quite a long time, but it does take a long time. You can have a really beautiful setup (I think I did!) and lots of fun fish and other organisms.
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I made a point to have only a green or reef-safe setup...only captive-bred fish, nothing taken from the wild, and mostly captive-bred corals, with the few pieces from the wild only being naturally-harvested fragments. This is important if you want to have a reef tank and still want there to be wild reefs and wild organisms for your children and grandchildren. Some of the less-reputable harvesting methods include poisons and even dynamite.

But the reef tank hobby takes a lot of time and energy and money. Even when it's looking beautiful, you're always thinking about it and how to make it better. That's the nature of a hobby, and part of what makes it fun, but I finally moved away from it and sold or gave away the whole setup.

Now I'm thinking of going back to Tanganyika cichlids...but it's awfully hard to find good quality specimens in the variety I want. I used to go to a breeder directly--but he's a long way off...north of Albany. That kind of fish safari was a lot of fun when I was a bachelor with fishy friends--we would make a day of it. Not so sure if I have the time anymore!

[joseftu]

I raised African Cichlids (from Lake Tanganyika--I was never so interested in the Lake Malawi fish, although there are certainly some pretty ones). Then I converted to the reef tank hobby. That was a lot of fun, for quite a long time, but it does take a lot of time. You can have a really beautiful setup (I think I did!) and lots of fun fish and other organisms.
<object type="text/html" data="http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?user_id=29137593@N00&tags=reef" width="300" height="300"> </object>

I made a point to have only a green or reef-safe setup...only captive-bred fish, nothing taken from the wild, and mostly captive-bred corals, with the few pieces from the wild only being naturally-harvested fragments. This is important if you want to have a reef tank and still want there to be wild reefs and wild organisms for your children and grandchildren. Some of the less-reputable harvesting methods include poisons and even dynamite.

But the reef tank hobby takes a lot of time and energy and money. Even when it's looking beautiful, you're always thinking about it and how to make it better. That's the nature of a hobby, and part of what makes it fun, but I finally moved away from it and sold or gave away the whole setup.

Now I'm thinking of going back to Tanganyika cichlids...but it's awfully hard to find good quality specimens in the variety I want. I used to go to a breeder directly--but he's a long way off...north of Albany. That kind of fish safari was a lot of fun when I was a bachelor with fishy friends--we would make a day of it. Not so sure if I have the time anymore!

[Allene]

Back in 1966 my apartment mates and I purchased one of those little bowls with a couple of goldfish in them. They only lived for a few days. I think we fed them too much. So we flushed them down the toilet, and that was the end of fish as pets for me. I stick with dogs and cats now.

We used to eat at an Indian restaurant that had a fish tank full of interesting critters, but one day the owner added a new fish to the tank. It went on a binge and ate a lot of the other occupants. :cry: