How many of you out there own aquariums? My dad has one and I'm about to get a 20 or 30 gallon one myself for the apartment. I figure they're so much easier to take care of <font size=1>once dead</font> than dogs or cats and they don't claw up your furniture or poop on your floors. Just like anything else I buy, I'm researching this up and down. For those of you with aquariums, what kind of fish do you have? Have they been difficult to take care of? What kind of setup are you using (filters, heater, etc.). ... Dr of Aquatics! ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills... [This message has been edited by Dr of Dunk (edited April 23, 2001).]
The easiest, lowest maintenance setup is a freshwater tank with an undergravel filtration system. You can go forever without changing water as long as you don't overfeed. The easiest fish to raise are the livebearers (guppies, swordtails, platys) and they drop fry every month without fail. Get a catfish to eat the excess food on the bottom and that's all you need. Oh yeah, the livebearers eat their young so if you want to save any, get a breeding trap. ------------------
I'm not a fish tank guy... but what the heck is "drop fry" ??? rH ------------------ Homecourt will always be 'The Summit' to me!! Until we move downtown!! The Psychedelic Groove House of Rockets Basketball Love! President, CEO & Charter Member of Rocketholics Anonymous
offspring Mango ------------------ Get it right or just don't do it! Resistance is futile....you will be assimilated.
I would suggest starting with a smaller one -- like 20 gallons. It's a lot easier to manage when cleaning, moving, etc. Get much bigger and it becomes somewhat of a pain to work with until you get your system down. A 20 gallon is also relatively cheap -- larger, and the cost of everything shoots up. If you decide you don't like it, you are left with a couple of hundred dollars worth of stuff that ends up in a box in the closet. Watch the type of fish you get -- I'd start with nicer ones. Get one aggressive fish, like an angel fish, and that's all you'll have left. A bottom feeder helps a lot in keeping the tank clean. It's also a good idea to start with cheap fish, as you will kill some. Start with freshwater -- deffinitely. Less mess. If you have a busy lifestyle, an automatic feeder can help a lot. You can load a few weeks worth of food (don't get it too full) and it will dump a bit in every 12 hours. Adjust it carefully to avoid over feeding, but this can help you get big fish and not have to worry about feeding. Advice everyone knows, and no-one does. Clean often, on a regular schedule. It's easy to change a little water out and clean the gravel once a month or so, and horrible to do a big cleaning each year. I'm also a big fan of using two filters. The undergravel filter works OK, but is slow and the gravel can get bad. I always use a behind the tank charcoal filter also, which helps if you overfeed and is easier to clean. Don't skimp on the filter -- it saves headaches in the long run. ------------------ Stay Cool...
For fish that seem to notice you,..try the convict cichlid. These stocky fish are hardy, and will breed like rabbits! . They grow to 5 or 6 inches, and show great parental care. After trying many aquarium fish over the years, this is my favorite. I would definitely recommend you doing research on this fish. btw, I currently have 3rd generation fry. - Had so many I gave some away to relatives! ------------------ It's my way or the highway!
My dad used to have Tiger Oscars in his aquarium for about 7-10 years before they died. I wouldn't mind getting 1 or 2 of those, but those things would devour just about anything else I put in there. I remember my dad putting them in the aquarium as babies and they would chase down goldfish twice their size. I know about the cleaning and feeding since I watched my dad do it as I was growing up. He used to keep that thing meticulous. I'm just debating whether or not to go all the way up to a 30 gallon or stay at 20. Anything more and I don't have room in my apartment. I wanted to get some fish that were cool to look at, but those either cost $20 a pop or they gnaw the meat off a chicken bone (don't play well with others). Still debating what kind of fish to get. Thanks for the input guys. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
I'm surprised you don't raise squirrels. Anyway, I saw those fish at Petsmart yesterday. They had black ones and pink ones. I thought about getting some of those. Personally, I wouldn't mind getting a couple of piranhas and feeding them beef. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
If you haven't gotten a filter yet, consider the Marineland HOT Magnum w/Bio-wheel. HOT for hangs on tank. I have one on a 30-gallon aquarium, and it makes for absolute ease of maintenance. Given that you are starting a brand-new aquarium, you would probably be best off starting with inexpensive, hardy fish. I use Zebra Danio to start new tanks, and have never had one die as a result. [This message has been edited by Special Patrol Group (edited April 23, 2001).]
Be sure and check your lease. Most apartments now have restrictions on aquariums -- some require a deposit. I'm guessing they had a few leak. ------------------ Stay Cool...
I just checked. They'll only allow a maximum of a 20 gallon tank, so that's decided for me. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
In college, I was hanging out real late after partying all night at my 2 friends' apartment. One of the roommates starts swinging a 1 wood golf club. Well, his follow through was right to where the 20 gallon fish tank was. He was swinging pretty close and he was drunk. He was hitting a plastic cup around from the same spot over and over. He must have taken about 4 swings and, prior to the next very next swing, I said out loud to all my friends there on the sofa, "Watch him hit the fish tank". And, right after that, KAAAABOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!! A big crash and all the water spews everywhere from the kitchen counter all over the first story apartment floor carpet. Fish flopping around, freshwater crabs crawling around. Oh...we were dying we were laughing so hard. One of the funniest things I've ever seen! Even the other roommate was laughing so hard and it was his fish/tank. We flushed all the fish and crabs and proceeded to watch cleanup. It wasn't pretty. I can understand the need for a deposit after that . Surf ------------------
Dr, I have a 4 ft tank (200 litres), with internal power filter, heater and light on a stand. Thats the boring part, the best bit is it is full of Australian (and north of australia) Rainbows and also tetras, also have some ground and slim feeders like bristle nose cats and for personal fish try Clown Loaches, i have 6 of them which are getting rather large, they love lying a round on their sides on plant leaves and i don't know how many times i have walked in and gone bugger a clown loach is dead and then get closer and it moves away, they just love lying round and also make the weird clicking noise (one the only fish to make a sound). Now back to the rainbows, my favourites are Bosemani's (yellow and blue), Neon Rainbows (iridecent blue with a red outline) and the king of rainbows the Red Rainbow (or New Guinea Rainbow). Others include Orange Parkinsons rainbow, Goyder River, Banded rainbows and plenty more. Cardinal tetras are also great and so much better than Neons. Would agree with Surf that the larger the tank the less work you have to do, anyway a small amount of work is easily worth it with the joy you get from them. Joe ------------------ "Repression never did me any harm (I finally ceased to include "stop masturbating" as one of my guilt ridden New Year's resolutions, but that's a different topic)." Achebe - programmer by day, Mrs Palmers Husband by night
DoD, I own 3 50 gallon tanks and a 30 plus tons of little ones. have had to shut most of them down due to living arangements. you mentioned Oscars, and others mentioned convict cichlids. you should know that they are related. Oscars are in the Cochlid family. there are a ton of beutifull fish in this family, and they vary in their aggressiveness. HOWEVER they are all aggressive. convicts are way less than Oscars, but they will attack and chase smaller fish. another beutiful Cichlid id the "Jack Dempsey", yup named after the boxer, and a real bad ass. problem with cichlids. and other aggressive fish. they are VERY messy. there will be alot of fish carcas on the bottom of your tank(even with a good armored catfish). the tank will get dirty. because of their appatite there are lots of poops, big poops dirty poops(yes Ali I typed poop 3, now 4 times just for you) you can feed them flakes, but they really need live food. food like minnows guppies, and feeder goldfish. prettymuch everything elsy you put in is at risk. Another fish in the Cichlid family is the Angel fish. tempting for thier long fins, but they will be aggressive too(less than oscar) and as they gorw larger they actually get less attractive. now I know the aggressive fish may seem cool, but they lose their novelty fairly quickly. after you figure out that they are dumb enough to bite anything they just become stupid eating macheins that force you to buy them 100 feeder goldfish a week. its kinda like little shop of horrors. My all time favorite is having a school of 5+ Tigre barbs. buy them at the same time and buy them small, thy will grow, but not too big. they are also not aggressive in a school. but will ocasionally nip at fins. but are no threat to othre fish best tank ever was a salt water tank based on local fish. we had just an oyster to filter the entire tank, and snails to clean. local fish too. nothing flashy, but the Pufferfish RULED. PEACE ------------------ Hanta-Force Paintball www.hanta-force.com
I had some tiger barbs. One of them constantly chased the others around the fish tank and eventually killed all the other tiger barbs. I have had some cool cichlids, too, that were aggressive. Generally speaking, tiger barbs are schooling fish until one of them grows a little faster than the others and all bets are off . Surf ------------------
Surf, the thinkwith Barns is that they LOVE to hide. they LOVE to stalk. give them plenty of plants, and little caves to swim around and there wont ever be a problem. I never had a problem with one barb killing anything (except the ocasional baby guppy). also, I never liked any of the other barbs. just the tigers. ------------------ Hanta-Force Paintball www.hanta-force.com
I just got back from a tropical fish store... MUCH better than that PetSmart pet store. Anyway, they had all kinds of fish there. The angel fish was beautiful... man, I never knew fish could be so freakin' expensive. I knew they got up to $20-$30 apiece, but good Lord, I saw one for $180. That sucker better fetch the paper, too. It was an Emperor Angel fish and absofreakinglutely beautiful. Anyway, I'll probably stick with getting tetras or some smaller fish. I have my 20 gallon fish tank picked out and just need a stand to put it on. I saw some oak stands you assemble together at PetSmart. I don't like the thought of putting a 250 lb fish tank on top of one of those snap-together stands. I'm tempted to go buy the cast-iron stands I saw. But they're ugly. Decisions, decisions... ah well, I'll probably buy the fish tank tomorrow, set it all up and running with filters and whatnot, then buy the fish over the weekend. WOO HOO! This is gonna be cool. ... I hope my apartment doesn't stink. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
*drooooooool* I've seen those and would definitely get one if I lived in a house. They are simply beautiful especially if you have the aquascaping done right. But alas, I live in an apartment. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
Why not? Because of the size they grow to? I know my dad's got kind of huge. Those things must've weighed about 3-5 pounds when they died. My dad knew he had made a mistake, but didn't want to just kill them, but they were way too big even for a 30 gallon aquarium. ------------------ Yugo grills, Yugo mills, Check out the oil my Yugo spills...
