Anyone here into Tropical Fish Keeping?

[Esequiel]

Just wondered as i now consider myself quite the hobbyist, only have a 3ft tank running at the moment but i have 3 more ready to go when i can afford it inc a big 48" x 15" x 18" which will look great when its set up.

My main interest is Cory's, when i have my tanks set up im going to try my hand at breeding them :)

[Owen]

I am yes! Love Tropical fish!

[Esequiel]

What species do you keep?

[Ninty 182]

how do you get into tropical fish keeping? It's quite an obscure hobby

[Kirkatronics]

how do you get into tropical fish keeping? It's quite an obscure hobby
Just like any other pet, you see something you like and you go for it.

[Coolness Bears]

I used to have 3 goldfish but they got eaten by my sisters goldfish! which then died of obesity!

After that i gave up on any fish dreams. :)

[Esequiel]

It's quite an obscure hobby

Fish Forum (http://www.fishforums.net/)

Another Fish Forum (http://www.plecofanatics.com/forum/)

And another (http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/forum/)


I could go on for days..... You would be suprised how many people actually keep tropical fish. Near me there are 4 tropical fish shops.... Thats more than dedicated games shops lol

Its an addictive hobby and expensive. I got into when i set up my kid a 3ft tank with some tropical fish in it. I have 5 tanks now, and will soon be breeding fish that make me some £

There are some rare fish that can make £100 when there only 6 months old :)

[Caris]

Anyone fancy taking some pics?

I was thinking about this about a month ago.

[Esequiel]

Heres a pic of my kids tank:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/Tank-1.jpg

A few of our fish:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/DVC01256.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/DVC01264.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/DVC01258.jpg

Our Amona Shrimp:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/Shrimp.jpg

Our baby livebearers:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/BabyGuppies3.jpg

And my Bristlenose Plec:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/Arastotle2.jpg

Heres Eddie my golden guppy:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/Eddie2.jpg

And this is where my baby fish live:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/cooper2085/FryTank.jpg

[Owen]

I have 2 Rainbow Fish, a Betta, 3 guppies but buying more tomorrow so they have babies (hopefully), 16 cardinal tetras, one bronze bottom feeder, 6 cleaner shrimps and about 5 other pearl tetras.

[Esequiel]

Of course thats just a kids tank, if you want a more mature looking tank you use real plants, sand, maybe some bogwood:

http://i30.tinypic.com/25q3ypj.jpg

http://i31.tinypic.com/256s1nk.jpg

http://i29.tinypic.com/wqscrc.jpg

Those pics are of someone elses tanks, not mine.

[Babooo]

I have a rabbit.

[Kirkatronics]

I have a rabbit.They're a bit different.

[Raining_again]

My uncle used to breed tropicals for a living (until he had children - tropical fish and children don't really go well together)

He mostly bred a load of discus fish, I think he had around a hundred little babies at one point!

I just have goldfish atm, tropicals are a lot of work.

[MoogleViper]

My girlfriend's brother has tropical fish. He also has crabs. (Don't quote it it's old)

She now has his old fish. (Not tropical) She also has an albino frog.

[Pyxis]

I have 7 pencil fish, 5 corys, 2 cherry barbs and a female siamese fighting fish.

I'll be redocrating their tank as soon as pay day comes around the corner. I'll be replacing their gravel with sand and Im probably going to go for a few good low light plants.

Birtstall are a really great website for aquarium plants:

http://www.birstall.co.uk/ranges/99984-1.html

[Raining_again]

Here's a question for you guys:

Is it bad to keep a catfish (sucker fish), in a goldfish tank?

We used to have one whenever I was a bit younger, it managed to live a good number of years. We got one more recently (same breed) and it died. We think it may have been infected with something.

Just curious as to peoples opinions on this..

[Esequiel]

Depends really. How big was the tank? Was it heated and filtered? Personally i would only keep corys in 3 or more, but if it was a plec and it had plenty of room i couldnt see a problem.

Oh btw what corys do you keep?

[Pyxis]

To be honest, it's not really good to keep goldfish in an aquarium, unless your aquarium is huge. They are pond fish and dont do well in small tanks. People think that goldfish are great for small bowls, but in the fish trade, they call them "death bowls". A goldfish will live for up to 40 years if its looked after well and despite popular belief, they are very smart fish and have great memories.

Goldfish arent sociable like humans and they dont like the company of other goldfish, especially if theres a lack of space, this is why a lot of people experience their goldfish killing eachother. Your golfish wont like any other fish in its territory.

A common goldfish can grow up to 12 inches in length and 1 fish needs around 10 gallons for every inch of its length. A fully grown goldfish will need a 120 gallon tank. Most tropical fish only need 1 gallon to an inch.

If the suckermouth catfish you are talking about is a Common Plec, these grow up to 18 inches in length and nobody should buy common plecs, its cruel. People buy them and then eventually return them to the shop that they bought them from after they've grown too big, but dont seem to realise that nobody has a suitable tank for a fully grown pleco. These fish will end up living an incredibly miserable life and will die a very bad death.

[Raining_again]

Depends really. How big was the tank? Was it heated and filtered? Personally i would only keep corys in 3 or more, but if it was a plec and it had plenty of room i couldnt see a problem.

Oh btw what corys do you keep?

Well on the first occasion (one that survived) was in with goldfish, the tank was at room temp, plenty of green crap, algae, whatever, for it to eat off the tank walls, it seemed happy as a pig in mud. I'm not aware of any special food it ever got other than perhaps getting some of the fish food itself.

Same situ with the new one, only perhaps more light shining on the tank at different times of the day. (more algae?)

Its just a black one with like...wee lighter coloured dots :heh: couldn't tell you the breed. Very small. Nothing overly uncommon or expensive.

I think it may have been the pet shop due to the fact we've had a few die. One of the goldfish we have has what looks like a big bad-ass cancerous lump on its side.. the poor thing :(

I get really attached to our wee fish ^___^

Edit: Oh pyxis - I'm in totally in agreement about goldfish bowls - its stupidly cruel and awful :( Our fish are in a tank...its a fair size, not huge though. (got 3 fish in it) (big tanks are very expensive o_o)

[Pyxis]

"Its just a black one with like...wee lighter coloured dots couldn't tell you the breed. Very small. Nothing overly uncommon or expensive."

Yep, that sounds like a common pleco. A pleco cant survive off the algae in a tank, it would be like me trying to survive off the crumbs on my bedroom floor.:heh: Plecos like to eat wood and there are a lot of different types of tablets, pellets and algae wafers that you can get for them. I'd never keep a pleco myself, because even my Rio 400 is not big enough for one. The biggest fish I kept was a rainbow shark and he was very peaceful until he killed an entire shoal of fully grown tiger barbs one night.

This is what my small 30G looked like over a year ago:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/arc200uk/april.jpg

Its currently looking awful and is in desperate need of redecoration!

[Raining_again]

"Its just a black one with like...wee lighter coloured dots couldn't tell you the breed. Very small. Nothing overly uncommon or expensive."

Yep, that sounds like a common pleco. A pleco cant survive off the algae in a tank, it would be like me trying to survive off the crumbs on my bedroom floor.:heh: Plecos like to eat wood and there are a lot of different types of tablets, pellets and algae wafers that you can get for them. I'd never keep a pleco myself, because even my Rio 400 is not big enough for one. The biggest fish I kept was a rainbow shark and he was very peaceful until he killed an entire shoal of fully grown tiger barbs one night.

See tbh i'm not very sure myself, as I was in school, and not the person responsible for feeding them!

Whatever my ma did it lasted a long time, maybe 3 or 4 years.

How big is your tank? (400 gallons/litres assumption much? XD)

[Pyxis]

http://minishop.t-com.hr/elegancereef/Images/Products/Large/juwelrio.jpg

My Rio 400 is 400 litres, I think there is 3.7 litres to the gallon? Im not sure! Its over 100 US gallons, but only my terrapin lives in it at the moment. The rainbow shark and tiger barbs lived with him. It was a nightmare trying to feed them and It turned out to be a bad experiment:heh: Rainbow sharks are alright until they are fully grown, then they will just go crazy when your least expecting it!

The picture is of my 33 US gallon fish tank. I've got a proper stand for it now.:heh: The tank looks awful right now, but all the fish get on really well together and are quite happy. Its going to look great soon.:) I feed them frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp.

[Raining_again]

http://minishop.t-com.hr/elegancereef/Images/Products/Large/juwelrio.jpg

My Rio 400 is 400 litres, I think there is 3.7 litres to the gallon? Im not sure! Its over 100 US gallons, but only my terrapin lives in it at the moment. The rainbow shark and tiger barbs lived with him. It was a nightmare trying to feed them and It turned out to be a bad experiment:heh: Rainbow sharks are alright until they are fully grown, then they will just go crazy when your least expecting it!

The picture is of my 33 US gallon fish tank. I've got a proper stand for it now.:heh: The tank looks awful right now, but all the fish get on really well together and are quite happy. Its going to look great soon.:) I feed them frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp.


Our goldfish go mad over the blood worms. Its actually awesome to watch ^___^

I just checked with my da he reckons about 35 litres for our tank (its about 40x30x40cm. With 3 goldfish, used to have 4 til one died. They were pretty happy and grew to a good size (about 3/4ish cm long body each)

I think the rough estimate is 1cm of fish to 1 gallon? (for goldfish)

[Esequiel]

No for goldfish they need more room than usual. They produce a high amount of waste which is more amonia that most tropical fish will produce. 35 Litres is enough for maybe 1 fancy gold fish as its roughly 7 gallons.

Pyxis you lucky lucky guy! What i would give for 400l in one tank! My largest tank only holds 220l....

Set up that 400l with some Chichlids and a rocky background! Keep some L18 GN Plecs with them and get some shrimp for clean up!

[Pyxis]

Well my terrapin is getting old. If he pops his clogs anytime soon, im planning on giving it away for free and might even sort the delivery out for whoever wants it. Ill probably move out in a year or so.:)

[Esequiel]

Bah what a shame your in America >.<