Aquarium owners.

[FerlasDave]

Since the last thread about terrariums went so well I thought I’d start a thread about aquariums, as I’m sure there must be a few fish keepers amongst us.

I set this tank up for my daughter yesterday, and quickly rediscovered the joy of “aquascaping” (as the YouTubers now call it.) Looking forward to getting her some fish now, will wait a day or two before adding them though.

 

[Machiavelli]

I’m currently running a few tanks, but this is my display tank. It’s my first dabble with marine fish and corals. Unfortunately, it’s looking ugly at the moment due to an invasion of Aiptasia (little anemones) that have been annoying many of my corals.

 

[FerlasDave]

Nice job. I love the way the clownfish is posing for the camera!

What’s the plan to reduce the anemone then? Do you just pluck them off or would that damage the corals?

 

[billycoen]

Filefish are good at clearing aiptasia.

 

[Machiavelli]

Yes, trying to pull them off usually just adds to the problem. When threatened they produce lots of babies that are released into the tank, compounding the problem.

The Filefish is my backup option. It’s definitely a good shout.

I introduced a few Peppermint Shrimp, but they disappeared within a day or so.

I have added a small colony of Berghia nudibranch as they only eat Aiptasia, so I’m going to see how they get on.

 

[Paul_B]

When we got our tank we got told to leave it for some time before putting fish in. Up to a month to cycle the tank. Apparently you need it to settle and create a healthy biological system before you add the fish.

We are not sure about keeping ours going. We're planning on letting the fish die out naturally then think about whether to restart from scratch. We usually get a few tetras. Learnt from experience about some other breeds of fish. We had a few tetras and 3 male iirc platys. Eventually the tetras disappeared and we counted 29 platys! After that we only kept tetras.

The small breed tetras we get in our small tank supposedly live 18 to 24 months. We've got two that are close to 5 years! They lasted a house move nearly 3 years ago too. If you're new to fish tanks, like we were, then I recommend tetras. Tough fish that are tolerant of mistakes you might make in their care.

 

[FerlasDave]

Paul, you did well there on tetras. They’re actually one of the most difficult fish to keep, they usually don’t like any changes to their water. With this tank I really want to try cherry shrimp just because they look awesome.

I hear what you’re saying about “cycling” the tank but if your water is safe and up to temp then there’s nothing really to “cycle”. That’s a pretty old fashioned idea that people don’t really worry about anymore. 24-48hrs to allow things to settle is more than plenty. The thing that upsets a tank most is introducing species, so your tank can be as stable as you like but you add new species and things will change. The key thing is not adding too many species all at once. I’ll be adding the shrimp after Christmas at least, along with snails. The main thing atm is those plants need fertiliser, again leaving them to it for too long won’t do them any favours.

Not new to fish myself, but I’m sure your advice will be helpful for those who are!

 

[FerlasDave]

Moved in the first stock today. Starting off with half a dozen Celestial pearl Danios/ galaxy rasboras and a couple of snails.

 

[daveO]

I used to keep fish for many years. I really miss having a tank running now but I know I don't have the time to look after one properly. It was always an extra stress when I went away for more than a few days so I don't miss that. I've never heard of cycling being old fashioned but then I always had tanks running so just seeded bacteria from an established filter into a new one.
This was my big tank. I was very sad when I had to rehome the fish to move house. A local guy with an even bigger tank took them all though so they found a good home. I had 3 big bichirs in there which were really interesting fish to keep and took ages to get to a good size. I set it up in my new place with Uaru and Geophagus but something about the water up here kept causing me problems and I gave up after a few years and sold the lot.

 

[FerlasDave]

I used to keep fish for many years. I really miss having a tank running now but I know I don't have the time to look after one properly. It was always an extra stress when I went away for more than a few days so I don't miss that. I've never heard of cycling being old fashioned but then I always had tanks running so just seeded bacteria from an established filter into a new one.
This was my big tank. I was very sad when I had to rehome the fish to move house. A local guy with an even bigger tank took them all though so they found a good home. I had 3 big bichirs in there which were really interesting fish to keep and took ages to get to a good size. I set it up in my new place with Uaru and Geophagus but something about the water up here kept causing me problems and I gave up after a few years and sold the lot.

Love the Oscar! I had a large tank with Oscar’s in when I was younger, they’re such majestic beasts, like the Labrador of the fish world.

The bichir are a cool fish, never heard of anyone keeping them domestically though. What do they feed on? I presume they’re pretty aggressive?

 

[FerlasDave]

We picked up some more fish today and this little tank is now fully stocked. Got a corydoras catfish (albino), two honey gouramis and a bunch of amano shrimp.

I’ve been testing the water every day last week and everything is normal, ph is at around 6-6.5 but I think that’s the tannins coming out of the wood. I’ll keep checking for a few days now new fish have been added and see how things go.

 

[daveO]

Love the Oscar! I had a large tank with Oscar’s in when I was younger, they’re such majestic beasts, like the Labrador of the fish world.

The bichir are a cool fish, never heard of anyone keeping them domestically though. What do they feed on? I presume they’re pretty aggressive?

The bichir were great. It was like having a pet dinosaur. You can buy specialist carnivore food for them but I'd feed them bits of fresh fish or beef heart too occasionally. The Oscar needed special food too as they're one of the few animals that can't make vitamin C. I'd feed him lots of live insects too as I've got a pet lizard that needs live food and there was always spares to use up.
I never noticed the bichir being aggressive and they were mostly fairly laid back. I had some large hoplo catfish in there that would just sit on top of them and they didn't care. They've got primitive lungs too so they'd often come up to the surface to breathe and when they were juveniles they had external gills like an axolotl.

 

[FerlasDave]

Awesome! Now just need to find space for a giant tank, and convince my wife we need one.

 

[FerlasDave]

A little update for those (if anyone?) interested. The aquarium is now running very well, but it took a few water changes in the first few weeks to get the tannins out of the water from the logs. It’s now beginning to behave like an ecosystem as I wanted it to… We did lose the two honey gouramis, unfortunately they suffer from a common disease that comes from inter breeding. I replaced them with some phantom tetras which so far are doing ok and introduced some sunkist orange shrimp which are breeding already.