View Full Version : I just don't believe it!
Ed Rafalko
08-31-2002, 08:16 PM
I got through the entire day without buying a TV OR an aquarium.
I must be sick or something.
stxrus
08-31-2002, 08:25 PM
EdR,
if you want an aquarium i have a 35 gal setup that is not being used at the moment. just come over and pick it up.
i may want it back someday, but you are welcome to it.
it has all the saltwater stuff but you can use it for freshwater.
i bet eveen a carp from the trinity river would live in it.
then again anythis that "lives" in the trinity must be related to Keef.
:stxrus
steve
oh, you can not have my televisions though. sorry.
sch
Ed Rafalko
08-31-2002, 08:49 PM
I appreciate it, Steve. But I think it might just cost me less to go buy a 35 gallon setup than to go pick yours up.
heinz
09-01-2002, 12:07 AM
My son and I have an 26 gal aquarium with a red tail black shark, cardinal tetras, albino cory's, a flying fox, and a pleco. They've been together for about a year but it's a pretty dysfunctional family. The shark stresses everybody out.
Nelson F
09-01-2002, 12:10 AM
Eddie i have a Frog tank do you want it?
Ed Rafalko
09-01-2002, 01:06 AM
No thanks, Nelson. I'll figure out what I want eventually.
Ed you should get turtles...they are really cool pets.
Ed Rafalko
09-01-2002, 01:12 AM
Originally posted by heinz
My son and I have an 26 gal aquarium with a red tail black shark, cardinal tetras, albino cory's, a flying fox, and a pleco. They've been together for about a year but it's a pretty dysfunctional family. The shark stresses everybody out.
I love those red-tail sharks. I had one when I was in junior high school. It grew to about 7 inches in just a couple years- they don't get that big any more.
I want one in the new tank but I also want the zebra pleco, which will get beat up and is about 15 times as expensive and much harder to find.;)
Oscars are my favorite to have in a fish tank.
Nelson F
09-01-2002, 01:16 AM
Ed hows about i buy you a Dingy & a fishing pole!
Nelson F
09-01-2002, 01:21 AM
Well Eddie??
Ed Rafalko
09-01-2002, 01:45 AM
I've kept Oscars, even had a breeding pair before. They're easy to keep. They're big, pretty, and really smart too. But I think this time around I'm staying away from the predators. I haven't had a real 'community' of fish since high school. This one will be a BIG community, I think- I'm looking at 140 to 225 gallon tanks, and most of the fish I'm looking at don't grow past 5 or 6 inches long, so there will be lots of activity and color in it.
Might throw some fish capable of getting to be a foot or so in there, like tinfoil barbs or the like, that aren't aggressive or nocturnal predators but still have some color. Like I said, one of the reasons I didn't rush out and buy it today is that I haven't had much chance to put a lot of concentrated thought into just what I wanted.
Maybe some Tanganyikan africans, they're very colorful, and their water requirements match the water coming out of my tap pretty well. But they're expensive. I want to avoid having to spend 15 or 20 or 150 bucks a pop on a fish. That's why I am thinking against the saltwater stuff- live rock is expensive, and not enough activity for me, so it would be the free-swimming large angels, like the Queen ( $135 bucks at around 5-6 inches) Asfur ( $120 at aroud 5 inches) blue-faced ( $145 at around 5-6 inches) and Emperor ( $185 in adult coloration, 8 inches or so) , along with the black volitans lion, which only eats live food, so that's two strikes against the saltwater stuff right there- the cost and the fact that I'd have to feed the lion goldfish, which is something I want to avoid this time around.
The most expensive species I'm considering this time around is the Zebra pleco, which is rare in the hobby and will cost around $75 , when I can get them, which won't be till next summer. Most of the rest of the fish I want are under 5 bucks each, and only one or two are even $10.
The filtration setup I'd build would depend on the fish species I'd decide on- some fish are a lot messier than others, creating more waste, meaning I'd need better filtration. Other fish are a little more delicate and would require denitrifiers in the filter, another added expense and hard to 'add-on' later. River species would need faster and more directional water flow, coldwater species would need a water chiller instead of a heater- that sort of thing. I really haven't knocked out a list of what I want to keep and what their requirements are, and that's part of why I didn't just rush out and buy that 100 gallon tank for 400 bucks that I saw the other day.
As for your dingy, Nelson, I'm not touching it- not even with that fishing pole!
Freddy
09-01-2002, 03:47 AM
I used to have a 75 gallon Oceanic tank.
I mainly kept to the freshwater fish such as the Oscars,Jack Dempsy's,Ghost Knife etc..etc...
But the fish that I thought was the most fun...was a 9 inch Largemouth bass I took home from a local lake!!
It didn't take long for him to grow quite a bit more than 9 inch's... and it was a riot feeding him large crawfish and minnows...most times he attacked with such force it sent water flying!
I remember throwing a large frog into the tank once and all hell broke loose.:D
stxrus
09-01-2002, 05:28 AM
back in the states we raised just about every kind of fresh water fish you could imagine. my all time favorites are oscars. the most "personality" of any fish i have kept. african cichlids come in a close second as far as ease of raising.
when i moved here i met some people thast had salt tanks and the took less care than i did with my fresh tanks.
we just go to the sea get enough water to fill the tank, cover the bottles & let them let sit in a dark spot for about 2 weeks. this kills any organisms. syphon all but about 2 inches off the botom of the bottles. filter and aerate for about 3 days. slowly add your fish. monitor the tank for out of balance levels.
the easy part is when the salinity gets a bit high we just added fresh water from our cistern. scrapped all the dead bugs and salt residue off the hood and dumped it back into the tank. the fish thrived.
algae was a problem because of light. we never have lived anywhere here where we have a dark enough room.
also, gathering raw seawater allowed us to "collect" all sorts of preditors that we never knew we had. octopus (aprox 1.25mm across) and mantis shrimp are great nightime preditors.
suddenly all 3 juvenile spotted drums dissapeared. we looked around the tank on the floor and walls. NOTHING.
late one night i had put some squid bits into the tank and out of the gravel comes this little octopus. he climbs up the glass and literally drops on a yellowline arrow crab about 4 times his size. the struggle was short! with 2 minutes the arrow crab was dead and UNDER the gravel. no sign ever again that the crab existed.
same sort of thing withthe mantis shrimp, except you had to have the lights off and turn them on suddenly (or use a flashlight) to see that bugger.
since fresh water tropical are so damned expensive here we probably won't have a tank again for a while.
:stxrus
steve
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