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So I was working at the fish shop today dishing out small comets for feeders to a customer when I noticed a really neat black and white comet. So I snagged him because he looked so cute and I had never really seen a comet that was primarily black and white with just a smidgen of orange...

Everything I have read suggests not keeping goldfish with tropical fish for this important reason: goldfish produce WAY more ammonia than most tropical fish. This means that the goldfish DO "poison" the other fish, but it has nothing to do with slime and everything to do about DOO. Some...

Yea.. From what I understand you have to have several more females than males, though, and I don't have room for that (which is why I got all males - hoping they'd have no babies and leave things alone). Bizarre that they picked on a male PLATY and not eachother.

haha.. okay, so I couldn't stand watching that male platy get bullied any longer so I put the two guppies in the 30 gal (with the opaline gourami, red tail shark and other unfriendlies - we'll see if they start behavin' then). I moved another female platy in the tank so now there's 2 female...

I have two male guppies, and a pair of hi-fin platies. I just got them yesterday. This morning the two male guppies are chasing the male platy like CRAZY. All are ignoring the female platy. What the heck is up with that? The male platy will sometimes get a break from being chased when the...

Huh.. I always thought freezing was fine. There's no pain invovled (or mess) and the fish has no idea what's going on. The drop in temperature, I thought, slows its biological functions down to nothing which effectively makes the fish "go to sleep". I have no idea if it's accurate or not, but...

Thanks! I wish I had some good closeups of my bichir - he's awful cute! I don't know if it's the camera or the operator, but I can never get any good close up shots of ANYTHING much less my fish. The bichir is highly suspicious of the camera as it is and especially loathes the flash (which is...

Man, Sir Minion! I love the pictures of your feeesh. I really like how active my bichir is - I thought he'd be a total lurker, but he's actually reather personable (unless I've got the camera out). beblondie - Arr! It's always so hard when you have to compare one to the other for sexing...

My little bichir has grown! I think he's at least two inches longer than he was, plus he's got a pretty portly belly on him. I put a couple pictures of my tank in the forum alloted for those kinds of things if you want to see. Anyone know how to tell a male Ornate from a female? I thought it...

Oh yea, that orange thing is a female molly. Her male counterpart is by himself in a ten gallon at the moment. I'm planning on moving some fish around as soon as I do a water change in the 10 gallon. The bichir is shy and is making a fast getaway to his Hole In the Log.

here's my tank. I took these mainly because my darling bichir as GROWN quite a bit since the last time I posted pictures. I think he's gotten at least two inches longer. You can also see my Opaline Gourmai, my Red Tailed Shark, and my HUGE female platy. You might also spot my very...

Well you can see my confusion - going by inch per gallon I can have only 10 inches of fish, but going by the surface area equation I have nearly TRIPLE that. Seems kind of bizarre. I totally get what you're saying though - we're basically building ecosystems when we set up aquariums and...

I figured this would be as good a place as any.. Basically I am asking, how do you know how many fish to put in a tank? I've always stood by the inch-per-gallon rule. That is, for every inch of fish you have, you should have a gallon of water. Ideally, you would consider the fish's maximum...

Remember - pet store employees are only as good as the training they recieve (unless they take the extra initiative to visit places like this, to get some extra knowledge) and their fish keeping skills are only as good as the policies set up by the corporation. That being said, that girl wasn't...

So why get them from Thailand? If you breed and distribute them in the state the shipping is bound to be cheaper, and therefore you can actually spend money on cups rather than baggies. Like I said, sounds like this petstore just has a crummy vendor - cutting corners on shipping which makes...

Sick 'em Momma!! :P :lol:

Some employees feel obligated to sell the fish that customers want. The customer is always right, right? So if you go in and act like you know what you're doing a lot of employees will be wusses and give you whatever you want. This has a lot to do with management as well - the manager of your...

It's too bad that pet store gets their fish from Thailand in the first place. Bettas can be quite readily bred in captivity. The bettas we get a Petsmart arrived in a styrophome box in a cardboard box with heat and or ice packs as need. They come in the same betta cups we sell them in, only...

Yep - Petsmart associates are trained to be "pet detectives" and ask you all KINDS of questions about your fish. If the associate you're talking to isn't grilling you one what size your tank is and how many and what kind of fish you have, they aren't doing their job :P I know most of us...

Wow! What an unprofessional loser! I would find out who his supervisor and complain. There's probably some chain of command, and talking to his boss might get some results. He didn't handle your issue well at all, and even though he might not have been helpful with the betta-in-vases thing...

I TOTALLY agree. It's so much nicer when customers come into the store actually knowing a bit of what they're talking about. Doing your Homework, as I like to say, is invaluable. It's fun to go into a store and fantasize about the fish you could get, but you really need to hop over to the...

Next time you see green, poopy betta cups in a Petsmart find the Manager On Duty and ask them to check the Pet Care opening checklist to see if the Bettas have been changed. There should be no reason for the betta cups to be dirty if they are cleaned on schedule - maybe they over feed them at...

All Petsmarts should be using the same tags which read pretty accurately (except in the case of my ornate bichir :rolleyes: ). They list current size in parenthsis (SM, MD, LG etc) because you wouldn't want to keep Large Oscars with Small Oscars, and you wouldn't want to spend the same price...

Petsmart cleans their bettas every other day. The water is blue because they use a "Betta Conditioner" manufactured by Jungle. Not sure why it's blue, but I'm sure it has something to do with it being "specially formulated" for bettas who live in small amounts of water, etc. I think the...

I think it's helpful to put this in perspective - Petsmart, and probably other pet stores, recieve about 1000 new fish each week. In addition to caring for the fish, Petsmart employees are in charge of taking care of the reptiles, birds, and small mammals. Not only do they have to know nearly...

They may do that at some pet stores, but Petsmart has some very strict guidelines as far as treatment of sick animals (fish included). Flushing is NOT acceptable and neither is throwing sick fish in with fish like Oscars. Employees of Petsmart caught being inhumane can be terminated on the...

I would say this is MUCH preferable than the practice of having one or two goldfish in small bowls placed on tables during a wedding reception. At any rate, I'm sure whomever is seated at the table can have the option of taking the betta home (and then providing alternate housing arrangements...

Yea.. I'm not sure about that euthanasia article. First of all, we can never be sure of how another animal percieves pain - especially one who is so physiologically different than we are. I'm also of the opinion that euthanasia is partly for the HUMAN'S sake. In nature there is no euthanasia...

I think I'm gonna have to demand more pictures of your bichir! It's nearly impossible to find decent ones with a web search. Besides, it's nice to have a preview of what I'll be dealing with in the future ;)

oop! My bad ;) They only get about a foot in an aquarium. The ornates can get 20" I've read - eventhough the tag at the store says 12". I suspect if you throw either in a big enough tank they'll get as big as they like, though :rolleyes: :P

If you ever see a sick fish at your local petshop (especially Petsmart) tell one of the employees. They'll pull the fish and treat it - they have special tanks equiped to treat sick fish but sometimes they need a little help in finding them ;)

The baking soda thing is used for euthanasia in some petstore. I personally don't agree with it at all. I'm not sure about the chemistry involved - but apparently adding a lot of baking soda to a small amount of water takes the oxygen out of it effectively suffocating the fish. The freezer...

Hey, SirMinion, I think they have 'pinnis envy! har har har.. But serious - gorgeous fish! how many INCHES is your 'pinnis? ;) and how old/how long have you had him/her? Can't wait till my bugga gets a bit of size on him...

Oy.. I dunno if I'd agree with that. They can get to be 20 inches long and a 30 gal, long or not, would probably only afford the bichir enough room to turn around at max size. Nevermind having someplace to sleep during the day, etc. I guess that's why you said "survive" though, huh?

I wonder if my bichir would take guppies, then? I'm not sure I want to "get him started" on live food just yet, though as he's currently sharing the tank with smaller fish. Not that I would be heartbroken if he ate some - I just wouldn't want to *encourage* it. I'm wondering how I can keep...

First of all - sexing livebearers like mollies, platties, etc is fairly easy. Take a peek at the fin on their belly - the one right before their tail fin on their underside. If the fish are females it will be fanned out and look like a triangle. If it's a male it will look "folded up" kind of...

www.petsmart.com You can use their store locator to find the one closest to you. The store where I am has both senegals (5.99) and ornates (54.99). Most places I've read suggest a 55 gallon for a bichir. Petsmart lists their max size as 12 inches, but they can easily double that as far as...

Yeowzers! I think beefhart, frozen shrimp and silversides would be too huge for the bichir right now - I wonder, though, if he'd go for some guppies? I half think my gourami would go after them, though. I'll have to hunt down those hikari pellets. I'm a fan of Omega One but the texture of...