1000 Us Gal Project

[T1KARMANN]

I've just spent the last 2 hours reading the whole of this thread and it is absolutely AMAZING. I'm sat here looking at my 3 tanks which amount to around 34 gallons in total and finding it hard to comprehend the size (and the work involved) to make your tank dream come true. I'm sure my daughter would be more appreciative if my own planned upgrade was along the same lines....

That said, I am completely inspired, although a few grand short on funding.......No matter. I'll pray for a win on the Euro Millions or send him out to play for Man City instead of just watching them - I too would have done a better job with Stephen Ireland's £100k, even before reading this!!!

I have questions though...... and the first is very naive (but in my love of teeny tetra's I have to ask) but how do you move fish as large as yours? And how do you catch them?
The next is how long did you have your last tank set up for? Do you think your current tank will be your last upgrade or do you have secret, back of the mind plans to do it again?

my black p14 rays and my aro are my passion and this tank will house them for life easy so no need to upgrade again

as for moving the fish it was fairly easy with the aro the hardest

with the larger rays and other fish i just used a large koi net hooked them out and run down the stairs to the new tank then just dumped them in

aros are a bit more tricky to move as you cant use any kind of net with the risk of braking a front fin or barbel

if you do brake a front fin or barbel on a large aro the chances are high of them never growing back right

i will try to explain the way to move large aros

step 1 tools you need are thick koi bags the bigest and strongest you can find and a metal coat hanger

step 2 make the coat hanger into a larger loop

step 3 wrap the koi bag opening around the coat hook so it looks like a big koi bag net

step 4 take the koi bag net and put it in the water with the tank lights on and let the aro swim throw the coat hook loop into the koi bag the aro will swim throw the loop carm and will only start to panic when he gets to the end of the koi bag and needs to turn around

step 4 as soon as the aro swims throw the loop bring it to the front tank glass traping it in the koi bag then turn off the tank lights and let the aro carm down in the bag

step 5 put a hose in the bag and drain some water out or it will be to heavy to lift out of the tank and the koi bag will split

step 6 lift the bag out of the tank and place it in a poly box and add more water if needed tie the bag and you are ready to go

you need the coat hook to stop the bag flapping about in the water

i have used this method with over 15 large aro and it works great

 

[kniesh]

Just picked up 4 of those Comet Tinfoils T1, £3.50 each. No good for you though, they were only around 4". Gonna get rid of the Balas now I think and just have the 8 Tinfoils. Picked up a baby Black Aro too, he's eatin already but really young so am just hopefull more than anything.

get the black aro on to small meal worns it will grow fast with 2 feeds per day of about 8-10 worms then when it gets to 12inch cut back to 1 feed per day

black aros are a bit skitish compaired to other aros

Thanks a lot m8. I have had a disaster though with the Black Aro. To the naked eye it looked just big enough to survive the Lima Shovelnose's bite. Doesn't like this was the case and my £30 baby hasn't been seen for nearly 2 days now, an as it is a top dweller I'm presuming its been eaten. I am so disappointed with myself as I have a different tank I could have grew it out in. Literally so mad!! I was thinking about a silver as its a bit cheaper an a bit larger. GUTTED!!!!

 

[T1KARMANN]

the £30 you paid is dirt cheap for a black aro even if you got another for £30 then £60 would be a fair price for 1

i had a black aro in a 6x2x2 for 7 years with no problems yes it could have done with a bigger tank

silvers are ok but have down side

1. they get massive
2. they get drop eye when 1 or both eyes start to look down which looks very ugly
3. large silvers are near impossible to sell

this is my old black aro in the 6x2x2 sorry for the bad pic as it was scanned before the digi cam age

 

[kniesh]

You've convinced me. Am off to see Barcelona play tomorrow but I will pop down when I'm back to hopefully get one. I remember reading somewhere you shouldn't buy one with the egg sack still attached. Is this true? Half of these ones did you see.

 

[T1KARMANN]

dont buy 1 with a yolk sack

 

[chrisbassist]

how long have you kept rays? and what is it that draws you to them?

also, did you have many mishaps in the early days of keeping them?

 

[kniesh]

dont buy 1 with a yolk sack

Cheers m8, I thought as much. Thats why I asked them to feed them an I picked out what looked like the strongest feeder. If the others are around the same age but without a yolk sack you think there would still be problems?

 

[T1KARMANN]

well i have found 2 african aros 1 13inch and the other is 18inch they are both mine in a month or 2 as a freind of mine will be selling them

the bad news is im going into hospital on monday for 2-4 weeks

the other good news is i have found a real nice pearl ray that should be coming over from germany next weekend

real nice

 

[dave_oddballs]

ah finally got your hands on the african arowana then! are they ok to keep in pairs?
hope they get along with your asian arowana, will look good if they do! you still going along with the aro community with a silver and a black too or just sticking with the asian and african?
the rays a little stunner, i think pearl is the way i'd go, given the space!
i know you've got the pearl to breed with the marble motoro but what if he bred with something else, like a female p14? would you be bothered or be ok with anything? just asking as i doubt you can pick and choose what your rays get up to at bed time can you! haha

 

[T1KARMANN]

the 2 african aros have been in the same tank for ages but i will probably only keep or take one

 

[dave_oddballs]

you will have to let me know what sort of price they are!

 

[steelhealr]

Good luck in the hospital T1. Stay strong and keep your hands off the nurses. SH

 

[chrisbassist]

Good luck in the hospital T1. Stay strong and keep your hands off the nurses. SH

Or don't

 

[steelhealr]

Indeed....SH

 

[T1KARMANN]

how long have you kept rays? and what is it that draws you to them?

also, did you have many mishaps in the early days of keeping them?

i have been keeping rays for over 15 years
i started off with 3 retics in a 6ft long x 18inch wide x 15inch deep this was before the internet so i jumped in at the deep end

if i look back on it now i broke all the rules never ever done any water changes and only fed the rays ham strane thing is the rays done fine in that tank for about 1 year then i moved and got a 6x2x2 tank and got a male motoro and a male leopoldi and than when the problems started i 1st got bot rays burnt by heaters then the male motoro chew both the male leopoldis eyes out

in the 15 years + i have only lost about 4 rays to bad water conditions and lack of good food

ray keeping has move on a lot with the internet with lots of good info on tap

Good luck in the hospital T1. Stay strong and keep your hands off the nurses. SH

Or don't

as for the nurdes i have been with my lady for 17 years but i do do a lot of flurting

anyway i came out yesterday just for a over night stay and im off back in now

i changed the polyfilter in the tank last night and something bred in the tank im not sure what but all the signs were their cloudy water or a female is doing into birth

i will let you know in a few days if pups have been born

the pearl ray is now in the UK but i have had no time to pick it up and its as a freind house with the female

im hoping to come back out again next weekend then back in sunday again

catch you all later