Ive Been Sucked In...

[Scott_S]

Some of you met me in the emergency page posted by Cdarmychi, but now I get to have my own tank, so its time for me to get my own account!

Ive done a huge amount of googling, and Ive decided that I want to do a freshwater tank with a centerpiece fish, then some smaller compatible species. I love the look of Sakura's planted tanks, so I need to find a centerpiece fish, that is good with plants. I dont want angelfish, she already has several of them, and no discus either. Im hoping to get something that is unusual, and I think it would be okay if it wasnt a completely beginner fish, since Sakura promised to help me if I carry all those buckets for her maintenance day LOL. For obvious reasons, Im a bit put of on any of the "dangerous" fish, so any advice would be very welcome. Since I can use Sakura's permits to ship fish over the border, I can get any species I want, so thats not a problem either.

And I cant decide on the size of tank I should take either. I suppose it depends on what species I get in the end. The only thing Sakura says I cant have is her 175. Thats what her pacus are eventually going into when they get a little bigger. But that leaves a 150, 75, and 55 that I can choose from. Ill have to build a stand for whichever tank I take, but that way I can make it however I want so Im happy.


And on a side note, aaronnorth, if you can give some advice, I think I killed all her plants....the moss and the hornwort all died...(i think) the moss fell apart, and all the little leaves fell off the hornwort. and not just in one tank. .all the hornwort everywhere just seems to have exploded. Is that normal? or did i kill it?

 

[Cdarmychi]

Baka, you could have asked me you know.....

Does this mean you have plans to sneak off with my eco-complete too?
Um centerpiece fish.....have you looked in the oddball section for ideas? Oh and ull be taking the 150 silly...bigger is always better

And its ok about the plants....those plants are the least of my worries....and how does that happen anyway? you mess up the easy plants, but havent killed all the delicate ones?? ROFL. Just scoop out whatever is mucking up the filters and leave the rest till later, if it turns brown, use some sissors and treat it like a houseplant....Trust me, itll be fine.
Oh and by moss, did you mean the big balls of moss, or the stuff lashed down to the wood? just curious

**btw, are you still in my house?? you know the seafood isnt for ppl, right? I sure hope you didnt eat it lol...thats for the marine tanks lol....**

 

[nosoup4you]

So you've caught the sickness? Welcome aboard! Have a look around at the Fish Species Index. There's loads of information there to help you decide what you would eventually like to keep.

 

[Scott_S]

Im thinking about Oscars....what do you think? A pair of oscars, and a pleco (thats that sucker fish right?)
I see it says no plants, but are there any plants that *might* work with them?

And maybe a jack dempsey? two oscars, a dempsey, and a pleco? would that work out well?

Just a thought....

 

[drobbyb]

Oscars like to rearrange their tank to their liking. Just about everything would be uprooted. I suppose of you surrounded the base with large rocks you might stand a chance.

 

[Cdarmychi]

Hm...as a welcome to the fishkeeping lifestyle, and to make sure he doesnt get off on the wrong foot, (I dont want to spend months of daily water changes if he makes a mistake...I hated that when I first started out lol), Im making a book of important instructions/advice/articles for him. As a newbie, what are some of the things you wish you knew about right away? Ive got water changes, a list of all the meds I could think of and their uses, CO2 systems, A how to on water tests, how to cycle properly, a break down of the media you can use in a filter, diff foods and how to feed them, how to on live foods, feeder fish dos and donts since he seems to want oscars, how NOT to gravel vac, any one else think of anything to add? all i can think of at this point is how much i want pickles.

 

[freerunner416]

Cdarmychi, sounds like scott has a walking "guide to fish keeping" with him so sounds like he is sorted.

I'm interested in the topic "how NOT to gravel vac". Tell us more please.

 

[Truck]

my inout for scott is, buy the biggest tank you can afford, and maybe look at doing some sort of biotope.

not really a biotope sounding thing, but a 55 gallon with a shoal of 50 neons looks thee "shiz", they put on an excellent display the biggest shoal ive done is 25. but remeber, you have sakura and us by your side.

good luck and welcome to the hobby

 

[Cdarmychi]

well to sum it up..how not to gravel vac is
1) if it took you less then 10 inutes, you did it wrong.
2) you cant gravel vac sand. you will then have no more sand.
3) you cant stir gravel. it puts everything in the water colun, and then doesnt get vacced.

basically simple stuff i didnt think i needed to explain till i saw them trying to gravel vac in a petsmart.......
lol...it goes on in detail, but its 4 am im tired and cant sleep, so thats all you get for now lol..consider it a teaser lol

truckasauras123, hes gonna take my 150 as a thank you for helping, so itll get hi started lol...and when I get too fat to do anything hes gonna get to play in my tanks too lol and a biotope is a great idea for him...none of my tanks are done like that, but I can throw together a little one when i get home to show him...unless you have piccys that you want to share??

oh, and scott, if you want to know more about oscars, try going to the cichlid section there are ppl there who would love to tell you about them
Personally, I have no idea, but ill do some reasearch if thats what you want to do....maybe you can do fake plants, and use the rock idea that was suggested. But i think you should do most of the reasearch yourself, that way you learn it better

 

[Truck]

ill show you my tank im just uploading the photos to photobucket .

its a 60 litre tank with mainly low level plants, most of it vallis.
current stock.
13 neons/Paracheirodon innesi. (the shop had a deal buy 2 get one free i asked for 8 so i was meant to get 12 and got 13 )
2 butterfly rams/Mikrogeophagus ramirezi
and soon to add a shoal of 6 sterbai corys/C.sterbai

theres also 2 guppies, and a swordtail.

i shall edit the post and put pics on

one of my wee rams had a chunk taken out his tail in a fishy fight , but ive dosed melafix so he doesnt get a bacterial infection

 

[Cdarmychi]

Oooooo thats looking good

Scott called me before he went to work and I swear I hear splashing and cursing in the background lol....closely followed by a thud. So Im not sure whats he's doing today, as he's SUPPOSED to be at work..... As long as he doesnt mess with the the fire hydrant he *should* be ok....but then again, he also described what can only be ick, and my mollies are "looking like theyre tied up and worming around".....so I dont have my hopes up....I think my lionfish has starved by know....cause he wont go near that tank...he wont even go in the ROOM....

But YAY!! i have my discharge papers in my hand....so Im LEAVING!!!!! woo hoo!!!

now...to find my shoes....lol

 

[Truck]

thanks, oh what brilliant news you can see all the hard work that scott has put in.

lol finding the shoes the hardest bit, when i had an operation i spent 2 hours looking for them

 

[Jallen]

2 Oscars and a pleco would be an awesome combo, it's pretty much the tank of my dreams (though I would go for a sailfin pleco, plus I would get tiger oscars because they look coolest) But seriously, forget about ornaments with oscars, they will move all your gravel into a pile, grab any plants, fake or real and uproot them, pretty much anything that doesn't weigh alot will be moved.

 

[petertr]

2 Oscars and a pleco would be an awesome combo, it's pretty much the tank of my dreams (though I would go for a sailfin pleco, plus I would get tiger oscars because they look coolest) But seriously, forget about ornaments with oscars, they will move all your gravel into a pile, grab any plants, fake or real and uproot them, pretty much anything that doesn't weigh alot will be moved.

That was my old setup. To be honest, I got sick of having a tank that looked like ####. The Oscars wreck every idea you have. Quite funny at first, but not if you like your tank to be an ornament in your front room.