Notes from a 60 tank fishroom.

[GaryE]

Questions:
- do you use all sponge filters or some other kind?

My filters range from 3 canisters and 6 HOBs for fish that need current, and mainly plastic box filters for ones that don't. I also have homemade filters, because I like making stuff, and a few commercial sponge filters. They are quite expensive here.

- how do you change water so fast? are all your tanks plumbed centrally? Do you have a pump that pulls water from any/all tanks?

I have a pool hose, a flexible plastic one running to a floor drain, and I use a variety of siphon hoses to drain into it. I just walk along, draining. If I ever settle on a configuration for the room I might do the same with pipes. I really like fiddling with the set up and making changes though, so plumbing is out. One key is that I am tall, and built my racks starting at 30 inches off the ground for the lowest level. It's great for old knees and for gravity with the water changes.

- where do you go to catch your fish? How many trips have you been on?

Most of my fish catches are in the tanks of a friend who imports. I've gone fishing in Florida, Mexico, Honduras and Gabon. Since I now live with very soft water, I only keep softwater fish so the first three places won't get visited again. I have a fascination with African fish. Your upcoming speaker, Rusty Wessel, is an expert on North/Central American Cichlids and livebearers. He should be a good talk. I'm a newb at real fish collecting. Last summer was my first single purpose fishing trip. I'm looking around for people interested in central Africa so I can do another before I get too old to handle the conditions.

- What's the most difficult fish you managed to breed?

All the ones that need very manipulated water conditions. Difficult changes with context. There are fish I melted snow to breed because my old tap was too hard, and that was work. Others need special diets, etc. I had an Apisto whose eggs would only develop in super soft water, and that spawned 17 times before I got fry to hatch so I could raise them. But I had hard tapwater back then. Give me the same fish where I am now, and I think it would be easy. It's the set ups that are hard, not the fish.

- what was the first fish you bred?

I don't remember if it was guppies, or marble mollies. I was 8 years old and my brand new livebearers dropped babies. I was entranced. Parts of my brain are still 8 years old.

- What fish did you have that you'd never have again and why?

Fish predators. Luciocephalis pulcher, a pike gourami. They were fascinating but feeding them was brutal, and their food (guppy feeders) killed them with the diseases they carried. I hated using feeders, I thought the predator was wonderful, but the project was doomed.

- many more, but I'll stop here

I have two hidden secret agendas. One is to get people into killies and other rare and challenging fish, and the other would be to get fish clubs running again, for all the reasons you gave. Fun matters. Plus I see the hobby becoming more and more a set of monopolies that are limiting what's available, and steering us into keeping a very small set of cheap (to the stores) species, glofish and hybrids. I see choices becoming smaller and smaller. What I see in stores now compared to 30 years ago is a bad joke, created by the chains eliminating the competition. If we breed fish, we can work around that, at least for the people whose motivation is curiosity.

 

[gwand]

How did you transport the fish you caught in Gabon? Maintaining water temperature and other parameters can’t be easy.

 

[GaryE]

Breather bags are an amazing, if expensive tech. We regularly changed the water in them in the evening in the hotel rooms, under the watchful eyes of the insects. We would bring jugs from the streams, which were chemically similar, untie the bags, and rewater them. Breather bags wick like tents in the rain. They can't touch each other directly.

So for the trip home, I had every fish, with how many of each listed on our legal permits from the Gabonese. We did not smuggle, and were working with a Gabonese Ichthyologist. I put each individual bag in a dirty sock, t-shirt or underwear (funny, no one inspected them) and put them in my luggage. I brought about 60 fish, and lost 2 or 3 delicate lampeyes that I had caught very early in the trip.

At Canadian customs, I presented my Gabonese documentation. They did a double check to see if any of the fish listed were on the CITES list of fish that can't be legally traded, and sent me on my way.

Each bag was marked, and I had tanks at home for a hundred fish if I'd brought them. Opening the suitcase and finding them as alive as my more experienced fishing partners said they would be was a delight. After we'd packed and closed the bags, our flight home was delayed a day, and rerouted through Cameroon, Ethiopia, to Turkey (both nice airports) to Toronto and Montreal - then I had a sleep and drove 10 hours home with them.

My fear was the luggage would be lost with that route, but no. The suitcase stank, but the results didn't!

 

[GaryE]

I had a request for shots of where the fishroom is. I guess it's pictures or it isn't true!

-Here's the view o

ut the side door, after our recent storm from the south melted all the snow. There's the yard, domain of the deer. Those are the fishroom windows, and the frame structure protects a red oak I planted. And finally, the view out the front window where I write this stuff. I didn't make it up! And yes, just one zombie apocalypse and the whole thing is ruined.

 

[Magnum Man]

I see dead people...

nice...

 

[GaryE]

I see dead people...

nice...

Yeah. It's generally quiet, but some of the old families around here still argue and squabble a century after they died. I just stay out of it when I'm walking the dog in the evening - I just tip my cap and walk through the phantoms. They keep asking me if they can come over and check out the internet, and some of them are dead set on the no water change necessary, balanced aquarium. They've even asked why I don't have wrought iron stands, and how I keep enough candles lit under the slate bottoms of the tanks, for heating. Ghosts are decent neighbours, but they sure don't keep up with the times.

 

[Aqua67]

I’m stuck on Gary mentioning the aquarium channel on TV. I got rid of my TV 25 years ago, but I’m not sure I want to miss out on the aquarium channel. LOL.

I like the sound of Gary’s separate fish building. It sounds like me with my separate parrot house. I do have that house hooked up to a generator though in case of power outages. Same thing for the aquariums in my home, they are also on a life support generator system.

My husband already knows I’d love an aquarium house one day. It will be on his “to do” list when he retires.

 

[Lcc86]

Wow what a stunning place to live! Very jealous!

 

[Fishmanic]

you could start up a youtube channel and maybe you'll be the next KING OF DIY and make tons of money.

 

[GaryE]

you could start up a youtube channel and maybe you'll be the next KING OF DIY and make tons of money.

The last King of DIY did enough damage, thanks. But if you want to send me piles of money for no discernable reason, I guess I'd accept it. My youngest cardinal needs a new tank.

 

[Back in the fold]

Pretty fancy digs .

 

[gwand]

I like to school with my own kind too: retired curmudgeons of any race, or ethnicity that love fish.

 

[simonas]

Fantastic thread I love your set up and where you live Gary

I've kept fish for 32 years now but only have the three tanks my largest amount is 9 but when I retire and get more time I would like a few more smaller tanks to keep smaller fish in and try some breeding projects

 

[GaryE]

Pretty fancy digs .

All you need is a sharp spade, a stone, and a box. But you have to make some grave decisions.

I have seven planted, cycled and fishless tanks running, and I'm hoping that some fish boxes currently flying somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean have 3 or 4 of the species I would like to add. Meanwhile, today, since my part time work retirement weekends start on Thursday (sorry working aged people), today I start trying to figure out why my Parananochromis brevirostris are poised to spawn, but never do. I may need even softer water than my soft tap. I'm wondering what filtration over sphaghnum moss will do. It lowers hardness if added to a tank, but it also decomposes in water. Maybe in a box filter?

I have an old RO filter I haven't used in over 20 years. I might look into the no name Chinese cartridges online, to see if they would fit it. I would guess the second hand unit is over 40 years old, but the last time I saw it, it looked solid. I haven't needed the device in my last two houses, but if all fish were easy to breed, we wouldn't do it, right?

 

[Fish Fanatic34]

All you need is a sharp spade, a stone, and a box. But you have to make some grave decisions.

I have seven planted, cycled and fishless tanks running, and I'm hoping that some fish boxes currently flying somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean have 3 or 4 of the species I would like to add. Meanwhile, today, since my part time work retirement weekends start on Thursday (sorry working aged people), today I start trying to figure out why my Parananochromis brevirostris are poised to spawn, but never do. I may need even softer water than my soft tap. I'm wondering what filtration over sphaghnum moss will do. It lowers hardness if added to a tank, but it also decomposes in water. Maybe in a box filter?

I have an old RO filter I haven't used in over 20 years. I might look into the no name Chinese cartridges online, to see if they would fit it. I would guess the second hand unit is over 40 years old, but the last time I saw it, it looked solid. I haven't needed the device in my last two houses, but if all fish were easy to breed, we wouldn't do it, right?

You may have already read it but this seems interesting http://cichlidnews.com/issues/2012oct/Xjudy.html