Tropical fish

[Nanglebadger]

you had a multi chamber fighter tank?? i am curious about this, was it one you made yourself?? as they aren't available for purchase anywhere.

fighters are pretty hardy tbh - whitespot can be cured, they dont get black spot that i know of, popeye can be cured with water temperature and salt and extra water changes, swim bladder isn't contagious and there's not a thing you can do about it, fin curl doesn't kill them that i know of, which only leaves fin rot.

and fin rot is pretty obvious to see, and can although contagious, it can be treated, although i haven't succeeded yet.

so in theory, they shouldnt be that hard to keep.

part of me suspects its the quality of the stock, some fish are simply better quality than others.

Phil.

[Nanglebadger]

In the process of mixing in 10 corydora habrosus and 6 Pentazona barbs.

Phil.

[Pandamonium]

Very nice bro, pentazona barbs are lovely

[Steve GT]

sod it will get a pic of my tanks now will be iphone pics but hey

[Nanglebadger]

cheers bro.

had a chat with David about the algae in dad's tank, we have come away with 4 tiny ancistris and 2 large ammanos. david assures us that when the ancistrus are young they are prolific eaters of algae, so here's hoping that they and the ammanos can put a dent in it.

i was sooooooo tempted by about 4 new fighters, but had to stay strong. i am down to 3 fighters, 2 of which are in bad shape, the crown tail however is grand, but once they're all away i'm gonna break it down until i move into a house of my own, it needs somewhere where i can access it easier for cleaning. i'll also swap out the gravel and rebuild it with established ammanos first so as the fighters dont chase them from the cells.

Phil.

[Steve GT]

sorry for the quality i dont have the awesome 4s quality camera on my phone so we'l have to settle with an iphone 4 camera as my digital cameras dead and i cannt be arsed to find it lol

So first off my new tank

Its a Jewell 350 corner tank. This is my new planted tank. Layer of JBL substrate and a thick layer of gravel. Plants include anubias, cryptocoryne, lilaeopsis and vallisneria some buried some on bogwood etc.

Running 2 CO2 kits (2x160l's) and instead of normal water im running it on tropmix water so the CO2 goes to the plants not cancelled out by the chemicals in the water.

Current inhabitants are 1 clown loach (on snail eliminating duties) and my synodontis euptera as he's a hard bas***d so can start the cycling off well and not die like most frailure fish do in new tanks. This will eventually inhabit my syno's and ageneiousis so will be a peaceful planted catfish tank

Next my soon to be cichlid tank which currently has some synos in it a red tailed shark, humbug and oscar oh and a big bloody plec. when the catfish leave il be putting my baby oscar (trying to get him big first) in there with big oscar. The shark will stay in here and thinking of adding a gold severum and a jaguar cichlid too. But we'll see how much room there is first. again another 350l tank

Right tank 3. 150 litres and is currently a holding tank now I've got my newer big tanks in it. Inhabitants are a sorubim lima catfish, my lovely ageneiousis marmoratus, baby oscar and an elephant nose. Once all tanks are finished and ready to be emptied this will be shut down as I've got much newer and better tanks now

Next my new much bigger much better community tank. il write a inhabitant list later its really long now lol. its a jewell rio 260l which is part community part livebearer breeding tank.

Next this little tank

This cotains 4 pairs of pure yes PURE endlers. no guppy hybrids here these are all heavily pregnant as are the 2 pairs of blackchins im also breeding in there

and finially breeding corner

Home to 2 small birthing tanks. currently have a white molly heavily pregnant in there and the other tank has about 20 guppy babies about 7 days old and 2 endler babies about 3 days old.

also in the bigger tank is my breeding pair of gold ancistrus plecs

Heres Mrs

And Mr

Like sea world here

[Nanglebadger]

bloody hell steve thats some collection!!!!! awesome!!

also, two CO2 systems? in one tank?? nice one man, the soil on its own with some Easycarbo would have got u started, but not fannying about there!!!! nice one bud!

Phil.

[Nanglebadger]

That's IT! i gotta stay out of Exotic! i spent over £100 today...on plastic things!!!!

ridiculous lol! but, on the plus side, i shouldn't need to buy ANY more kit for my big tank ever again. Evar.

I broke down the fighter tank this week as it needs a rethink and a repositioning. So, I plumbed the pump into my big tank for added filtration, however for this i needed more kit.

So, today I picked up two up and over sections of Eheim tube, one grill, one pack of pipe/spray bar caps and 3m of Eheim green tubing to plumb it properly.

I also collected and paid for a Hydor 300W Inline heater, which is the primary reason my bill was so high, although Eheim parts are stupidly expensive for all they are! this will then allow me to remove the heater from the inside of the tank, meaning the only things intruding in the tank will be the two spray bars, and the two return bars/grills which i can live with. I just wanted that ugly ass heater out!!!!

so, need to talk to mark about fitment.

I also got 6 more Pentazona barbs and also got 10 marble hatchet fish, so I have refitted the glass covers. means more condensation and less light penetration, but hopefully less evaporation and that the hatchets can't jump. realy wanted about 14 more pentazonas and about 6 ottos, but i think i paid enough today!!!!

but, hopefully that means all hardware is now bought. and from now on its just stock and food. and bulbs obv.

we also got a Sunshine Plec for dad's tank, so there will be no small shrimp in there, and also 12 more wild green neons. tbh we wont even notice the additional 12 as they will vanish, I thought he was getting about 30!!!!!! dad also has his name on the next batch of purple gold headed harlequins that come in....hopefully a freaking TONNE of them or i'll shout at him! they will look MINT!

Phil.

[bucketep91]

So easy to throw your cash awy in a fish shop lol my lfs is directly across the road from the shop i fit for so its the first thing i see as i collect my wages haha.

I recently lost all my fish:( couldnt figure it out at first as all levels where normal. Then i spotted that my gf had a new plug in air freshner in the hallway! So im putting it down to that:(

Going on holiday 2morrow and when im home ive got a new 4ft tank to set up, using my current tank as a sump and starting over:d

[Nanglebadger]

awww charlie dude, that sucks man sorry to hear that! an air freshner???? be interesting to see what mark thinks about that.

G - the only people i see talking about full water changes are Yanks, tbh its not practical, especially in a planted tank with shrimp in the higher vegetation.

i do roughly 1/3rd change a week, and every 6 to 8 weeks i clean out the filter/pump, and maybe once every 6 months i clean the pipe work.

the short answer is that tropical fish are easier to look after than marines yes. i think charlie and mark would agree with that. IMO, to get a marine tank looking the absolute mutts nutts, u need to be on that shit constantly, checking levels, adjusting where necessary, choosing fish that wont spook too easily if u have a dog that likes to bark (like our Ted who has probably killed more fish than we have with his incessant yapping), siting it in a spot that wont get too much natural light, adding and cleaning skimmers and reactors, considering sumps, light requirements....the list goes on. having had marines in the house for a few years and seeing how much they broke even Mark's heart, i can safely say I will always stick with tropicals myself.

saying that, tropicals CAN be work heavy too, but they dont have to be. mine only is because I have a fully planted tank that requires trimming and cleaning etc. it is easily possible to keep a fairly low maintenance tank. my dad's requires piss all cleaning because there are 4 ancistrus in there acting as hoovers and glass cleaners.

they are properly addictive, and once u settle on a biotope/theme/look/area that you like, whether that be amazonian, african, planted, clear water, brown water, brackish water, shrimp, big fish, small fish, it gets alot of fun and really interesting creating your own little interpretation of nature in your tank.

if u decide to go for it, the advice is always, get as big a tank as u can afford. you'll be less likely i think to get bored of it too quickly as, if u keep smaller fish, u can keep adding and adding like i do.

talk to mark for proper advice tho dude, because i dont know even 1% of what he does.

Phil.

[Steve GT]

Todays buys

2 new Jags

[Nanglebadger]

very nice steve dude!!!!

G - 90L is by no means huge. bear in mind, my fighter tank that is 36" by 6" by 6" is 60 litres or less, and my big tank is around 200 litres. My 200 is pretty big, but by no means massive. hell, my dads is 400L.

if u get balls deep into the hobby i'd say u might get bored of a 90l. on the other hand, the running costs would be lower, the maintenance would be lower, and the investment would be lower. so, if u did go for it, then wanted bigger, u could easily sell it on and recoup some dolla dolla.

Phil.

[Nanglebadger]

nah man thats what this thread is for, fire away with all questions.

for a 90L you wouldn't be looking at huge fish. Mark would be able to advise better, but i'm not into big fish anyway. i prefer to see lots of small fish action, so in a 90L you'd get quite a few, but probably only a couple of larger fish. steve is into bigger fish, he's the boyo in the know with them.

i use PFK (practicalfishkeeping.co.uk). their blog is really good and they have a forum too.

Phil.

[bucketep91]

g i have a 90ltr tank at home, ill call uwhen im back from holiday ;)

[LukeSR]

Some awesome tanks in here lads!

Always wanted one but just haven't got the room!

[Pandamonium]

Those are nice fish Steve.

Yeah shout away bro and Ill sort it for you no biggy.

G, dont go cold water, ie gold fish, and shout if you want/need any info. Tropical is certainly best way to go. 90 ltr will let you see what its like but best bet would be to stick with small fish in there.

I'm already planning my next tank for when I have a place of my own and I know Im not gona be moving for some time, gona be schweeet

[Nanglebadger]

^^^i dunno what your planning but it better be cool!

i'll speak to u in a day or two about this heater dude!

Phil.

[Pandamonium]

It wont be for some time but it will be like nothing you have ever seen before man lol

No probs, should be easy peasy

[Steve GT]

its been pretty much war for last 24 hours but all seems car now

the jags are a pair (not sure if same sex ir different yet but very close to eachother been together since birth i think) so at the min its a full sized oscar whos very protective against his space against 2 new jaguars one of whom is very protective against the other and weve also finially put our slightly smaller oscar in there too thought it was best to get them all in together so they can get there own space now rather than getting him in later and the whole process starts all over again

Lets just say we have a very very mardy big oscar right now haha

[Pandamonium]

If sold as a pair mate should be 1 male and 1 female and looking at the pic thats what you have

Not surprised you have a bit of arguing going on in the tank but it will settle down, hopefully before one gets injured, but if there is still a bit I would keep the lights off for a bit and that should help

[Steve GT]

cant wait to see what you do with it dude

[Pandamonium]

Good size tank mate.

If your going down the marine route, buy the best skimmer you can afford and take your time, like snails pace mate

[Nanglebadger]

^^^^what he said!

marines are a prick! snails pace is the ONLY way!

tropicals FTW!

Phil.

[bucketep91]

my tanks been running with no skimmer for over 6 months now dosnt seem to be making any affect on my nitrates. the skimmer i ran when i set it up was tiny aswell. so basically its been ran for about a year skimmerless.Wouldnt say they are essential if your lightly stocked.

saying that ive just baught a deltec MCE badboy for the new tank im setting up lol

glad youve bitten the bullet and jumped into marines greame, i use www.ultimatereef.net a great forum over there and plenty of info, has a good scottish section too which is usefull for finding used equipment and cheap live rock. your gonna need about 14 - 16 kilo for that tank and buying it from LFS at £13 - £14 per kilo it gets expensive. ul pick it up over there for about a fiver per kilo.

go easy stocking it up mate thats how shit hits the fan, take your time and do a bit of reading and things will go smoothly. ohh and your gonna need to ban the mrs from buying plug in air freshners/scented candles etc, i lost all my fish because of a stupid air freshner

did you get the tank for a good price?

[bucketep91]

happy days mate! mind i have a van if you cant get it in the car.

Marines can be expensive mate, setting up especially buying your lighting,skimmer, powerheads,rock,sand, salt, test kits etc before you even think about a fish. In all honesty though its worth it.

i run LEDs over my tank, they are much much cheaper to run than t5's or halides and give a nice shimmer effect too.

test kits are expensive too, when i started out i just baught a few then added to them week by week. i can lend you some to test your water when you set up tho, got plenty of salt and stuff here too to get you started if you want it too.