Aquariums

[TNHawke]

Ah! That kind of barb. They remind me of female Cherry barbs, but I believe I've seen that color morph in stores before. They are one of the mellower barbs. I also have two albino cories, as well as two peppered cories. The cory cats are one of my favorite fish. Danios are another of my favorite fish. I don't currently have any and that kinda makes me sad. But they don't really fit in with my current desires for tanks, I'd have to set up a third and I don't have the space for one, or the time to maintain it. Pleco! How big is yours? And how big a tank do you have?

Glowfish do not glow in the dark. They kind of flouress under a blacklight though. And while that looks cool, it's actually fairly stressful for the fish. They are cool, although not as hardy as regular zebra danios. That's another tank I'd like to set back up. I had black rocks, white plastic plants, a color changing bubbling ornament, and a small school of glow fish and some glass cats http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lq1s0 ... o1_400.jpg and http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/c ... ec8ae1.jpg And a couple of albino cories. It was seriously fun. I ended up selling the fish and taking the tank down when I moved two years ago. The tank itself didn't survive the move, so to set it up again I would have to buy a new 20 long or 29 gal tank. And since I don't have room to set it up, the money is better spent elsewhere.

Photos of Capone, the water dragon can be found here, in the Reptile Enthusiasts Guild. 32-guilds-quarter/66212-pet-reptile-ent ... #p16590368 (let that link load fully, the post with my pictures will be on top) If you click on the picture, it will go to the link of the full photo.

[Arionn]

ahhhh! he's is wonderful!

my tank is small it's about 60cmx50cms HxW and the front is rounded u.u that's it except i found this on on internet x3
i wanted to buy 180litre tank but i have no space for it my room is tiny...because of that when my fish grow too huge i give them away.cause no pet shops are allowed to buy them which is just...argh

the glowfish are wonderful, i always see them in shops, however my mum freaks out everytime as you can see their bones U_U

[TNHawke]

Hmmm... sounds like it's about 5 gallons (about 19 liters?) That's a lot of fish in a pretty small tank. What kind of filter are you running?
For algae eaters, I would switch to oticinclus algae eaters http://www.disky-design.dk/fish/images/otocinclus3.jpg when your pleco gets too big. They stay nice and small and do an amazing job against algae.

A lot of pet stores around here won't buy back (or even take back) fish. They say it's for the health of the fish- they don't want to introduce your germs to their tanks, but often the real reason is that they have an agreement with their distributor that says they will not accept any fish from anyone else. A local mom and pop chain used to buy baby rats and mice, but has since stopped because of the distributor issue. The really sad part is that the rodents coming from this distributor are sick and unfriendly, and the home grown ones are usually healthy and well socialized.

You can see glowfish bones?! wtf? You can't see their bones. They just have horizontal stripes. The glasscats that I linked to up above, yes, you can see their bones, they have a single horizontal spine and then vertical ribs, but you can't see their organs, because they're all tucked up in that little silvery package.

[Arionn]

sorry confused two fish haha

and yeah i'll have to give away the algae eater when he grows too big *again* had one that was 20cm long allready u.u
the little ones look good though i think i'll change my tank first, was planning to get at least 60litres *this one is currently 23litres i think)

and yeah i got some fish as gifts but they still have plenty of space to hide and swim about, the picture makes the tank look really tiny

unfortunatly so far i can't get my mum to allow me to buy bigger tank u.u so well..

[TNHawke]

I was judging by the measurements you gave, and I was quite close, guessing 5 gals, and yours is 6 gals. That bow front gave it a bit more room. It's not always the swimming space as much as how fast do the fish dirty up the water? Like, I can PACK my 50 gal when I run both the canister filter (rated for a 75 gal tank) and the piggyback filter (rated for up to 60 gal). Right now I'm only running the canister, but even then, the 200 guppies I had in there were fine (it helped that most of them were babies, of course)

[Arionn]

I was judging by the measurements you gave, and I was quite close, guessing 5 gals, and yours is 6 gals. That bow front gave it a bit more room. It's not always the swimming space as much as how fast do the fish dirty up the water? Like, I can PACK my 50 gal when I run both the canister filter (rated for a 75 gal tank) and the piggyback filter (rated for up to 60 gal). Right now I'm only running the canister, but even then, the 200 guppies I had in there were fine (it helped that most of them were babies, of course)

200 guppies hmm the filter is for a 60litre tank i think u.u but i might be wrong, it's just a NORMAL filter with a sponge inside, the tank...hmm i clean it once evrey 4months maybe? the filter every 2-3 weeks

i always wanted to have a pet newt or an axolotl but i would need a bigger tank for those cuties

[TNHawke]

Definitely do your research before acquiring either of those (and don't keep them together, the Axolotl will eat the newt) Different species of newts have different needs, and even at different life stages they have different needs. I've had some fire bellies who were almost entirely aquatic, and some who were almost entirely terrestrial, and often, getting them to eat ANYTHING was a pain the arse. But they are cute. I miss my salamanders though. I would have those again if I could.

[Arionn]

oh yes i know , my tank is too deep for them u,.u i don't think any of my local pet shops sell any of them anyway!

one day i will get them

[TNHawke]

I finally have my 50 stocked the way I want it. A handful of angelfish of various patterns, 3 tiger barbs, 3 green tiger barbs, 4 rosie barbs, a blue ram cichlid, 2 peppered catfish, 6 nerite snails (3 each striped and spotted) and my newest additions, 2 pictus cats (one of my all time favorite fish EVER), and a plakat type dragonscale male betta. (his shiney scales are silver and his base is a dark red, almost black, brown color, and his fins have some black spotting) Oh, and a lonely little rasbora het. He's the last survivor from when I first set up a tank after moving. He's all alone, and I kind of feel bad for him, but I don't really want to add more.

After those new fish grow some size to them, I might add some eels, like peacock and tiretrack and a dragonfish and bicher eels. I would definitely have to add the second filter to stock it that full though, and most of those eels prefer a slightly brachish tank, and I'm not real sure how the angels and barbs would feel about that. Maybe if I do add a third tank, I'll stock just mollies and the eels. They all enjoy brackish and the eels can nom molly fry (which sounds mean, but it works out nicely in the tank)

All the guppies are in a 10 gal, breeding happily. I picked up 5 dalmatian molly fry for free a week or so ago, so they are growing up with the guppies as well.

I really wish I had room to set up at least two more tanks. I'd love to get my glowfish tank replaced and stocked (see my post at the top of this page) and I'd really like another full of my favorite kinds of little tetras and danios. I did that with this 50 when I first got it. Had it running filtration for 125 gals and just chock full of cardinals, neons, black neons, glo-lites, rasbora hets, long finned zebra, leopard and blue danios and pearl danios.

If I had the room, money and time for even more, I would totally stock one with the pearl danios, and some African butterflies, giant danios, congo tetras, killifish and featherfins and maybe a gourami or two. I like them, but I just never have much luck with those.

Someday...

[TNHawke]

Sorry for the double post, but this is important- I need help!

I live in Idaho, we're among the states being hit by record highs. My A/C is barely cooling my apartment. I've had to turn off the lights and unplug the heaters in my fish tanks, unfortunately, the tanks are still up in the mid to high 80s. I'm losing guppies left and right. Fortunately none of the angels or barbs have died (yet).

I'm afraid to do anything really drastic like drop ice in the tank, or cool water changes (that will just give them quick fluctuations and that'll stress and kill them worse)

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to safely keep the tanks cooler?

Is there anything else I can do to help them make it through this? (more food, less food, etc)

Thanks for any help!