Aquariums.... (the ones in our homes)

Mark, the geophagus species I like are surinamenansis and the brachybranchus. My local fish shop has others but I can't remember the names. (googled to find the two I named.) i know there is one at the shop that has orange around its side and head. It's not bad. Not as nice as a big frontosa but

 

Boof have you ever had the Chocolate cichlids?, not much to look at when small but as they grow they are wonderful fish, I had a couple of large breeding pairs some years ago.

Any sign of Reptiles yet Boof?

 

Slowly dropping hints to my missus. I was watching "life in cold blood" last night and i mentioned that we have an enclosure that would suit a lizard.

 

no never had them. I have kept the littler South americans like apistogamma and rams but not the big guys. I have always wanted a massive tank with the big guys like black belts but i don't have the room

 

Yer I was watching that too, are the Hints working for you?

 

depends on her mood. Yes when we go to the zoo and she sees the beardies there, but no when i ask if i can get one at other times. i'll keep trying.

 

Good luck mate

 

I used to have a fairly big planted tropical tank though I had to part ways with it and its inhabitants when moving around (there was no way I'd have been able to keep them on my return to uni). I didn't have any bizarre or rare species in there and I always bought captive-bred fish... I;d love to get a tank again some day. Anyhoo, to the best of my recollection, I had:

Neon tetra
Zebra fish
A variety of cory's
A pleco
Clown loach
Dwarf gourami

One of the clowns was called Frank. When I got him he was small and weak and had been burned by the heater in the store's tank. That's why I got him - a sympathy buy. Turned out to have a wonderfully bizarre character and I was really sad to see him go.

 

I know this is going to sound really sad to some of you but i have one a 15 gallon long with 3 neon tetra and two oher fish that i think are called asian gourami or some that are about the size of a large toony.There is a large fake plant around one corner,red and black pebbles on the bottom,tons of rocks from the beach and other assorted places and plus when i bought the large plant i had to cut of the tops of each strand so the it would fit so now intead of a life at a landfill,i put them in the beach rocks an pebbles so now i have a bout 20 smallers plants plus i also made arock cave and there is a smaller pinkish fake plant.I know this is a far cry from some other peoples but i plan on gets more tetras,guppys and a samll kind of bottom feeder.

 

oh ya,i also forgot to say they have a uv light that works very well plus my current fish are now fairly old,the gourami's are 5 and the tetras are atleast 3.

 

I have a freashwater aqaurium, but i have always wanted to get into african cichlids, anything i need to know?

 

Zoogoer200 that sounds like a tank i had once with goldfish. The background was some cool graffiti i printed off the computer and instead of pebbles i had lego blocks with one plastic black plant. It looked cool but the goldfish got to big for it and i put them in the pond.

 

I had goldfish in there for many years but i phased them out so i could try something new.The gouramis are actually my original two and were the first small fish i ever had.Hard to think i've had them nearly 5 years,maybe more?

 

Sorry to bring up an old thread but my cousins used to have a tree frog (forgot species) with multiple tetra species. It worked quite fine for a few months but by the end of the year all of the fish were gone! Unfortunately, during a hibernation the frog never woke up

 

Tropical tank ceaning,

I have nearly always had a 4 or 5ft tropical fish tank in my house sine l was about 10. I bring this up to share that l have never used any filtration systems ever!

Approximately every 3-6 months l empty the tank and clean the gravel. Using a handful of gravel and rubbing against the glass works very well to clean the glass.

I bring this up as recently l was at the aquarium like pet shops l often go in for a wander. On this particular day a guy was being sold a $400 filter that the salesperson said was a good starter kit!

Another bonus of emptying the tank is that l then get to redesign the tank. Do fish appreciate enrichment?

 

No, it's probably quite unsettling for them.
I bet you can't breed them when you are changing everything around each 6 weeks or so. I breed loads of bristle-nose catfish which I sell to aquarium shops and the key to it seems to be to disturb them as little as possible.

I use home-made trickle filters made out of old soft drink bottles and they work well.

 

Ha ha ! I don't need to. Bristle-nose catfish are great little algae eaters. They clean the glass for me.

 

I use home-made trickle filters made out of old soft drink bottles and they work well.[/QUOTE]

Any photos of that Ara I paid $600 for mine

 

(Aw sorry MARK, I can't put photos on because I don't have a scanner.)

Basically, I just get the largest plastic soft-drink bottle I can, drink the contents (heh heh), cut the base off, turn it upside down, shove a bit of sponge rubber into the neck to hold in the filter media while letting water run through, half fill it with those "filter noodles" (sintered glass or whatever it is) and put some filter wool or floss on top of them. Suspend it over the tank with wire or chain and (this is the bit that costs a few bucks) buy a small pump such as is used in those little internal filters to pump water up into the top of the bottle. It trickles through the wool and the noodles, aerating as it goes. The only maintenance is replacing the wool when it gets a bit dirty and occasionally pulling out the pump and flushing it.