Aquatics as a hobby/pet fish
 

I’m not sure how many replies I’m going to get to this since I’m sure most people aren’t as obsessed with aquatics as I am, but I’m going to post it anyway.

About five months ago I got into the hobby of keeping salt water fish. Currently, I have a 30 gallon tank with 10lbs of live rock (since that’s all I could afford at the moment). I have these weird looking snails and a domino damselfish, Yellow tail blue damsel, and another kind of damsel that’s brownish pink in colour. I have also recently acquired a peppermint shrimp from a friend of mind, which I love to pieces. Once I get more live rock I plan on getting a coral beauty angel along with a few less aggressive damsels and inverts.

My freshwater tank is a 2.5 gallon tank that currently is housing a calico fantail goldfish, an Emerald cory catfish, and a black fancy guppy until I get a bigger tank up and running. I plan on eventually getting a 55 gallon tank and moving my saltwater fish over to that and letting my goldfish and guppy have the 30 gallon tank. I also have a white betta fish in a smaller half gallon container.

Discussion:
Is anyone else into the hobby or interested in keep any kind of aquatic life whether it be fresh, brackish, or saltwater? How many tanks do you have and what’s in them if so? If you don’t have a tank and you want one what would you want to put in it? Please do not copy the questions and answer that way!

I guess one of my questions would be, "Do you consider turtles to be aquatic, or no since they're both land and water?"

I am someday planning to get a few freshwater fish. I plan on keeping them in a small tank (as I would only have a few). I don't know the proper breed of the fish, the name I mean. They're like little black goldfish with big frog-like eyes.

I'm not personally into it, but my brother used to be, years ago. we had this HUGE tank.. (gosh at least 50 gallons..) i think he kept freshwater fish though? but he got into saltwater later on if i remember correctly~ he had all sorts of cute fish. i was little so i dont remember too many details, but it is a wonderful hobby =) He took such good care of them too! checking water levels, feeding, everything. my mom told me he had an Eel once, but it jumped out of the tank and didn't last long, cause it went into shock @[email protected];

i might get into it though, we shall see =) but i wish you much luck <3

Fish suicide has always made me curious. One of my good friends always used to keep fish. A couple always tried to jump the tank. Always. One actually did, and then the cat got it. u.u

I used to have a Marine tank with saltwater fish when I lived in Indonesia. It was really cheap to get the tank there and someone used to come out and clean it every week, so all I had to do was watch the pretty fishies and no hard work maintaining them.
We had a little ray I named Charles and some really weird looking fish that looked like they were part minature dolphin and part minute elephant o_0
Like this one http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...0/20206673.JPG
Sea urchins which were so funny to watch. We were told they were poisonous, but the guy who cleaned the tank would pick them up and let them walk over his hand. One really stunning Lion fish who didn't live very long and a bunch of assorted boring fish. The pretty ones didn't tend to live very long. We had this really ugly fish, that looked like swimming poop and that survived for ages >.<
I had one tank full of Neon Tetras, so pretty <3
Then three fresh water tanks. One for Gourami. One which had Plecos (my favourite fish ever) and a type of box fish and the last which was just full of guppies.

When I came back to England it was too expensive here to buy all the equiptment I'd need for a saltwater tank, so I just ended up with GoldFish .-. Oh, and we have Koi in the lake, but those aren't really pets, as they just look after themselves really.

I'd love to get a marine tank again. I wonder round Aquatic shops for hours, just staring at all the fishies. I really really really want a tank big enough for an Epaulette Shark. They were selling the sharks for £99.99 last year, and they're so amazing.
When I win the lottery, I'm going to spend millions on a massive aquarium just for Sharks and Rays <3

@ Chiairen Hoshino:
I consider anything that live in the water including frogs, newts, and turtles “aquatic” even though they’re semi-aquatic.
The type of goldfish I think you’re talking about are Black Moores. They’re very cute little things too. =)

@Nessie:
Yeah, that’s the main reason I don’t have an eel yet. They’re notorious for getting out of tanks through any little crack they can get out of. I would like to have a snowflake moray eel some day though.

@ YanYan:
Yes, the internet is good and where I got a lot of my information. I’m also dorky and read a ton of aquatic life books in my free time. I’m a manager at a pet store and specialize in fresh water aquatics and you’d be surprised how many people don’t know the basics about taking care of aquatic life. I have people that come in that say they never test their water or do water changes and stuff like that. For goldfish it’s 2 gallons per inch of adult fish. I always try to stick to 3 gallons since they’re very messy fish.

@Ebil:
Yeah, a tank of sharks and rays would be awesome. I want one of those tunnels that form an arch way over a room like they have in public aquariums in my room. That would be awesome, but it’s probably never going to happen. I also wanted to build a room where all the walls are one big tank. I’d probably need the room next to it for the sump and filtration system and all that, which would probably be a bad idea if I ever plan on selling. It would still be neat if I ever get money

I used to have fish...they all died. Oops.

Actually im quite curious now, have you found any excellent online resources/communities? Any you might want to recommend? :D

@ Nessie:
About.com had quite a few good pages. That’s the only one that I can really think of off the top of my head where people seemed to really know what they were talking about.

@Varicose:
I used to keep hamsters in tanks when I was younger. They work at long as they’;re kept clean. I’ll try to get some pictures later today since I have my lights out f or the night already. There’s not much to my tank right not though since I’m still building it up.

@ Flink:
Bettas are pretty easy to care for. Mine always lived over 6 years. I have one that was nearly 9. I don’t get why people think they’re lazy either. Mine were all very active. I think it’s because people think they’re okay in containers they can hardly move in. If you can try to have them as a part of a community tank since they seem to do better with community fish rather than alone. As long as it’s at least a 30 gallon tank and the fish in the tank all have short fins and the betta has a lot of hiding places they’re fine with other fish.

If it’s by itself I would have it in at least a half gallon container they do great. I’ve always just changed the water once a week with distilled water since tap water’s no good for aquatics since it can alter your water chemistry too much. I also use Kordon NovAqua Plus Water Conditioner, which has antiviral and antibacterial properties to it on top of being a water conditioner.

I would also recommend having a live plant in the bowl with it and the little light over it for the plant. They don’t eat the plant, but it helps with oxygenation of the water and helps improve the fish’s life that way. I’ve used Amazon sword plants before since they’re easy to uproot and they have nice broad leaves. The fish really seemed to like hiding in it. The live plant also doesn’t tear the fins up on the betta like plastic plants can. A mix of frozen bloodworms and bryan shrimp seems to work really well for the growth and colour of the betas too. As for a staple diet, I’ve always used Top Fin brand Colour enhancing pellets.

I keep tropical fish.
This is my unimpressive tank fishies
There's not much in there, 3 scissor tails and a grumpy penguin fish, they're all about 7 years old. 2 black neons, 2 glowlights and 2 normal neons, 1 female guppy, a spotted loach and maybe a peppered corydorus if he isn't dead.
Just seen him so he's still alive!
The guppy is the only one remaining from a load of babies that were born last year.
My tank would look much better if I took better care of it, I lost several of my older larger fish last year because I neglected it badly and didn't do a water change for months. I had a red tailed black shark, he was horrible, really territorial, and a lovely flying fox. I'd had them both for 4 years but they died last year and it was my fault :(
I had mixed feelings about the shark dying because he was so obnoxious, but i loved my flying fox and it upset me that I'd caused her to die.

I'm limited with buying fish though, I have no transport of my own so my only option is the local pet shop, and they often have a lot of dead fish in their tanks. 50% of the fish I buy from them die within a couple of days, or they infect my tank with whitespot :x

I shall clean the filter out today and do a spot of algae removal! Might even take the plants out and wash off the thread algae that growing on them.
I tried to grow real plants, but I don't think I have to right sort of lighting for them to flourish. they got all leggy and the leaves start to go yellow, so I gave up on that idea and went back to plastic.
I've never wanted beta fish myself, they look tatty to me, my ex always wanted one but I know that was just the male thing, and if we'd bought one he'd have spent all his time tormenting it with a mirror to get it to display :roll:

I want to get a tank of tropical fish someday. however, with the current size of my room, there's NO WAY I can fit fish in here. Hell, I don't know if I'm going to be able to fit this third vivarium for my chameleon in this room.

When I get my own place,t hough, I'm definitely getting myself some fish and stuff. My place is going to be a freaking mini-zoo. :D

I love my fishies. I have a 75 gallon salt water tank. Right now I have two yellow tailed damsels named Jill and Lil and and domino damsel named Gill…he’s my favorite. Then I have a humbug damsel named Ziggy because of his stripes. I have three big hermit crabs and three little hermit crabs named Jerry, Larry, Gary, Harry, Mary and Perry. I have five Astro snails named Spongebob, Sqidward, Mr.Crabs, Pearl, Patrick…I couldn’t have two Gary’s in my tank so that’s why I had to drag Pearls name into the bunch. Lastly I have three huge Mexican turbo snails named Tim, Kim, and Zim. The filter is ready for bigger and better fish so we are getting a clown trigger and a Picasso trigger and some tangs. We are also going to fill the tank up with more hermit crabs and I want a arrowhead crab. We might also get a couple clownfish if we can get the temperature of the tank down. We have to buy a chiller first which costs like four hundred dollars. I want to keep Gill though so hopefully the triggers wont eat him. I don’t think it will be a problem because Gill is big and we are going to get baby triggers so hopefully by the time the triggers grow they will be used to have Gill around. If not I have a hundred pounds of live rock he can hide in from the evil triggers. So wish me luck on keeping Gill alive.

I enjoy watching fishes o3o -blub blub blub-
So your saying one of your fishes look like this? They look adorable >3<

Ever since I've been a child, I've owned fishies. Beta fish were my favorite. But sadly they all died. In a month. D;

Yirsh thats Gill <3

@Amp:
Diehly has the same kind of fish, except hers is bigger and tears her rocks apart. XD I love my Domino to death.

I'm totally obsessed w/my fish tanks! I have a 5 gallon tank w/a blue mystery snail, a blue male betta, and 3 dwarf platties. I tried to have a dwarf african frog in there two but after two of them dying on me I gave up on that idea - just wasn't meant to be.

I also have a 40 gallon tank that has: 1 male silver sailfin/lyretail molly, 1 red male platy, 1 calico shubunkin goldfish, 1 red tail shark, about 20 baby mollies that I got for free at a petstore and a few baby variatus and platys as well.

Eventually we are going to set up a pond outside and put the goldfish in there w/a bunch of friends. But we are still adding to the 40 gallon as far as supplies and decor.

You call your tank unimpressive but it is awesome compared to mine! Although my fish are perfectly happy in it all I have are a couple of decorations, 1 bubbler and a handful of live plants. It does the job but not much to look at, yet. My decorations are a car bubbler that we have some gravel scooped out from underneath so our redtail shark can hide under and a decoration that looks like a couple of small barrels that is another hiding place. We plan on making it look like an underwater junk yard...but in a fun way. Going to get a sunken sub next or some navy ship since my hubby used to be in the navy.

If I had a big enough freshwater tank I’d want to keep red belly piranhas or tiger Oscars. I like the aggressive fish because they have more personality than community fish. At least that’s my opinion. I’d want at least a 55 gallon tank so I can have a few big fish in it. I’m going to be one of those crazy people with tanks all through my house.