this is the thread for those of us who have fallen in love with the unlovable. i;m completely in love with my fish. that "others" animal thread is all about rats and horses and stuff. no fishies or scorpions or snakes.

i have my first tank going. i did a fishless cycle. it took over a month to complete the cycle. as soon as the husband tells me how to upload pictures, i am going to show you pics of my tank. for now ill tell you

29 gallon long
sand substrate
whisper 40i filter
air pump
thermometer. trying to keep at about 76F
decorations and fake plants. want to get real things.

7 neon tetras
4 cardinal tetras (they all hang out together)
5 corycats (so cute!)
3 kuhli loaches. need about four more.
8 ghost shrimp
3 mickey mouse platys
1 flame sunset gourami

i want more kuhli loaches! they are frightened right now and hang out under the fake log i have in there. they need more buddies to feel safe. actually the only guys who are perfectly at home after two days are the platys and gourami. everyone else is still sorta shell shocked.

my parameters are fabulous

pH 6.2
ammonia - 0
nitrites - 0
nitrates - 15

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

remember the axolotl threads?

__________________
she's a haunted house and her windows are broken

I am not as much of a fish specialist as you are dirtyplotte but I love my weird tank.

I have:

1 Golden Dojo Loach (She's 7!)
1 Dojo Loach (He's 5)
1 Clown Loach
1 Sri Lanka something or other loach
2 Kuhli Loaches
1 Chinese Firebelly Newt
1 Fresh Water Flounder (super cute)
1 Horse Faced Loach

I don't know any of my tank specifics except it's a 5 gallon tank and they are all my buddies. I'll try and take pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

Your tank sounds fabulous!

pics please. i wanna see your fisheses.

haha! i want to see this one.

Not mine but it could be. Looks just like it.

This is a great shot too:

yeah i guess i can see how they'd want to call him a horse-face.

im not an expert, this is my very first tank. i just obsess and geek out over stuff. im scared at any moment that they are all going to die because of something ive done wrong. you've really kept a fish alive for seven years? *worship*

the horse faced loach is awesome.

is your loach chicken or does he come out to play? ive only had my loaches for two days and pretty much everyone in the tank is freaked out right now. this is their new home. i dont turn on the light because i dont want them to feel exposed and i have them a couple of hiding places.

im going to ask my husband how to upload right now and take pictures of my tank.

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

no but do you have one?

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

please share your secrets to keeping a heated tank clean.

i cannot for the life of me keep this thing clean. the water is clear, its just that green algae grows in the middle like a plant and coats the glass in places.

i bought a new tank because the old one got out of hand and now i have the same problem.

my fish are fine though. they're old as hell so maybe they just don't give a shit anymore.

glammy

from what i understand algae can bloom when there is excess lighting, or it's nutrient rich in the tank. things that are supposed to help

• keeping your tank away from natural lighting
  limiting artificial lighting
• when feeding let your fish feed for two to three minutes and then scoop out leftovers
• do weekly vacuum water changes, cleaning the substrate. 10% water changes should be fine
• monitor your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.
• get some low light plants because they will compete with the algae for the nutrients
• if you like inverts get a couple different snails (then you have to make sure that you get soem crushed coral or other calcium source for their shells and if you run out of algae feed them algae wafers. also the little trumpet snails will easily overpopulate. i want to get a couple apple snails)
• shrimp are excellent scavengers and will eat up poo as well as leftover fish fod, and i think they eat algae itself? but at the very least they help control the phosphorous levels by eating the poo and excess food
• get some corycats! they are hilarious and also scavenge a bit.

thats all i know really. i'm a member at aquariacentral adn obsessively read their forums. they have lots of people who are much more helpful than most store owners. i;m very grateful for that source of info.

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

also if all of that doesnt help, you can also get one of those magnet things that scrape off algae.

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

geek23ka, can you please get a catfish. with giant whiskers.

My poor snake's gone blind again. He's been shedding skin and his eyes are a little foggy looking. I'm worried I might over feed him. I don't think he's ill though. He goes wild if I pick him up or put my hand near him. Literally leaps back and forth and is hard to hold on to. I'd read that the more you feed them the bigger they get. I don't know though, he's been eating a lot of goldfish.

He sure isn't having any problems with his appetite. He just ate another half dozen goldfish.

they get too big. have you seen how big they get?
i do have two of these guys though

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

__________________
the cave mouth shines
by pure force of will
i look down on the world
from the top of this lonesome hill
and you can run, and run some more
from here all the way to singapore
but i will carry you home in my teeth
-mountain goats

but you could have one giant fish with whiskers, it'd be brilliant. when i was a kid i went to this woman's house and she had a dark dark dark backroom with a fishtank that went all aorund the perimetre of the room and it was full of whiskered fish. i feel all disturbed just remembering it.

is that real? or has it been photoshopped/ is that in AZIA??? those fish look lazy with those huge jaws