tanks, tanks and more tanks!

[BettaBoyz]

it started with one, yes one, ten gallon tank and two bags of white-grey gravel. then there was a hood, and established filter. then there was water, maybe 9 or so gallons of it. the water cleared.

finally there were plants, nameless grass and broad-leafs. and loaches. four. kuhliis. and a betta, a blue cambodian. named donahue.

then there was an intruder, a female cambodian betta. she was dealt with accordingly. then, then there were the tetras. silver-tippeds and neons and black neons. then shells. three, assorted sized, lake-shells. and lastly a clay pot.

then a silver-tipped died, and a black neon. and then there were only two of those kinds left. and then the big one bought another betta. he froze in a jar, poisoned by his own gravel. invaded the home-tank in a small container, could not be dealt with. moved again, into his own tank. a one gallon, with the same gravel. and a silk plant. and the pot. and a filter.

he died, poisoned by the rocks. the rocks and filter cartridge were chucked, the fish was put to rest. the pot was destroyed.

and then there was another. more gravel, clean and black. a new cartridge, three small nameless grass-leaf plants.

and then amber wanted another one gallon, so set like the first

and she made this ridiculous post to tell everyone this, just so she could bash herself on the head for being stupid.

=) and you thought you were weird.

 

[smb]

Nope it never stops!

Between 2 friends and I, we had 344 tanks. Of course being 3 people at different places, they weren't interconnected. Of course I was the one that had to clean them but I loved it to be honest.

The only problem is that for 27 years, except for just a couple tanks out of that, all I had were piranhas and cichlids. I wish I would have dedicated a couple more tanks for community fish.

It's just hard tho because I love aggression and the "puppiness" of cichlids that you can't get with any other fish species.

 

[juanveldez]

I knew there was a reason that I liked you SMB!!!! I used to have pirhanas too!!!!but sadly Doc and Duke passed last november. so after a while I scrubbed out the tank added some rocks and some Mbuna. 4 labidochromis cearlus and 1 N.Livingstonii but sadly I didn't for see me getting the 75 gallon that I have and traded the stonii to my lfs for a CAE which I am going to go out on a limb and say that I got the best end of that stick.

 

[smb]

I knew there was a reason that I liked you SMB!!!! I used to have pirhanas too!!!!but sadly Doc and Duke passed last november.

LOL, yea I've had p's for 17s. Just haven't had them lately. I had a few a while ago but when I put my flowerhorn in the piranha tank to set up another one, the flowerhorn killed the piranha. I was so po'ed it isn't funny. Now I love it tho. My fh jumps out of thetank to get at people when they walk by. He slams into the glass to go after my dog but when I walk up there he rolls over and just lets me feed him or do whatever. It's why I love cichlids. They just know who feeds them and hates all others. No other fish can compare.

What did you have? natt's, sera's?

 

[juanveldez]

Doc and Duke were Seras I hope that one day that I will have another tank to put in some new ones( maybe some black ones!!!!)

 

[Inchworm]

Looks like you.ve been bitten by the fish bug, BettaBoyz! It will probably get worse, too, before you know it!

I've had fish on and off most of my life. Now I have 55 gal. which is overcrowded with goldfish and I'll have to get another big one to divide them up at some point. In the meantime, I'm running myself ragged cleaning up goldfish poop! I love them, though, and won't think of getting rid of them. (My cat is easier to take care of than these goldfish!!!!)

Then there is the 20 gal. community tank, my most stable and least troublesome of all. Everyone seems to thrive in there.

And 5 ten gallon tanks with assorted cory cats, guppies, baby corys and baby gouramis. Oh, and a gallon jar with Dwarf African Frogs.

To top this all off, the manager of my lfs is trying to find a pair of Platinum Gouramis for me so I guess I will be setting up another 10 gal. to get it ready for them.

I'll bet most everyone who has been in the hobby for long has a similar story to tell (or an awful lot of self discipline.)

Good luck to you, BettaBoyz. You're surely not alone!

 

[smb]

Doc and Duke were Seras I hope that one day that I will have another tank to put in some new ones( maybe some black ones!!!!)

Soon my friend. Very soon. I couldn't agree with you more and I'm after the same as you.

 

[AquaNut]

I'm afraid it never stops, Bettaboyz. Once you accept that you're an aquarist, you start picking up little tanks at garage sales and off the bulletin board in the lfs for 'emergency' use. Next thing you know, you've got tanks set up all over your house and are in a bind when you need an outlet to plug in the vacuum. Just yesterday, I siliconed a leaky 8 gallon tank that's been in my basement for just such an emergency because I have an ornery CAE who needs a bachelor pad. Fish grow; they breed; they become cantankerous with their tankmates. There are so many reasons to keep setting up new tanks!

 

[Lithril]

Ok try telling that to my other half, had fish years ago. Had another tank set up about 2 months now and I'm already getting another very soon, the GF is going ape - she's can't see wear I'm going to put it.... mind you neither can I but thats not the point. Still want my old 6' tank though... don't think I can swing that one just yet, may have to settle for a few smaller tanks

 

[Alien Anna]

I was given a moderately sized tank and fish by a friend. But then I needed a hospital tank, of course. Then I decided on setting up a 30 gal with dwarf cichlids but when I went to the place in the paper, they had a couple of smaller tanks for sale at knock-down price. So I came away with three tanks. Well, the 30 gal turned out to be in poor shape so I bought another 30 gal tank off a guy (who occasionally drops in on this group, I believe). Nice tank - never had a moment's trouble with it.

One small tank became a betta tank because it was only small. But it wasn't that small, so it ended up with a school of black neons and a couple of cherry barbs. The 5 gal is my hospital tank. Meanwhile, the 30 gal tank ended up as a snail nursery (I bred golden apple snails as an experiment). I couldn't afford any dwarf cichlids at that time.

Then I decided that the golden apple snails weren't the most attractive centerpiece to a room and took them down the LFS, where I part exchanged them for some guppies and mollies (I thought I'd stick with cheap, brightly coloured fish as a temporary thing). Livebearers turned out a little more tricky than I thought, which was good because I was looking for a challenge. I decided I didn't need dwarf cichlids to make life interesting - for the moment.

So now I have 5 tanks, including a 5 gal and a 20 gal hospital tank. No one needs two hospital tanks, surely? So I can see the 20 gal sneaking into the house and getting dwarf cichlids or puffers or bubblebee gobies or something. But I'm running out of places to put tanks - too many radiators in this house! I have thought that given that one tank is a corner tank, if I had a tank to replace it, that stretched from that corner to the wall unit, I could fit in a 5'x2'x2' tank. Plus, if I had one of those metal stands, I could put a couple of smaller tanks above it. I wonder if the house is strong enough to take the weight...

Anyway, now I'm drifting off into dream land, but you see what a bad case of "Onemoretankaphilia" can look like.

 

[cichlidmaster]

Long story short...................

Many moons ago, started with one 30 gallon..............two months later had 13 tanks.

Took a break for a few years and now......................110 tanks!!!

Nuff said!!

CM

 

[Lithril]

Ok people at work are now wondering what I'm swearing at.... 110 tanks, don't think I'll let my other half read that, she'll probably have a rope around my nethers incase I start heading towards the lfs

 

[Moe]

When I first started this, not too long ago I thought the people in this forum were insane. I said to myself, anyone who: has more then one tank - does live plants - uses co2 - cleans tank every week - has air pump - keeps redecorating their tank -used RO water - has done a fishless cycle and all the rest is just crazy. Well now I keep raising the bar on crazy. So now I'm drawing the line at Fish Rooms, but you never know. Actually my basement is pretty bare. Please someone stop me. Maybe we could add a forum entitled I'm a fishaholic and I need help. Hi my name is Moe . . .

 

[Lithril]

Tell me about, although I am considering building my own filter next, just wondering whether work have any smallish pumps that they don't need....
Will probably end up buying one and waiting till I've either got a big tank or enough small ones to warrant running off of the same filter.

CO2 is that for plant growth then as I thought the idea was to have high O2 levels for the fish and bacteria???

 

[Alien Anna]

CO2 is that for plant growth then as I thought the idea was to have high O2 levels for the fish and bacteria???

You obviously have to keep a sensible balance - you don't want lush plants and suffocating fish, but I'm new to CO2 and I must admit, it makes such a huge difference, you just wouldn't believe it.

My CO2 generator has been producing CO2 for about 10 days now. The effect on my plants is just incredible - they're turning into triffids already. My fish are unaffected, except a cardinal that swam into the diffuser and scratched some scales off (its healing up nicely and I've blocked off the hole).