Vinny's Fish House Up N Running (Finally)

kniesh

Fish Herder
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
1,248
Reaction score
29
Location
GB
Hi all, for a few years now I have been going on about how I will be setting up a big tank in a fish house 'as soon as we move'. Well turns out that with one thing an another, that move ended up taking just over 3 years. 18 months of that nearly was looking for the right place. As in a few of my other posts, you'll see, I was promised a double garage in the new house for this project. Well, we finally found it and moved in a couple of months ago. Now although I dont actually have the new big tank up just yet, I do now know the specifics of it. I sent off for a quote on a 12 x 4 x 2 foot tank from ND a few weeks ago and wasn't too disheartened by the price. So it seems this will beup in a few months now, which is good as my Clown Knife alone has quickly outgrown the 200 Gallon as you will see in the video below. He currently stands at around 20-22" I'd say, which isn't bad considering less than 2 years ago I bought him at around 2-3"
 
Below is a video of what I have done so far, unfortunately I've been let down ( by my dad) for it being fully insulated so I have had to run all heaters quite high so far, I'm assured he can get up in next few weeks to do it though. The carpet on the floor is what was in the house when we moved in, as we were obviously replacing it all I decided that a good short term plan until its all insulated would be to have the old Carpet an underlay down, just to combat a bit of the cold weather.
 
Currently I have 5 Tanks with fish in them in there;
 
200 Gallon Oddball; 1x Clown Knife, 2 x Ornate Bichir, 1 x Endi Bichir, 1 x Delhezi Bichir, 1 x Datnoide Microlepis, 1 x Tucan, 1 x Sailfin Plec, 1 x Florida Gar, 1 x Gold Saum ........Just ordered a Thin Bar Dat and a Four barred Dat
 
100 Gallon; 10 x Tiger Barbs, 6 x Tiger Moss Barbs, 6 x Gold Tiger Barbs, 6 x Checkers Barbs, 1 x Bristlenose, 1 x SAE.
To this tank I have just ordered; 1 Royal Twig Catfish, 2 x Twig Catfish, 1 x Crying Whiptail, and 1 Banjo Catfish........I will then be adding between 6-8 Peters Elephant Noses in the near future and 6 Albino Tiger Barbs....... I'm still playing with the idea of adding a group of Hatchet fish too
 
55 Gallon Long; 1 x Hoplo Cat, 1 x Black banded leporinus, 1 x Bristlenose Plec........ I have no real plans for this tank just yet, maybe used as a growout for the Dats, but recently lost nearly every fish in it down to some dodgey Clown Loaches. Wiped everything out in 2 days, including my 8 Geophagus which had just shown signs of being ready to breed, besides the above 2, really bizare. It is currently being treated with Melafix and is somewhat spare at the minute.
 
55 Gallon Cubed; 1 Gold Saum, 2 x Bristlenose Plecs. I never intended to keep the Gold Saum in here, he will likely go to the 12 foot once it's built, but can't go in the 200 Gall as the 2 male Gold Saums will just kill each other. This will also then be a feww tank really
 
40 Gallon Long; Bristlenose Pair, Loads of BN Babies. This will likely stay as it is, I may add a few Cory species or something but nothing to interfer with the BN breeding
 
15 Gallon; Not fully set up, but is intended to be a quarantine tank, just a bit late after what happened last week.
 
Tour of the Garage/Fishhouse
https://youtu.be/pXD-9P2R798
 
 
The new 12foot tank will be housing everything from the 200 Gallon, p[lus I will hopefully be adding a lot more Bichirs, and datnoides, maybe a couple of Peacock Bass and then a few Catfish that dont get about 2ft, maybe even just a group of 8 or so Lima Shovelnose actually, but all this is still to be decided. The only certain things are Datnoides and Bichirs, I dont really like the idea of Arowanas an monster catfish so all them are a no at the minute, also not keen on Rays.
 
I plan to keep this updated, as much for me as anyone else really, not sure how interested people will be. But any suggestions/comments are all welcome. I will likely give a post with a run down on filtration/lighting etc for the tanks soon too. But until then thanks for reading this very long post and hope you enjoy some of the updates I keep posting (I will upload a vid of my Knife Fish not long after I bought him in a sec, you can see the difference in a couple of years with him and the Dat, it's immense difference), and also give plenty of suggestions.
 
Vinny

This is a Video of the Dat and Clown Knife a few months after I bought them, look at the size comparison, it's insane, The Bichirs are still the same ones too, not too much difference there you don't notice
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLIn47kcwrM
 
Nice.suddenly I don't see my garage in the same light
 
Looking ace mate. I miss that tank so much ha ha.
Clown knives are my favourite fish I had one in there so I'm quite jealous. 
If you get the big tank and want a catfish I would highly recommend a Giraffe cat I had a large one in there and it was amazing
 
Yeah I always said I was gonna get a Giraffe, since I seen one in Blue Planet. Absolutely love them, similar personality to a Hoplo for me an I love them. I've just been informed by Keith at Wildwoods that 3 of the 4 Whiptail/Banjo's I ordered are out of stock so I either have about £70 credit with him, an a Giraffe was in my thoughts as he has one, or a Peacock Bass. I have a feeling I will be buying them just for the sake of it though, an not sure where I'd actually put them to grow out for now. Still need to get a good few Tiger barbs to complete that Shoal.
 
2 of your old Bichirs still in that tank there too Simon, doing well, The Delhezi prob maxed out now around 13-14" and the Ornate around the same but I am expecting a growth spurt any time soon as the big Ornate was the same size as it when I put yours in, but its about 6" at least bigger now. I've had that big Ornate 7 years now an he was about 7-8" when I got him. That Clown Knife of yours was the first time I seen one live in a tank, probably why I ended up buying this one
 
Infact. that Ornate in my Avatar was the one I got from you
 
I remember him being a greedy bugger. Made up to know you still have them.
Now I have a smaller tank I cannot entertain anything like that and I'd love to keep bigger fish again especially after seeing your tank on here
 
What you got now? As much as I love my big tank, an my Oddballs, the new 100 Gallon for the Elephant Nose and Tiger barbs is probably the best tank i've ever set up. I've actually thought about what I'm gonna do it with it in terms of scape etc... Every tank ive done for the last 5 years or so Ive just done as a holding tank for when I got this place up n running.
 
Already having a few issues with condensation an cold so need to hurry up an get this insulation an extractor fans sorted. Really heavy water on the windows and doors every morning its cold now
 
just got the one tank an aquareef 300 with sump and my marine lights but with 24 cardinals, rummys , corys , plecs and angels which will soon be sold and replaced with discus :) I do hanker after knifefish, gars etc though
 
Haha I was about to say, that must be driving you nuts :) Come see mine next time you're in Newcastle Magistrates, it'll soon have you back with one. What size is an Aquareef 300? Isn't that 4x2x2? Surely big enough for a few Oddballs :) Could at least have a couple of Senegals/Ropefish get yourself back into the swing lol.
 
I never thought I'd be a fan of Gars tbh, although I like Oddballs, an reasonably large ones, I'm not the biggest fan of complete Tankbusters but my Florida Gar is class, never been any bother to any other fish, even the Tucan which is smaller an patrols the same space.
 
no its 40 x 2 x 2 I think. I've got 22 cardinals and 10 rummy nose so theyre a no go I;m afraid. Getting discus in new year and i suppose I'm feeding my oddball desires with plecs. Went to Pier and got some plecs a couple of weeks ago
 
I was planning a few nice Plecs from Pier for this Tiger Barb/Elephant Nose tank. Think I have changed my mind now to getting a lot of different types of Whiptail/Banjo. I did order 4 from Wildwoods but they told me 3 of them are out of stock unfortunately. So on Friday I currently have a Datnoide Four Bar, Datnoide Thin Bar, Crying Whiptail, Peacock Bass Ocellarus and 8 Black Ruby Barbs
 
2 Datnoides and the Peacock Bass going in the 55 Gallon with the Headstander an Hoplo. Hoplo will be moved soon to the 100 Gallon Elephant tank.
 
Black Ruby Barbs and Whiptail going in the 100 Tiger Barb Tank.
 
In the 100 then I will have;
 
9 x Tiger Barbs
6 x Green Moss Tiger Barbs
6 x Golden Tiger Babrbs
8 x Black Ruby barbs
6 x Checkered Barbs
 
Just needs the 6 Albino Tigers now then that shoal is complete, and hopefully will look as good as I always envisaged. I've wanted a big shoal of Tigers like this for so long now
 
tiger barbs are great, I always used to keep them when I had different tanks and look great in a shoal. Pity they.re nippy gits otherwise I'd get some for this one
I've been you tubing elephant noses now you have me thinking with those.
 
Good look with the banjos you may see them once a year or so!! :)
 
Ha yeah, in regards to Elephants mate, I can honestly say I've not enjoyed watching a fish/shoal of fish as much as the 6 or so I had chasing each other constantly in an out of the wood. I can't wait to get these now in this bigger tank, with a lot more wood, If I ever come across them anywhere that is.
 
The Tigers will be in a shoal of 30 so shouldnt be a problem for me with nipping. plus the Black Ruby barbs an Checkered will likely be part of it so will probably be over 40 in total. The Banjo's an Whiptails I don't mind not seeing too much if I'm honest I just feel with all this wood an stuff in there I wanted something that would truly appreciate it and I think these would most of all, it should be very natural for them, an I will enjoy trying to get a decent collection of differing ones in a similar fashion to people do with Plecs.
 
I am sitting all excited at the minuter waiting for my delivery of fish, plus I'm gonna go round to Ripples later to finish off the Tiger Barb shoal :)
 
looking forward to seeing the pics mate. If I can get someone to take these angels off my hands I will get my discus in January
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top