Bored Of Plants, Dont Fancy Marine(cost), What Next In The Hobby?

juwelfan · Sep 24, 2008

(PLEASE NOTE:below are some of my pre/misconceptions, if you feel differently please help educate me and change my mind

pen my eyes)

Hi,
I've kept planted tanks, i've done the whole CO2 thing and high lighting. I dont have the money for Marine ([i think]it looks like it will cost me in excess of £250 for all the marine kit/supplies). What else is there to try in fishkeeping?

I've got a 70L tank sitting in a cupboard. What shall i do? Here are the options i've thought of:

1 - Marine (but expensive?)
2 - Cichlids (but are'nt they all the same looking?)
3 - Discus (they dont do much?)

All other options are very welcome!

Hope some of you have the spare time help me,

Cheers,

Juwelfan

dem0nz · Sep 24, 2008

brackish

Spishkey · Sep 24, 2008

go for something different, not fish.

maybe invertebrates, you know, crabs, shrimp, crayfish kinda theme.
or some nice snails.
Or you could go for frogs/salamanders etc?

or you could try a themed tank. im currently doing a 56L black/white tank that im sure will look stunning.
black sand, white rocks, black/white plastic plants and only black/white fish (danios, tetras, kuhlis (ok these are brownish but are almost black!) etc etc

andywg · Sep 24, 2008

Go for marine but just don't keep a reef. Saves a fortune on livestock and lighting and the need to keep phosphate and nitrate levels lower.

Then perhaps consider going Fish Only. No need to buy expensive live rock and you can use all your current FW gear. Or buy a small amount of live rock and supplement with home made live rock.

If you really want to cut costs, consider collecting your salt water from nature and using that for water changes. This saves you money in salt (I shall soon trial collecting water from Southend for my SW tanks).

Marine doesn't have to be expensive at all, espeically if you keep an eye on ebay and people shutting down tanks.

If you want a small tank that has something cool, consider a frogfish in a 20 gallon. It doesn't do a great deal except "fish" with its lure and have an amazingly fast strike at prey. Alternatively, you can try a Mantis Shrimp tank or sea horses... The possibilties with marine are truly wide and varied.

jennybugs · Sep 24, 2008

dem0nz said:
brackish

I agree!

Brette · Sep 24, 2008

Paludarium with some reptiles and/or fish?

loachman · Sep 24, 2008

breeding

Sparnon · Sep 24, 2008

Get into decor. I saw a tank a while ago, I forget the name of the fella who did it, but he made a model of a sunken trawler and put it in his tank and it was so impressive. He did it so it looked like it was really rusted and old, with all the growth on it and such, and had moss hanging off the ropes waving around in the current. It was at a show and they had all sorts of differently themed tanks and nifty decor. There was an easter island tank, a ruined city tank, a 6 foot "coffin" tank with a whole skeleton, a treasure chest tank, colour themed tanks, all sorts. It was so awesome.

Also you could get into keeping really rare fish, or fish that aren't on the market yet in fish shops. Dig a pond and keep koi. Get into fancy goldfish. Try getting into biotope tanks, or try to get true large shoal behavior (all facing the same direction), combine this with rare fish and really get into the scientific side of things.

There's all sorts of things in the hobby that have never been done before, all sorts of habitats to recreate, look at rivers and riverbanks for example.

tenohfive · Sep 24, 2008

Dwarf tangiyikan cichlid setup - they're alot bolder. Alot more research needed than a community tank but if you go along the sand substrate and piled rocks approach, the tank looks alot more interesting and the fish themselves have some real character.

Have a look at this:

http

/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_20g.php

Honeythorn · Sep 24, 2008

Sparnon said:
a 6 foot "coffin" tank with a whole skeleton

* Dreams happily...*

Aphotic Phoenix · Sep 24, 2008

Cichlids certainly don't all look the same, and there are all types of interesting fish out there. Snag some of the Aquarium Atlas volumes and you can see what I mean. ~_^

Breeding fish can be challenging, but very space and time consuming since you'll need extra tanks, live food cultures, more water changes, and feed the fry often.

Do agree that going brackish might be interesting.

juwelfan · Sep 24, 2008

WOW

Thank you all so much!

A Paludarium looks fun, as does the Tanganyika Mini-Community.

I'll have to research Brackish tanks, dont know anything about them other than they are a little salty.

Andywg - Thanks a lot for the tips, i'll have to research more marine alternative, i assumed it was all coral and stuff.

I'm getting excited and overwhelmed with ideas, which is exactly what i wanted! Thanks!