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[lozronz]

Hey Hey, total newcomer.

Was very into fish 10 years ago, studied them at college (First Diploma Fish Studies), worked at Paignton Zoo then worked at aquatics centre for a while, took a very different career path and have just got back into it again.

On paper I should be a fountain of knowlege on all things swimmy, however, its been a while and I hardly remember my Guppies from my Whale sharks (very embarrassing at the pet shop)

I'm currently running two tanks and a spare.

1 very heavily planted 4 foot

4 red clawed shrimp (huge and evil... Never again)
1 African Knifefish
2 Pim Cats (These seem to be the only fish big and fast enough to live with the shrimp)

Any suggestions of things that can live with red clawed shrimp would be greatly appreciated but i'll put a post in invertibrates i guess.

1 welsh slate filled 3 foot

2 Kribs
2 Albino Krib
6 Khuli
2 Giant Khuli
2 Bolivian Ram
2 Clawed Frog (until they have to be moved on)
4 Peppered Cory
2 Upsidedown Cat
1 butterfly Plec
4 Glass cat
1 Talking cat (also until too big)
1 Gibbacet

Any constructive crit about either tank speicies list (or spelling- sorry dyslexic) will be totally taken on board.

Right... Thats my life story.

Cheers Everybody!

 

[hoarp001]

fish studies?! I thought 'leasure and tourism' was an odd subject

 

[lozronz]

Yer! I was kinda into LSD at the time and wanted to go to college to study "pretty things". Hence not remembering much about the course but thats probably for another forum! (Not condoning it by the way, terrible stuff... but it did used to make the tanks pretty funky)

Sparsholt college in Winchester, I think its the only one in England to do fish. Awsome course and the lecturers frequently write articles in Practical Fishkeeping Magazine.

 

[Neal]

Welcome to the forum!
LECTURE:
Your stocking isn't really ideal, but it's better than some i've seen.
Your butterfly plec is a semi-tropical fish, therefore will do better in cooler waters. Also, your "Gibbacet", i'm presuming it's a Gibbiceps(sp?) plec, therefore these grow to big for your tank, so he will need rehoming. Also, i'd watch your clawed frogs with your corys, as they tend to be aggressive to other bottom dwellers, and the corys could become a quick snack. I'm not sure much about the shrimp, but these sound fairly aggressive so you should watch your bottom dwellers with them also. Your african knife fish MIGHT get to big for your 4ft tank, i'm not entirely sure on the size of tank needed for an african, but a black ghost knife needs a 75Gallon to grow properly, but I think african's are smaller, needing about 55Gallons.
NICE COMMENTS:
Anyway, sorry for the lecture, but welcome to the forums, I hope you can learn many things and contribute to the forum, I might be interested in a fish degree, but i'm not sure it would come in handy unless I was planning to run an aquatics shop, which don't make much profit, so i'll stick to trying to be an electrician.

Neal

 

[lozronz]

Cheers Neal,
Yer the Fish course didn't really benifit me greatly except as a talking (and often laughing at) point during interviews in my C.V but then neither did Art degree but I can now draw pretty cool fish, so silver linings an all!

Duely noted about the fish, I have a small tank in the loft I can bring down for the Butterfly Plec and maybe whack some mountain minnows in unless anyone can think of anything more interesting for that temperature tank.

I know about the knifefish but I think they are so stunning. I used to make tanks along time ago so when the time comes i'm quite prepared to create a monster laminated tank, the hardest thing will be convincing my housemate. The frogs are a little piss-ant to do much at the moment but I will keep my eye on them. The shrimp are my biggest problem at the moment if they get the Knifefish I really will scampi them they have cost me probably £40 in fish so far.

Cheers again.

 

[Neal]

Then instead of buying more fish, take the shrimp to an LFS, even if it's for free. Or post here if anyone wants them for free/to buy them. The new tank for the butterfly plec isn't too neccesery, just keep your tank temperature at 24oC, or 23 if you can, and you should be fine. But you can setup the tank for the shrimp, that way they won't be able to attack or kill anything.

Neal

 

[lozronz]

I really don't mind setting up new tanks, making the environments and trying to get the water exactly right is kind of my favorite bit. The more tanks the better really, I think tanks and plants everywhere make houses look awsome.

And the Shrimp have to stay now, as evil as they are, I managed to feed one by hand this morning, which kind oof changes everything for some reason!