Getting back into the aquarium hobby after a long hiatus because of health issues

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Blackwater guru

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I have not been very active on the forums in a quite a long while for several reasons which I will discuss now , I decided to make the first post in a long time because for some time now I have wanted to get back into the aquarium hobby also I am trying to manage living on my own which is on it's own a large challenge because of both high functioning autism and untreated but diagnosed ADHD which continues to make things very difficult.

Also while at an appointment with a psychologist I recently got diagnosed with moderate depression which is not at all surprising because a number of tragic things have caused immense trauma further impacting not only just my love of the aquarium hobby in general but also my main hobby which is malware analysis and my 6 month old baby rabbit suddenly passing away with no prior indication or warning in September last year is one of the main reasons my mental health is suffering also I was for many years the victim of severe emotional and verbal abuse from my ableist father that I cut ties with at the end of last year shortly after my rabbit died and in general there is a lot of trauma involved that and I am also overeating and gaining weight rapidly as a result of this.

What also impacted my love for keeping aquariums was losing several of my fish in my old tank before I moved away and it just kind of killed a lot of my motivation and enjoyment for the hobby in general as a result also one of the reasons was that my feelings for losing my fish were never remotely acknowledged which just made things worse.

Probably the main reason as to why I am thinking of buying a new aquarium is that when I moved away from home I left my old aquarium in the care of my abusive father as I cut ties permanently with him before I ever got the chance to move my old aquarium to my new home which absolutely sucks and so far I have been looking for things like used aquarium equipment second hand aquariums that are much larger than my previous 39 gallon(145 L) biotope species aquarium that hosted several south american freshwater species like my marbled hatchetfish cardinal tetras and corydoras duplicareus catfish.

As for my next project I was mainly thinking of keeping mostly cardinal tetras in their own biotope enviroment hopefully in a tank that is 50 gallons or even larger only this time I will finally be in complete control of every decision when it comes to the tank which was never really fully the case before I moved from home where I would be restricted from things like deciding what aquarium filter types I would choose and I would just have to go with whatever that stubborn annoying prick wanted to use basically hijacking my decisions and saying no or disagreeing was not even remotely an option as he was always an authoritarian jerk and control freak.

My goal with this project is to be able to eventually breed and document the growth stages of baby cardinal tetras from egg to adult in a separate tank that preferably replicates the natural conditions of the waters were they would hatch in the wild and of course I would also have to learn entirely new skills like the process of preparing the necessary food before they hatch so that I have a supply ready for when it happens which is especially important as cardinal tetra fry can starve rather easily and are otherwise very fragile so they can die very easily although I have done a lot of reading and research on the subject of breeding this species and the challenges that come with it so I am prepared none the less.
 
It's a good project. We can't change the past, but we can move forward, and not letting past events take us away from the things we enjoy is important.

A week ago, I put my cardinal young in with their parents, and now have a nice happily grazing group in 2 sizes. I only got a couple of fry, and am going to try again this Spring. I have successfully gotten fry in maybe 20% of my attempts, but always very few My goal is to raise 30 plus young and combine them with my older wild caughts and home bred ones. I have had cardinals live 7 years here, and look perfectly healthy until careless quaranting on my part killed them. I would also like to see how long they could live for - my current adults were probably caught at around 6 months and have been here a year now.

You will be shocked at the growth rates of the fry. I have bred close to 200 species of fish, and these ones surprised me with how quickly they reached community tank size.

I once bought a bag of cardinals direct from Amazonia, and while I was acclimating them and quarantining, got to watch 300 cardinals in a tank. It was spectacular, though not on the scale of the 6000 per tank I used to see at importing facilities. I would like to build my group up to around 100, in time. I'd be happy yo get to 50 though.

Welcome back. As your project develops, I'll be watching your posts to see if I can get some tips. Cardinals are common, but cardinal breeders are rare.
 
It's a good project. We can't change the past, but we can move forward, and not letting past events take us away from the things we enjoy is important.

A week ago, I put my cardinal young in with their parents, and now have a nice happily grazing group in 2 sizes. I only got a couple of fry, and am going to try again this Spring. I have successfully gotten fry in maybe 20% of my attempts, but always very few My goal is to raise 30 plus young and combine them with my older wild caughts and home bred ones. I have had cardinals live 7 years here, and look perfectly healthy until careless quaranting on my part killed them. I would also like to see how long they could live for - my current adults were probably caught at around 6 months and have been here a year now.

You will be shocked at the growth rates of the fry. I have bred close to 200 species of fish, and these ones surprised me with how quickly they reached community tank size.

I once bought a bag of cardinals direct from Amazonia, and while I was acclimating them and quarantining, got to watch 300 cardinals in a tank. It was spectacular, though not on the scale of the 6000 per tank I used to see at importing facilities. I would like to build my group up to around 100, in time. I'd be happy yo get to 50 though.

Welcome back. As your project develops, I'll be watching your posts to see if I can get some tips. Cardinals are common, but cardinal breeders are rare.
Besides just cardinal tetras I also want to start breeding marbled hatchetfish eventually and other south american species that are often not bred in captivity because of how challenging they can be or specific requirements needed to succeed
 
Welcome back and good luck. I will be watching with interest. I do remember your last tank and how much time and effort you put into that. There are around 40 cardinals in my SA tank and I can happily spend hours watching them. Never tried to breed them, I know its a challenge but my decision for me was that my hobby is keeping fish not breeding them. I do get fry from other species without intervention, but of course that will never happen with the cardinals, especially not with around 30 cories in the same tank ;)

@GaryE I don't keep records but I reckon my average is somewhere around 6 years in very soft acidic water. Since switching to RO I have been really surprised at how big they get and how much brighter they look. Before switching the average lifespan was around 18 months (my tap water is rock hard AND full of nitrates)
 
Welcome back :)
Sorry to hear of your troubles, I hope you find your own path through to the other side.
Looking forward to seeing pics of your new aquarium when you find it.
 
First, welcome back!
We're all human and things of the mind can be very tricky. My respect that you've been trying to live on your own with what's been going in your life. Hope you can have a stable life from now on. And yes, keeping yourself busy with a fishtank again can give you a good distraction. And I hope that becoming active again on this forum may contribute to a relaxation and a wellbeing of your mind and body. A calm mind results in a calm feeling in your body.
 
First, welcome back!
We're all human and things of the mind can be very tricky. My respect that you've been trying to live on your own with what's been going in your life. Hope you can have a stable life from now on. And yes, keeping yourself busy with a fishtank again can give you a good distraction. And I hope that becoming active again on this forum may contribute to a relaxation and a wellbeing of your mind and body. A calm mind results in a calm feeling in your body.
As of now I mainly distract myself by collecting clocks of various types and currently I own 7 different wall clocks and several more table clocks but of course my collection will keep growing and so far I am looking for used vintage grandfather clocks on auction sites also I believe the oldest clocks I own are from the early 1900's.

Being very lonely and isolated with very few if any people or friends to talk to besides my mom and a close childhood friend also further highlights why losing my bunny was so destructive to my mental health because he was one of the only irl friends I had or will ever have.

Eventually after I get things completely sorted out in my personal life and get the help and support I need which could take quite a while then I can start to buy the items equipment I need after planning accordingly.
 
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You like difficult, meticulous projects. I've looked at breeding hatchets, but run away from that.

You've had a rough run there, but I hope you can get on track and create a space that is comfortable for you. You sound like someone who will bring a lot of good into the forum while you are creating that calm.
 
As of now I mainly distract myself by collecting clocks of various types and currently I own 7 different wall clocks and several more table clocks but of course my collection will keep growing and so far I am looking for used vintage grandfather clocks on auction sites also I believe the oldest clocks I own are from the early 1900's.
This reminds me of an uncle of mine. He also collected similar clocks. He also repaired them.
 

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