mystichorseangel
Mostly New Member
Hello!
I'm Annie, I'm 17 years old, and I have several fish tanks.
My main focus is breeding show quality guppies and I am thinking about breeding Crowntail Bettas in the future.
So far I am rearing a stock of 30 Guppy fry out of an unknown lineage. So far not a great start. Hopefully I will get some pretty females from this batch of fry that I can use to breed. I have one tuxedo male guppy, and hope to get some Leopards out of the stock, since their mother was lovely big orange leopard. I prefer to breed large guppies and my favorite strain is the leopards.
I got started with fish when I was young, I had the typical goldfish. Well they kept dying and finally my dad took me and I picked out a beautiful red Betta named Rudolf. Rudolf lived for a good five years and was a very happy fish. After he died I tried to get new bettas and for some reason they kept dying, most likely because the only tank I had to put them in was a goldfish bowl, which unfortunately doesn't provide much surface area for breathing. So I stopped having fish for a while.
Then last year my math teacher ended up with three carnival goldfish she didn't want. I gladly took them. So I went and got a ten gallon tank (the largest size my parents are willing to buy
) and I started my own aquarium. Well thanks to this trial and error phase I realized what happens when you 1. overstock an aquarium 2. have fish that are too big for the aquarium. I knew my goldfish needed more room, since they grew to each be three inches long, and comet goldfish I have seen are happier in a pond, however I had nowhere else to put them.
Then I had to return to boarding school, and of course I took my beloved fish with me! Everything went smoothly, the transportation, the reacclimation, everything was great. Until the algae took over. Every single day I had to do a 50% water change because it kept turning a horrific green. I could not for the life of me figure out why it was growing and spreading so quickly. Finally I had to take my fish all out and put them in bags and completely clean my tank. I cleaned everything until it was spotless!
After everything was clean I put my fish back, and the tank actually stayed clean. While cleaning the gravel I realized that any waste that had acclimated in it hadn't been being decomposed by bacteria as much as it was being created, so I started trying to minimize the amount of leftover food. This seemed to work. I also put in some anti-algae solution, to keep it from returning. This was where I went horribly wrong.
The next morning I woke up and I noticed my guppies weren't swimming around on the surface like they usually do. Something in me knew what was wrong, but it took actually getting up and checking the scene out to make it real. Every last guppy was either laying in the artificial plants, or on the bottom of the tank. Every last guppy had died over night. I did the only thing I could do, I scooped the dead out, and started doing what I could to help my goldfish. The largest one was showing some serious struggle to breathe and I started pondering what could be killing them. The big one died soon. Now all that was left was the other two goldfish, my silver one Phantom, and my small yellow one whos tail got stuck in a filter and so she had a short tail. Her name was Buttercup. Also still alive were my two neon tetras (the rest of the school died off beforehand) and my Clown Plecostomus, Joker.
I immediately took the two goldfish out of the tank and in a separate emergency tank. I started switching out the water to clear out anything that could be killing them, and finally put my fish back. It didn't work. Both goldfish died as well, for it was too late to save them.
The two tetras and Joker survived, and I maintained the trio until the thanksgiving break, when I took the ten gallon home and restarted it with four black skirt tetras and a red gourami, as well as Joker. I set up an extra tank I had lying around and started a new guppy tank. I bought three guppies and a small school of five zebra danios, oh and the two remaining Neon Tetras, who have such a close bond they are content with just each other. One of my female guppies was ready to deliver her litter, and the day after we bought her she had her litter. Unfortunately the pretty leopard girl named Feather died shortly after.
On top of the two tropical aquariums, I also got a betta fish for the first time in a long time. I looked at everything they had. They had halfmoons, super deltas, crowntails, "regular", and females of the same kind. I finally decided on a blue multi colored crowntail, I named first Atlas, but then decided a more fitting name was Eragon.
Eragon was the fish I took back to school with me and he has shown to be quite an interesting fish. He particularly enjoys playing with the Java Fern I have growing in his tank, and at feeding time I just tap the lid of his tank and he swims to the surface to expectantly wait for his food. His personality seems to be very playful, and oh my is he flashy!
When he gets excited, like when he knows I'm watching him, he likes to swim back and forth across the wide side of his tank and flare his tail out, showing off.
As I mentioned above, I am debating on whether or not I want to breed bettas as well as guppies. Before I purchase any fish I tend to do extensive research on them, and the same goes for before I decide to breed anything. I have a general knowledge on guppy breeding and I am currently doing more and more research into Bettas.
I feel like my fish teach me more about them by me just observing them and their behavior, and my friends often don't believe me when I say they have personalities. Nonetheless, I will eventually hopefully post a few pictures of my beautiful fish for all to enjoy
I'm Annie, I'm 17 years old, and I have several fish tanks.
My main focus is breeding show quality guppies and I am thinking about breeding Crowntail Bettas in the future.
So far I am rearing a stock of 30 Guppy fry out of an unknown lineage. So far not a great start. Hopefully I will get some pretty females from this batch of fry that I can use to breed. I have one tuxedo male guppy, and hope to get some Leopards out of the stock, since their mother was lovely big orange leopard. I prefer to breed large guppies and my favorite strain is the leopards.
I got started with fish when I was young, I had the typical goldfish. Well they kept dying and finally my dad took me and I picked out a beautiful red Betta named Rudolf. Rudolf lived for a good five years and was a very happy fish. After he died I tried to get new bettas and for some reason they kept dying, most likely because the only tank I had to put them in was a goldfish bowl, which unfortunately doesn't provide much surface area for breathing. So I stopped having fish for a while.
Then last year my math teacher ended up with three carnival goldfish she didn't want. I gladly took them. So I went and got a ten gallon tank (the largest size my parents are willing to buy
) and I started my own aquarium. Well thanks to this trial and error phase I realized what happens when you 1. overstock an aquarium 2. have fish that are too big for the aquarium. I knew my goldfish needed more room, since they grew to each be three inches long, and comet goldfish I have seen are happier in a pond, however I had nowhere else to put them.Then I had to return to boarding school, and of course I took my beloved fish with me! Everything went smoothly, the transportation, the reacclimation, everything was great. Until the algae took over. Every single day I had to do a 50% water change because it kept turning a horrific green. I could not for the life of me figure out why it was growing and spreading so quickly. Finally I had to take my fish all out and put them in bags and completely clean my tank. I cleaned everything until it was spotless!
After everything was clean I put my fish back, and the tank actually stayed clean. While cleaning the gravel I realized that any waste that had acclimated in it hadn't been being decomposed by bacteria as much as it was being created, so I started trying to minimize the amount of leftover food. This seemed to work. I also put in some anti-algae solution, to keep it from returning. This was where I went horribly wrong.
The next morning I woke up and I noticed my guppies weren't swimming around on the surface like they usually do. Something in me knew what was wrong, but it took actually getting up and checking the scene out to make it real. Every last guppy was either laying in the artificial plants, or on the bottom of the tank. Every last guppy had died over night. I did the only thing I could do, I scooped the dead out, and started doing what I could to help my goldfish. The largest one was showing some serious struggle to breathe and I started pondering what could be killing them. The big one died soon. Now all that was left was the other two goldfish, my silver one Phantom, and my small yellow one whos tail got stuck in a filter and so she had a short tail. Her name was Buttercup. Also still alive were my two neon tetras (the rest of the school died off beforehand) and my Clown Plecostomus, Joker.
I immediately took the two goldfish out of the tank and in a separate emergency tank. I started switching out the water to clear out anything that could be killing them, and finally put my fish back. It didn't work. Both goldfish died as well, for it was too late to save them.
The two tetras and Joker survived, and I maintained the trio until the thanksgiving break, when I took the ten gallon home and restarted it with four black skirt tetras and a red gourami, as well as Joker. I set up an extra tank I had lying around and started a new guppy tank. I bought three guppies and a small school of five zebra danios, oh and the two remaining Neon Tetras, who have such a close bond they are content with just each other. One of my female guppies was ready to deliver her litter, and the day after we bought her she had her litter. Unfortunately the pretty leopard girl named Feather died shortly after.
On top of the two tropical aquariums, I also got a betta fish for the first time in a long time. I looked at everything they had. They had halfmoons, super deltas, crowntails, "regular", and females of the same kind. I finally decided on a blue multi colored crowntail, I named first Atlas, but then decided a more fitting name was Eragon.
Eragon was the fish I took back to school with me and he has shown to be quite an interesting fish. He particularly enjoys playing with the Java Fern I have growing in his tank, and at feeding time I just tap the lid of his tank and he swims to the surface to expectantly wait for his food. His personality seems to be very playful, and oh my is he flashy!
When he gets excited, like when he knows I'm watching him, he likes to swim back and forth across the wide side of his tank and flare his tail out, showing off.
As I mentioned above, I am debating on whether or not I want to breed bettas as well as guppies. Before I purchase any fish I tend to do extensive research on them, and the same goes for before I decide to breed anything. I have a general knowledge on guppy breeding and I am currently doing more and more research into Bettas.
I feel like my fish teach me more about them by me just observing them and their behavior, and my friends often don't believe me when I say they have personalities. Nonetheless, I will eventually hopefully post a few pictures of my beautiful fish for all to enjoy
to the forum.
