HatchetMan
New Member
Hi all,
I poked around a lot of fish forum sites before choosing this one. It seems like a great community with a lot of knowledge, so I'm looking forward to learning a lot. There's nothing like first-hand info from actual aquarists.
I got into fish keeping accidentally which seems to be more common than I realized. Our next-door neighbors' kids grew up and left home and their parents weren't interested in maintaining their 30 gallon freshwater tank on their own, so they asked if we'd want it. My wife and kids were more interested than I was, so we found ourselves with an aquarium. Guess who got the job of maintaining it? I didn't know anything at the time and basically did the minimum as far as water changes, vacuuming gravel, and changing filters. The assortment of tetras and barbs wasn't very interesting to me and even my family gradually watched the fish less and less. I continued to maintain the tank and we got some extra fish along the way as the rather old original inhabitants went to fish heaven one by one. That was about five years ago.
A couple months ago, the last of the original inhabitants finally bid us adieu and we were left with two kribensis, two yo-yo loaches, a pleco, and a boatload of snails. The pleco is spotted and I'm not sure of the species, but I was assured it would only grow to a few inches long. My plan at the time was to allow them all to live out their days, then sell the tank, and exit the hobby as gracefully as possible. Fortunately, our 11-year-old son had other ideas.
About a month ago, he kept bugging me to go to the aquarium store and get "a couple more fish". He seemed a lot more excited than usual, so I decided to delay my exit strategy and take him to look at some fish. We came home with a blue dwarf gourami and a third yo-yo loach. I wanted to eradicate the snails once and for all. The war on snails did end within a week and the gourami was a lot more interesting to watch than our other fish. Not long after that we went back and got a red dwarf gourami, a small catfish (assured it would stay small), and three silver hatchetfish. The hatchets were surprisingly entertaining and strange-looking and I found myself watching them and the other fish every night. So at that point, I was finally hooked. I read more about hatchets and decided we should get four more as their stress level is reduced in larger schools. Now they're even more fun to watch. So we have the following...
So now I watch the fish tank for at least 30 minutes every day, read voraciously on every related topic, and entertain my wife with riveting discussions of water chemistry and fish behavior. Fortunately, she really enjoys the fish too and is on board with my plan to get a second tank in the next few months. This one will be larger (60-75 gallons) and stocked with Lake Malawi cichlids. I was actually a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi back in the late 90's, so the lake has special significance to me and I love the idea of recreating a small piece of it in our home.
And that long-winded introduction brings us to today. I'm continuing to work on the water chemistry and some improvements to the aqua-scaping. The fish mostly get along, though the catfish and one of the kribensis are mildly territorial. Nothing too concerning and I haven't seen any nipped fins so I think it's a pretty stable community.
I'm looking forward to growing in the hobby (obsession?) and learning a lot from all of you. Happy to be here!
-Patrick
I poked around a lot of fish forum sites before choosing this one. It seems like a great community with a lot of knowledge, so I'm looking forward to learning a lot. There's nothing like first-hand info from actual aquarists.
I got into fish keeping accidentally which seems to be more common than I realized. Our next-door neighbors' kids grew up and left home and their parents weren't interested in maintaining their 30 gallon freshwater tank on their own, so they asked if we'd want it. My wife and kids were more interested than I was, so we found ourselves with an aquarium. Guess who got the job of maintaining it? I didn't know anything at the time and basically did the minimum as far as water changes, vacuuming gravel, and changing filters. The assortment of tetras and barbs wasn't very interesting to me and even my family gradually watched the fish less and less. I continued to maintain the tank and we got some extra fish along the way as the rather old original inhabitants went to fish heaven one by one. That was about five years ago.
A couple months ago, the last of the original inhabitants finally bid us adieu and we were left with two kribensis, two yo-yo loaches, a pleco, and a boatload of snails. The pleco is spotted and I'm not sure of the species, but I was assured it would only grow to a few inches long. My plan at the time was to allow them all to live out their days, then sell the tank, and exit the hobby as gracefully as possible. Fortunately, our 11-year-old son had other ideas.
About a month ago, he kept bugging me to go to the aquarium store and get "a couple more fish". He seemed a lot more excited than usual, so I decided to delay my exit strategy and take him to look at some fish. We came home with a blue dwarf gourami and a third yo-yo loach. I wanted to eradicate the snails once and for all. The war on snails did end within a week and the gourami was a lot more interesting to watch than our other fish. Not long after that we went back and got a red dwarf gourami, a small catfish (assured it would stay small), and three silver hatchetfish. The hatchets were surprisingly entertaining and strange-looking and I found myself watching them and the other fish every night. So at that point, I was finally hooked. I read more about hatchets and decided we should get four more as their stress level is reduced in larger schools. Now they're even more fun to watch. So we have the following...
- 7 silver hatchets
- 3 yo-yo loaches
- 2 dwarf gouramis
- 2 kribensis
- 1 catfish (not sure of species)
- 1 pleco (also not sure of species)
So now I watch the fish tank for at least 30 minutes every day, read voraciously on every related topic, and entertain my wife with riveting discussions of water chemistry and fish behavior. Fortunately, she really enjoys the fish too and is on board with my plan to get a second tank in the next few months. This one will be larger (60-75 gallons) and stocked with Lake Malawi cichlids. I was actually a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi back in the late 90's, so the lake has special significance to me and I love the idea of recreating a small piece of it in our home.
And that long-winded introduction brings us to today. I'm continuing to work on the water chemistry and some improvements to the aqua-scaping. The fish mostly get along, though the catfish and one of the kribensis are mildly territorial. Nothing too concerning and I haven't seen any nipped fins so I think it's a pretty stable community.
I'm looking forward to growing in the hobby (obsession?) and learning a lot from all of you. Happy to be here!
-Patrick
