In The Planning Phase...

[ace61502]

My venture into fish keeping began last summer when I got a text message from the estranged husband that my 3 year old would be coming home with a 12" goldfish he had caught out of a pond. Best I could come up with on a short 3 hour notice was a 10 gallon tank. I convinced lil man that "Nemo" was not happy and wanted to go home, and if he'd take him home next time daddy came to get him we'd go get some little fishies. We made a few mistakes along the way, but are well on our way now. Still far from mistake free, hence the joining of this forum.

The inhabitants of that 10 gallon tank eventually moved into a 38 gallon homemade tank. The old 10g now homes a school of Glofish (I am not debating the ethics of GM fish ). I also have a 10g hosp/quar tank. I keep an extra small filter on the 38 that can be moved to the 10 at a moment's notice when needed, so I don't have to "feed the tank". I hope this is a good idea. When used as hospital (or I guess a failed quarantine if that ever happens) I figure I'll clean it real well and then put it back on the big one to be re-cycled. So far I haven't had any major problems other than mean fish.

Right now the 38 (it's a 38long, same footprint as a regular 55 or 75) houses 4 zebra danios, 6 red wag platies, 4 emerald cories and the newest additions, 5 clown loaches. Yes, I know the tank is small for clowns, but figured they'd be ok for a year or so and then I'd move them up. Well, I can't wait a year. I am totally loving this fish thing and I don't want to wait, so I'll be getting the 75 gallon very soon. 2 months, tops.

So, the planning starts now (hoping to avoid mistakes!!) and I'm open to recommendations.

One thought I've had is making the 38 a dedicated platy tank and venturing into breeding. I realize that's going to happen anyway, so why not set myself up to make it more enjoyable, right? I've read that sometimes cories and clowns don't get along well, so maybe leave the cories with the platies? I originally got them to keep my sand substrate turned up some, and boy do they love it. LOL The clowns do, too, so both tanks would have sand stirrers. I'm also considering leaving the zebras in there as well and adding some tiger barbs to the big tank since I've read they school well with clowns. I had a tiger barb back in the very beginning. One of the zebra danios here is the ONLY fish that survived living with that tiger barb. I eventually returned him/her. I also had issues with a gourami. I forget what species it was, it was yellow. That brat killed quite a few fish, too (yet again the zebra survived), and was returned to the LFS. Tigers are so pretty and I'd love to have some again.

So, any thoughts? I figure once the new tank is stable I'll add a few more clown fish since they seem to do better in larger numbers from what I've read. So far they seem to be extremely shy.

I've definitely noticed the bigger the tank the harder to net a fish, so any suggestions on how to make that easier? LOL Bigger net? Something else? Do you partition off part of the tank? With what? And last, what kinds of plants go well with a sand substrate?

 

[ace61502]

Is my plan so solid that no one has any suggestions?

He he. OK, so it's a bump.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi ace and welcome to our beginners section and to TFF!

Sorry we haven't had more time to discuss things. For some reason we've just been crushed with newcomers the last few months and sometimes it's a bit painful to see threads without discussions in a subforum where most of the years we've been able to be pretty personal in our responses, ah well, it just happens sometimes.

Anyway, I'll throw in one comment: a very helpful technique for netting is to use two nets one very large and one very small (or at least with a significant size difference between the two.) You put the big one in somewhere and keep it relatively still. You herd the desired fish with the smaller net. You move them toward the larger one and then either chase them directly in or make a final move with the big net that catches them.

If things get really difficult then it does help to remove all the decorations and things that get in the way but usually two nets will do the trick.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. enjoyed looking at the homemade tank and laughing at your "tank occupant"

 

[ace61502]

Thanks, Waterdrop!! The netting method sounds great. Will get a new bigger net ASAP.

ps. enjoyed looking at the homemade tank and laughing at your "tank occupant"

LOL Thankfully he no longer shows any interest in getting in there.