"it's The Fish Or Me"

[Corleone]

There's a fish breeder who lives not far from me. He had around 40 tanks, and I've bought a few fish from him.

Apparently his wife gave him an ultimatum and he had to get rid of all his fish. I wish I heard about it while he was selling off his breeding stock, but just the same. I called him about some more angelfish today and he told me about it, and said he was going to give away all his tanks for free. I asked if I could grab a couple small tanks before he put an ad in the freebie section of the paper, and he said, "Hang on, let me get my truck. You still live on (street name)?"

He just left, having filled my garage with tanks and equipment. I can't even get my lawnmower in there. I haven't sorted it out, but there's two 55 gallons, one of which has all the trappings of a marine tank (I'm still seeing spots after shining the lights in my face), and smaller tanks stacked inside of them (with smaller tanks inside half of them), and his betta breeding setup, which has a turtle tank broken up into 6" cube blocks for separating male fry.

I don't even know what to do with all of it. I swapped the lights off my planted tank for some brighter ones he left. I'm currently rewiring a room to become a fish room eventually, but I don't think I have room for all of it in there, even. At least I can be comfortable in my multitank syndrome - I'll be able to set up tanks as I want or need for a long time to come.

 

[Leedsboi86]

Wicked!
Well you could also start ya own breeding program?
^.^

 

[dnn3]

hmmm,you're from michigan.that's too far of a drive from illinois,maybe i could take some off your hands.

 

[orange shark]

1 word...lucky...

 

[Tolak]

Sweet deal, what was he breeding? If he was busy breeding & selling there may be a shortage in your area, which gives you direction if you do want to start breeding.

 

[fishlover500]

LUCKY, well I had some luck too while I was garage saleing. I found a 65 gallon tank a while back with a filter, a heater, 2 water jets, a light system, gravel, and pretty much anything else it needed.

The guy only wanted $20 for the tank!!!

 

[Corleone]

That's my first plan - as soon as the fish room is wired up, I'm going to use several of the tanks and start a cichlid project. Just need stands, as his were built into the walls of his fish shed. I'd been saving money for a couple tanks, as I wanted to start breeding kribensis or brichardis, so at least this will fast track my immediate plans.

Edit: He bred bettas, discus, and angelfish that I know of. There isn't an R/O unit in the mess he dropped off, so I'd need some added investment for that (I could never afford the expensive breeding stock he had), and I don't have room for his betta setup.

 

[dnn3]

maybe you should start a diary and keep us up to date with whatever you decide to do.with lots of pics.btw that was suppossed to say you're not too far away.

 

[shelaghfishface]

wow! lucky you... wives are very powerful things to have . you are going to have sooo much fun with that lot
shelagh xxx

 

[Miss Wiggle]

awesome, lucky guy!

 

[tyyrlym]

That's a hell of a score.

That's why since day 1 I've done my best to keep the Misses involved in my new hobby, going to far as to put some platys and guppies in my tank because she loved how they looked.

 

[Mauricia]

Oooo I live in mid-Michigan, if there's anything you don't have room for...hehe!

 

[england]

ha if my wife said that to me, then i would say "ok huney i get rid of this hobby,BUT As you have millions of clothes and shoes then get rid of them and only keep one pair.....

also as my hobbies sooooo bad i will be like all the other blokes and go out drinking every night, go to all the games bla bla bla

 

[Corleone]

Heh. I'm not sure why his wife wanted him to get rid of the lot, or why he caved. He made a good side income selling fish. Must have been some troubles that aren't my business.

Mauricia: It'll take me a good while to get the tanks cleaned and sorted out (he painted kinda ugly backgrounds onto the bulk of them. The paint seems to be coming off, but not easily), I might make a buy/sell/swap post to give away some of the excess. I've got the hoods laid out on the floor of my future tank room, and there's theoretically room for them all, but there's theoretically room for a car in my garage, but that hasn't happened in living memory.

 

[gaz gun man]

lets see some pics