New To Tff, Hello! :)

[Mylesmom08]

Hey ladies and gentlemen! I recently discovered that I LOVE the fish hobby!! It was completely by accident too! 

--So, about a year ago my neighbor was moving and asked if I wanted her 15 gallon fish tank with its wooden stand. I was like, hey! what the heck, its free! She included eevvveerryything except the fish. A filter, heater, air pump, air stones, air tubing, gravel, decorations, lights, net, vent covers (as filter floss), additional filter media, bucket for water changes, magnetic algae cleaner, food, water conditioner, water test kit. I was so overwhelmed by everything as I NEVER owned fish before that I ended up storing the tank in my basement.

Until 3 months ago... *dun dun duuunn*

I got a stick up my rear and figured it would be nice to get a beautiful betta for my son and give more life to my living room. As I dug through everything, I realized I had no idea what anything was for (I thought the air pump was for the filter, which I ended up putting on backwards anyway lol!! who does that??). After some serious online studying, I got the tank up and running. A+

After more countless studying (I am a nursing student who has OCD - I have to know EVERYTHING about ANYTHING I am doing

) I ended up buying some Garlic Guard, Vita-Chem, Blood Worms, Baby Brine Shrimp, ParaGuard, Metro/Focus, Seachem Prime, a new API Master Kit, StressZyme, Driftwood, Silk Plants, and a whole lot of 5 ml plastic droppers. I cycled the tank for 3 weeks with StressZyme and decaying shrimp -I had so much fun using the master kit, feeling all scientific- and decided to finally order a Betta from Aquabid (which I learned about through reading this website, thanks guys!) When he arrived, the poor guy had a horrible case of FinRot which I treated with ParaGuard and am still healing with Indian Almond Leaves.
 
Anyway, because I am rambling, I will shorten it up and say, I am ADDICTED to fish keeping now!! I have since done away with the mini tank, bought a new 55 gallon tank, and spent the last two months being consumed in it! Everyday I wake up, I have a new package on my doorstep from Amazon for another thing I ordered for my tank (I even had to change my password for my bank account so my boyfriend wouldn't see how much I have been spending lol shhh). If I had more time, I would have like 50 tanks, but I have college to deal with at the moment

*boooo*. I never had a hobby before, and I am so glad I found this one as I am always going stir crazy at home. I don't really watch movies or tv, I suck at sports, I am a mother of 2 young boys so I don't go out, so you can probably understand how boring it is staring at walls all night after I put the kids to bed and finish studying.

So thats all I can think of about me that relates to fish lol if anyone has any free time and knows anything about pregnant Platy, I am going to post a question in the platy section after this. She has been pregnant for about 4-5 weeks, I moved her into a little 5 gallon tank I am going to use for fry last week, but she still hasn't had any.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

to the forum.
Sounds like you're suffering from MTS!
Do you have any pics of your tanks? I'd love to see them!

 

[Mylesmom08]

Yes, I heard about Multiple Tank Syndrome lol Ill upload some now, I just have to find my camera

 

[the_lock_man]

, I am a mother of 2 young boys

 
I'm guessing here, but is one of them called Myles?

 

[Mylesmom08]

Yeah, my oldest is Myles lol He picked my user name if you cant tell I was going to go with 'Cierra Something' but he said I can't, because I am 'Myles Mom, not Cierra'. Here is my fish tank at the moment! I keep switching out decorations and rearranging, but my cories seem to like it like this

 

[the_lock_man]

Layout looks great, plenty of open sandy substrate for the cories to snuffle around in.
 
That looks like you've got 3 bettas in there? Two kinda turquoise ones next to each other, and then possibly a darker blue one on bottom right?

 

[Mylesmom08]

Yup! Thats pearl (the pink/blue girl), Midnight is the blue girl in the corner, and two other girls that are somewhere in there lol the other one next to pearl is Odysseus, the male. I know your not supposed to house females and a male together, but I got them all from the same breeder online who raised them together and they are soo mellow, they just swim with the cories. I don't even think they know they are bettas lol sorry im replying slow, Im learning how to navigate the site

 

[the_lock_man]

I would strongly suggest that once the platy has had the fry, that you move Odysseus into that 5 gallon - they aren't called Siamese Fighting Fish for nothing. I can pretty much guarantee that there will be trouble one day, and it only takes one big fight for one or other of them to be killed.

 

[Mylesmom08]

Since I bought the 5 gallon, I have been considering moving him once the platy is done. The more I read, the more I worry. I think I will end up moving him after just for the others safety, even though hes shy and runs away from the platies when they chase him lol

 

[the_lock_man]

 

[DerpPH]

Welcome to TFF!!

How about putting in some live plants? They are very beneficial for fish. Some plants like anubias, java fern, java moss, bolbitis and cabomba are nearly indestructible!

 

[Mylesmom08]

Can you add plants with sand substrate? I always wanted too, but I didn't know if I could 

 

[ech0o]

Welcome to the forum!!! glad to have ya.  There are definitely plants that grow in the sand substrate, you can grow mostly any of the Hygrophillia species, crypts and anubias may be alright, and Java ferns are attachable to rocks and wood.

 

[Mylesmom08]

Sounds good, thank you!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Welcome to the forum.  Always nice to have a new addict member.