Newbie!

[vear]

Hello everyone! I just signed up for the forum and I'm really excited. I'll tell you my story of how this hobby came to be and hopefully you guys still like me by the end of it.

So about 5 months ago I rescued a turtle (red ear slider) that somebody no longer wanted. I set it up in a 30 gallon tank and I grew very fond of it. I had this genius idea that I would buy some guppies and breed them to feed the turtle (i know,i know). I went out and bought a 5.5 gallon tank, some guppies and pretty much just waited. Meanwhile, I bought a few minnows for my turtle, I was thinking he would go crazy and eat the fish in no time. Well, he didn't! he didn't want the fish... weird turtle. Anyway, I didn't feed him for a while and he finally ate 2 minnows. The other one still swims around with the turtle - with no worries in the world.

My husband grew pretty fond of the guppies, and honestly the tank is a beauty, so I decided to keep it as "the guppy tank". I later upgraded the turtle tank to a 75 gallon. In it I have 5 neon tetras, 4 black tetras, 2 green cory catfish (one of them is crazy!), and 2 red wag platies. I feed the turtle vegies, turtle sticks, fruits etc etc.... He leaves the fish alone, in fact, he doesn't even look at them. I know it's a risk I'm taking, especially since i'm in love with those fish now. But it's so relaxing to watch them. I love the turtle, I love the fish and I looove the tank.

Anyway - that's my story.

 

[Shelby]

Ha Ha! I too just joined this forum and my story is very similiar! My kids ended up finding a painted turtle in a pond to bring home. Then they got the bright idea to bring home guppies to breed to feed the turtle. I got attached to the fish too and refused to feed the turtle the babies. I have found that my painted turtle will eat Natural Balance dog food rolls. We have tons of it as we use it to teach our GSD's tracking when they are young! How funny. Enjoy the forum as I definitely have done nothing but read and read and read for two days!!

Shelby

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Vear.
You have far too few of those green cories. The one that is a bit crazy would be the leader of the fishes if you had 5 or 6 of them. Cories are a real delight when kept in larger numbers of the same species. I try to keep many of my cories in tanks where I can have 10 or more at a time, it brings out the best behavior and all the antics in them. A single cory, or even two, is a dull tank compared to one with several of the same species cory in it.

 

[vear]

Welcome to the forum Vear.
You have far too few of those green cories. The one that is a bit crazy would be the leader of the fishes if you had 5 or 6 of them. Cories are a real delight when kept in larger numbers of the same species. I try to keep many of my cories in tanks where I can have 10 or more at a time, it brings out the best behavior and all the antics in them. A single cory, or even two, is a dull tank compared to one with several of the same species cory in it.

Hmm... that's good to know. I kind of thought that I should get more than 2 but silly me decided to ask the "fish person" at the petstore and she pretty much told me I only needed one! go figure. Once she said that I got confused and simply bought 2.

Thanks for the advice, those corys truly are a lot of fun, I can only imagine how much fun 5 or 6 would be!

 

[OldMan47]

A nice big shoal of cories is a real delight in a tank big enough for them. My typical stocking level is over 10 of a species but even at the 5 or 6 level they are a lot of fun. When I first got into tropicals, a lifetime ago, it was quite common to think of cories as gravel cleaning machines and they do survive that way. Now I think of a gravel vac as the thing to clean the gravel and the cories are just fun little fish with tons of personality.