Aquarium Hobbyists

37 gallon tropical freshwater. I like saltwater but just too much work.
A few of my fish...Blue Ram, Angel, and Pearl Gourami.

 

I have a 75 gallon tank, mostly a variety of catfish species.
Whiptail, Striped Raphael, Cory's, Synodontis, some Tetra's, and a female Betta.

 

Got a tropical fresh water tank with lots of different tetras, mollys, catfish and crawfish. For some reason snails and allege eaters never last but ever thing else is fine, any advice?

 

do you feed your snails and algae eaters some sinkable algae wafers? They are probably starving.

 

Yes i do but they never seem to last then i got all this food that i have no need for

 

what is your acclimation procedure to introduce new fish? I think snails are very sensitive.

 

Leave in the bag till its same temp then slowly add water

 

hmm

maybe try a different fish store

also possible your tank is fully stocked, and adding more fish may be too much for the bacteria to handle the increased bioload

 

just found my shovel, so I figured Id dig this thread back up.

I am starting an african cichlid tank, struggling to decide between peacocks and mbunas. anyone have any suggestions. tank set up is a 55g with Fluval 404. I would love to mostly do Mbuna, with a few peacocks for higher level swimmers. I keep reading that it cant be done though..

 

I kept African cichlids for a time, and they actually reproduced. I had 3 generations in the tank at one point. The water where I lived at the time was very hard with a 8-8.5 pH, so they did very well. The problem I eventually ran into was keeping the tank crowded enough. Once they got big, introducing a smaller one always resulted in death of the newcomer. I couldn't find larger ones. When it got down to 2 fish, they staked out territory in opposite corners of the tank and dug holes in the gravel. Then you never saw them. That was with a 29 gallon tank, a 55 might be even harder to keep crowded.

 

I miss my tanks but it was a lot of work to keep up. Made it hard to even got away for a weekend. I had a 125g Saltwater, 55g fresh and 36g fresh, among others. I only ran 2-3 tanks at a time but had many more. My favorite was the 125g when I first got it I did it freshwater with Discus and Angels, I loved that tank! I could buy some serious stuff for my Taco with all the $$ I spent on tanks...

 

I’ve heard I should have 15-20 in there to prevent aggression and territories

 

I have had many tanks over the years. Like other have said maintenance is constant especially for salt water X10 for a reef tank. I have none now because dogs are enough trouble.

I call chiclids pretty peranas because that's basically what they are. You can start with a large number in a large tank and they will "get along", that is until the day you forget to feed them. Then they will turn Lord of the Flies and gang up on the weakest member of the tank and you will come home to a chiclid skeleton. If you dare clean your tank there will be a breeding frenzy.

 

Nothing can beat the look and life in a reef aquarium. The downside is cost and maintenance. There are a lot more gadgets to buy to keep your water in top shape to keep a reef aquarium alive. The benifits are all the surprise life forms that seem to come out of nowhere. Most life come to life at night so it's hard to get pictures of.

I had a 55 gallon reef with a 20 gallon plant tank.



vary dangerous worm. Don't touch.



Both tanks



Lots of life



Even a micro octopus

 

Agreed man it's cool to see what comes out of the reef late evenings. Nice tank. My red sea 250 looks like a skittle bomb

 

I have a 135g fresh and a 20g reef. I had 9 discus but got hit with some disease so I'm down to 3 discus but am starting a collection of tetras. About 30 different types right now. But the reef, ugh! It was doing so well for about 3 years and in the last couple months has just gone to shit with algae, bubble and hair. The messed up thing is all my parameters are ok, pH, phosphates, calcium, hardness. All my snails have died and my emerald crabs. Funny thing is my refugium is perfectly fine, no algae. So I'm pulling everything out and am going to do sea horses. RIP reef.

 

im a few months late but feed them veggies... cucumbers and zucchini are popular

 

my rubber lip pleco likes to eat the corydoras shrimp pellets

 

you should have a quarantine tank as well...

 

Probably. But im looking to seel my tanks now. Need more room.