Hello

[bstnrdsx]

Hello to all - just joined up here to find a good community for giving and recieving good aquarium info.

I am currently tankless as I've moved around a lot in the last 5 years. I was heavily into the "hobby" (addiction?) growing up and a little into adulthood. Now that I have a family of my own I'd like to set up a tank for my daughter so she can appreciate what I loved as a kid too. The secret hope is that this first tank will get my wife into the hobby and we'll keep going bigger and better.

I'm going to be bringing back my trusted 29gal. I haven't decided what to stock yet, it might be a small community tetra tank, or I might go with some shelldwellers or something different. The goal is to get something that will catch my daughters eye (she's 8 months old). Any ideas would be wonderful.

So far in my addiction I've had everything from 10gal-75gal, I've raised all sorts of fish from the common tropical fish to different cichlids. My pride and joy was my Pseudotropheus Socolofi who I had for 5 years before beginning my many moves. I'm looking forward to fixing some of the errors I made as a kid and get as much information as I can.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.

 

[rich311k]

Welcome to AA!

 

[jcolon]

to AA.

Have you considered a Barb tank ... IMO they offer a variety of colors, sizes and temperaments. In a 29 Gal you can do 6 Tiger and 6 Odessa or 6 Cherry Barbs .. the male Odessas develop a great red stripe down the length of the body. It's fun to watch them "fight" to establish dominance of the shoal.

An alternative to the TigerBarb is the BlackRuby Barb. They're not as fin-nipp happy as the Tigers, but the males do turn a black(body) and red(head) color when breeding.

 

[Homedog98]

Welcome! For starters, check out the link in my signature on fishless cycling! It'll help a lot. As for fishies, I'm in the process of stocking a 29 myself, so you can Pm me if you have any questions!

 

[bstnrdsx]

Have you considered a Barb tank ... IMO they offer a variety of colors, sizes and temperaments. In a 29 Gal you can do 6 Tiger and 6 Odessa or 6 Cherry Barbs

Wouldn't they grow out of the 29 fairly quick? I've seen tigers get a little large. (Or is that a better way to convince the wife we need a bigger tank?) Never tried any other barbs.

Also, I had to get rid of a few tigers once because they were too aggressive. How do they do with the other barbs? I know I wouldn't trust them with tetras. Been there done that mistake.

 

[jcolon]

I find TigerBarbs do well with other barbs. IMO as long as they're with members of the Genus puntius ... Barbs get along. Just earlier I watched almost all of them shoaling back and forth. I've read Tigers do fine w/ serpea tetra.

 

[jcolon]

If size is a concern .. You can do 5 Tiger and 5 BlackRuby Barbs they generally only get 2" long in captivity .... Though yesterday I saw a 3" long Tiger and Blackruby at a petland discounts... Wonder what they were feeding those fish. Still 2" seems to be the rule. They would shoal together no problems.

 

[bstnrdsx]

Any info on the albino tiger barbs? Never seen one in person but I've seen a few pictures around the net. Look pretty cool if you ask me. Just replace the black stripes with white. My guess is they are exact size and temperment of the normal tigers.

 

[jcolon]

Yep ... Same species as tigers , just the albino coloration. I think they look really nice in a shoal of 4. Also check out the Green tiger-barb ... All three are the same species puntius tetrazona.