KatieJ
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2011
- Messages
- 257
Hi everyone! I'm Katie. I'm new to this form, but not very new to aquariums and all things fishy. I'm mostly into cetaceans (whales and dolphins) but I've recently found a new love for keeping fish.
My confidence in maintaining aquariums was boosted after I successfully set up and kept a 55g freshwater aquarium for over a year (we had to move to an RV park after that
) It was a present for my dad after he came home from a 9-month tour in Iraq - the look on his face was priceless! There's a couple of pictures (first one was during the initial cycling; got a few zebra danios to help with the ammonia - those things could probably survive in puddles of acid! Second photo's a few days before we bagged up all the fish and took them to the LFS so we could move.)
So now I'm a sophomore in college (anyone go to Michigan State?) and am dead set on getting a planted freshwater Biocube 14. I had planted a couple of Amazon Swords and a....hygro, I think? I dunno. I was really uneducated about plants back then; they all died from lack of nutrients and probably my lighting. I figured you could just stick 'em in and let them grow; apparently that's not the case for all plants For the 14g, I really want to have some neon and diamond tetras; the ones my LFS in Michigan offer are beautiful! I don't know a lot of fancy talk (or abbreviations; there are so many here! O_O ) about aquariums, such as lighting and CO2, so doing a lot of browsing around and asking questions will probably do me some good. I was thinking (if it's necessary) of getting one of those Hagen or Nutrafin CO2 systems; I think you have to add sugar or something in order for the process to go through... right? :'D *oblivious* I wanna try using that eco-complete substrate stuff for plants, or something along those lines. I'm still down to the very basics when it comes to specific species of plants and their requirements, so once I get the Biocube started this fall, help on that sort of stuff would be greatly appreciated.
But yeah. The only fish I currently have is a beautiful black Betta splendens named Phantom (anyone know what kind of genetic strain he is?). He's such an awesome guy, I love him. X3 Currently he's in one of those 0.8 gallon betta cubes, but I ordered a 5 gallon (not a hex. Not. A hex. X_x) for him and am waiting for it to get here. Hopefully we'll be able to fit it somewhere in my camper until I go back to school in August, lol. Despite the small size of his environment, Phantom's really active and healthy, both physically and mentally. I even taught him to eat from my hand, target the tip of a pencil and swim through a key chain hoop! I'll have to post a picture of it sometime during a training session. I use a tiny flashlight as a bridge, haha XD I have hopes of becoming a marine mammal trainer someday and love teaching cool things to the pets I have.
The photos I've posted of the betta are a little old - there's only one silk plant and that plastic grass ball...thing. I can't wait to get him in the 5g with a snail or a couple cherry shrimp (or maybe both? I've heard some iffy things about betta and shrimp; do they do okay together?).
Anyway, sorry for the essay, lol. I hope to see you all around, and most of all learn as much as I can about this awesome hobby.
-Katie
(Edit: Huh, for some reason the photos don't show up for me. Perhaps they were too large?)
My confidence in maintaining aquariums was boosted after I successfully set up and kept a 55g freshwater aquarium for over a year (we had to move to an RV park after that
) It was a present for my dad after he came home from a 9-month tour in Iraq - the look on his face was priceless! There's a couple of pictures (first one was during the initial cycling; got a few zebra danios to help with the ammonia - those things could probably survive in puddles of acid! Second photo's a few days before we bagged up all the fish and took them to the LFS so we could move.)So now I'm a sophomore in college (anyone go to Michigan State?) and am dead set on getting a planted freshwater Biocube 14. I had planted a couple of Amazon Swords and a....hygro, I think? I dunno. I was really uneducated about plants back then; they all died from lack of nutrients and probably my lighting. I figured you could just stick 'em in and let them grow; apparently that's not the case for all plants
For the 14g, I really want to have some neon and diamond tetras; the ones my LFS in Michigan offer are beautiful! I don't know a lot of fancy talk (or abbreviations; there are so many here! O_O ) about aquariums, such as lighting and CO2, so doing a lot of browsing around and asking questions will probably do me some good. I was thinking (if it's necessary) of getting one of those Hagen or Nutrafin CO2 systems; I think you have to add sugar or something in order for the process to go through... right? :'D *oblivious* I wanna try using that eco-complete substrate stuff for plants, or something along those lines. I'm still down to the very basics when it comes to specific species of plants and their requirements, so once I get the Biocube started this fall, help on that sort of stuff would be greatly appreciated. But yeah. The only fish I currently have is a beautiful black Betta splendens named Phantom (anyone know what kind of genetic strain he is?). He's such an awesome guy, I love him. X3 Currently he's in one of those 0.8 gallon betta cubes, but I ordered a 5 gallon (not a hex. Not. A hex. X_x) for him and am waiting for it to get here. Hopefully we'll be able to fit it somewhere in my camper until I go back to school in August, lol. Despite the small size of his environment, Phantom's really active and healthy, both physically and mentally. I even taught him to eat from my hand, target the tip of a pencil and swim through a key chain hoop! I'll have to post a picture of it sometime during a training session. I use a tiny flashlight as a bridge, haha XD I have hopes of becoming a marine mammal trainer someday and love teaching cool things to the pets I have.
The photos I've posted of the betta are a little old - there's only one silk plant and that plastic grass ball...thing. I can't wait to get him in the 5g with a snail or a couple cherry shrimp (or maybe both? I've heard some iffy things about betta and shrimp; do they do okay together?).
Anyway, sorry for the essay, lol. I hope to see you all around, and most of all learn as much as I can about this awesome hobby.
-Katie
(Edit: Huh, for some reason the photos don't show up for me.
Perhaps they were too large?)
