Empty 36 gallon. What to do.....

[JessiBeau]

So in the process of succumbing to multiple tank syndrome, moving fish around, learning what we did/didn't enjoy keeping, I've ended up with an empty 36 g tall.

Just for more info, heres what I already have.

Spoiler

75g (husbands tank)- juvenile/young angelfish, 2 pairs of GBRs and two electric blue rams (one is too young to sex or pair off.)

65g- this will become my husbands Cichlid tank soon. For now there are- two adult angelfish (that were harassing the juveniles and had to be moved from the 75 for a little while.) black skirt tetras, white skirt tetras, a few corys, an albino bristlenose pleco, a handful of platys that will be finding a new home soon, two glass catfish and a hillstream Loach that's moving to a new home as well.

(We inherited some fish that we didn't have room for but couldn't really say no.)

20g- pond snail breeding tank mostly, but my kids have some glofish tetras and a couple of African dwarf frogs.

36g bowfront- MY TANK!! 6 pea puffers, 6 otocinclus, 4 harlequin rasboras (the puffers leave everyone else alone.) There is a golden panda molly we couldn't catch out when I realized I wasn't a fan of mollies. She seems happy, I guess. There are also maybe 6 cherry shrimp...don't ask me why the puffers don't eat them. I don't know. I didn't even realize they had managed to stay in there when I switched it to a puffer tank. They must have been babies.

I do have two empty 10gs, but they are spoken for by the killifish fry currently growing out in 1/2 gallon containers. (Two separate species of the aphyosemion variety. Ntoba and Cofe. They're nearly a week old.) my hubby also has two empty 29g that will be for his angels once we set them up.

Now for the actual topic of this, before I got off track. I have an empty 36g tall tank, some cycled gravel and cycled ceramic biomedia, and an itch to start something new! So I basically want all of your suggestions, other than stuff I already own, on what I should put in this tank!

 

[TeenyFish]

Wow... you kinda already have my ideas.

I'd do a puffer community, a killi community, or a frog tank.

Betta sorority?

Gourami tank?

Switch some fish around a bit, swap to the 65g and get axolotls? (Unless you're in CA or NJ, USA, since apparently they illegal there... [emoji53]

I dunno... is there anything specific you like the look of? A group of fish you like, or a centrepiece you'd like to build round?

 

[Toad]

I was going to say you seem to have mostly community tanks and to maybe get a species specific tank, but you beat me to the puffers LOL!


Is there anything you haven't kept before that you'd like, or anything that's caught your eye recently? I like to wander the fish stores and see what they have, googling along the way.

You could try something very different, like a cold water or brackish tank as well.

 

[JessiBeau]

Teenyfish-
That's just it, I have absolutely no idea. I know I want something new and fun, but I've not settled on anything. I've been browsing aquabid like a maniac. I thought briefly about doing guppies and selectively breed them until I get a pattern/color I like, but I'm still unsure how I feel about that. I ended up disliking mollies quite a bit, so I'm scared guppies will be the same way.

Oh, and I'm in Alabama, so axolotl's would be fine. I've looked at them as well, but as far as I can see, unless I buy from eBay I can't seem to find eggs.

Toad-
Hmmm, question- if I decided on a brackish or salt tank, would I have to cycle from the beginning or would my cycled media from a freshwater tank work?

I'd love to keep one of the brackish puffers (I'm a real puffer fan), but I wasn't sure if I could do that without starting from the very beginning.

 

[TeenyFish]

I'm sure with brackish you can take freshwater media and insta-cycle.

I know nothing about salt, so there's that. Ask on the saltwater forum if no one "this side" knows?

I'm the same, friggin love puffers.
I'm not a fan of most of the "typical" fish. Neons/cardinals, mollys, platys, corys.
I do love my guppies though.

I think the best thing you can do is keep looking around for something you like.

Goby's are awesome fish (coldwater, colbalt, neon, bumblebee). Comical to watch, and certain ones are breedable (neons for example have never been bred in captivity, but, if you're used to killifish, bumblebee should be easy).

 

[JessiBeau]

I'm sure with brackish you can take freshwater media and insta-cycle.

I know nothing about salt, so there's that. Ask on the saltwater forum if no one "this side" knows?

I'm the same, friggin love puffers.
I'm not a fan of most of the "typical" fish. Neons/cardinals, mollys, platys, corys.
I do love my guppies though.

I think the best thing you can do is keep looking around for something you like.

Goby's are awesome fish (coldwater, colbalt, neon, bumblebee). Comical to watch, and certain ones are breedable (neons for example have never been bred in captivity, but, if you're used to killifish, bumblebee should be easy).

The killies are actually new for me. They're only a week old and I got the eggs from a wonderful killie breeder on aquabid. I only bought one set of eggs for the Ntoba, but he sent the other type as well because he said it seemed a waste to only ship one set. Lol.
Then when I expressed interest in trying out more killies, he sent me a list of everything he has and told me to let him know if I wanted any of them and he'd try to work up some eggs! Wonderful people I've met there so far.

And I'm actually enjoying culturing banana worms for them, brine shrimp hatching will be starting tomorrow, and I'm attempting to start an infusoria culture. PITA, I tell you. But we'll need them, my husbands GBRs just spawned sometime yesterday or today.

(And in case you can't tell by the fish I listed as MINE, I'm not huge on typical fish either. The white skirt and black skirt tetras are okay, I guess, but they were my husbands choice, so I don't really form an opinion. Of course he regrets them now! Lol.)

 

[TeenyFish]

Ah now that's interesting...

I have no experience with egg-layers, but spotted someone selling killifish eggs the other day, and I admit, my interest was piqued.

How do they arrive? What do you do with them other than put them in a tank?

Sorry to derail your thread...

 

[JessiBeau]

No problem at all! They arrived in a small container of peat moss. The seller will tell you when they should be put into water.

I placed them in a clean Tupperware type bowl (actually it's the one that hillshire farms lunch meats come in.) and added tank water from one of my tanks. (Felt safer than chancing any issues with new dechlorinated water.)

As they hatched I used a 3ml pipette with the smaller end cut off to suck them up and move them to the bigger containers. They started hatching in just half an hour.

Always keep species separate and label. Lol. They look the same at this point. I have a couple of floating plants, some mini catappa leaves and a thermometer in each. I use a small length of airline tubing to clean out any uneaten food daily. Then I replace the water with more tank water.


(Tip- shove a pipette with the small tapered end still attached into the airline tubing and squeeze a few times, pull it out and drop that end into a container. Makes the syphon without sucking on it. Then make sure to check the syphoned water for fry. They're tiny and easily sucked up.)

Some species will not all hatch right away, so after two days, dry the peat moss back out by dumping it through a fine net, and laying it out on newspaper or napkins for a few hours until it's just moist, then place it back in the container for a week and repeat. The species I got aren't like that, but I know some are.

You can google killifish eggs and watch pure4kicks series called the killifish project. It's really helpful and follows the process from beginning to end! Or of course I'd be happy r message back and forth if you decide to give it a try!

Edit- I have seen where some people fill a small tank with just a couple inches of tank water and put the peat in there. That works too. I just wanted to be able to see closer. They'll move into ten gallon tanks here soon, just trying to get more growth first.

 

[TeenyFish]

Fascinating...

I'll have to get some and see what happens, seems a much cheaper way to get killifish.

I'm sure I'll be bugging you for more info.

 

[JessiBeau]

Peat moss container



Hatching container



Current containers. They hold about 1/2 gallon and they're 1/2 full.




And fry pics. Because...fry!

 

[TeenyFish]

The pics inspired me. Just ordered my batch of N. Guentheri blue to arrive hopefully by Friday [emoji7]

 

[JessiBeau]

The pics inspired me. Just ordered my batch of N. Guentheri blue to arrive hopefully by Friday [emoji7]

Yay! That's awesome! That's one of the species I've been looking at as well. Congrats!

 

[JessiBeau]

So, anyone else want to chime in with their fave fish? Or any suggestions? I'm new-ish to the hobby, so maybe you love something I haven't heard of!

 

[LiQuiD]

Now for the actual topic of this, before I got off track. I have an empty 36g tall tank, some cycled gravel and cycled ceramic biomedia, and an itch to start something new! So I basically want all of your suggestions, other than stuff I already own, on what I should put in this tank!

I love my bowfront, and that is the perfect tank to succumb to multi tank syndrome! Here is mine, and it's my only low tech tank, but it's my fave.

 

[Barliman]

That would be a nice size for a large-ish school of some colorful tetra - rummynoses are beautiful and really tight schoolers.

 

[LiQuiD]

That would be a nice size for a large-ish school of some colorful tetra - rummynoses are beautiful and really tight schoolers.

Rummy's ftw. They are my go to. Love watching third checkered tails race across the glass

 

[Toad]

I've always wanted rhinogobius duospilus but I can't find anyone who sells them

 

[Scottishscales]

My absolute fave is the neon. For some reason those little fish just get me every time. I love having my school of them