Saltwater & Reef

ShellyPonch · 03-30-2014, 08:09 PM

I'd like to introduce myself as I'm a new member of this forum! My name is Michele and my husband and I are first time fish owners. We wanted to have a joint hobby that could be relaxing and fun at the same time. In just a few short weeks we have become quite the fish enthusiasts. Let me now introduce our fish and tank...

Currently we have a 36-gallon bow front tank and a API Filstar XP-L Canister Filter. In our tank we have 1 rubber lipped pleco, 1 velvet swordtail, 4 cardinal tetra, 2 wagtail platys, 4 sunburst wagtail platys, 2 zebra danio, 3 turquoise rainbow fish and 1 nasty little tiger barb (who likes to bite the other fish). We occassionally add ghost shrimp when the pet store has them in stock, both for feeders and just because they're cool to look at. We have 1 live plant and many other artificial plants.

We know that some loss is to be expected, especially when first starting out. We have had very little death until recently. A few days into this endeavor we lost 1 cardinal tetra, but he was soon eaten up by the rainbow fish. Recently however, we have lost 2 tiger barbs (we originally started with 3 as per the advice of the aquarium store). Both were found floating and were pretty chewed up. We lost a velvet swordtail (started with 2) because he got caught in the filter. We are now having some trouble with our remaining tiger barb, but that is an issue for another category.

So far we are having a great time being fish owners and hope to grow and update our tank in the years to come. Happy fishing, everyone!