Hello keepers of fish!

[jickey]

Hello my fellow fish enthusiasts. Please allow me to introduce myself:

My name is Jason. I'm a 40 year old guy with a wife and 17 year old daughter and three dogs. I have three hobbies that are near and dear to my heart (and all seem to be near and dear to my wallet as well!) I'm very active in the offroad community with my 2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited - I am the administrator for a 700+ member group of regional Jeep enthusiasts, admin for our forums, and the webmaster too. It's too much work, but when you're the only one who will do it....well, you know. My second hobby is amateur BBQ. I've participated in a few competitions (and lost) and now I just cook for friends and family events. My third one brings me here...

I'm not new to aquariums, but I'm fairly recent to getting back into aquariums. I have a 60 gallon heavily planted tank with the following stock:

1 veil tail angelfish
1 super veil tail angelfish
1 dalmatian molly
1 lyre tail dalmatian molly
6 peppered cory cats
8 mickey mouse platys
5 sunburst platys
6 swordtails
3 mystery snails
3 horned nerite snails
3 nerite snails
5 amano shrimp

Yes, I know I'm overstocked, and that's one reason I joined this forum. Within the next two months I'll be adding a 75 gallon heavily planted tank, a 29 gallon lightly planted tank, and a 75 gallon FOWLR saltwater aquarium (w/sump) for my office. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but this has turned into a family hobby that has brought the family closer together. My daughter is going to handle cycling and stocking her own (29 gallon) tank, I'm just providing her with the proper equipment and oversight. We'll be "seeding" (stocking?) her tank from the 60 gallon. It will be a low tech tank for sure, and something that she can eventually put in her apartment when she's in college. My wife and I will do the 75 gallon together. We didn't know everything when we started the 60 gallon and there have been significant "upgrades." We're going to do this one right from the beginning (having learned from my lessons on the first tank) and have a nice planted high tech tank. I'm the one taking the biggest step with the saltwater tank in my office. I've been researching so much and it seems to be about the same amount of work as a planted freshwater tank, just some different things to look at and consider.

That's me, and that's my MTS story. I'll ask a million and one questions as I research everything and just read up because - fish. My really bad ADHD makes my mind go off in a bunch of directions, so sometimes I'll ask off the wall questions just to see if something is a good idea or will work.

I'll now accept any questions from the audience

[MissGurnus]

Welcome! So glad you joined us! Pretty friendly forum really!


Sini's my personal bucket lugger..er, I mean husband

[sinibotia]

Honestly, you're not that badly stocked in the 60 gallon IMO. Seems pretty reasonable to me actually! Glad to hear it's a family hobby- my wife (who responded already) and our young son love this hobby together too Welcome to AA!

[jickey]

Thanks! Everyone seems happy, I'm not seeing any real complaints. I'm not totally happy with the two angels - they get annoyed easily. The betta was an experiment, and while he and the angels largely ignore each other I'm worried that he will get a wild hair up his anal fin and try to hurt one of the platys. He seems to stalk them, but I haven't seen any evidence of him getting to them. The mystery snails are my absolute favorites...they have more personality than all the other fish combined. I have a clutch of eggs that I'm floating in a breeder net on styrofoam that I'll use to seed the other tanks with - then I'm going to have to rehome the rest.

My restocking comment came from another somewhat popular forum where I get yelled at anytime I mention my stock - particularly that my tank is too warm for the cories, angels can't live with anything, my swords have no room to swim, and the betta is a disaster waiting to happen. I'm exaggerating just a bit, but that's some of the themes that I get. I research - I'm running 76 degrees for my tank, which falls in the correct range for all my fish. Every fish has a personality and mine coexist peacefully. My swords zip around all the time, and to get them more horizontal swimming space I'd have to double my tank size (length only jumps from 48 when it gets to 72, which is the standard length for a 125.)

I'm hoping to not only contribute here but to learn as well. There's so much more that I have to learn, and I want to soak in as much as possible.

[sinibotia]

I'm on a couple different forums and this one is eons above the rest IMO- not an exaggeration; this place is both more friendly and more knowledgeable than anywhere else. 76 degrees seems fine enough for all the fish you have, and if everyone is getting along then it's not an issue. Of course, more tanks is always better so don't change those plans