New member

[Levi R.]

Hi! I'm new to this forum, thought it'd be good to be involved in a community just incase anything goes wrong. I am a 15 year old fish enthusiast. I have had aquariums for just under 4 years, starting with a 5 gallon i bought with my own money when i turned eleven. At the same time, i had two reptiles, which turned to 10, and became 36 by my 14th birthday. I ran my own little reptile rescue and rehomed almost all of those reptiles. Around 3 years ago, i purchased a 29 gallon which i setup AND added fish the first day. I stocked it with an Oscar and a few african cichlids. I soon realized my mistake, and rehomed the fish. By this time, we were in quarantine and I didn't have much to do besides school. So, i decided to rescape the tank and added some guppies and gouramis. They lived happy for a while, but I stopped doing water changes and they died. I then ignored my tank for a year or so and focused on reptiles, and i have since left the reptile hobby due to not having any time to just be a teenager and decided to focus on fish. During the holidays, i started 5 new tanks and now have 6 tanks that all have fish and are fully cycled and stable. I have a blue dream colony, a cherry colony, along with around 15 guppies, 5 longfin leopard danios, a albino bristlenose, two kuhli loaches, and a lone cory (i don't know his species) I also have a pair of GBRs as well as 4 GBR juveniles. I hope to be able to share my experience and learn from others' experiences. I'm in South California and always looking for deals. Excited to be here!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Welcome to the community. Looking forward to seeing and hearing about what you are getting up to.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

If you post a picture of the unknown Corydoras, we might be able to identify it.

The aquarium in the picture needs something on the back to make the fish feel more secure. You can buy aquarium backings at any pet shop or online, or use some coloured card or even a plastic bin liner. Just tape it to the outside on the back of the tank.

A few floating plants like Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thallictroides/ cornunta) wouldn't go astray either. It would shade the tank a bit and give the fish some protection from aerial predators, not that there's any in the room but the fish don't know that

What sort of reptiles did you keep?
I have skinks (small lizards) in my house, but they aren't meant to be in here. They come in from outside and I have to chase them around the house, catch them and put them back out.

 

[Levi R.]

Welcome to the community. Looking forward to seeing and hearing about what you are getting up to.

Thank you! I look forward to hearing from all of you guys as well.

 

[Levi R.]

Hi and welcome to the forum

If you post a picture of the unknown Corydoras, we might be able to identify it.

The aquarium in the picture needs something on the back to make the fish feel more secure. You can buy aquarium backings at any pet shop or online, or use some coloured card or even a plastic bin liner. Just tape it to the outside on the back of the tank.

A few floating plants like Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thallictroides/ cornunta) wouldn't go astray either. It would shade the tank a bit and give the fish some protection from aerial predators, not that there's any in the room but the fish don't know that

What sort of reptiles did you keep?
I have skinks (small lizards) in my house, but they aren't meant to be in here. They come in from outside and I have to chase them around the house, catch them and put them back out.

Okay, I'll attach it to this post. It's the cutest little thing ever, he is my favorite fish in the tank

I'm going to order some cling on back film for all my tanks, unless paper would be a better fit?

I have some salvinia and duckweed in all my enclosures. I also recently got a little frogbit so i'm trying to propogate that. I really want some red root floaters as well, their roots grow super long and my fish need that cover.

I kept a ton of different species, mainly lizards but i did research a bunch of different snakes. Among the species I kept are red eyed crocodile skinks, bearded dragons, leopard geckos, panther geckos, several species of day geckos, and a very spicy iguana(still have scars to this day), to name a few.

 

[Colin_T]

Whatever gets used on the back of the tank shouldn't be too shiny or reflective. Matt black card works a treat as long as you don't have black fish, in which case dark blue or green is better so you can see the fish. But anything that makes the back look and feel like a solid structure to the fish is all you need.

Spicy Iguana, love it. I have a few bite marks on my fingers from playing with lizards as a kid. All you kids out there, do not put your fingers near the mouth of a reptile. And for anyone who handles snakes, don't handle rodents before picking up the snake. One of the guys at the pet shop did that. He was handling mice and didn't wash his hands before picking up a python. He got bitten and we all laughed. We shouldn't have laughed but it was funny because he was always being told to wash his hands before handling the reptiles.

 

[Levi R.]

here is the cory, every time i come to take a picture he goes to the back

 

[Colin_T]

bronze corydoras (Corydoras aeneus)

 

[Levi R.]

bronze corydoras (Corydoras aeneus)

thank you so much, going to buy him some friends when i have the time

 

[Levi R.]

Whatever gets used on the back of the tank shouldn't be too shiny or reflective. Matt black card works a treat as long as you don't have black fish, in which case dark blue or green is better so you can see the fish. But anything that makes the back look and feel like a solid structure to the fish is all you need.

Spicy Iguana, love it. I have a few bite marks on my fingers from playing with lizards as a kid. All you kids out there, do not put your fingers near the mouth of a reptile. And for anyone who handles snakes, don't handle rodents before picking up the snake. One of the guys at the pet shop did that. He was handling mice and didn't wash his hands before picking up a python. He got bitten and we all laughed. We shouldn't have laughed but it was funny because he was always being told to wash his hands before handling the reptiles.

Thanks for the tip, i feel like matte black card would look better.

Yeah, she was vicious, it took her two months just to not whip at me when i walked past her. I also had a demon- posessed beardie who seemingly loathed me with all his heart. I've owned about 20 beardies and i have never seen one get so agressive, he jumped and scratched at his glass whenever he so much as heard me walking down the stairs. I think he had a neurologic disorder as he soon stopped eating, but man was he evil [emoji23][emoji23]