What Made You Want A Freshwater Aquarium?

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molliwopp said:
+1 about the care! Its more a daily job. People shouldnt keep salt water if they aren't willing to do the maintenace. Causing stress to salt water fish is extremely easy with the slightest change or upset in enviroment.

I dont like it but i cant help but become annoyed with people who have never kept fish start with salt, like really annoyed. And thats my fault and i know i shouldnt.
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Yeah, but in fairness, you seem to get annoyed at alot of things on these boards :whistle:
 
my aquarium story (the least original title ever written)

My interest in aquatic life has been going on as long as I can remember. I have always been intrigued with "the other Earth, beneath the surface" as I call it. My first real book was a marine-biology book on oceans and I was fascinated by the pictures as a toddler. Even before I could read it I made up "stories" about what I thought could be going on in the photographs. When I finally found that I was able to read the words, mid-preschool I became highly interested in marine and freshwater ecosystems and animal behavior (and I still am). We had a 45 gallon tank in the dining room when I was a young child, and I named every single one of the fish and helped with maintenance. I loved watching them and learning each species and individuals distinct appearances, habits and personalities. As I got a bit older I began to research tropical-freshwater aquariums (salt-water is too expensive). I set up a 55 gallon tank and was given full care of it (besides major finances as I am saving a collage fund). Even though school, music and study are the dictators of my existence I love my aquarium and each individual fish. I still name them. I love the fact that there is an miniature ecosystem in my own home, contained behind glass. A piece of the "other world". Creatures from different places assembled into a community in harmony. My best friend later gave me two female bettas for my birthday. both are as aggressive as any males though, so I keep them in separate small tanks. I take care of my friends and relative's fish tanks when I am around. Finally I saved enough money for a 20 gallon tank and I plan to make it into a community with 5-7 rummy-nosed tetras, a few kuhli loaches, and either a dwarf gourami or a ram. I plan to carry fish-keeping with me through my lifetime.
 
I started working at petsmart in 07. there I met a Girl who was REALLY into fish. She had over 1000 gallons crammed into her small apartment. all the tanks were super clean, the place was lit by fish tanks. BLEW my mind. Well we both worked in the store and wound up going out falling in love and moving into together. a year down the road we go our separate ways. I get out of keeping fish for 3 or 4 years and got a job at Petco. as the aquatics spec. my current GF wanted a tank really bad... so it started with a 10 gal..... then moved to a 20...... Now I have 2 55s a 75 and about to start a 40 gal reef tank.

I love watching the fish do their fish things. They make me forget about life, Work, money..ect. well that is until something goes wrong. any who. I just love seeing my hard work pay off and being able to see something grow and live and know that I am doing good for the little fish dude guys and dudetts.. But yea.
 
How I became a "FishFreek" is when I bought my daughter a 10 gallon aquarium kit from wally world two years ago. We bought rainbow gravel, sponge bob decorations and fake glow in the dark plants. We didn't buy any fish BC I knew we had to wait for the water to do something. After setting up the aqurium I googled How to set up an aquarium and thats when I learned about the nitrogen cycle and how long it took. I tired the fishless cycle, but I got tired of staring at an empty tank so I bought a few feeder fish to kick start the cycle which worked. After the fish were added I had an ammonia spike and then googled how to bring down ammoina in a fish tank. The answer was to do water changes and live plants helped. In the attemp to bring down the ammonia I bought an amazon sword and stuck it right in the clown puke. A couples weeks goes by and the sword isnt looking too good and then I google how to grow aquarium plants. Well this lead me to substrate, lighting, and fertilizers which I all bought. Soon it was a nature looking planted aquarium that my daughter didn't care for and led me down a freahwater rabbit hole that I dont think I can get out of.
 
jamesfoad said:
I watched a whole season of tanked
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As much as cycling is necessary to a tanks bio chemistry has anyone one else wondered what happens to the fish on this show. They never cycle a tank. they literally drop hundreds of dollars in fish right in to these tanks some times just minutes after filling the thing. i would be curious to know what happens to these big several hundred gallon tanks after they stop filming.
:fish2:
 
xsryman said:
As much as cycling is necessary to a tanks bio chemistry has anyone one else wondered what happens to the fish on this show. They never cycle a tank. they literally drop hundreds of dollars in fish right in to these tanks some times just minutes after filling the thing. i would be curious to know what happens to these big several hundred gallon tanks after they stop filming. :fish2:
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Id hope with all the magic possessed by Hollywood they would "wrap" after filling tank, wait a month, make sure everyone is wearing the same clothes... Than add fish!! Yayyy! Nothing dies:)
 
After the show is produced they take the fish out. Then if the tank is to be "really" used it is cycled properly. Believe it or not their are humane society people that counsel and supervise production. It's all fake show biz. OS.
 
xsryman said:
As much as cycling is necessary to a tanks bio chemistry has anyone one else wondered what happens to the fish on this show. They never cycle a tank. they literally drop hundreds of dollars in fish right in to these tanks some times just minutes after filling the thing. i would be curious to know what happens to these big several hundred gallon tanks after they stop filming.

:fish2:
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they state clearly in one of their episodes, that they use seeded media to instantly cycle the tank. they also advertise a brand of "instant cycle" liquid, but that stuff is a joke. I'm not a fan of the show, but there is a lot that you don't see ;)
 
The reason at the beginning was having a whole ecosystem of colorful things in my room. Equally important were the plants. The green in the tank and flow of the water are really relaxing.

It also helped with dry air as a bonus.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
New to the forum, but excited to talk about fish stuff with people!

We'll when I was about 9 my dad got a pair of baby oscars in a 20 gallon tank, they soon out grew the tank and moved them into a 55 gallon, I remember being excited to go to fish stores and get new things for our tank. The amount of care that goes into a tank is fascinating, at that young age I dindnt really get all that went into it, but now (12 years later) I have jumped into the hobby myself and plan on being a fish lover for the rest of my life!
Have a ten gallon with
4 plattys
1 peppered cori cat
1 crown tail beta
2 apple snails and a few ghost shrimp. Some might say this is overcrowding my tank, but I've been playing with different filtration methods and the fish could not be happier
 
fishguy619 said:
New to the forum, but excited to talk about fish stuff with people!

We'll when I was about 9 my dad got a pair of baby oscars in a 20 gallon tank, they soon out grew the tank and moved them into a 55 gallon, I remember being excited to go to fish stores and get new things for our tank. The amount of care that goes into a tank is fascinating, at that young age I dindnt really get all that went into it, but now (12 years later) I have jumped into the hobby myself and plan on being a fish lover for the rest of my life!
Have a ten gallon with
4 plattys
1 peppered cori cat
1 crown tail beta
2 apple snails and a few ghost shrimp. Some might say this is overcrowding my tank, but I've been playing with different filtration methods and the fish could not be happier
Click to expand...

Hey fishguy welcome to AA. Thats a pretty cool story. I have pepper corys also. I hear they like to be in schools of at least 4.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
Thank you :)
Yeah he was kind of an impulse buy, I needed a bottom feeder since I didn't have one, and I didn't want to get a pleco, unfortunately I didn't do my homework. But I just bought a 30 gallon and I should have that up and running soon and I'll definitely get more. You think it'd be safe to get another one for my ten gallon till then?
 
fishguy619 said:
Thank you :)
Yeah he was kind of an impulse buy, I needed a bottom feeder since I didn't have one, and I didn't want to get a pleco, unfortunately I didn't do my homework. But I just bought a 30 gallon and I should have that up and running soon and I'll definitely get more. You think it'd be safe to get another one for my ten gallon till then?
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Idk. Your 10gal sounds pretty well stocked. When you get your 30gal going it would be a great home for a school of at least 4 corys maybe even 5-6. Make sure they are all peppers. Catfish like to school with thier own kind.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
On around my 6th or 7th birthday (same day as my brother who is 3 years my elder) my mom got us a 21 g tank each. So we kept all sorts of various live bearers for a while, swords, platies etc. Never had fry because well at that time didn't know anything about live plants, lol, was just the fake plants and the scobber diver who we used to hook up to the air pump to get the bubbles!!! HAHA!!!! But yea, kept oscars, angels, bettas, tetras, all sorts of fish, any that caught my eye really. Didn't know anything about a cycled tank, and so I'm happy to be back in the hobby with all this new information. Right now I have 2 pairs of Dwarf Gouramis that I love very much (went with the DG cuz i never owned gouramis and dwarfs not only was perfect for my tank size but they also have those Discus-like stripes :brows:) . My ultimate goal is a koi/goldfish pond outdoors for my wife, and a 75 g tank for a small school of Discus
 
xsryman said:
As much as cycling is necessary to a tanks bio chemistry has anyone one else wondered what happens to the fish on this show. They never cycle a tank. they literally drop hundreds of dollars in fish right in to these tanks some times just minutes after filling the thing. i would be curious to know what happens to these big several hundred gallon tanks after they stop filming.
:fish2:
Click to expand...

Funny, today they're playing a marathon of Tanked and I was just telling that same thing to my wife. Too much about the show, too much about the fancy tanks, too little about the fish.
 
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