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Please share your aquarium/fish tank (under-water jewels)

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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I grew up with having aquariums as a hobby. I remember the great aquarium my father had and sitting in front of it for hours. I think it was ca 800 litres and filled with african cichlids of all colours. When I moved from home I was never able to get an aquarium again.. until now! We moved to our new house in January and first thing I did, even before getting a new sofa, was ordering a fish tank!

It has been at least 20 years since last time I owned an aquarium and I quickly realized things have changed a lot since then. I also understand that for some (my dh!), this hobby is a little dated, but who cares when it is such a great fun! (he is a very kind man, letting me keep my hobby even though he doesnt understand it)

Introducing my discus aquarium! Or, in other words, my tiny playground and under-water garden for gardening when Winter is taking over my garden outside...

Please share your under water world if you have one!

20201112_162601.jpg 20201112_132317.jpg 20201112_155329.jpg
 

tyty333

Super_Ideal_Rock
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So pretty @acaw2015 ! You have beautiful fish and they have a lovely garden to swim in! How big is your tank?

I'm too lazy to own fish but I enjoy looking at nice tanks.
 

winnietucker

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Love the discus! I always wanted some but I read they require pristine water and I’m sometimes lazy.

Here’s my 55. I have pea puffers in here. I want it to to look overgrown like a jungle, just waiting on the plants to fill in. I have a lot of Java fern I have stuffed in the back (you can see the roots) that I’ve been meaning to throw into a 10 gallon I have. I was going to start breeding snails for my puffs.

814840F7-FF70-4B36-B8B2-63286BC20B49.jpeg A8E34D1D-2270-419D-AF44-F1CCDD365E32.jpeg
 

MMtwo

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I have been debating a nano saltwater tank. My daughter in law's domestic partner is a salt water aquarium LOVER. He has 5 tanks including a frag tank and so many cool coral specimens. I would do it too but he sent a spreadsheet of "incidentals". Egads...like an extra 1500 or so. I'll just go visit. They live a mile away :)
 

MMtwo

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Sep 20, 2009
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I grew up with having aquariums as a hobby. I remember the great aquarium my father had and sitting in front of it for hours. I think it was ca 800 litres and filled with african cichlids of all colours. When I moved from home I was never able to get an aquarium again.. until now! We moved to our new house in January and first thing I did, even before getting a new sofa, was ordering a fish tank!

It has been at least 20 years since last time I owned an aquarium and I quickly realized things have changed a lot since then. I also understand that for some (my dh!), this hobby is a little dated, but who cares when it is such a great fun! (he is a very kind man, letting me keep my hobby even though he doesnt understand it)

Introducing my discus aquarium! Or, in other words, my tiny playground and under-water garden for gardening when Winter is taking over my garden outside...

Please share your under water world if you have one!

20201112_162601.jpg 20201112_132317.jpg 20201112_155329.jpg

Your fish are certainly jewels! Beautiful varieties. I am surprised you do not have a few gems laying about on the sand :) Beautiful colors.

Love the discus! I always wanted some but I read they require pristine water and I’m sometimes lazy.

Here’s my 55. I have pea puffers in here. I want it to to look overgrown like a jungle, just waiting on the plants to fill in. I have a lot of Java fern I have stuffed in the back (you can see the roots) that I’ve been meaning to throw into a 10 gallon I have. I was going to start breeding snails for my puffs.

814840F7-FF70-4B36-B8B2-63286BC20B49.jpeg A8E34D1D-2270-419D-AF44-F1CCDD365E32.jpeg

What a beautiful, natural tank. I'm sure your fish are thriving in that environment. What types do you have?
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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Jun 30, 2015
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910
Love the discus! I always wanted some but I read they require pristine water and I’m sometimes lazy.

Here’s my 55. I have pea puffers in here. I want it to to look overgrown like a jungle, just waiting on the plants to fill in. I have a lot of Java fern I have stuffed in the back (you can see the roots) that I’ve been meaning to throw into a 10 gallon I have. I was going to start breeding snails for my puffs.

I love the puffers! I have always wanted to have them too but read that they are really hard to keep and cannot go with any tank mates. Is this true? What do you think?

I also read that discus are difficult but honestly they are not that hard to keep. The problem is their size and them eating foods high in protein. Means that they poop a lot and they make the water very dirty. I have to say that the fish are quite strong and sturdy, they can handle levels of nitrates etc, but they make such a mess that I change 50 % of the water and remove mess once a week to avoid too high nitrates/algae. In my experience that is often, I am used to once every two weeks/a month. But they are the frendliest and healthiest fish I have kept... I have plans to try to change water less often, but havent dared to yet. I should probably feed them a little less too to avoid littering.

Oh and the snails! I bought a plant recently and apparently got some "natural" sweet water snails with the plants. In just a few weeks they completely exploded into a million snails. I used to hate snails in aquariums but I love these. They eat algae like mad. Except from these I also have bought some "aquarium" snails, large beautiful ones that dont breed in sweet water. I bought Them primarily to eat algae but they eat nothing compared to their tiny relatives I got "for free".

What do you feed the puffers except for maybe snails?
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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I have been debating a nano saltwater tank. My daughter in law's domestic partner is a salt water aquarium LOVER. He has 5 tanks including a frag tank and so many cool coral specimens. I would do it too but he sent a spreadsheet of "incidentals". Egads...like an extra 1500 or so. I'll just go visit. They live a mile away :)

How cool! But yes, that seems to be a world of its own. My local fish store sells salt water fish/corals etc, dreamy.
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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Your fish are certainly jewels! Beautiful varieties. I am surprised you do not have a few gems laying about on the sand :) Beautiful colors.

Thank you! My vision is to recreate something like the little mermaid sea, lots of colours, white open sand and something fun. But not salt water.

Haha I actually did have a few jewels in the sand at one point. You see the sunken ship? I let my 6 year old son chose some of the decorations and he wanted a treasure chest and a ship. And a castle. And a pyramid. The ship and pyramid are still there but I removed the other things to make the aquarium easier to clean. Hey, we even had a Lego diver in there for a while, but he started floating too many times so I got him out.

My plan when I got the tank initially was to just get something my children would enjoy. But then I saw the discus and had to try them. I have never had discus before.
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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Awesome tank!!
Here's my 120g with red belly piranhas..

Simply wow!! How cool!

What do they eat? (if I dare to ask). :D

I would love to hear more re how you take care of them/are they difficult to keep?
 

MMtwo

Ideal_Rock
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4,441
Thank you! My vision is to recreate something like the little mermaid sea, lots of colours, white open sand and something fun. But not salt water.

Haha I actually did have a few jewels in the sand at one point. You see the sunken ship? I let my 6 year old son chose some of the decorations and he wanted a treasure chest and a ship. And a castle. And a pyramid. The ship and pyramid are still there but I removed the other things to make the aquarium easier to clean. Hey, we even had a Lego diver in there for a while, but he started floating too many times so I got him out.

My plan when I got the tank initially was to just get something my children would enjoy. But then I saw the discus and had to try them. I have never had discus before.

HAHA, a pyramid AND a castle AND a ship. Don't you just love children's sweet minds? How much fun is it to share this with a child?

The discus are so beautiful. They rival the salt water fish. Are they easy to keep?
 

MMtwo

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acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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HAHA, a pyramid AND a castle AND a ship. Don't you just love children's sweet minds? How much fun is it to share this with a child?

The discus are so beautiful. They rival the salt water fish. Are they easy to keep?

I so agree, children's sweet minds! It has been a lot of fun sharing this with him and I hope that he will want a tank of his own att some point. I was about his age when I got my first tank.

Thank you! I think discus are a hardy fish, at least if you get healthy and nice ones of a certain size to start with. But, honestly, they poop a lot and litter the tank. They eat high protein foods. I do a 50 % water change and clean up mess once a week and that is, in my experience, often comparing to other fish. I hope to do this a little less often, but this is where I am at now. My plants grow like crazy so I want to cut them often anyway. And the Corona situation keeps us at home anyway. Discus are great in Corona times. We will see if I will change them for something else when I have less time for hobbies...
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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Messages
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Love the discus! I always wanted some but I read they require pristine water and I’m sometimes lazy.

Here’s my 55. I have pea puffers in here. I want it to to look overgrown like a jungle, just waiting on the plants to fill in. I have a lot of Java fern I have stuffed in the back (you can see the roots) that I’ve been meaning to throw into a 10 gallon I have. I was going to start breeding snails for my puffs.

Forgot to say, what a beautiful jungle! I was so focused on the puffers, sweet creatures!
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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I mentioned that lots of things have changed since I was last in this hobby.

When I had my aquariums, under gravel filter was the (only!) thing to have. When I got my new aquarium and asked for this, the sellers seemed to think I was from the Stone age.

Plants! I have learnt about "aquascaping"! In my time there were few plants that survived the low light avaliable (unless paying lots for huge colourful lamps!)

Speaking of light. I got a new led light. I have No Words. It takes no space, I can programme sunrise, day, sunset and whatever I want, in separate green, blue, red and white fully dimable. Ok I know. I am from the Stone age. Happy to be taken to the future!

Daylight and sunrise/sunset below:
This looks really nice IRL.

20201111_122348.jpg 20201110_183510.jpg
 

xsouzie

Shiny_Rock
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Nov 8, 2011
Messages
417
Simply wow!! How cool!

What do they eat? (if I dare to ask). :D

I would love to hear more re how you take care of them/are they difficult to keep?

In the 4+ years that I've had them, I've never fed them anything live. I've seen piranha live feedings and I can't bear to watch another animal get eaten alive bit by bit. :(2 I feed my boys salmon, trout, haddock etc. fillets bought from the grocery store. They also get homemade gel food which consists of more fish, pellets, vitamins and veggies. =)2 Piranhas aren't completely carnivorous and have been known to eat plant matter/fruits/seeds that have fallen from trees.

They are actually really easy to keep. I feed them once a day and do weekly water changes. These guys are pretty hardy. They're tough as nails and they heal like The Hulk! One of them got attacked once (I'll explain in a bit) and ended up with a huge gash in his stomach. It was bad...I don't think many fish would survive this type of injury but he was totally back to normal within the week.

Piranhas living in a shoal are always living in hostile territory. If one swims too close to the other, he will get attacked. And they are cannibalistic. They will take out another fish if they sense any sickness/weakness in them. It's just the nature of the beast. I originally started off with 5 and less than a year later, I was left with 3.

Most piranha shoals will have an alpha. He calls the shots. He'll have the best spot in the tank and be the first to eat. Once my boys established their hierarchy, the killings stopped. But I will never have perfect fish...there will always be a nipped fin here or there, a missing chunk of flesh, ripped tail. They tolerate each other but are still distrustful of the other and will always bicker.

In the same breath, I'll say that piranhas are undeserving of their reputation. They're not the blood thirsty killing machines you see in movies. They're actually very shy and skittish. It's one of the reasons I have mine in a blackwater biotope. It replicates their natural habitat where they should be inclined to behave the same way they do in the wild. And the tannins from the blackwater have antimicrobial properties so it's also really good for healing injuries.

My apologies for the novel. I would love to answer any other questions you may have. I LOVE talking fish!! :lol:

Wow, how do you feed the little darlings? That's awesome?

Nothing live. Just fish fillets from the grocery store and my homemade gel food.
 
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xsouzie

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Nov 8, 2011
Messages
417
I mentioned that lots of things have changed since I was last in this hobby.

When I had my aquariums, under gravel filter was the (only!) thing to have. When I got my new aquarium and asked for this, the sellers seemed to think I was from the Stone age.

Plants! I have learnt about "aquascaping"! In my time there were few plants that survived the low light avaliable (unless paying lots for huge colourful lamps!)

Speaking of light. I got a new led light. I have No Words. It takes no space, I can programme sunrise, day, sunset and whatever I want, in separate green, blue, red and white fully dimable. Ok I know. I am from the Stone age. Happy to be taken to the future!

Daylight and sunrise/sunset below:
This looks really nice IRL.

20201111_122348.jpg 20201110_183510.jpg

You have the satellite LED strip...isn't it great? The lightning setting looks so cool but I hardly use it. It scares my boys. :-o
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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33,220
So beautitul!!!!!

I love aquariums!
A lot of work, but it's so relaxing to just sit and watch it.
I've had one almost continuously since my first c.1966.

I breed what they call red guppies - though they're actually orange.
If you pick only the best ones for breeding your line gets better and better over time.

You need separate tanks to keep these horny little guys away from the sexy babes.
Then a small nursery tank is handy for the babies; this tank is also handy as a "Love Shack" for the selected champions to make the babies. :Up_to_something::Up_to_something::Up_to_something:
Babies are live-born and adults love to hunt and eat them, even their moms do this. :-o
Another reason for the separate tank is babies get different food and several meals a day and a different filter that they won't get sucked up into.
I hatch brine shrimp eggs, then feed the nauplii to the baby guppies - the perfect food for raising big strong beautiful healthy guppies.

All female and baby tanks are bare, no gravel or plants.
But the 29 gal show tank, for the mature males, is decorated.
Misogyny, :naughty: I know I know.

I love live plants, but I've found they double the maintenance time so right now it's plastic plants.
I also raise Red Cherry shrimp, which breed like rabbits.

I'll post pics later after I've had time to clean the tanks.
 
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737liz

Brilliant_Rock
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Oct 18, 2015
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690
Well because of this forum actually I went out and bought a bigger tank. Thanks for that PS, like I need another hobby to sink money into. I used to have half a dozen tanks running but have promised the partner that I will limit the mania this time. I would love to have Discus (or cichlids or, maybe even piranhas) but my place isn't big enough for their tank needs. Maybe I can set up a small 50l for a puffer, they are so cute. I'm maxed out on space with the ADA 90p 188litres. Planted it 2 weeks ago. And am running it low tech for now. I dose liquid carbon while waiting for my CO2 components to be delivered. Just blue neo shrimp, dwarf Corydoras, neons, cardinal tetras (I made a mistake at the Lfs and bought them thinking they were the neon) 20201122_213727.jpg 20201122_213858.jpg , microrasbora maculata (I only have 2 left because I killed the others with my stupid surface skimmer ). And yes, that IS a ladies stocking covering the intake. I wasn't prepared to let my last two microrasbora be sucked into the filter. There is still a lot that needs to be done/bought since I just reused a lot of old kit. But this is an expensive hobby. I would have loved to buy lots of java fern and more interesting plants, but ran out of money!
 

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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33,852
The money I sank into this hobby... :rolleyes:

Setup my first 29 gal saltwater tank in late 70, then got into the Discus hobby in 80's, then had a 240 gal saltwater tank in the early 90's, then sold it and bought a 180 gal for my Arowana and now this 180 gal is empty with no fish.

In 1967 I remember my grandma bought 2 wild caught green discus for $60. The two discus was kept in a 55 gal S/S framed glass tank. Any Psers old enough to remember those tanks? :bigsmile:
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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... in the summer, I would hunt down flies that got in the house and feed them to the gouramis.

That reminds me ...
Some times I breed mosquitoes, on purpose.
I'll leave a bucket of old aquarium water out in the shade on the porch for a few days.
When there are enough larvae swimming around I net them up, rinse in clean water, then feed em to the fish.
They get devoured quickly in a violent frenzy.
They instinctively try to dive to the bottom of the tank but, no matter how many I put in, they're gone in seconds.

Does getting a kick out of watching this make me a psychotic murderer? :Up_to_something::mrgreen:
Or, am I just a good fishy daddy?
Free fresh live food, I say.

Of course I'm careful to never let them get old enough to morph in to flying mosquitoes.
 
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Bron357

Ideal_Rock
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I literally have a gem filled fish tank.
these are Lalique fish in a fish tank also made by Lalique. The different fish sitting on the bottom is a Sabino fish.
The little stalks light up with LEDs.
Cute.
low maintenance and no fatalities to date ha ha.
excuse the background, that’s the “dog fence”.

70A1259B-46C1-4F86-ADF3-8C1B965436FF.jpeg
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Bron, that's beautiful.

At the bottom, are those all natural sapphires, emeralds, FCDs, alexandrites and such?
 

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Introducing my discus aquarium! Or, in other words, my tiny playground and under-water garden for gardening when Winter is taking over my garden outside...

Please share your under water world if you have one!
I used to raise discus in bare bottom tanks. I had (12) 20 gal tanks and a 55 gal,and was able to raise them from babies then breed about 300 babies. I bought a dozen babies from a well known breeder in Florida to start with. This was during the mid 80's. My first experience with keeping discus was in 1968 when I was 10 yrs old.
 

Made in London

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fish tank.jpg These are tropical parrot fish.They feed from your fingers & follow you along the tank.It is a 5ft tank=)2
 

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Bron357

Ideal_Rock
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Bron, that's beautiful.

At the bottom, are those all natural sapphires, emeralds, FCDs, alexandrites and such?

Some are indeed real, natural gemstones (citrine, topaz, amethyst) some are beads from broken necklaces and the rest, hmmmm....
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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Jun 30, 2015
Messages
910
In the 4+ years that I've had them, I've never fed them anything live. I've seen piranha live feedings and I can't bear to watch another animal get eaten alive bit by bit. :(2 I feed my boys salmon, trout, haddock etc. fillets bought from the grocery store. They also get homemade gel food which consists of more fish, pellets, vitamins and veggies. =)2 Piranhas aren't completely carnivorous and have been known to eat plant matter/fruits/seeds that have fallen from trees.

Thank you for your reply! What an interesting fish!

Have you ever been bitten?

Do they lay eggs.. or have you seen any babies?

I love your setup with black water, it sure adds to the mysterious feeling that comes with piranhas! And enhances the silvery parts of the fish.

My favourite fish store in my town has piranhas. I always stay by their tank to take a look...
 

acaw2015

Brilliant_Rock
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Messages
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You have the satellite LED strip...isn't it great? The lightning setting looks so cool but I hardly use it. It scares my boys. :-o

Yes it is great!! But no, my guys would get scared to death by the lightning setting. They hid for about an hour after me (slowly) installing the light settings. I do however appreciate the sunlight/sunset because it makes them a lot less jumpy than just putting on/off the light.
 
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