Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fish Tanks

Ya know......for when the hummingbirds are gone for the winter.

Does it help exercise your visual cortex?

Dr advised?

Yes, Get Mollies. They breed and baby's are fun to watch until mom decides to turn cannibal. Get a 2 gallon tea pitcher to change the water now and then. Snails to keep the glass clean. All the fish get programmed to be excited when you walk up to the tank. DINNER TIME. Tetra Flakes for all. Don't over feed.

PS: Vacuum hose for cleaning and sucking water from tank.

Just don't go getting snakeheads, aruanas, oscars, and others that will outgrow their fishbowl and you and the kiddoes don't have the heart to whack them, so you release them in the warm water area below the powerplant, where they grow into the proverbial sea monster eating all the ducklings and maybe a really small child when the Baptist preacher dunks it.

Geno

Yes (what DMc said)
We have had good luck with a cheap, 10 gallon kit
“Zebra’s” (get 3 to 5) and feeding Marineland tropical flakes.
Get a catfish to keep the bottom clean, and a few plants.
The whole set up under a hundred bucks.
Or
You can spend thousands.

Remember, the more expensive a fish is, the more likely it will die soon, for no know reason.

but watch, I started with one tank than, got a 40 gal. before long, I had 7 tanks, 2 were just to raise fish to feed the other fish! went on a 4 day hunting trip, power got knocked out, by the time i got back home, all were dead. I said screw it, and sold all of them Cheap!

hmmmm..... If they're too little to fillet, throw them back. That's all I need to know about fish.

The larger the tank, the easier it is to keep it healthy, and the fish alive. Do not mess with anything smaller than a 55 gal. Four foot long, 12 inches wide, and eighteen to twenty inches deep. Walmart has 55 gallon kits for less than $200. The kit comes with an adequate filtration system as long as one does not overstock the tank.

Get it set up and full of water. Add some bacterial starter to give the nitrogen cycle a head start. Then toss in a dozen feeder gold fish. They may well die of ammonia or nitrite poisoning within a few days, but you need something to get the nitrogen cycle running.

After you have kept goldfish alive for a month or six weeks, flush them down the toilet and replace them with tropicals of your choice. I prefer South American Cichlids along with a few cats, loaches, barbs, and tetras to keep the tank interesting. Just do not add too many fish at once, or too large a speciman as you will overload the biological filtration system and kill the entire tank.

I have around 100 specimans in a 90 gallon tank, with the largest approaching eight inches in length. But I have a VERY efficient home made sump system to deal with biological load and do frequent water changes with RO water.

I've always wanted a large 55+ tank, and set it up like a natural river bottom. Couple of little catfish and some bluegills. Bass would be awesome, but they would probably eat everything else in the tank .

They actually are Doctor advised ( aquariums in lots of waiting rooms) There was a study done where the experimental group spent 20 minutes a day just watching a fish tank.....no other changes..... after 2 weeks they had 20% lower blood pressure than the control group.

If you were near middle tn, I'd tell you to come take my 55 gal off my hands.

I only ever used my 55 gal for crappie fishing. I'd go get about 3 lbs of Tuffies and keep them in that 55. So I didnt have to screw with the redneck bait shop and their supply logistics. Just pull out a couple dozen and head to the boat ramp.

Bluegill and bullhead grow like a fricken weed in a warm tropical tank with plenty of food. Four bluegill would pretty well fill up a 55 gal within a year. You can slow them down a bit by keeping the tank cool, but it is tough to keep it below room temperature.

A 300 gallon stock tank is pretty confining even for a small moth bass.

There are lots of riverine, S American species, or S Mexico species which are colorful and well suited to an aquarium environment.

Pain in the d+-&$ to clean huh? I'll get one eventually. Had one I "inherited "from my kid. 30 gal. He wanted two tiny baby red eared slider turtles and soon forgot about them so they became my pets. Dirty little f@#$&_$. Always cleaning that tank. Had them for what seemed like a couple of years. They got so big that they weren't happy in that little tank anymore so I took em to my favorite swimming spot on the river and released them. Looked like they were thanking me before they swam off..

We got a screen wire covered 3x3 cage we built to keep shiners in. Tie it to a tree and throw it in the water. Got a door on top. Buy 5 lbs of shinners at the time. Feed them a little from time to time and keep them in the shade. Flowing river water keeps them cool and fed, for the most part.

...until the fish start getting sickly and dying off and you're frantically searching the internet and running around asking and calling pet shops for possible causes as to why and how to stop it.

we use to raise plain guppies, not the showy tailed ones. don't even know if they make them anymore.

they'd breed, and the aquarium would get crowded. add a catfish, and some snails and weeds.

was interesting. i wouldn't mess with that stuff anymore for nothing. like keeping a horse.

my grands ran an ocean tank with specialty fish. it was fun & expensive.

get a snapping turtle and install him at the end of the kitchen drain.

They do add a lot of life to a room. Biggest chore is finding socially compatible fish. Seems any new introduction is either consuming the natives of getting eaten himself.

Have 3 tanks, but have not had one running for years. Would like to do some discus, but our water supply is a little high in minerals, and I'm not going to do a treatment plant.

Those algae eaters grow like a SOB (i.e. think pubescent teenagers!)

You're kidding right? Best baitfish money can buy!!!

(..or do you hate 6-7lb bass for some reason?)

Bristle nose plecos won't get any bigger than 5 or 6", they will breed like mad if given the opportunity. Currently I have around 90 of them in my 75 gallon tank, I'll run another batch down to the fish store in the next month or two.