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.

They are ball to watch. My son caught some little bluegill, sunfish and bass fingerlings from a nearby lake overflow once years ago and put them in his aquarium after all his tropical fish died. They would break water and race to snatch bugs and worms off the surface. They were some cocky acting little dudes, too. You could be up close looking at them and they'd stop and stare right back at you like it was stare-down challenge as to who'd blink first.

Be aware, fish tanks can be addicting....we have two 120 gallon tanks framing our television in the living room. Love 'em.

Cool 👍👍

Not too bad. Larger tanks are actually easier to keep clean. About once every couple of months, I pull the sponges from the sump and wash them out under running water in the sink. 15 minutes. I do a water exchange of about 80% once a month or so. That takes an hour. Three or four times a year I vacuum the 1/2" diameter gravel bed in the bottom of the tank. about fifteen minutes.

I use a forty watt UV light to kill waterborne algae and things like ich,

Including the 90 gal "All Glass" tank with built in overflow, 20 gallon sump tank and media, external pump to push water back to the top tank, UV filter, inline cartridge filter to polish the water, "Versa Tops", and a nice LED light on top, I probably have about $1500 invested.

Purchasing plants, foodstuffs, and livestock is another matter entirely, and an ongoing expense. Kind of like primers and smokeless powder.

I have about 100 specimens in this tank. Cost was $4 to $10 each. Some of them have been in there for ten or twelve years. But typically one or two fish die each month. So I visit one of the various aquarium stores in the valley every couple weeks and look for something interesting which would fit well with my current residents.

But mine is a fairly advanced hobby as far as fresh water aquaria goes. A guy could set up a nice 55 gallon tank for $200 as mentioned above and stock it with twenty, two to three inch long (as adults) specimens, or a half dozen angels, or a couple pet Oscars and have a very enjoyable and relaxing feature in their living room

Illegal to use live bait, except worms, in Idaho, and illegal to use goldfish for bait. When fish get to big for the tank, or no longer fit well with current residents, the fish moves outside to live with Momma's porch kitties. The kitties always welcome them warmly.

Landlady had a 90 gal tank at the place I rented a room in while in college. No fish in it, and I didn't have much money but I aksed if I could get a few. I bought 4 feeder goldies for a quarter each, raised them for 4 years. Used to keep a "Homer bucket" and aquarium net out back to grow skeeter larvae in to feed them. The goldfish loved to see that net comin'. Fresh meat, yum!

Only 4 goldfish in that big tank, they had plenty of room to grow, and boy did they.

Geno

A perfect solution to introduced species issues.

Geno

Discus on the market today are pretty well acclimated to harder water, and are becoming more affordable. I am told they do well in typical tap water of the Treasure Valley, which is often pH of 7.7 or higher.

But I have not taken the plunge yet, and invested in Discus. I keep telling my self that I will, but can not give up the SA acaras and cats I now enjoy. But I already keep an RO system in the guest bathroom and store fifty gallons of RO water there for the next water change.

My Mom and Dad had a 150 gallon aquarium built in when they built their house. It was piped into the plumbing. Had 150 pounds of gravel in it. We had fish in it that we caught around home. We hept a couple of river mussels in it and a couple of big crawfish with something they could hide in. We had most of the sunfish that could be caught locally. They do well and get along. Crappie jump out the first night. Grass Pickerel jump out.
Smallmouth, Spotted , or Largemouth would kill everything else in the tank no matter the size difference. Channel cats or bullheads do well with others. We tried feeding lots of different things and chicken liver chopped small seemed to keep the tank cleanest. The bass learn to eat it once they get a little hungry.
You learn a lot about the way fish feed and eat watching them in a larger aquarium. They could tell when someone was chopping up their food even though it was 25 feet away in the kitchen. And could see out into the room. When My dad came around the corner with his cutting board they would come to the top and wait to be fed from 25 feet away. It was very entertaining to have.

Okay, I had to get a pic. Crappy cell phone, but the camera battery is on the charger.https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/users/51513/10gaugemag

The white "snow" floating around is because I fed them a bit of salad shrimp as a treat this morning.



a good share of the population is hiding under the driftwood. leopard pictus cats, yo yo loaches, clown loaches, red tailed botia, synadontis cat, bumble bee cat,, a bunch of cories hiding, four plecos,

Some of these guys only come out to be seen once every couple weeks or so. "Damn I thought he was dead, check it out Momma. He is still in there."

My buddie had 90 gal. he bought 4-5 piranhas, they grew quick! he throw a Frog in there, pretty gorey, was always have to clean the tank, one day one of them took a big chunk out of his hand. he sold them and the tank after that!

Yeah, tell me about it. I built five more last year, ranging from 28,000 gallons to 87,000 galllons...... This fish stuff is getting out of hand!

On dumping the gold fish or using them as bait. One of our local primo trout fisheries was lost to a goldfish explosion for about 5 years. Likely introduced as illegal bait. They are basically carp who's growth is only limited by its environment. Fish and game eventually cleaned it out, but now its essentially dry due to a water table draw down by a nearby 1/2 section pivot.

Goldfish are domesticated prussian carp. (C. auratus), and all fish are limited only by their environment. However, like all carp within their climate zone, they have the ability to breed very rapidly (100,000 eggs per female is not unheard of for a large specimen).

Gold fish are and invasive species in a lot of places.

Then again, so are large mouth bass........

Went with Momma to Walmart for Groceries last night. A young couple in front of us at the cash register had a ten gallon aquarium kit in their cart, two small bags of gravel and a big plastic bag with eight large fancy calico goldfish.

I poked Momma in the ribs, and she shushed me. I bit my tongue and resisted the urge to predict the early demise of those pretty little fishies.

Kinda like being at the gunshop and watching some redneck buy a shiny new 657PD for his dainty little 12 year old daughter.

i've had a few over the years, my brother gave me a 150 gallon about 8 yrs ago. i had it about two months hadn't got the chance to set it up, when my brother comes by and asks for it back, someone offered him a couple hundred for it and he wanted it, sorry f-ucker.

My 75 gallon tank is getting a gravel clean and 20% water change this morning.

Got a 10 gallon set up in my classroom. The trick to keeping it “clean”’ is to stay away from natural light, LED lighting and plastic plants are your friend, No algae no need for snails or algae eaters.

We have real hard water here, so I use “drinking water” from the store to set up the tank, top off the maybe 1/2 gallon evaporation loss per week with distilled. Once a month 1/2 water replacement with drinking water from the store.

Do not overload with fish. Got eight neon tetras, four little panda corydoras cats and a betta. The neons demonstrate schooling behavior and actually they are native to cloudywater hence their bright colors. The panda corys demonstrate disruptive coloration, with their two big black spots they just disappear against the gravel when they ain’t swimming, plus they school too on the bottom, feeding as a group.

The betta demonstrates adaptations to low oxygen swamps, breathing air and making bubble nests like they do. Plus, for a cheap fish that only lives like two years, I ain’t seen a betta yet that weren’t loaded with personality.

End of the school year I just give the whole set-up to some deserving kid, start over in the fall. Less than $100 out of pocket, worth it.

The cheapest fish are cheap because there’s lots of em, meaning they don’t die. When in doubt go with the cheaper alternative.

A common mistake is over feeding, fish are cold blooded like snakes, can go for weeks without eating. Feed sparingly, a hungry fish is a healthy fish.

Point of interest, most fish you buy in the store are bred in bulk in the Phillipines and Thailand and shipped live by air in plastic bags topped off with oxygen, the whole bag enclosed in a styrofoam crate. This is an enormous industry, neons alone shipped bythe hundreds of millions every year.

This morning fish tank cleaning is done.

The male Betta makes the bubble nest. It's hard to find female Betta probably because they aren't anywhere near as beautifully colored and entertaining to watch as the males are but if you can find a female their whole mating/nesting/spawning ritual is interesting to watch. The female gradually changes color and stripe patterns and the male arches it's body around the female again and again squeezing the eggs out of her then takes them in his mouth and places them in the floating bubble nest.

Yes, there are lots of very interesting fish behavior patterns to observe. Many of the cichlids guard their eggs and fry like a banty hen. I have kept breeding pairs of a couple mouth brooders. Where the parents actually take the entire brood up into the oral cavity anytime danger threatens.

BW, I might suggest next year that you place four to six "Electric Yellow Cichlids" into your little ten gallon tank.They are from Lake Malwi in Africa and can take any hardness levels you can find on tap. The male will have broader and more definite black marking on his dorsal and pectoral fins. The adults will not grow over about three inches in length. The juveniles will cost eight to ten bucks each.

A typical breeding setup would be one or two females with a male in a ten gallon tank. If you keep a little castle or other hollow shelter at each end of the tank, a female will take up residence in each shelter and raise a brood within. They are very attentive mothers and are mouth brooders.

You may want to double check your hardness through the year, because the bacteria in the bio filter (often the gravel) consume carbonate in the process of the nitrification process, so over time your hardness (and the pH with it) will shift down wards. If you run out of carbonate ("hardness") you will severely curtail the activity of the nitrifying bacteria. A couple of alkalinity test strips may save you a few trips to the store hauling water. Or just add baking soda (a little at a time) to bring hardness and pH back up.

That is an excellent point.

Even though I am using 80% RO water in my tank to control pH and hardness, I keep a half dozen fist sized rocks of limestone in the tank as a buffering agent.

They serve to hold pH stable, without being so reactive as to drive hardness levels through the roof.

That would work, since it's going to take CO2 from respiration (i.e. carbonic acid) to dissolve the lime stone, and the CO2 is going to be limited because it is off-gassed through the aeration system as well.

Technically, though, it's not a buffer, as it doesn't keep the pH in a narrow range, it only increases pH. But that's what you are looking for in this case.

Yes, it works quite well to prevent pH "crashing" which is an ever present danger in a small closed system like this. And unlike commercial chemical additives marketed to the aquarium industry, the lime rock does not spike pH up or down.

Tap water is Ph 7.8-8.0 with gh of16.

The aquarium holds at pH 6.7-6.8 with kh of 1 and gh close to 1.

That's still crazy soft in my eyes..... ammonia would be completely non-toxic at that level, but nitriffying bacteria are probably running at below 50% at that pH. For a commercial producer like me, that low a level of hardness would scare the bejeebers out of me! My spring water runs 478 PPM carbonate (i.e. 28 grains per gallon), so when you talk about a hardness of 1, it blows my mind....

Dutch,
I have prepared the tank for Discus, which really thrive in low pH and low carbonate waters similar to the brown water runoff of the Amazon. A peat filter is often used to condition their water. I just have not worked up the courage to dispose of all my present livestock.

I thought most hatcheries and fish rearing systems ran on a flow through system. I had wondered how the NH3 levels were lowered before flowing into run off.

It sounds like you recirculate your water? Is it used for irrigation of crops to dispose of Nitrates? I am trying to imagine the aerobic filters needed to deal with outflow on rearing tanks as large as yours.

We do both, our old facility is a simple raceway system, but the new stuff is all recirc. All the water is used for irrigation during the season, but we also store all the recirc system discharge in the off season and use if for irrigation in the summer. Before Trump, we weren't allowed to expand, but the EPA finally agreed that if a farm doesn't discharge, it doesn't need to meet outflow standards........

Ammonia concentrations are so low, they are not a concern from the raceways, and from the recirc system its just good fertilizer.

The biofilters will be somewhat large....... About a cubic foot per pound of feed per day, and we'll start building those in about six months. We feed about a ton a day right now, and any expansion is going to push us into filtering.

You can watch a virtual fish tank on You Tube and not bother with cleaning a tank and feeding. When you go on vacation, you can take your laptop and watch the virtual fish tank in your hotel room if you need it to keep your blood pressure down.