Hello everyone, my name is Micah I'm not new to owning fish but I am new to "keeping them" if you know what I mean. As a kid I had the blue gravel, sunken pirate ship and all the rest, but never anything serious. I'd wanted a "serious" fish tank since I was about 16 but, I joined the army at 17 and never got around to it, until recently that is. I was messing around on craigslist and I came across a 60gal with stand & light for 160 bucks. I talked the lady down to 120, and that was just too good of a deal to pass up.
I bought the tank, and took the whole thing head on. Since I had no experience at all I went to the store with a check-list; item #1 a filter, item #2 a pump, and item #3 a heater. Thinking I had all my bases covered I threw them in my cart and grabbed some gravel on my way out of Wal-Mart (I'm sure you've all been there). The first thing I learned was that you can't just put some clear liquid in a glass doodihopper, and toss in some of those swimmy whatchamacallits. I started to learn about fish compatibility, water acclimation, and water levels. Before then the only water levels I knew were empty, and full.
Every website I stumbled upon was teaching me something new, so I just kept reading, and reading, and reading. I was staying up so late that I missed morning formation a few times...oops! After that I figured it was time to reward myself with some fish after all that reading intensive training I went through. I went to Petsmart, and a LFS to take stock of their stock. I ended up buying more fish than I should have. I bought two golden gourami's, six tiger barbs, two clown loaches, a bala shark, a rainbow shark, a red tailed black shark, a rope fish, a featherfin synodontis, a leapard ctenpoma, and some other guy who's name escapes me at the present moment. Well I put them in my tank and realized what I'd done, I took back the gouramis, the nameless dude, and accidentally serial crushed on of my loaches with a rock. That put me at 13 fish in the 60gal with I figured would be okay. I then made the biggest mistake yet. I found a BEAUTIFUL checkerboard discus on liveaquaria, and instantly fell in love. I HAD to have him. I shelled out the 60 bucks without even blinking. After he came in the mail, I acclimated him, and quarantined him. I finally put him in the tank...and man was he pretty. What I failed to do was thoroughly research the fish and it's requirements. It was that mistake that eventually cost that fish it's life. I still kick myself in the butt about it. It makes me sad as heck cause I loved that fish. The one thing I took away from that was that every fish has different needs when it comes to GH, KH, PH, and so on, and that no matter how cool a fish may be, resist the urge until you know you can handle it.
My 60gal went under several changes as I became more aware of what separates a fish tank from a nice fish tank. I'll post pictures of it's evolution below. I'm still not happy with the way it is, but I'm crossing my fingers hoping for some inspiration soon, and I'm open for advice too! I was given a 10gal and decided to make it the home of my all time favorite fish. The amazing Celestial Pearl Danio! I tell ya, these little guys are a hoot and a half! I'm very proud of that tank because I woke up one morning and discovered that I had fry! That reassured me that I wasn't the worst fish owner ever (I still felt guilty about that discus). They are getting pretty big now, and should be able to eat the adult food soon enough. My most recent tank is a 20gal that I got because some of my fish were starting to grow out and needed some extra room.
Here is a list of the fish I nave now.
The 60gal
1 African rope fish
1 Featherfin synodontis
1 Leopard ctenopoma
1 Bala shark
1 Sailfin pleco
The 20gal
6 Tiger barbs
1 Clown loach (since I crushed his buddy he thinks he is a tiger barb, and shoals with them everywhere)
1 Rainbow shark
1 Red tailed black shark
The 10
5 Adult Celestial Pearl Danios
25 (ish) CPD fry
Here are my tanks in order of appearance the 60gal evolution, the 20gal and the 10 gal.
I bought the tank, and took the whole thing head on. Since I had no experience at all I went to the store with a check-list; item #1 a filter, item #2 a pump, and item #3 a heater. Thinking I had all my bases covered I threw them in my cart and grabbed some gravel on my way out of Wal-Mart (I'm sure you've all been there). The first thing I learned was that you can't just put some clear liquid in a glass doodihopper, and toss in some of those swimmy whatchamacallits. I started to learn about fish compatibility, water acclimation, and water levels. Before then the only water levels I knew were empty, and full.
Every website I stumbled upon was teaching me something new, so I just kept reading, and reading, and reading. I was staying up so late that I missed morning formation a few times...oops! After that I figured it was time to reward myself with some fish after all that reading intensive training I went through. I went to Petsmart, and a LFS to take stock of their stock. I ended up buying more fish than I should have. I bought two golden gourami's, six tiger barbs, two clown loaches, a bala shark, a rainbow shark, a red tailed black shark, a rope fish, a featherfin synodontis, a leapard ctenpoma, and some other guy who's name escapes me at the present moment. Well I put them in my tank and realized what I'd done, I took back the gouramis, the nameless dude, and accidentally serial crushed on of my loaches with a rock. That put me at 13 fish in the 60gal with I figured would be okay. I then made the biggest mistake yet. I found a BEAUTIFUL checkerboard discus on liveaquaria, and instantly fell in love. I HAD to have him. I shelled out the 60 bucks without even blinking. After he came in the mail, I acclimated him, and quarantined him. I finally put him in the tank...and man was he pretty. What I failed to do was thoroughly research the fish and it's requirements. It was that mistake that eventually cost that fish it's life. I still kick myself in the butt about it. It makes me sad as heck cause I loved that fish. The one thing I took away from that was that every fish has different needs when it comes to GH, KH, PH, and so on, and that no matter how cool a fish may be, resist the urge until you know you can handle it.
My 60gal went under several changes as I became more aware of what separates a fish tank from a nice fish tank. I'll post pictures of it's evolution below. I'm still not happy with the way it is, but I'm crossing my fingers hoping for some inspiration soon, and I'm open for advice too! I was given a 10gal and decided to make it the home of my all time favorite fish. The amazing Celestial Pearl Danio! I tell ya, these little guys are a hoot and a half! I'm very proud of that tank because I woke up one morning and discovered that I had fry! That reassured me that I wasn't the worst fish owner ever (I still felt guilty about that discus). They are getting pretty big now, and should be able to eat the adult food soon enough. My most recent tank is a 20gal that I got because some of my fish were starting to grow out and needed some extra room.
Here is a list of the fish I nave now.
The 60gal
1 African rope fish
1 Featherfin synodontis
1 Leopard ctenopoma
1 Bala shark
1 Sailfin pleco
The 20gal
6 Tiger barbs
1 Clown loach (since I crushed his buddy he thinks he is a tiger barb, and shoals with them everywhere)
1 Rainbow shark
1 Red tailed black shark
The 10
5 Adult Celestial Pearl Danios
25 (ish) CPD fry
Here are my tanks in order of appearance the 60gal evolution, the 20gal and the 10 gal.
