I have been in the aquarium hobby on and off since I was about 10 years old. This year I will be turning 60. The on and off part has turned me into a newbie who has a lot of experience with tropicals. Much of what I think I know is probably no longer accepted because the hobby has come so far since I started. I once bred guppies as a hobby to try to develop better colors but they were only what you would call feeders today. The tails were longer than the wild guppies and the colors were starting to form interesting patterns like the modern cobras but no large tails or fins and no large areas of a single color. At the time many of us were trying to develop a swordtail effect and some people had some success at getting both top and bottom edge extended fins into a sort of lyretail but none of the big delta tails of today. I have also successfully bred bettas and who hasn't had mollies, platties or swords that pretty well breed themselves if you are willing to scoop out the fry.
Never heard of cycling a tank back then but all advice at the time was to start out very slow with only a fish or two until the water could "age" properly. Nobody seemed to know what was going on or maybe they just didn't tell the hobbyists.
I now have a large resurrected aquarium holding about 110 gallons of water, its probably called a 125 since there is a lot of gravel in it (6ft x 18in x 26in). I know my other 2 are a 29 and a 10. The 10 has a few of the modern fancy guppies although I am tempted to get a few feeders instead because they bring back fond memories of my earlier breeding. I have a few kribs in the 29 and they are doing well but not breeding. There are 2 pairs in that tank and each guards its own cave structure. The 125 has lots of traditional tropicals in small numbers but no big cichlids or africans. They include 2 large angels, 4 tiger barbs, a couple of cories, 4 mollies, 4 platties, 6 harlequin rasboras, about a dozen each of neons and black neons because I love how they school. This gives me a constant movement in the aquarium without it being boring with just a few species and with fish throughout the water column. I have been told the neons can't survive with the angels but so far the neons are large enough that they are not doing too badly. They are all larger than the typical cardinal tetras that are available at the LFS and are almost as big as the guppies at the stores (no they are not the size of an adult guppy but are about 1 1/2 inches long). The angels are adults about 5 inches tall from dorsal to caudal fin and have always been kept with smaller fish. They are well fed and don't seem too interested although I am sure they could do some damage if they wanted to.
I am starting t think it is time to ratchet up my involvement by trying to breed some of the easier egg layers so I found this forum while exploring the net for ideas and doing my research into available and interesting fish. I expect to need at least 2 more aquaria if I get into breeding since I don't want to give up what I already have. The only possibility is that I would move most of my 29 to the community tank if I decide to breed the kribs that I have.
I am starting to think it is time to begin to understand water hardness and the ammonia cycle since people these days place so much focus on it. I have been using an RO for all my makeup water so I am not concentrating salts in the water and add buffer and minerals when I am doing a water change and not just adding water. I am running an XP3 filter on the 125. This setup has been working fine for about 18 months but there must be some reason for all the interest in the water chemistry.
Never heard of cycling a tank back then but all advice at the time was to start out very slow with only a fish or two until the water could "age" properly. Nobody seemed to know what was going on or maybe they just didn't tell the hobbyists.I now have a large resurrected aquarium holding about 110 gallons of water, its probably called a 125 since there is a lot of gravel in it (6ft x 18in x 26in). I know my other 2 are a 29 and a 10. The 10 has a few of the modern fancy guppies although I am tempted to get a few feeders instead because they bring back fond memories of my earlier breeding. I have a few kribs in the 29 and they are doing well but not breeding. There are 2 pairs in that tank and each guards its own cave structure. The 125 has lots of traditional tropicals in small numbers but no big cichlids or africans. They include 2 large angels, 4 tiger barbs, a couple of cories, 4 mollies, 4 platties, 6 harlequin rasboras, about a dozen each of neons and black neons because I love how they school. This gives me a constant movement in the aquarium without it being boring with just a few species and with fish throughout the water column. I have been told the neons can't survive with the angels but so far the neons are large enough that they are not doing too badly. They are all larger than the typical cardinal tetras that are available at the LFS and are almost as big as the guppies at the stores (no they are not the size of an adult guppy but are about 1 1/2 inches long). The angels are adults about 5 inches tall from dorsal to caudal fin and have always been kept with smaller fish. They are well fed and don't seem too interested although I am sure they could do some damage if they wanted to.
I am starting t think it is time to ratchet up my involvement by trying to breed some of the easier egg layers so I found this forum while exploring the net for ideas and doing my research into available and interesting fish. I expect to need at least 2 more aquaria if I get into breeding since I don't want to give up what I already have. The only possibility is that I would move most of my 29 to the community tank if I decide to breed the kribs that I have.
I am starting to think it is time to begin to understand water hardness and the ammonia cycle since people these days place so much focus on it. I have been using an RO for all my makeup water so I am not concentrating salts in the water and add buffer and minerals when I am doing a water change and not just adding water. I am running an XP3 filter on the 125. This setup has been working fine for about 18 months but there must be some reason for all the interest in the water chemistry.
