Where does it end, will I ever be satisfied?

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ohh tkd and hapkido, are u korean by any chance? just asking both martial arts is korean lol.


i dont think its weird i never had a fish with ich or as a matter of fact any kind of parasite & etc. only reason i had a fish die on my was due fighting or being eaten... lol besides once when i was little i came home to find a fish dead in my shoe... accidentally left the lid open after feeding before school... (this was when i was 11? or something like that, a long time ago. lol )
 
Wow Shill you have my dream house! I'd love to have 60 tanks! I'd lovE A HOUSE WITH A BASEMENT it would be my mommy cave with tons of tanks and a nice leather recliner for me to sit and watch the fish

I have 3 tanks upstairs.. my 240 ray tank, my 72 bow calvus tank, and my 30 beta tank.

The rest of the tanks are downstairs. Unfortunately, there is no room for a nice comfy chair for me, and it's so humid down there, it's like a sauna! I am getting married in next year in june, so all I have to do is sit down there to lose weight. lol

I am hoping to find a farm house with some land, so I can finally have my mud ponds for my koi to grow out in, and put up a large insulated ac/heated pole building, and start my fish business.
 
You know something weird? I've never had a fish with ich, ever. Is that unusual?

Its all about where you get your fish. I had never gotten as much disease with my animals until I lived in Michigan for a while. The pet stores there just had allot more stuff. At my new residence I now know what pet stores to avoid. I really only trust 1 or 2 local shops.
 
You do not need a UV for your tanks. Some people do need them for things they keep. It's recommended if you keep frogs, or turtles with your fish, but typical tanks rarely need them. I have UV's running, but only on my koi tanks because they are more prone to disease than almost any fish out there believe it or not.

I have rays, frontosa, flowerhorn, shrimp, puffer, SA/CA cichlids, bichirs, guppies, sturgeons... I have no uv's on any of them. I understand how you think tying them together would be best, and how if something has it, and you don't know, you can spread it even if individual.. but the chances aren't too high.

For me, (and this may work for you) my tanks go through a series of things, and so far it's been great and I've not had any issues with fish in over a year (with the exception of my FH with internals).. once a month, they get treated with something. This is how I work things.

Month 1: Temp 75 F, treat with .3% solar salt (skip water change for 3 days)
Month 2: Temp 72 F, treat with oxytetracycline (bi furan, binox) Leave in for 48 hours.
Month 3: Temp 76 F, treat with Ich tab Leave for 48 hours
Month 4: No treatment.

Month 5 resume.

Now, I don't always do this.. but when I was going through my KHA training, I learned that many people don't QT their fish correctly, and so many illness's don't come out until AFTER they have been in your tank for some time. Now, QT for Koi is 6 weeks long, and much more complicated.. but I have found that my rendition of it for tropicals has been pretty awesome. I had ich once in my 180 SA/CA tank.. my oldest fish, an 8 year old convict was on deaths door.. within 48 hours, he was ich free and back to his old self. I haven't had any issues since.

You stated: "I commend the fact you can care for your animals I simply can't." If you can't care for your animals, then really... you shouldn't have them. Part of having fish is keeping good husbandry skills, and if you can't provide that, then you are only giving your fish a miserable life. Find another hobby. I often work 60 hours weeks at my job, and when I come home, I don't want to have anything to do with my fish, but I know that I took on the responsibility of keeping these guys, and so, I get up and I give them the attention that I promised to give them. Fish keeping is a rewarding hobby, and one day I do plan on making this into a career.

I am also going to suggest that you look into your fish diseases.. raising the temps, and salting won't get rid of everything, and for the things it does treat, it's eventually going to grow resistant, so you need to mix up your treatments. You stated that you had an incurable bacterial disease that killed off your stock.. there is no incurable bacterial diseases. Even if your fish had dropsy, it's still curable to a point. It could have come down to the fact that you thought salt would work, or you just didn't catch it in time.

Point blank: you can tie your system together, and do whatever you want with your fish; but when they come down with something, and you lose it all again... re think what I told you because you will be kicking yourself later for not doing things the better way. Separate is always better because cross contamination is less likely.

I guess as much as I emphasis time savings as good for me, my design was derived for what I perceived as a need for my fish:

I don't think its necessarily neglectful that I want to combine my filters I think we just have a differing of opinions. When doing research as to how to avoid a future bacterial infection like what I had (caused every kinda secondary infection I've ever seen in healthy fish with pristine water) The only treatment that I found through an article in a fish magazine I get was UV, They combo'd UV filtration with regular water changes, I think it was 15 percent daily... Any way my realization was that if I run a master sump I can actually afford to run a UV filter and auto water change on the sump. Hopefully preventing a return of that exact type of infection and cutting maintenance and cost at the same time. I'm not afraid of parasites or other similar common disease I can deal pretty well with those I haven't lost a fish to a common disease in 4 years I too have something of an unofficial treatment regimen that I cycle through, though its kind just 2 treatments unless I see a sign of something else pop up, salt one month with raised temps and back down seems to kill parasites and fungus outright without my fish showing stress. I had heard you can also get remote water quality monitors that will report to your phone if there is an issue. I want to get one of those to keep me in the loop. If I have air stones or power heads in every tank the fish will be fine with 12-24 hours of no sump should it fail or drain or something. There is allot of time and thought and I respect and see your opinion mine is different.

I wouldn't get more fish that I thought I could take care of... I think :P But seriously I have more reasons that just the aspiration of free time for the super sump. I know of what you speak with regards to mega disasters, failed pumps heaters etc taking out a whole system. I hope to build in safeties to prevent all of these. Separate filter work for most people but I've had 3 major tank jumping infections(bacteria) while keeping fish and those are the ones that kill and separate filters have never stopped them before and ultimately feel like money and time spent in vain not meaningfully bettering the life of my fish. Not allowing me to take better care of them. I only am trying to do what I believe will be best considering my own experiences and research. Again not all my tanks will be on the sump probably about 1/2 or 2/3 of the tanks I'll setup will be on it.

I do like to see your treatment rotation, that is cool. I thought I was the only one paranoid enough to do something like that. I started at-least one if not two quarantine threads on here and how to use preventative treatments on fish to keep internal parasites out of my tanks. No one really responded. I'm deffinately paranoid about infection. If you don't mind I'd like to pick your brain when I get my fish moved to there new homes in a month or so. I'm probably gonna sound goofy but what are Ich tabs?
 
We got martial artists and koi breeders... I started this thread be cause I had started the process of designing and saving for 3 major display tanks. Rationalizing they'd be the last ones I need till I sell the house, lol... I'm not so sure any more... I'm afraid of my own relative obsession. I think the tanks will be my stopping point and I hope stocking and decorating them will hold me over for the foreseeable future. Utlimately I do what to get a koi pond but there is not where for me to put one in my yard at the moment :P
 
ohh tkd and hapkido, are u korean by any chance? just asking both martial arts is korean lol.


i dont think its weird i never had a fish with ich or as a matter of fact any kind of parasite & etc. only reason i had a fish die on my was due fighting or being eaten... lol besides once when i was little i came home to find a fish dead in my shoe... accidentally left the lid open after feeding before school... (this was when i was 11? or something like that, a long time ago. lol )


Nope Ima whitey LOL
 
We got martial artists and koi breeders... I started this thread be cause I had started the process of designing and saving for 3 major display tanks. Rationalizing they'd be the last ones I need till I sell the house, lol... I'm not so sure any more... I'm afraid of my own relative obsession. I think the tanks will be my stopping point and I hope stocking and decorating them will hold me over for the foreseeable future. Utlimately I do what to get a koi pond but there is not where for me to put one in my yard at the moment :P


If you are questioning if its enough then ya you might have a problem. I don't think some of us will ever be satisfied. I know I won't
 
Sometimes less is more.. as stated addiction is addiction... for me it's in my blood.. my dad kept fish since he was a kid and naturally when I showed interest he went out and got me my own tank when I could take care of it myself. 99% of what I know I learned from the shcool of "hard-knock" fishkeeping... I've done alot of wrong things.. and learned alot of BS info reguarding tanks and fishkeeping. ATM we're down to 7 tanks.. but it will likely be less then that sooner rather then later. The desire for more never ends.. but at some point you become happy with what you have. sometimes it's the right tank... or the right fish... or just the right time. Oddball FW seemed to be my personally "happy place" since I started focusing on single specimin set-ups more. and steared away from the typical "community" set-ups I've been alot happier with my fish and my tanks. atm my husband and I are down to our Min of tanks... because everything we have atm we like keeping. we weeded out the extra "fluff" they where fish I cared for.. but wheren't neccisarily "part of the family"
 
If you are questioning if its enough then ya you might have a problem. I don't think some of us will ever be satisfied. I know I won't

x2 ill never be satisfied lol

ohh i just thought u were korean since theres a good amount of koreans actually on this forum to my surprise counting me lol :D
teach me some hapkido :D ive taken tkd too :)
 
I feel ya dude, I've kept fish just a little over a year now and I've bought, sold traded tons of fish. Luckily most of my beginners damage was limited to a shared 10g community tank. Now I work at my LFS and every day is fish so that helps a little but it didn't take long for me to realize I was never satisfied. Luckily I found Datnoids, my absolute favorite fish and can work my goals around them. I want to eventually have a 300+ tank or larger indoor pond at some point for a select few dats. I have a few small dats and some medium ones as well now, I got in over my head a bit buying so many but I made the best of it and watch them all to learn more about their behaviors and mannerisms. That's more rewarding to me now than setting up a new tank or buying that other cool fish I've wanted on impulse. Basically I want to learn all that I can about datnoids while I grow out a few specific ones (my first and two or three others) and gradually part with the others along the way, finding them good homes rather than making a quick buck off them. It took a little while but I found my goal and I'm working towards it, I slip up from time to time but I'm definitely finding that it's becoming more and more easy and satisfying with time. Oh and I got a 14g biocube to learn saltwater on the side for work which helps get my fix .
 
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