View Full Version : Hello From Toronto!
Skate3002
08-17-2009, 12:05 AM
Hey, i've always been into animals and currently have quite a few of them and I've been reading about setting up an aquarium for a few years and was looking at setting up a reef tank but until im ready to finally get it going i decided to go with a freshwater and see how I do. I have a 25 gallon all in one tank that i bought off of a buddy of mine. i like the look and idea of live plants but i was a thought it would be a good idea to start with just fish for my first time. i wanted the tank to look as natural as i could so i went with a darker coloured sand and mixed in a light brown stone. I then went to the lake down the street and found a pile of rocks i thought would look good and boiled them for the better part of an hour to make sure there was nothing left alive on them. I tried my best to pile the rocks so that there were plenty of hiding places, but it still looked natural and not like they were set up. I picked up a bunch of decent looking plastic plants. After letting the tank cycle for about a week and a half i put my first additions to the tank. I've liked neon tetras since i was little so i picked up 8 of them, aswell as 4 american flagfish. unfortunately the flagfish were a bit to aggressive for my neons and kept nipping at their tails so i traded them after a week for 6 rummynose tetras. I wanted to add something a little larger to the tank that wasnt part of the school of tetras so i picked up a powder blue dwarf gourami which unfortunately died last night after 2 months of no apparent problems. I also have 4 glowlight tetras and 6 algea eating shrimp. Im happy with the tank so far aside from the ich outbreak and the death of my gourami and 1 rummynose and one glowlight. I normally do a waterchange every sunday of about 25%. I ended up missing one last sunday and with working late every day i didnt get a chance to do it until today so i beleive that may have been the issue with the loss. hopefully everything is fine since my water change today. i plan on picking up a test kit in the very near future so i can catch any problems like this before they happen again.
http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww173/skate3002/CIMG1365.jpg
ch-47 soldier
08-17-2009, 12:10 AM
unfortunately the dwarf gourami dont live very long at all. the longest i had one was about three months. i have yet to hear of anybody keeping them much longer. i doubt the missing of a water change contributed to the loss of the gourami at all.
Skate3002
08-17-2009, 12:13 AM
really, well thats somewhat good news. it really sucks though i liked him alot and i felt bad that it died because of something i did or failed to do.
Here's what the tank looks like now.
http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww173/skate3002/CIMG1426.jpg
Minus the gourami of course...
ch-47 soldier
08-17-2009, 12:21 AM
not bad. i have always liked rummynose tetras. i had a school of them when i had a 55g but lost most of them to ich. the only one that lived is now in my wifes 55g and it schools with the neons
Skate3002
08-17-2009, 12:32 AM
not bad. i have always liked rummynose tetras. i had a school of them when i had a 55g but lost most of them to ich. the only one that lived is now in my wifes 55g and it schools with the neons
Ya every fish in my tank had ich right after i put the gourami in but i used "super ich cure" and it was gone in less then a week with no casualties. all my tetras school together, rummy's, glowlights, and neons, i love it. i want to get a bigger tank just so i can make the schools bigger and maybe add a few more types like black neons or cardinals or something. maybe down the road, after the reef...
Future peice of the ocean
http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww173/skate3002/CIMG1327.jpg
unfortunately the dwarf gourami dont live very long at all. the longest i had one was about three months. i have yet to hear of anybody keeping them much longer. i doubt the missing of a water change contributed to the loss of the gourami at all.
Yea my boyfriend had a dwarf gourami and he said it only lasted like 4 -5 months..
Besides that though, gouramis are one of the hardiest f/w fish and can live through pretty rough circumstances. Not to say they shouldn't be taken care of. After all, the better you take care of fish the longer they will live.
ch-47 soldier
08-17-2009, 12:56 AM
there's a lot of things to know about marine tanks. i would start with a fish only tank and move up to a FOWLR and then a reef. i had a fish only tank and i really made a mess of things. do a lot of research and know what you're getting into. you have a lot more and different things to worry about with a marine tank.
Rbishop
08-17-2009, 4:50 AM
Welcome to AC!
Skate3002
08-17-2009, 9:49 PM
there's a lot of things to know about marine tanks. i would start with a fish only tank and move up to a FOWLR and then a reef. i had a fish only tank and i really made a mess of things. do a lot of research and know what you're getting into. you have a lot more and different things to worry about with a marine tank.
beleive me ive been reading everything there is to know about it for the past 3 years. and i dont plan on rushing it im going to do a full cycle and then clean up crew and then only add one thing at a time and probably each a month apart. im more into the full ecosystem of the reef rather then a fish only tank