Ok here comes my turn,
1-When I am going to set up a new tank I take the sponges from about 8 of my other tanks and squeeze them into a bucket of water and replace the filter media with new and put the old bags in the bucket and let it sit for a week so it gets nice an juicy. Then I power pack the new tank with the sludgy water and power up the filters on the new tank and let them run to clear out the tank at the same time treating with a recipe of prime combined with whatever other water treatment i get. Next day I do a 50% wc suck out the sludge on the bottom and put fish in, keeping a daily wc routine on the tank for the next week or 2 testing and when the tests come in solid, I basically stop testing.
2. I double dose my tanks with prime every wc, I add the cap/50g before I take out the water and then when adding water back in I add the cap/50g by pouring it on the filter outflow I keep my downpipes really long on my tanks
3. I will do study on fish to see their habits, but have long come to the conclusion that fish are really smart and have their own personalities and will buck the trend of what resources say they will act like
4. I have at times taken a bully fish who has so upset me by his actions an rapidly moved him from tank to tank to tank so to teach it a lesson that his bad attitude will get him a swim with the big boys
5. FISH EAT FISH that being said I have an arrowana in my tetra tank and i really dont care if he eats them cause thats what arrowana do.
6. I do test at times but have found that my sense of smell which has been honed by 30+ years as a chef is almost as precise as test kits
7. I really really really hate it when the water level of a tank is lower than 1 inch from the top of a tank
8. Regardless of what people tell me I WILL NOT RUN A TANK WITHOUT A AIR INPUT OF SOME SORT OR ANOTHER whether it be powerhead or airstone etc... for me my tanks are better with and for some reason plants in my tanks dont do well
9. For me the only way to go is big tanks, BUT I CAN NOT STAND WHEN PEOPLE TRY TO SMACK AROUND OTHER PEOPLE FOR THEIR STYLE OF TANK KEEPING
10. Though I do regular weekly changes of 30-50% on my tanks, any tank 150+g gets a 5th change every month
11. Though people are all about the maximum size tank for this fish or that fish I have rehomed certain fish and don't care what people say about it as at it's present stage of life growth the size of the fish suits the tank it's in. After all my pacu are much better off in my 180g than in the respective 33 and 55g tanks they were in
12. I will populate my tanks with as many fish as I see fit because I have a direct look at the quality of life they have the condition they are in and with the constant religious over filtration and wc I do the tanks are in PRIME shape
13. Since the quality of the water coming out of the tap is different for each location we live in, the personal style suited to said water source is exactly that suited to the location we live in.
14. I will not feed my fish every day unless they are fry or young juvi
15. If i come across a fish that needs rehoming and I have to buy the crap tank it comes with to get the fish I will and then I will throw the tank out, this guy came outta a home made 30g with no air, no filter flow to speak of and tonnes of green algae, the red on his tail is the bleed out of the hemorage that his fins had started
and though goldfish are not suppose to go with cichlids, I put him in with jewels and hap 44, in my books he is better in this 100g than dying in a cesspool
16. FORGIVE ME BETTA LOVERS though they are very pretty to look at I hate bettas with a passion, though the ones I have rehomed I have kept alive as best I could for the time they lived with me.
17. When someone tells me I dream to big about what I am doing with fish, unless they have a valid point based on good reason, I refuse to listen to them and simply say. WATCH ME DO IT!!!!! political correctness be damned
18. In my life career choices I was gonna be a lawyer, then an accountant, then went into fashion design but ended up going back to my first passion food. This being said as a chef I am always looking and always creating new recipes, so too is it with my fish keeping I am always making new recipes of how to do what I do and the next step im going to take is make my own food and if it works, I will make it readily available to people for cost and shipping cause the pet stores really peeeve me with the high prices they charge for certain things.
19. My final one I can think of is this, my wife and I have 7 kids and if one of my kids has an idea for a tank or a fish they want to get or want me to get I will do it opinions of others on look of said tank be damned, unless its a valid concern and they must know how to care for it properly before it happens . One time at a lfs, after watching a cold fast current river tank set up they had for a couple of weeks I asked the employee about the salamanders they had in the tank, to which he responds with a laugh and a sneer "Those are not salamanders, they are wild caught newts!!!" So I says ok cool, you had paddle tail salamanders in there last week and I missed them my son wants some how much are they and I will take 3-4. To which he responded "I am the resident reptile and amphibian specialist, you do not even know the scientific name of this NEW, heck you did not even know it was a newt. So I can refuse to sell it to you!" and he walks away laughing to his coworker. So I walk over (his coworker is a university student who has come into my restaurant where im running over 800g of tanks) and I proceed to unload on him since we spend loads of money there and since i can reproduce the tank conditions easy and it eats white cloud minnows.
just to add the goldfish after 4 days in my tank, the bleed is going away and the goldfish is happy
and mr monster eating a tankmate last night, shocked me cause the fish was half as long as him
