cjblac92
01-12-2009, 06:08 PM
I'm new to forums as well as aquariums - this is the first time I've ever posted anywhere.
I've been looking around here since November '08 (ghosting, I guess) and decided to take the plunge and join the community - y'all have already helped so much!
I started fish-keeping when my daughter brought a comet goldfish home from a visit to the local petting zoo. Tried the bowl thing for a couple of weeks - WAY too much trouble keeping clean (also seemed cruel) so I researched and bought a 14 gal tank kit, cycled it with Goldie, she looked lonely so I added a school of 5 Tiger Barbs (no nippers, thank goodness), had a green algae bloom so I added three otos thinking I might lose 1 or 2, all three survived over 6 weeks and the tank was sparkling, by then I was hooked, had a friend ready to take down and sell her 75 gal set-up (lots of guppies in her tank) so I took it down for her, cleaned it up, bought a 20 gal tank at her pawn shop to hold the guppies until the big one was set up, kept the used filter media in a zip lock baggie (thanks to info I got here) and put a bunch of the used substrate in a pantyhose (I didn't like the color my friend had, wanted something more natural, but I did want the bacteria) so I had a good jump start on cycling the big tank, took most of the guppies to LPS, put the rest in the new tank with the Tiger barbs and the Otos, unfortunately the Otos didn't like blanched zucchini (another tip from here) and they didn't survive the transition...to make a longer story just long...kept the 20 gal tank, gave the 14 gal set up to a friend for Christmas, put Goldie and a new friend (a beautiful white/ gold with black speckles goldfish of some sort) in the 20 gal tank and I've been slowly adding to the 75 gal - current community: 25 plus guppies, two peppered corys, 3 Pearl Gouramis, 7 Bleeding Heart Tetras, and 4 otos that I joyfully added the other day when I noticed some brown algae (these like the zucchini, going to try some other veggies).
Well that's pretty much my story to date. Aquariums are the perfect hobby for me: the perfect marriage of Science and Art!
I have a few questions and will be posting to the appropriate forums soon for answers.
I've been looking around here since November '08 (ghosting, I guess) and decided to take the plunge and join the community - y'all have already helped so much!
I started fish-keeping when my daughter brought a comet goldfish home from a visit to the local petting zoo. Tried the bowl thing for a couple of weeks - WAY too much trouble keeping clean (also seemed cruel) so I researched and bought a 14 gal tank kit, cycled it with Goldie, she looked lonely so I added a school of 5 Tiger Barbs (no nippers, thank goodness), had a green algae bloom so I added three otos thinking I might lose 1 or 2, all three survived over 6 weeks and the tank was sparkling, by then I was hooked, had a friend ready to take down and sell her 75 gal set-up (lots of guppies in her tank) so I took it down for her, cleaned it up, bought a 20 gal tank at her pawn shop to hold the guppies until the big one was set up, kept the used filter media in a zip lock baggie (thanks to info I got here) and put a bunch of the used substrate in a pantyhose (I didn't like the color my friend had, wanted something more natural, but I did want the bacteria) so I had a good jump start on cycling the big tank, took most of the guppies to LPS, put the rest in the new tank with the Tiger barbs and the Otos, unfortunately the Otos didn't like blanched zucchini (another tip from here) and they didn't survive the transition...to make a longer story just long...kept the 20 gal tank, gave the 14 gal set up to a friend for Christmas, put Goldie and a new friend (a beautiful white/ gold with black speckles goldfish of some sort) in the 20 gal tank and I've been slowly adding to the 75 gal - current community: 25 plus guppies, two peppered corys, 3 Pearl Gouramis, 7 Bleeding Heart Tetras, and 4 otos that I joyfully added the other day when I noticed some brown algae (these like the zucchini, going to try some other veggies).
Well that's pretty much my story to date. Aquariums are the perfect hobby for me: the perfect marriage of Science and Art!
I have a few questions and will be posting to the appropriate forums soon for answers.