The fish thread

[Klue]

Hey fish enthusiasts!

I have found a very informative site. Wikipedia for fish!

Fishipedia!!!

CHE CHE CHECK IT OUT!

Eggman it says Angels eat lettuce

:D

 

[eggman]

Awesome link Klue! thanks heaps dude

Im going to feed the angels some lettuce tonight and see how it goes

That wiki was informative but I must say that this thread has turned into a wealth of knowledge for all participants. Scientific and tech knowledge is a great thing, but its the opinions from peoples own past experiences with keeping fish that has been invaluable.

Thanks -

Klue
Fengtau
*Starfalls69*
Samadhi
Tapout
Nickyj

...and ofcourse eggman88888, your input to this thread has been wonderful, we are all constantly amazed at the depths of your knowledge and your wonderful personality has warmed us even in the deepest of the cockle regions, thanks dude!

 

[timetraveller]

starfalls:

just my 2cents about the questions u posted about platties and the rest of ur fishys.

1. if you want to breed ur platties and ensure the safety of the babies, purchase a fry hatchery/ net breeding thing that will separate the pregnant fish from the rest of the tank. you would have to however identify the pregnant platty (fat female with a almost square like looking tummy), and chuck it into the hatchery which is of course just hanging by the side of your current fish tank. Once she gives births to fry, remove her and let the fry grow out a little before releasing them into the community tank.

2. or you can just go with the option of letting nature take its course. purchase some java moss and scatter a little around the tank. they make good hiding spots for fry to prevent them from being eaten. rocks and stones help too as fry will hide in the spots between them.

3. i highly discourage you from keeping the convicts in a community tank. even if its 2 females, they are highly aggressive and destructive in nature (plants). even without a male, they would sometimes lay eggs and that would mean they would because really aggressive and start defending their territory.

i like convicts too - especially the barred ones and i would really recommend you to keep a pair in a separate tank and watch them breed. the last pair of convicts i had bred almost once a month ! you'll get anywhere from 50-few hundred fry everytime.

4. im not sure if the lombardis could be picking off the tetras but im pretty sure the convicts will in due time. if you really like cichlids, the only ones i would recommend keeping in a community tank are the rams(blue/gold/german).
i believe the only community fish u cant keep with the rams are the guppies.


im not a professional fish breeder but have been keeping fishes for the last 10years or so. also, my info might not be 100% right so feel to correct me if i wrong.
sorry for the long post just like to help out

 

[timetraveller]

i bought a nice bright red male fighter last week.

unfortunately he died exactly one week later.

i think he was sick. i kept him in a fairly big tank for his size, but for some reason the water got so dirty i had to clean it three times!

fighter fish rule

fighting fishes are extremely hardy and easy to keep. they dont really need much space and most people keep it in a small cube tank
did u use a water conditioner to remove the chlorine from the tap water when you did your water change ??? (im assuming the death was from untreated tap water)

 

[The Fish]

I couldn't disagree more with the above statement. Just because they're hardy doesn't mean they like being cramped up in a tiny bowl or vase as an excuse for a tank with no room to move. Their behaviour becomes a lot more interactive if they're allowed some space.

We recently imported two half moon fighters from Thailand one in a 40L tank and one in a 10L. Between 10L and 20L is pretty much an ideal size.

 

[timetraveller]

I couldn't disagree more with the above statement. Just because they're hardy doesn't mean they like being cramped up in a tiny bowl or vase as an excuse for a tank with no room to move. Their behaviour becomes a lot more interactive if they're allowed some space.

We recently imported two half moon fighters from Thailand one in a 40L tank and one in a 10L. Between 10L and 20L is pretty much an ideal size.

the cube i posted might have a little small. but IMO the reason why betta hobbyist do not keep their bettas in huge tanks is due to the fact bettas prefer stale stagnant water which is similar to their natural habitat. running a 40l aquarium would almost require the need for a filter which would create water flow and destroy bubble nest. also as bettas are found in shallow streams and pockets of water in the wild, i wouldnt put a betta in a tall 1-2 foot tall tank.


however i am also against the idea of putting bettas in food containers as seen by local fish shops.

as in the fish keeping hobby, everyone has their own opinions and i appreciate yours. at the height of my betta keeping hobby, i kept close to 50 male fighters in cubes slightly bigger than the link i posted and massed the females in a aprox 150ltr pot. unfortunately i have no pictures to prove this as my old hard disk got wiped :/

i am a big betta fan however and i have would have to say the half moons now are way more beautiful than those say 10 years ago.

 

[eggman]

Thank you for that input timetraveller, that was some great info.

Like I said in an earlier post, everyone reading this thread should remember that much of the so called advice is not necessarily always an accurate fact nor is it scientifically proven etc, however it is advice from someone with a bit of past experience.

From my experience with keeping fish and aquariums, this type of advice can be invaluable at times

 

[drugfukkdrockstar]

I have some advice - don't put any fish in the tank with your pet yabbie and crab if you don't wish for them to be anything more than food.

My boyfriend wanted both - a lovely big tank full off gorgeous colourful guppies, and also he wished to have in there his pet yabbie, and my pet crab. Talk about the tank of death!

Believe it or not too, my little crab killed his big yabbie! That's why I named him Hercules!

The fish barely lasted a week as well. I have since then banned my boyfriend for having such things in the house.

 

[timetraveller]

good site for cichlid lovers:
www.cichlidmadness.com

flowerhorn lovers:
www.flowerhornusa.com

eggman8888,

wat fishes are you keeping atm ? im keeping cichlid hybrids and flowerhorns atm.

 

[eggman]

eggman8888,

wat fishes are you keeping atm ? im keeping cichlid hybrids and flowerhorns atm.

I have a tank still at my parents house with a giant gourami residing in it. The reason its at my parents place is because thats where i was 11 or so years ago when I got the gourami. It hasn't been moved from there for the obvious reason

My other big tank has a 9 year old Eastern Longneck and a 4 year old plecostumous. My other tank is just made up of a bunch of dwarf gouramis, bristle nose cats and two koi angels

In the past I have had barramundis, oscars, frontosas and other cichlids.

Those flowerhorns are something else though!

 

[timetraveller]

giant gouramis are mighty expensive... i've never kept one b4 but i have heard stories from others that did... including one that a giant gourami swallowed some plastic fittings from the filter pipes and ending up crapping it out in lines of plastic...

can never verify the rumour(could be my mate bullshitting) but i hear they eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouth.

 

[eggman]

Its true. You have to be careful what you put in there and keep all bits and pieces fastned down. Pretty much his diet is largely vegetable matter, that being -

Bananas
Strawberry
Blueberry
Peas
Zuchinni
Broccoli etc etc

every few weeks I will give him one of those community dinner frozen cubes and then randomly a beef heart cube, just to keep the protien and animal fats up.

But yeah, if it fits in his mouth and its stays in the water long enough it will most likely end up in his mouth. He did have a tank buddy who died and he was a leopard pattern pleco but other fish just get bullied. for example, I had some mollies in there and he would swallow them only to spit them out again, this stressed to mollies to no end as you could imagine and they would die.

One thing we do for fun is give him kisses by putting our lips up to the tank glass, he then puts his huge lips onto the glass and this creates the image that he is kissing. Reality is most likely that he is trying to eat you.

oh yeah, and he eats a lot gravel. You have to make sure you keep rounded pebbles rather than sharp grit

 

[Klue]

I think we might be onto something with the fishy thread. There has been 4 or 5 brand new noobs who are very knowledgable post here. Thats great! Break them in here, then they can become fully fledged social nerds!

With fighters in jars, people say in the wild they live in elephant footprints. I have fightey in a tank thats about 30cm long and he is VERY active swimming all over the place. So probably he is very heathy from all that food and exercise. They cant get much exercise in a jar.
I would love to have a few male fighters in a big tank (I have read this can be done) they would establish teritory and occasionally fight and escape rather than fight to the death. That would be so so awesome.

dfrs, I have seen a yabby grab and eat a goldfish before, it was hilarious. Yabbies are great in community tanks.

:D

 

[neverwas]

could be retaining food matter

how is it going in the water? Is it lethargic and tilting/favouring to one side?

She seems happy. Not tierd or sluggish in any way. I thought she may just be retaining food matter but she still has a belly. Not as big as it was originally but its still there.

We aren't trying to breed any of our fish but it would be nice to see the fry grow up but im thinking we may just need to let nature take its course and see what happens. We were going to set up a spare tank but am having problems finding one.

 

[neverwas]

3. i highly discourage you from keeping the convicts in a community tank. even if its 2 females, they are highly aggressive and destructive in nature (plants). even without a male, they would sometimes lay eggs and that would mean they would because really aggressive and start defending their territory.

i like convicts too - especially the barred ones and i would really recommend you to keep a pair in a separate tank and watch them breed. the last pair of convicts i had bred almost once a month ! you'll get anywhere from 50-few hundred fry everytime.

Yeah I know they can be agressive, but these two aren't

*shrugs*

They've been swimming around together for about a month now and it is the foxes that are demolishing the plants not the convicts lol its fun to watch. The convicts seem to keep to themselves.

 

[timetraveller]

Yeah I know they can be agressive, but these two aren't

*shrugs*

They've been swimming around together for about a month now and it is the foxes that are demolishing the plants not the convicts lol its fun to watch. The convicts seem to keep to themselves.

i have kept foxes before and although they are great algae eaters and look similar to the chinese algae eater they are quite destructive in nature !

i grew 2 of them out in a cichlid tank and they were pretty cool at the start, just minding their own business and cleaning my tank at a much better rate than plecos or bristlenoses.
however trouble started once they start getting big! they started harassing even the bigger cichlids by trying to suck slime their bodies. The cichlid would retaliate but given their speed and size they took off easy. they started competing with the plecotomus/bristlenoses for territory too and i finally took them off.

for keeping algae in check, nothing beats the bristlenoses or plecos.

 

[timetraveller]

She seems happy. Not tierd or sluggish in any way. I thought she may just be retaining food matter but she still has a belly. Not as big as it was originally but its still there.

We aren't trying to breed any of our fish but it would be nice to see the fry grow up but im thinking we may just need to let nature take its course and see what happens. We were going to set up a spare tank but am having problems finding one.

if you are going to set up a spare tank for frys, make sure you use an internal sponge filter as they wont suck up frys.

 

[neverwas]

I have a tank still at my parents house with a giant gourami residing in it. The reason its at my parents place is because thats where i was 11 or so years ago when I got the gourami. It hasn't been moved from there for the obvious reason

WOW 11 years old your fish is?? Thats awesome :D

JUST how BIG is a giant gourami?? id love to see some pic!! :D

Well i managed to find a spare tank for our pregnant platty!

*does a happy dance*


Going to buy an air stone for it, some fine sand and i think it already has an internal filter. Should work out good because im due to do a water change in our 3-4ft tank

She's lookin mighty preg today :D Hopefully only a couple of weeks to go.

 

[eggman]

WOW 11 years old your fish is?? Thats awesome :D

JUST how BIG is a giant gourami?? id love to see some pic!! :D

I think the average size of a GG is about 60cm and avge age is 16

Someone once told me they seen a GG that a thai guy owned and it was 1m in length.

I posted a pic of mine on about the second page of this thread

 

[neverwas]

For all you Giant Gourami fans out there

Gary Gourami wants to show you all his sexy big lips

OMG AWESOME!!

Does he have the bristol tassles like smaller gouramis?? I cant see them