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Hello Everyone! Today, I wanted to write about my opinion regarding keeping a fishroom. Around a year ago, I decided to build myself a fishroom in our basement after seeing all those cool videos and designs. I have been eager to try so many new species and such. The idea sounded wonderful. And today, I am writing this , I currently have 25 tanks. Over time, it turned out to be a burden rather than joy. I understood that quality matters, not quantity. All the tanks require daily care and feeding. Boiling and prepping veggies, feeding, filter maintenance, water changes, more fish means more diseases, setting up and taking down quarantine tank way more often.... And ofcourse more money to spend on food, medicine, and other care requirements. The more tanks I had, the less I felt connected to my fish. The time I spent for the tanks turned into a chore rather than spending good quality time for joy. In addition to all of those, it limited my way of spending time out of the city/country, travelling and enjoying my time. Many of us want to keep all those dream fish and have numerous tanks around. But it is a huge responsibility that ,at least for me, limited the joy I have from fishkeeping. I just wanted to share my experience to make sure anyone who wants to build a fishroom has second thoughts. My plan? Dropping back to 3-4 tanks overtime. Lucky me, I only had species only very understocked tanks, so I can actually easily end up with 4 tanks in total if I decide to mix them all, excluding the juvenile bristlenose tank. I decided to prioritise my joy of fishkeeping and quality of time over quantity & the feeling of chore. I have so many animals. Chickens, tortoises, parrots, fish, dogs and cats. I need to provide a good care and love to all and having a fishroom does not help it. I cannot imagine going through such responsibility with having a partner and kids. Please rethink before being excited and going for it without having second thoughts!🤗 Time is one of the most valuable things in this world. By choosing to clean fish poop all the weekend, you ignore other possible alternatives you would spend your time on 😆 -just similar to how opportunity cost works in economy-🤪

I came to this hobby fairly late in life, like north of 45 (now north of 50). Perhaps I brought a certain selfishness or self preservation or business acumen to it. I won't bring in new fish unless I have a purpose or plan for them. Auctions are super boring when you have nothing to sell and zero intention of buying 😛 My fish room is a bit smaller in scale that yours @Lennie, with maybe 12 tanks running at the moment. There's a single 40 gallon, everything else is 20 or smaller. I'm actively trying to reduce the number of tanks so I can take on a fish room renovation a bit more easily at some point. I have expanded to dart frogs and mourning geckos, and have been very happy with the cross-compatibility (raising tadpoles is pretty similar to raising fry). I do sell to stores, not as a business endeavor but to subsidize as much of my hobby as possible. That has forced me to recognize the things that require a lot of effort, but give little reward, and that forms the basis of what I decide to remove from my collection. And I very rarely regret shutting down a tank after rehoming its occupants. 🙂

You are the best fish mom Gup. Your attention and care for your fish is absolutely great. Not gonna lie, Your amazing fishroom was one of the few hobbyist rooms that impressed me to give it a try. It is beautiful and I know any following works will be even better looking. I am lucky to have you as a friend and will support you through your great work. Sadly this fishroom thingy cannot work properly in my current state of life. I should enjoy this part through our chats with amazing fish you breed and raise. Your success makes me as happy as it is mine.♥

Kudos for sharing honestly. I see so Many folks go gung ho on fishrooms. Often it begins interfering in relationships due to the time they take. When I was working I would have never considered a fishroom. I’m retired now so have more time on my hands than I can possibly fill. My physical health has eliminated many of my other hobby’s. My hobby is now what keeps me physically active and makes me still feel useful in life and is incredibly life affirming. Losing my usefulness in the workplace I lost purpose and focus in life. My husband and I have no children and he still works full time. That is a lot of time to fill for someone who does not watch tv. I do read but being sedentary is not a healthy lifestyle. As a hobbyist I prefer to keep 12-14 tanks and not more so I do get to experience that connection with each and every fish in my family. When I joined local fish clubs I found an outlet for all the babies my fish make. I’ve joined with two other hobbyists who made a business of fish. (To all those thinking of getting rich and quitting their job on fish: even this joint effort does not replace a full time income. Only allows for a few extra luxuries and some mad money) I’ve expanded by adding 7 grow out tanks. Im at a point now the 2 converted bedrooms are too crowded and become an obstacle course during water changes. I have decided to convert my spacious basement into a fish room in order to make the work easier and frees my living space of buckets and excess fish clutter, shipping supplies etc. If building a fish room makes your life easier I highly recommend this. If your goal is just to have more tanks and more fish please reread @Lennie account. When you do not have time to watch and form that connection it becomes a job. A job that pays way less than minimum wage and does not have the fringe benefits of those fish being pets and fun vs possessions and work. Consult with those in your life first. Time is finite. Be sure they support the amount of time you will be dedicating to the hobby. If it’s not fun and fulfilling it’s no longer a hobby.

I had many fish I'd like to keep in the first place. I still do, now I know that it is a feeling that never goes away no matter how many tanks you have 😄 I have an experience of fishkeeping above 15 years. I thought I could easily take care of the room, but I forgot that life goes on and it will add a ton of workload as an extra, even if the tanks are very understocked and highly planted. Understocking helps to a degree, but not completely. A lot of those fishrooms that we see online, does make money out of it. A breeder, a youtuber or a store owner. We are hobbyists. That was a big mistake for me, because it is not a part of income/job for me but just a hobby. I have never sold any of my animals. There were few instances I gifted some to my fishkeeper friends that I know very well. So if I decide to have some fish , they spend their entire lifetime with me. Having one or two tanks at home really does not help with trying new species you like. Secondly, I wanted to breed a couple hard to breed fish. Not as a source of profit, but more of an experiment. Such as red lizard whiptails, where barely any info is available online. I tried to create perfect environments trying over and over again, and tried to find what works well. I may write a breeding report one day if I find time. I have always been hesitant of breeding fish due to rehoming issues. That sounds confusing maybe. I do want to experience witnessing unique breeding, fry raising, guarding, etc. phases, but I dont want to sell anything. Because majority of the people who keep fish take care of them quite poorly and do not educate themselves. I have witnessed so many occasions of people randomly entering a store and buying imcompatible fish and leave with zero fishkeeping knowledge or having no idea of how to keep an animal properly. And everyday I see numerous topics that fish suffer purely based on the mistake and ignorance of the keeper. Also I personally don't think animals should be bought or sold, but instead adopted. That's a personal opinion here. I see animals as my friends and I don't want to buy or sell a friend. But I do buy for sure, as we don't have anything like rehoming or rescuing fish here. Only cats and dogs really, which I already adopted 2 of each. I try my best to take best care of every animal I have, and I hated the idea possibly someone buying my juveniles not potentially taking care of them in the same level as I do, or maybe even totally neglecting. So after breeding for a few instances, I quit the breeding attempt too. Because I am full of my own babies to take care of now 🤣 I have only tried breeding GBR and red lizard whiptails intentionally and I was not very good at raising the GBR overall, so I dont have a lot of juveniles anyway. I will gift some of my juvenile fish to very close fishkeeper friends and keep the rest with me. Except the LF super red bristlenose pair I was gifted, and numerous babies they keep producing. I have to figure out what to do with that one

That is so right! You can always find an excuse to sneak in a new small tank. :') The biggest tank I have is 180 liters. One or two very big tanks sound great. It is great too see between all these experienced people, I am not alone feeling this way.

Like @TOtrees, I started keeping fish when I was in my late 50's, and I'll be 63 in about two weeks. I currently have nine tanks and three tubs outside at home and one tank on my desk at work. I know beyond a doubt that I don't want more than that, at least while I'm working. If my tanks and work aren't enough, I take care off all the maintenance on the 22 acres my wife and I live on, with the exception of the yard work at the other two houses. I am making a little money with my tanks, but only enough for a little spending money. I have a well built storage building behind my house (about 12' x 14' if I remember correctly) that is mostly filled with junk that should probably be thrown away. I have toyed with the idea of cleaning it out and making it a fish room when I retire in four years, but we'll see.

Thank you for the honesty. I’ve been through this and I am married with children, full time job, blah blah blah. I noticed that the smaller the tank, the easier it was to justify. I also began seeing them as numbers and chores, rather than a pleasure to keep. Collectoritis is a real thing. Now nothing under 75 gallons enters the house simply because it’s not as easy to drop a new one down (although I have it down to a calculated science). Now I’m down to 6 total aquariums and 2 stock ponds outside. My maintenance is always predictable and rarely does something happen to give me issues. I had many more sporadic issues when keeping a ton more aquariums. Good luck on downsizing.

Ph values don’t have anything at all to do with your cycle. It’s based on where your water originates. The amount of calcium, magnesium, and carbonates in your water. What is called the kh and gh values. Basically, it is what it is for you. If it’s higher, around an 8 this is perfectly normal in most locations. Most fish won’t have any issues with it. Some sensitive species might. And wild caught ones especially. So when you’re buying fish, best to find a local source where they’re raised in the same water. For your cycle, your ammonia and nitrites are 0, so you’re cycled. You can go ahead and slowly add fish to the tank. Slowly so you don’t overload your cycle.

I'm so glad I found this forum! My name is AJ and I have been keeping fish for several years. Right now I am breeding bettas, blue gouramis, multis, and angels. I also have various live-bearers and I keep koi in an outdoor pond in the warmer months. I look forwards to learning and sharing my knowledge !

Exact isn't really a worry just pick the one closest to that color. Big thing to understand about numbers to watch are ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The others are things that should stay the same so check them less often to just make sure that you're not having water charges from your source. My water I can't get any nitrate without fertilizer being added I have well water that's acidic and softer. I just watch the numbers to make sure they stay where they always are and does my fertilizer every few days. Once your tank gets mature you will be able to get like that.

I feel this, and I don’t even have a fishroom! However, I do have 14 tanks and am maxed out. I’m maxed out on both space and the time I want to dedicate to my tanks. Currently, I do maintenance to all of them on a weekly basis. Depending on what needs to be done, it’s somewhere between 3 and 6 hours of work. If it’s just water out and water in, it’s about 3 hours. If I have to clean sponges, clean canisters, scrape glass, etc it can get up to the 5 or 6 hour range. Either way, I have a routine, and I throw in my headphones and get to work. I enjoy listening to podcasts and singing to my favorite songs as I get my hands wet and do what needs to be done. I still enjoy this work. That being said, I’m perfectly fine where I’m at. I’ve spent the past 4 years setting up very healthy systems that mostly take care of themselves. I only really have to scrape glass on my Pea Puffer tank as snails are snacks. All other tanks are never to maybe once every few months. Although I’m currently content where I’m at, I don’t want to add any more. I don’t want to do more maintenance and take more of my time. There are definitely days where work ran long and the last thing I want to do is more work when I get home, but I still feed the fish. The only way I would ever consider an actual fish room is under specific circumstances. I would need to own my home (I currently do not). Additionally, I would only do it if I could set up auto water change. Having that would cut down on maintenance time tremendously, and would make it less of a “job” to actually take on more. The dream for me is to buy a house. In said house, I want a couple large display tanks on the main level. This would still satisfy the urge to actually do water changes and maintenance and get my hands wet. Then, in the basement, fishroom with auto water change. However, without auto water change I’ll never have that fishroom. Thanks for sharing your experience and educating all of us. I know I jumped right in the deep end when I got my first tank. I quickly got to the double digits in tanks, and then slowly added the couple more that I wanted. I’m thankful I was able to strike the right balance and not overdo it as a lot seem to do.

Kudos on your incite. I've been keeping fish for 50+ years. When you add a fish room you are actually adding dependents. About five years ago I had a similar revelation to yours@ Lennie. I've mentioned in other posts that I wanted a hobby, not another part time job. I keep four active aquariums and have four more in storage. I could set them all up, but that would require more time and expense. It would also require a dedicated fish room or removing the furniture from the living area. Keeping it simple means that I know that I can go away for two or three days and the fish will be fine. I also have avoided most of the issues that so many of the contributors on these forums have experienced.

When the water changes in the amazon it’s usually a sign of the rainy season approaching which means breeding time for your little tikes. I imagine thats what has them motivated haha

Bonus gif of silver dollar yeeting an algae wafer.

Well, I finally have water flowing through all the pipes (and not leaking). It's still a little loud, so I'll be trying to get some rocks or hydroton or something under the 4" L where it drops a foot or so. That's where all the noise is coming from, as expected. Unexpected benefit is the bottom 4" pipe leads to a 1.5" reducer so it holds more water than the rest. I can do some nft and some dft The bottom row should work much better for seed starting and smaller plants. That's my hope anyway. I got 4 geophagus sveni and 6 silver dollar juveniles, and they're all doing great so far. As far as plants, I just have some houseplant starts growing so far. Will get some veggies started soon, hopefully.

I always recommend testing your tap water also. Sometimes you can get an ammonia spike in the tap water and when you do a water change you're injecting more ammonia than the system can handle. I had that happen to me a few years back. I did a partial water change and noticed my fish (an Oscar) looking a bit stressed. I did a water test and saw some ammonia. Being a conscientious fishkeeper, I then did a larger water change to dilute the ammonia. The next day the ammonia reading was even higher, and the fish was looking even worse. What the heck? I checked all my filters again and started to do another water change when it occurred to me to test the well water. That's where the ammonia was coming from. I added some Prime to neutralize the ammonia in his tank and the biofiltration took care of the rest of the problem. We like to think the water coming from our tap is stable, but it's not always as stable as we'd like. The things you're supposed to do with an ammonia spike can just make the situation worse if your tap water has high ammonia content. What is your ph? At a low ph that ammonia level is harmless. At a higher ph, it's more of an issue. Ammonia toxicity is directly related to the ph of the water. Lower ph allows for near invincibility of fish to ammonia levels. Higher ph makes ammonia much more of an issue. While I wouldn't stress about a 0.5 ppm of ammonia at a lower ph, at a high ph, it could be an issue.

I'm not saying it's good for them, but the level of ammonia displayed on that test (the picture you posted above) wouldn't be fatal. Was it higher than that, when the fish were added and died? I suspect there is more than one cause involved, and I admit that makes it harder to troubleshoot/fix. Other than tank not cycled/ready, the most common causes of fish dying when added to new tank by new owner are insufficient acclimation (parameters too different), and disease (often fish are already sick when you buy them). A lot of these issues are cumulative, eg any one problem might not cause death, and might not even be noticed, but when you add them together it's too much. With other problems, the relatively low ammonia level you're seeing could be more important. Re cycling: letting water sit, even with a filter running, and even with live plants, won't "cycle" a tank. "Cycled" means having enough beneficial bacteria to process the metabolic wastes from the organisms within the tank. The plants you added will have introduced a teeny tiny amount of those bacteria (like a starter colony), but if you're not feeding them, they won't increase in number. That's what ammonia is for, it provides food to grow your tiny starter population from the plants (or from bottled beneficial bacteria) up to the level where they are numerous enough to fully process the fish waste, when you add them. The following numbers aren't meant to be realistic, but I suspect you have a thousand beneficial bacteria in your tank, when you actually need a billion. Because a thousand isn't nearly enough to covert the ammonia to nitrate (with a nitrite step in the middle).

We recently bought a new house (yay!!) how do I move my friends without completely tanking their cycle and starting over??

I have a few oto’s. I think I saw one once, maybe.

Tadpole>>>>Frog. 🐸 Is this a large enough pond for a gator?

I would move the tank by itself, either before or after everything else. 1) Drain tank water into at least 2 buckets. More depending on numbe and type of fish. 2) Put your filter media in one bucket. 3) Put your fish in the other bucket (multiple buckets depending on size and type of fish) 4) Dump the rest of the water. Remove large rocks but depending on the size of the tank and depth of substrate that can stay. 5) Move the tank, fill it up, plug in the filter, add your filter media. 6) Drip acclimate the fish for temperature and water parameter differences before adding them in.

Come out at 3 in the morning and stay at least 8 feet away from the tank and just watch.

Congratulations! How far away and how many gallons?

I had water sprite in a high flow area, but it was very well established. Also Vallisneria looks great waving in the current.

Couple of new photo: a. ortegai: Naughty PSO:

The reason I would guess 0.25 is that usually my ammonia tests come back a dark yellow (like the chart), but a small amount of ammonia is barely greenish light yellow. How long has it been since you were confident you had ammonia?

You could add a low dose of epsom salt to the quarantine tank 1 table spoon for 3 gallons for 5 days it will raise your GH @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

Correct, camera is not helping. It is zero to me, but @macdaddy36, is that close enough? 0 or .25 idk.

I think you’ll be better off shimming under the stand with hard shims - wood, hard plastic, or similar vs. using only a softer, rubber pad. I think the soft pad is also a good idea but I wouldn’t want your stand ever so slowly warping under the tank.

The fast then peas might be worth trying but I’m not convinced this is only a swim bladder issue. It looks like more of a spinal injury to me. They can have both, because if there is spinal damage they may not be able to regulate their swim bladder appropriately. Tough situation, but keep on with your plan and see how they do.

Now, I am not a biologist or fish expert, but I see no reason why black sand would be a bad substrate - it seems like it would be ideal. They are primarily black with white spots, so I would imagine this would make them feel safe (especially if you have a larger group and lots of hiding spots). If you really wanted to, mixing in some lighter grey or white sand probably wouldn't hurt, but I do not think it is incredibly necessary at all. Trust fish experts over me, but this is how I would look at the situation. Hope my input helps a little bit!

By now she has probably picked up the language, she is OK 😂

I cant upgrade them to a bigger tank, but I can add some juvenile angelfish once Wednesday totally heals. Seems like the best bet. Angels are limiting, and since I want to empty my fishroom, Id rather use this 50cube for smaller sized fish or a mix tank of my guppies. Angels are not guppy safe

I’d keep checking your parameters though. If you see any ammonia or nitrites it’s time for a water change. And more prime. Since you had a higher amount of ammonia 2 days ago. I’d still be really cautious and test daily.

It's what i would call zero, or very close to it. I think any shading may just be camera angles

We have several chicken keeper members. @Sal @laritheloud and a few others.

looks like .25 to me

yeah 🤣🤣 its a classic i get that all the time, when i look at it i see visions of my son tim.

Tight lid to prevent evaporation to a big degree and autofeeder. plus as everyone said, someone watching the tanks at least once a week and renewing the food in the autofeeder etc would be nice. Speaking of it, someone else who has no idea about fishkeeping may result in horrible scenarios rather than good. Sometimes even those who have an idea of fishkeeping may result horrible scenarios too. If you will have someone visit and feed your fish manually, definitely get those weekly pill boxes, and fill your own portions into those boxes and tell them to feed only the portion you filled in for that specific day. Overfeeding is a very problematic and common issue even for some experienced aquarists Something like this for a month

I would hire a care service. And I would have very specific directions for your tank laid out. How much of what food, how to add water and dechlorinator. I wouldn’t necessarily have them do water changes per se. But, if they’re feeding minimally, you should be okay if you pull your nitrates way down before you leave. And unfortunately, leave them directions for passed animals. you could even go so far as to leave preportioned food in pill containers by the day. or if you have a family or a trusted friend, train them really well and still do the detailed instructions.

With very little water movement like you say I would be concerned it would be a mosquito breeding convention. You could 1. Add more surface agitation 2. Add a few fish in the summer. A good option I was thinking of could be a paradise fish or two since they wouldn’t breed out of control. Depending on what plants you choose they might not be able to survive the winter because I assume the pond will be above ground meaning that it will be more exposed to cold. Sounds like a great project!

Yes! But yknow...... I can fix him! 😆😆

Here's one I found a little over a week ago. They're coloring up around here now, and it's amazing to see!

Look honey! Junior's got his legs!!

made a couple tweaked a couple things. Can’t have a pond without a gater and a pelican. Hope to finish the bricks at the front. Can’t wait to add the goldfish at the end of month.

Here's my first ever outdoor mini pond. It has koi swordtails, pygmy sunfish, one kissing gourami that is on vacation after being rehabbed, flagfish, and glo danios. The plants are out of control and I'm constantly thinning the water hyacinth. Since there are so many fry in here, when I pull out a few clumps of water hyacinth I keep it in a 10 gallon aquarium for about a week to see if I've accidentally grabbed some fry or eggs that were tangled in the roots. By the time the water hyacinth melts away inside, i usually find newly hatched glodanio fry. I have an underwater camera in there so I can watch since the only fish that are ever visible from the top are the glo danios and swordtails. Here are a few more pictures. A small temporary viewing tower being visited by the kissing gourami and pink glofish. My youngest enjoys snail hunting in the pond and loves that the glofish nibble her fingers. Swordtail fry everywhere Glofish fry inside And some low quality underwater pictures... Male pygmy sunfish Kissing gourami on vacation after being healed from fin/ body rot. He goes back to my dad's tank when I drain the pond. Kissing gourami when i first got him. Already making plans for a bigger pond next summer!

I don't know how anyone else's summer tubbing is going, but my first effort seems to be going alright. I put in 4 Hong Kong yellow fin WCMM when the mosquito larva started getting thick. They've been amazing at dealing with chowing on those, as well as the temperature swings in the water. I got a bit of an algae bloom early on but as the dwarf lotus (Nelumbo) grew in, the water is now crystal clear! Hopefully the fish will spawn, and then I just have to figure out what to do with them this winter... For now, here is a photo of when the dwarf lotus was producing it's first emergent leaf: And recently as it has begun ti fill in the tub (don't mind the kid's toy lawn mower in the background): Hopefully I'll have an update later this summer with it blooming. Wish me luck!