Hey from Renee

[StormyRen]

I'm really happy Aquarium Co-op has it's own forum now. Thanks to Cory and his whole team, along with others in the hobby, I've found my love for aquatics again. I use to have tanks when I was younger. We had a mixed variety of aquatic inhabitants: guppies, angelfish, a pea puffer, a newt, ghost shrimp, mollies, and more. After a while we grew out of the enticement to keep tanks as the importance of our 4-H animals grew. Winning classes was how we put ourselves through school, otherwise who knows where we'd be. In the past 4 years my love for aquariums and the want to enjoy God's creations again increased. I started out with two 37 gallon tanks, one each in my room and the living room. After just 3 months my 37g in my room blew out the whole bottom forcing my tank inhabitants temporarily to the living room tank. I had 6 white fin rosy tetras, 2 golden lyre tail mollies, 2 calico butterfly mollies, ghost shrimp, a common pleco named Jaws, a pair of crown tail betas, and two albino rainbow sharks that were my pride and joy. Yeah... what a mix for a 37g. They all got along except for Jaws when he got bigger. I also was enlightened, thanks to Cory and others, that I had quite an amount of fish in that tiny tank both inch wise and odd combination including the two rainbow sharks. I found out later that the brand of tank I had did and does have a tenancy of blowouts, which is sad because I've used the brand before with no problem. Eventually my finned friends had to be rehomed, and to be honest I miss them. However, the 37g in the living room was changed out for a 40g breeder, a 10g was added on the counter top in the dining room, and a 20g long and 5g ended up in my room.... about a year after I changed my floor due to the "flood". All 3 small tanks ended up full of guppies and snails even though they were intended for shrimp and the 40 ended up being an accidental breeding ground for bronze corydoras. Since then the guppies are now summer tubbing and loving it, the bronze are still reproducing faster than we can handle (I think it's kinda funny but mom sure doesn't), and I finally have the shrimp tank I've always wanted. The 20g long has 5 pygmy corydoras (one of which was a baby I raised from when it was a guppy tank), 4 types of snails (the pond snails were accidents), and fantasy blue dreams that I'm super excited to have. 😍 I'm always learning new things about aquatics from the fish fam and I love helping others with their new aquatic pets. I use to work in retail where I had to step in to help in the pet department as guests needed assistance. It's kinda sad when guests admit that someone in a different department seems to know more than the associate responsible for the fish. Thanks to all I've learned I have helped many guests with making smart choices for their aquatic pets both in the tank size they need, school or shoal sizes preferred/ required to feel safe and thrive, and what fish are considered aggressive and or fin nippers. I don't work there anymore. Even though I'm trying to limit the amount of tanks I have and what are in them I will be forever interested in the aquarium hobby, and maybe one day I'll help endangered species regain a foothold in their native habitats. Who knows. 😄

[Streetwise]

Your shrimp and ponds are beautiful!

[Daniel]

Love those blue shrimp!