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O Hai! Newish fish-keeper who has just fallen deep into the rabbithole of needing ALL the tanks

Cisa

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Cisa Apprentice

Cisa

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Hello all! My name is Cisa and I'm in New Albany, Indiana (just across the river from Louisville, KY) and just recently joined the Aquarium Co-op community. I've had non-planted guppy tanks for the last few years after getting 3 guppies which then of course turned into 300 guppies 😅

I recently discovered the amazing world of aquarium Youtube and now can't find enough places in my house for all the aquascapes and cool fish I need to have in my life. I sold the majority of my guppies to my local fish store and kept back only a few for more intentional breeding. I've got my babies moved over to their own 10 gallon planted with some ghost shrimp and have attempted my first scaped 30 gallon which is home to the adult guppies, a few dalmation and balloon mollies, blue velvet shrimp, a handful of mystery snails, and my very first pleco.

I don't know what I don't know and I want to learn everything about everything. Needless to say, I now spend a lot of time reading the forum and watching the whole catalog of Aquarium Co-op videos. The majority of my critter keeping life has been dogs, cats, and hedgehogs with a few adventures into chicken land.

I recently got a great deal on a 48 gallon tank and spent most of my evening looking at all the fun fish at my favorite local store and dreaming up what I want for this new tank. I'm thrilled to have found this community and can't wait to meet fellow fish nerds 🐟

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Jawjagrrl Mentor

Jawjagrrl

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On 10/2/2021 at 8:09 PM, Cisa said:

I'm thrilled to have found this community and can't wait to meet fellow fish nerds 🐟

Hi Cisa! It's an amazing hobby and I've only had good experiences meeting other hobbyists. Multi-tank Syndrome is real, but be wary of too many too fast and burnout. You can risk turning what was a relaxing pasttime into what can feel like a second job, especially when things don't go well - and things happen. It's been 20 years but I still remember the blizzard that knocked out my power for 13 days and wondering how I would get my tanks through it - and i had big oscars back then. The day I came home from work to find my 18" pleco on the floor... dry. And the miracle of putting him the tank "just to see" and he revived!

SHaring it with others like a spouse that has never kept fish is fun too - woke up one day this week to find one of our bettas had blown a bubble nest! Going to the kitchen for a drink and seeing the shrimp going om nom nom on moss is a new treat. 

Look forward to hearing what you decide on for your new tank! I'm torn on our 55s, so many possibilities 🙂

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Cisa Apprentice

Cisa

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On 10/2/2021 at 8:43 PM, Guppysnail said:

OMG she is adorable 😍. And you get to keep her with you while you work. That is the neatest thing I have heard in awhile. 

Yep! One of the benefits of owning the business. She and the two shop cats are great company, great stress relief, and have a whole fan club within the community

On 10/2/2021 at 8:45 PM, Colu said:

Welcome to the forum is that a desert hedgehog

She's a domestically bred African Pygmy Hedgehog. We recently built her a bioactive enclosure to up her enrichment and simulate what she would experience in nature

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Torrey Grand Master

Torrey

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On 10/2/2021 at 6:09 PM, Cisa said:

Hello all! My name is Cisa and I'm in New Albany, Indiana (just across the river from Louisville, KY) and just recently joined the Aquarium Co-op community. I've had non-planted guppy tanks for the last few years after getting 3 guppies which then of course turned into 300 guppies 😅

I recently discovered the amazing world of aquarium Youtube and now can't find enough places in my house for all the aquascapes and cool fish I need to have in my life. I sold the majority of my guppies to my local fish store and kept back only a few for more intentional breeding. I've got my babies moved over to their own 10 gallon planted with some ghost shrimp and have attempted my first scaped 30 gallon which is home to the adult guppies, a few dalmation and balloon mollies, blue velvet shrimp, a handful of mystery snails, and my very first pleco.

I don't know what I don't know and I want to learn everything about everything. Needless to say, I now spend a lot of time reading the forum and watching the whole catalog of Aquarium Co-op videos. The majority of my critter keeping life has been dogs, cats, and hedgehogs with a few adventures into chicken land.

I recently got a great deal on a 48 gallon tank and spent most of my evening looking at all the fun fish at my favorite local store and dreaming up what I want for this new tank. I'm thrilled to have found this community and can't wait to meet fellow fish nerds 🐟

Welcome @Cisa !!!

Parallel journeys,  except I have had fish the majority of the 5 decade journey. 

Hedgies are so awesome, they have their own song🤭

One of the best things I have learned, is patience. 

Instead of trying to do everything at once, and burning out, I learned that it is more sustainable to triage: what am I most interested in?

What is the most intriguing?

Do I have adequate resources, space, and time?

This translates to:

Autistic rabbit holes of research 

ADHD bouts of boredom because it's taking too long, so I need to buy another nano tank

Oops! We accidentally have zebra danio fry before the endler (that were sold as guppies) have finished their QT, so I need to buy another 10 gallon for a fry growout.... OH LOOK, 1/2 OFF SALE, LET'S START A WALSTAD TANK

So the 4' tank is still sitting in the dining room with the hardscape in it, that I keep shifting / rearranging (since February) while I accumulate more and more plants, so when I am finally happy with the set up I will have enough plants to cover the tank properly from the get go.

Welcome to MTS!

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Georgiapeach88 Rising Star

Georgiapeach88

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Welcome to the forum. As a semi new nerm myself the forum is amazing as is the YouTube channel. Learning so much every day.  I started with 5g betta then 36g community then 10g guppy tank and 29g grow out and now need a 49 breeder since supervise I have 94 corydora fry. Guess I’m breeding corycats now haha 

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Ogpulchra Community Regular

Ogpulchra

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I don't know how interested in plants you are, but they are super helpful in maintaining water parameters and general health of the tank. I haven't really had to deal with water quality problems and I attribute that to having heavily planted tanks before fully stocking them.

Depending on what you choose, plants can be challenging at first, so you might start there to make it easier in the long run. They really cut down on maintenance and look gorgeous. I wouldn't have nearly as many tanks if it weren't for plants. 

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Cisa Apprentice

Cisa

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On 10/3/2021 at 12:36 PM, Ogpulchra said:

I don't know how interested in plants you are, but they are super helpful in maintaining water parameters and general health of the tank. I haven't really had to deal with water quality problems and I attribute that to having heavily planted tanks before fully stocking them.

Depending on what you choose, plants can be challenging at first, so you might start there to make it easier in the long run. They really cut down on maintenance and look gorgeous. I wouldn't have nearly as many tanks if it weren't for plants. 

Learning about planted tanks is actually what got me deep diving into aquaria! My partner and I are both plant nuts with about 70 plants just in the house. Any new plant is a welcome addition and I'm already having a great time checking out all  the options

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Alison Collaborator

Alison

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I don't know if you've done much looking into blue eyed rainbowfish, but right now they are probably my favorite smaller fish.  I'd add pencilfish in there as well. Very adorable and underrated fish but are absolutely mesmerizing when they spar.  

Definitely look into some live plants.  Even if all you do is go for some easy stuff like anubias and buce, it really changes the look of the tank and for sure helps maintain a healthier ecosystem for our swimming friends.

 

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PineSong Grand Master

PineSong

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On 10/3/2021 at 5:14 PM, Cisa said:

Learning about planted tanks is actually what got me deep diving into aquaria! My partner and I are both plant nuts with about 70 plants just in the house. Any new plant is a welcome addition and I'm already having a great time checking out all  the options

Howdy from not that far away from Louisville 🙂 If you have favorite LFS in your neck of the woods, I hope you'll share. I heard that next year's ALA Livebearer convention will be held in Louisville and I think a couple of other conventions will be held at the same hotel at the same time, so I am planning to be there then.

If you ever hop over to Cincinatti, I like Monfort pet shop--and they have great prices on wood and stone, at least compared to where I live. Wilson's Nursery in Frankfort is worth a trip to admire plants if you've never been there, and their cafe is a great spot for lunch, indoors or out.

As for MTS, I feel like it can be smart to handle that urge lots of different ways, e.g.  do like Irene in the Co-op videos and rotate which fish you keep in just one or two tanks, selling them or trading them back into your LFS when you want to change fish for something new, so you eventually get to have every kind of fish you've wanted. Or do like me and go ahead and have multiple tanks, but focus on fish that can live together so if at some point you want to combine them and reduce your number of tanks, you can. Right now I have individual strains of guppies taking up three tanks in addition to having my community tank, but if I had to downsize or just got sick of maintaining 3 extra tanks, I could pop them all into the largest tank and make happy healthy mutt guppies--no down side. Or so I keep telling my family members 😉 I think that approach would work with a lot of non-aggressive fish.

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