Returning to fish after a long break!

[WicketTheRat]

Hi all!  I was an avid fish keeper (along with my Dad) 15+ years ago while I was in high school.  We kept oscars and from time to time other things, including a feeder goldfish who was the only survivor of a fire that gutted a restaurant.  After being scooped out of soot filled water, Mr. Food went on to live for over 10 years in a large outdoor tank (we were in Florida).

For the past 9 years I have kept a 125g (30g brackish water, the rest land) paludarium for land hermit crabs.  That has only ever grown mangroves and kept fiddler crabs from time to time.

Recently I decided to get back into fish and it has been a wild ride!  I have a 10 gallon guppy tank, and a 29 gallon paludarium now that unlike my other is mostly water.  I have about 20 gallons of water in the tank plus another part of the system that I guess can best be described as a sump, but is a 12 gallon tub I plan to grow some semi aquatic plants in.  This is a total work in progress, but I did include pictures!  Basically what happened was I planted it about 5 months ago, threw in a bunch of trumpet snails out if my brackish tank, then 4 months ago got 5 tiny panda cory.  They are such picky eaters, one died before I got it to eat, I should make a whole post about that!  I know I should not have bought basically large fry sized fish, but it was all I could find.

While I was making progress there my guppies started dying.  They were imported from Thailand by my LFS as a special order, but some extra were for sale that I bought.  Thanks to aquarium co-op (and girl talks fish) videos I learned all about what to do and treated them for parasites.  They kept wasting away until eventually levamisole was the magic cure.  As soon as I dosed that the two remaining guppies pooped out a mass of worms and it has been smooth sailing ever sense.  I treated the corys too, because they are in the same room.  The guppies look a little beat up, but they are now eating, swimming, totally acting normal and spitting out more babies than I know what to do with.  One single fry they dropped in the first month before they really deteriorated made it too.  Now I have so many that I have moved a bunch to the 29 gallon to grow out.

Once I was confident that everyone was treated I got two hillstream loaches and quarantined them for 30 days, which ended a week ago and they are now in the 29 gallon as well.  My goal is to concentrate on getting the rest of the plants I want, getting the semi aquatic stuff going in the sump and playing around with some hanging plant stuff.  I know most experienced aquascapers probably could do 100% better, but I am enjoying taking it one step at a time and playing around with it.  Also in their first 24 hours these loaches ate 75% of the algae in the tank.  I don't think I will be scraping this glass ever again.

I included a picture of the 29 gallon and a shot of one of the surviving guppies!  Note that the filter/all equipment is tucked away in the sump.  Also any good tips on taking better pictures of fish?  I have the newest galaxy note and it is good at taking pictures of everything else!

-Annie

[Alison]

Hello and welcome back to the hobby! I recently returned as well after a long break. I had a tank in high school and I loved it (even though I literally did everything wrong) but it was a bit much to keep it up in college. My family made me take the tank with me and moving it back and forth three or four times a year. Once the filter broke I just chose not to replace it at that time and to wait until I was more settled. I figured this was as good a time as any.  This is my first tank in a long time and my first ever planted tank. I'm taking my time in getting it together and stocking it. that isn't stopping me from making notes on other fish I'd love to set up tanks for at some point. I'm making myself come close to finish this tank before setting up another one.

I did stop in my lfs to get the rest of my corys and I asked if they had a guy with a line for tanks, since they have been hard to come by.  I now have the name of a guy with connections. Connections to getting tanks special ordered.  Uhhh oh..

[Casual aquatics]

On 10/5/2020 at 7:16 PM, Alison said:

Hello and welcome back to the hobby! I recently returned as well after a long break. I had a tank in high school and I loved it (even though I literally did everything wrong) but it was a bit much to keep it up in college. My family made me take the tank with me and moving it back and forth three or four times a year. Once the filter broke I just chose not to replace it at that time and to wait until I was more settled. I figured this was as good a time as any.  This is my first tank in a long time and my first ever planted tank. I'm taking my time in getting it together and stocking it. that isn't stopping me from making notes on other fish I'd love to set up tanks for at some point. I'm making myself come close to finish this tank before setting up another one.

I did stop in my lfs to get the rest of my corys and I asked if they had a guy with a line for tanks, since they have been hard to come by.  I now have the name of a guy with connections. Connections to getting tanks special ordered.  Uhhh oh..

Could you share that connection lol I just posted a post in Genral discussion forum about diy tanks for this reason 

[Alison]

6 hours ago, Wisnasky-tank said:

Could you share that connection lol I just posted a post in Genral discussion forum about diy tanks for this reason 

Apparently in the Grand Rapids area you want to talk to Ben at Water Colors Aquarium Gallery.   My last time I ordered from Dream Fish Tanks.