Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

Checking in from Texas! New here and love this community already!

Goldie Blue

By Goldie Blue,
in Introductions & Greetings

 Share

Recommended Posts

Goldie Blue Rising Star

Goldie Blue

Posted
Posted

Hi all, I found your wonderful forum last week after looking for information on how to help my struggling 55 gallon tank. To say that this community is wonderful is an understatement, and I am SO thankful to have found y'all!

A little about me, I am an editor/reviewer for a gaming website, and spend most of my free time either gaming with my husband, or writing about games. We love to exercise and travel, as well as play board games each Saturday with our friends. We've got a young son, 2 dogs, 2 praying mantises, the 55g and a new 10g that is being cycled. I am just getting back into the aquarium hobby after about 20 years, the last tank I had was a 90g. 

I'm very excited to find all of the information you guys have here, I just wish I had found it sooner. I look forward to getting to know more of you, I'm always happy to make new fish loving friends!

  • Like 9
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Goldie Blue Rising Star

Goldie Blue

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 12/9/2021 at 9:04 PM, SteveKing88 said:

I am in Fort Worth and recently joined the DFW Aquarium Association. I met some of them at Aquashella and on facebook.

@SteveKing88 that's awesome, thank you! We were going to go to Aquashella a few weeks ago but were so busy we ended up having to skip it. I've never been but heard it is awesome. I am on the N side of Fort Worth, where is your go-to LFS in the area? I am kind of let down with the few I have been to. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Odd Duck Grand Master

Odd Duck

Posted
Posted
On 12/9/2021 at 9:29 PM, Goldie Blue said:

@SteveKing88 that's awesome, thank you! We were going to go to Aquashella a few weeks ago but were so busy we ended up having to skip it. I've never been but heard it is awesome. I am on the N side of Fort Worth, where is your go-to LFS in the area? I am kind of let down with the few I have been to. 

Another Texan here, in DFW and you need to hit Texas Aquatics in North Richland Hills.  They just announced a new location yesterday!  I haven’t been to the new location yet, but always super friendly, helpful staff.  Some are more knowledgable than others, but if somebody doesn’t know, they find somebody that does and they don’t try to BS you.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
JettsPapa Grand Master

JettsPapa

Posted
Posted
On 12/9/2021 at 9:29 PM, Goldie Blue said:

. . . I am on the N side of Fort Worth, where is your go-to LFS in the area? I am kind of let down with the few I have been to. 

Fish Gallery is a small chain, with two stores in the Houston area and one in north Dallas.  I like the two down here, so the one in Dallas might be worth checking out.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Goldie Blue Rising Star

Goldie Blue

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 12/10/2021 at 7:03 AM, BuzzDaddy21 said:

I didn`t know those could be pets?

Welcome....I learned something today.

They are the coolest little things! A friend of mine gave me and my son an ootheca (their egg sacks) so he could watch them hatch and learn about it, and we just fell in love with them. They are so easy to care for, and so awesome to watch molt and grow.

I have a small Texas Unicorn mantis that I have had since it was born, and about two months ago we opened the front door and a full grown Carolina mantis was just sitting on our doorstep, so we brought her in. She is the sweetest thing, she loves interacting with me and actively will climb up on me and just chill.

We caught her laying her ootheca one night and it was fascinating to watch, she looked like she was knitting or crocheting it. They also love a little drop of honey for a treat, so we always give them some while I clean out their enclosures each week. I'd highly recommend keeping one at least once in your life, they are super cool. 

Attaching pics so you can see them!

IMG_20210922_125835.jpg

IMG_20211114_023559.jpg

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
  • Love 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Minanora Grand Master

Minanora

Posted
Posted

Welcome! I love your introduction! Your family is quite similar to ours! Board games, 2 dogs, video games with my husband, hiking/fitness, and we have a young son. My previous tank was a 55, came back into the hobby after 13ish years with my sons 20G. Now I have that, a 75, another 20 and a 5.5. plus a 2.6 that's cycling.

You mantis' are really cool! Never thought to keep them as pets. I let them protect my vegetable gardens and get very excited to see babies every year.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Goldie Blue Rising Star

Goldie Blue

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 12/11/2021 at 3:00 AM, Minanora said:

Welcome! I love your introduction! Your family is quite similar to ours! Board games, 2 dogs, video games with my husband, hiking/fitness, and we have a young son. My previous tank was a 55, came back into the hobby after 13ish years with my sons 20G. Now I have that, a 75, another 20 and a 5.5. plus a 2.6 that's cycling.

You mantis' are really cool! Never thought to keep them as pets. I let them protect my vegetable gardens and get very excited to see babies every year.

That's so great! What board games have you guys been playing lately? We are starting a second campaign in Lord of the Rings Journeys in Middle Earth, and I am anxiously awaiting the expansion for it that we preordered! We also checked out Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals a few weeks ago, it wasn't as good as we had hoped for. 

I quit WoW earlier this year after playing since the start. ESO is my MMO of choice, been playing that since beta. I just can't get into FFXIV anymore after all the freedom that ESO gives. Hubby and I play Smite every night together, he gave up MMO's 8 years ago. 

We never thought of keeping a mantis as a pet either, it was meant to be a learning experience for my son but I am the one who ended up becoming fascinated. I'm pretty sure my old girl might pass soon, she has laid 5 oothecas and has slowed down a lot in the last week. I think she is blind in one eye, so I am glad we could keep her warm, safe and with a full belly in her last few months. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Minanora Grand Master

Minanora

Posted
Posted
On 12/11/2021 at 11:49 AM, Goldie Blue said:

That's so great! What board games have you guys been playing lately? We are starting a second campaign in Lord of the Rings Journeys in Middle Earth, and I am anxiously awaiting the expansion for it that we preordered! We also checked out Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals a few weeks ago, it wasn't as good as we had hoped for. 

I quit WoW earlier this year after playing since the start. ESO is my MMO of choice, been playing that since beta. I just can't get into FFXIV anymore after all the freedom that ESO gives. Hubby and I play Smite every night together, he gave up MMO's 8 years ago. 

We never thought of keeping a mantis as a pet either, it was meant to be a learning experience for my son but I am the one who ended up becoming fascinated. I'm pretty sure my old girl might pass soon, she has laid 5 oothecas and has slowed down a lot in the last week. I think she is blind in one eye, so I am glad we could keep her warm, safe and with a full belly in her last few months. 

We play a lot of Risk, MTG, Settlers of Catan, other variations of Risk, Metal Gear Solid Risk being my favorite so far, Coup, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, and Splendor are a few. We have a whole cabinet of games, and our friends bring over some. Besties not a fan of games like Risk so we wind up playing things like Spendor, and her favorite is Love Letter. but that's a card game. We want to get into the LotR:JME but haven't made the time!

I quit WoW this year as well. I'm a Vanilla WoW player also! So much time invested... Such a shame. I won't go back until they get their act together and even then I may not go back. I do miss HotS though; I play a mean Abathur and Zagara. My friend Tyler and his wife have tried to get me to play ESO but I fell in love with FFXIV thanks to my husband. He tried to get me to play back in '13. I should have jumped ship from WoW then, but I was a raider and top tier heals for a long, long time and had a deep connection with my guild. Then they merged servers, and did the cross realm stuff and it all fell apart anyway. I also enjoy watching my husband play just about any game on the TV. I played Counterstrike with him a few times when we were dating and I had to stop because no matter how good I thought I was, he always kicked my butt. Any first person shooter... And Starcraft... He's a monster and it's not fun if we aren't on the same team. Haha.

Did you get your oldest mantis a mate? Baby mantis are the cutest. It is really cool that you guys were able to give her a good home. It's a shame that they don't have the longest lifespan.

I'm obsessed with Cicadas. I love them. I'm from a place where we had a lot of them when I was a kid. I used to collect their shells and stick them on everything. We have a few where I live, but not enough to even know what you're hearing when they emerge if you don't know what you're listening for.

What kinds of fish do you keep now? What did you keep in the 90 you had long ago?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Goldie Blue Rising Star

Goldie Blue

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 12/11/2021 at 5:53 PM, Minanora said:

We play a lot of Risk, MTG, Settlers of Catan, other variations of Risk, Metal Gear Solid Risk being my favorite so far, Coup, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, and Splendor are a few. We have a whole cabinet of games, and our friends bring over some. Besties not a fan of games like Risk so we wind up playing things like Spendor, and her favorite is Love Letter. but that's a card game. We want to get into the LotR:JME but haven't made the time!

I quit WoW this year as well. I'm a Vanilla WoW player also! So much time invested... Such a shame. I won't go back until they get their act together and even then I may not go back. I do miss HotS though; I play a mean Abathur and Zagara. My friend Tyler and his wife have tried to get me to play ESO but I fell in love with FFXIV thanks to my husband. He tried to get me to play back in '13. I should have jumped ship from WoW then, but I was a raider and top tier heals for a long, long time and had a deep connection with my guild. Then they merged servers, and did the cross realm stuff and it all fell apart anyway. I also enjoy watching my husband play just about any game on the TV. I played Counterstrike with him a few times when we were dating and I had to stop because no matter how good I thought I was, he always kicked my butt. Any first person shooter... And Starcraft... He's a monster and it's not fun if we aren't on the same team. Haha.

Did you get your oldest mantis a mate? Baby mantis are the cutest. It is really cool that you guys were able to give her a good home. It's a shame that they don't have the longest lifespan.

I'm obsessed with Cicadas. I love them. I'm from a place where we had a lot of them when I was a kid. I used to collect their shells and stick them on everything. We have a few where I live, but not enough to even know what you're hearing when they emerge if you don't know what you're listening for.

What kinds of fish do you keep now? What did you keep in the 90 you had long ago?

That is so cool, our besties are the same. Between us we probably have 400+ board games, we get a lot to review from the site as well, so it's always Christmas in our house lol. We have all given up playing MtG with my husband, he is that player that knows EVERY card, and sits there with a straight face until he just obliterates you in one turn. It's obvious when he lets you win, which is even worse! LOL. You will LOVE the Lord of the Rings Journey to Middle Earth, it's such a great game.  

I also doubt I will ever go back to WoW. I was a raid/guild leader for most of my time there, our guild just slowly bled people with each expansion until it was just a handful of us who were hanging on for no reason other than our friendships. I agree with you about jumping ship in '13 or even earlier... we all knew the game was going downhill but we held on because of the guilds/friendships. I don't regret that part, I just am sad that WoW's content just got worse and worse and we kept believing that it would get better.

Our last iteration of raiding was with a cross server guild, and the husband/wife team who led their half of it were absolutely miserable, so we killed Nathria on N and H and I was out. Nobody believed I would do it, and then I uninstalled the entire BNET launcher and never looked back lol. I was heartbroken to see what Overwatch had become as well. Nothing but bots and nasty aggressive people, and Blizzard just abandoned it as far as content. I LOVED OW for the first couple years.

As for my fishies, I have a 55g I have had set up for about 6 months. Before the ongoing crisis that led me here, I had 14 white cloud minnows (down to 7), 12 pygmy cories (all dead), 5 endler guppies (all dead), 10 female guppies (all dead, and they are the culprit for all of this), a pleco who is still going strong, my sweet betta Goldie Blue, 2 assassin snails, and 2 ghost shrimp.

I was already cycling a 10g to move Goldie Blue into, it was only set up to cycle for about 2 days before I brought those guppies home that wiped out almost my whole tank. Still kicking myself for this, but it's a hard lesson learned. It's been non stop stress every day for the last 2 weeks. I dread walking by the tank and seeing if anyone has died, but thankfully for the last 3 days everyone has been alright.

My 90g back in the day I mostly bred mollies in. I had an awesome betta back then and a monster sized pleco and some cories. 

I did not have a mate for my older mantis, she came to us already fully grown. She was on my doormat when I opened my door, and we took her in. She laid her first ootheca about 4 days afterwards. I had no idea they laid more than 1, but I did know that the females lay ooths even if they are not fertilized. It will be interesting to see if we get babies from these ooths in a few months, since she was outside there is a great chance they will have babies, and someone told me that if they lay more than 1 they are probably fertile. It only takes one interaction with a male to fertilize all the oothecas they lay! Crazy! Watching her place it on her enclosure was one of the wildest things I have ever seen, they have these weird prong type things on their bottom and it looked like she was knitting the egg row by row.

I am hoping that I can get my 55g sorted out and keep everyone in there alive, and learn and grow from this horrible experience. My goal is that my betta can get moved into his smaller tank, hopefully in a week or two if it cycles, so that he can be happier. The flow in the 55g is just way too strong and he is miserable in there. This has been heartbreaking beyond belief, and I feel so bad for failing my little fishy friends. 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Minanora Grand Master

Minanora

Posted
Posted
On 12/11/2021 at 11:00 PM, Goldie Blue said:

That is so cool, our besties are the same. Between us we probably have 400+ board games, we get a lot to review from the site as well, so it's always Christmas in our house lol. We have all given up playing MtG with my husband, he is that player that knows EVERY card, and sits there with a straight face until he just obliterates you in one turn. It's obvious when he lets you win, which is even worse! LOL. You will LOVE the Lord of the Rings Journey to Middle Earth, it's such a great game.  

I also doubt I will ever go back to WoW. I was a raid/guild leader for most of my time there, our guild just slowly bled people with each expansion until it was just a handful of us who were hanging on for no reason other than our friendships. I agree with you about jumping ship in '13 or even earlier... we all knew the game was going downhill but we held on because of the guilds/friendships. I don't regret that part, I just am sad that WoW's content just got worse and worse and we kept believing that it would get better.

Our last iteration of raiding was with a cross server guild, and the husband/wife team who led their half of it were absolutely miserable, so we killed Nathria on N and H and I was out. Nobody believed I would do it, and then I uninstalled the entire BNET launcher and never looked back lol. I was heartbroken to see what Overwatch had become as well. Nothing but bots and nasty aggressive people, and Blizzard just abandoned it as far as content. I LOVED OW for the first couple years.

As for my fishies, I have a 55g I have had set up for about 6 months. Before the ongoing crisis that led me here, I had 14 white cloud minnows (down to 7), 12 pygmy cories (all dead), 5 endler guppies (all dead), 10 female guppies (all dead, and they are the culprit for all of this), a pleco who is still going strong, my sweet betta Goldie Blue, 2 assassin snails, and 2 ghost shrimp.

I was already cycling a 10g to move Goldie Blue into, it was only set up to cycle for about 2 days before I brought those guppies home that wiped out almost my whole tank. Still kicking myself for this, but it's a hard lesson learned. It's been non stop stress every day for the last 2 weeks. I dread walking by the tank and seeing if anyone has died, but thankfully for the last 3 days everyone has been alright.

My 90g back in the day I mostly bred mollies in. I had an awesome betta back then and a monster sized pleco and some cories. 

I did not have a mate for my older mantis, she came to us already fully grown. She was on my doormat when I opened my door, and we took her in. She laid her first ootheca about 4 days afterwards. I had no idea they laid more than 1, but I did know that the females lay ooths even if they are not fertilized. It will be interesting to see if we get babies from these ooths in a few months, since she was outside there is a great chance they will have babies, and someone told me that if they lay more than 1 they are probably fertile. It only takes one interaction with a male to fertilize all the oothecas they lay! Crazy! Watching her place it on her enclosure was one of the wildest things I have ever seen, they have these weird prong type things on their bottom and it looked like she was knitting the egg row by row.

I am hoping that I can get my 55g sorted out and keep everyone in there alive, and learn and grow from this horrible experience. My goal is that my betta can get moved into his smaller tank, hopefully in a week or two if it cycles, so that he can be happier. The flow in the 55g is just way too strong and he is miserable in there. This has been heartbreaking beyond belief, and I feel so bad for failing my little fishy friends. 

 

OMG It's the same thing with my Husband.... Dude... He can grind my gears sometimes. He builds the most killer decks, knows all the things... He's legit one of the best "natural" gamers I've ever met and it makes me so mad. I beat him at chess twice in the last 11 years. Haven't played with him since my last win! He wanted to learn how I won, I decided that I wanted to end on a high note. 😛 I'm sure we'll play chess again but I like to wave my "I beat you at chess, TWICE" flag around still. He wins at almost every game we ever play, no matter who we play with. When we are all drunk and sleepy we usually all just agree that he won and call it quits. XD

I totally agree with what you're saying about WoW. I still have my blizzard launcher installed... I should uninstall, but I enjoy talking to some of my friends when I make the time. I look back on raiding ICC and it makes me want to go back to that time. I feel like a lot of my time spent in the most recent expansions was me just wishing that it would feel like that again. I even started playing BC Classic there for a while.

That story about how long the mantis can be fertile reminds me of my guppies. Forever pregnant. I'm so glad that doesn't happen to humans. >.>

I forgot about your thread regarding your 55. I feel your pain. Keep fighting the good fight. I got back into the hobby in May, so 6 months here too! The 20G was a gift for my Son to help him sleep in his own bed. I think we've all got our horror stories of some kind. I learned the hard way to quarantine fish and plants. I also learned the hard way about when it's okay to buy fish online and who to NOT buy fish from, no matter what the weather is like. Then I learned the hard way what Nitrates can do to fish if they suddenly spike to extreme levels... Always learning! Hard lessons suck though. I'm an emotional person, which doesn't help! Being stubborn and persistent have proven to help at least. I feel like I've saved a good number of fish at this point. Never feel like you're failing them! The fact that you keep trying is proof that you're a great fish mom. You've got this! And we're all here to help you on your journey!

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...