My first post!

[Tyler]

Hi everybody! I'm new to the forum and recently "returned" to the hobby a few months ago. I say returned because I had tanks as a young child(around 10 years old) but never got too deep into the hobby due to lack of parents.  Anyway, I currently have 5 tanks in my relatively small apartment. I got two tens, a five, a 3.5, and 20 long. 20 long not set up yet but I got it at a dollar per gallon sale. One of my ten gallons is essentially a quarantine tank, just a gravel bottom and sponge filter which I use to house my wild caughts when I catch them to sell and keep for myself. I live in central florida and within the state there are many species valuable to the aquarium trade. Species I have collected myself so far include golden topminnows, bluefin killifish, a couple different species of darter, as well as what looked to be a couple of small cichlids but I did not keep those as they would definitely eat my other wild caughts. My other ten gallon is a planted tank with substrate of about 2/3 of the bottom area in sand, and the remaining is aquasoil. For plants in this tank I have an anubias, Ludwigia repens, lemon bacopa, red root floaters, java fern, cryp wen red, amazon sword, and one other that I'm not able to identify. Also some moss. For fish in this tank I have a single super adorable pea puffer and 5 otocinclus. Pea puffer I've had about a week and the otocinclus ive had for over a month now, maybe 2 months. I felt very confident in my water conditions as I only had a single otocinclus die within the first 12 hours of introduction. Not bad considering the sometimes high mortality rate of otocinclus. I'm extremely interested in breeding my fish as I'd like to help reduce the number of pea puffers especially that are removed from the wild. After a week of having my pea puffer I've already decided the 20 long is going to be dedicated to some of them. Any advice on breeding either species would be much appreciated as well as a good setup for the 20 long. Anyway, my five gallon is also a planted tank the homes my betta. I've had him for over a year now and just a couple months ago did I get him into the planted tank. Substrate is fluval stratum with some lava rocks underneath the subsrate for bb colonizing. Plants right now are what I believe to be a water onion, as well as some lemon bacopa, Ludwigia repens, and a couple cryps. I did have the top covered in duckweed for the first month and a half of setup to make sure there weren't any nitrogen spikes that may harm my betta. My 3.5 is currently being turned into a black worm culture to keep all my fish happy as my wild caughts can be hard to feed sometimes. Pea puffer hasn't seemed to take to those yet. Seems more interested in all the snails in my tank lol anyways that's what I have so far sorry for the long post! Any questions, comments, concerns would be of value to me. 

 

[Jack.of.all.aquariums]

Welcome! I'm jealous of your ability to collect so any species! My dad has a condo in Florida but I've never gotten out to collect fish. Some day I hope I can collect some pygmy sunfish! 

Post of pictures of your tanks they sound great! 

[Alesha]

Welcome, @Tyler! Glad you are here! I'm a fellow central-Floridian, too!

It sounds like you've got a great set up going with lots of fishy personalities. I hope you enjoy the forum and add your own personal input. Folks are especially interested in native fish collection. Me too! I've never done that, even though I've lived here almost all my life. Not much of an outdoor person, but I sure love the INdoor fishy life!

[Tyler]

It's definitely not an activity for the squeemish... Lol you never know what will come up in the net. All types of insects and water bugs and sometimes spiders!

[Tyler]

On 12/25/2020 at 11:48 AM, Jack.of.all.aquariums said:

Welcome! I'm jealous of your ability to collect so any species! My dad has a condo in Florida but I've never gotten out to collect fish. Some day I hope I can collect some pygmy sunfish! 

Post of pictures of your tanks they sound great! 

Those are a genus I would love to catch! Only a couple different species but they are the perfect little nano fish! Is it possible to follow people on here? If so I'd definitely be posting some pictures when I do happen to acquire some.