# Aquariums



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Ok so this may not fit under the equiptment forum... but it fits better than any of the other fish related forums.

With the love of fishing we all share, how many people here have Aquariums? How big? What kind of fish? 

We have a 20gal tank with around 9 fish, mostly Tiger Barbs. Very fun to watch them chase each other around the tank. We have a cory Catfish that is more or less the "hippy" of the tank... just hangs out and does his own thing. And a 9" pleco that really needs to find a new home.

Anyone else here have an aquarium?


-DallanC


----------



## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Used to have 2 50 gal tanks - Pike Cichlads, Arowanas, Gars , catfish and few other of the normal bottom dwellars. Netted minnows for food for them. The Arowana and the gar attacked each other and the Arowana got stuck it the gars jaws and both died.. Pretty cool to watch them eat. The Pike was very much like a small mouth bass- an unreal predator. Kept me occupied thru college. Just don't have the time for them any more.


----------



## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

We have a pond in the back yard that we kept some gold fish and coi (sp) in, my daughter looked out the window one day and said look at the pond, there was a great blue herron (sp) standing in the pond munching on our fish, it was close to winter so I took what was left out of the pond and put them in a 55 gal tank in my office. I haven't taken them back to the house and that was two years ago.

Anyway here they are sitting behind me at my office.

[attachment=2:3qymwu99]IMG_0960.jpg[/attachment:3qymwu99]

[attachment=1:3qymwu99]IMG_0961.jpg[/attachment:3qymwu99]

[attachment=0:3qymwu99]IMG_0962.jpg[/attachment:3qymwu99]


----------



## katorade (Sep 23, 2007)

Used to have 4 running a 30g 55g 45g and a 10g now just have the 55g with African Cichlids.


----------



## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

I have a 29g with cats, sharks and about a 12" pleco that started at 2" 9 years ago that an oscar tried to kill but couldn't. My favorites are the oscars, I love how aggressive they are, most will eat from my hand at the surface until they get older. They always outgrow the tank, so now I stick with the cats for the most part. Also have a 10g in the kids room with cory cats that are 10 years old and still only about an inch and a half long, 9" pleco and a fantail goldie.


----------



## scientificangler (Aug 13, 2008)

I am a aquarium addict. At one point I had a 125G, two 55G, two 20G and 4 10G tanks in my house. All filled with African Cichlids, mostly from Lake Malawi. At the peak I had 25 different species and bred and sold several of the more valuable ones regularly. After a cross country move I am down to 0 tanks, but that will change in sometime soon. I have some nice youtube videos of my tanks and fish...maybe I will post a link when I get home (can't access youtube from work!)


----------



## Lakecitypirate (Mar 4, 2008)

I keep a 500 gallon tank Next to my pillow full of Red sides, and chubs. So When I am ready to go fishing they are the freshest. So fresh that my SUV has a 10 gallon with a filteration plugged into the ciggerett lighter to keep oxygen to fish till I get to my location. So fresh when I get to my location I am fishing with live bait.......Oh wait!


----------



## scientificangler (Aug 13, 2008)

Cool to hear about everyone's tanks. I hope to have one again some day! Here is my old tank.

[youtube:26frjs0f]http://www.youtube.com/v/2Tlsz29S1uE&hl=en&fs=1[/youtube:26frjs0f]

Two males fighting over a female:
[youtube:26frjs0f]http://www.youtube.com/v/dCVijqVnR9k&hl=en&fs=1[/youtube:26frjs0f]


----------



## Treehugnhuntr (Sep 7, 2007)

My empty 130 gal is in my basement and ready to go to the highest bidder with the stand, if anyone is interested.

T


----------



## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

Treehugnhuntr said:


> My empty 130 gal is in my basement


Yeah but that thing has been in your "man room" and has latent images of your nakedness seared into it.


----------



## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

I had a freshwater tank for 10 yrs. Had silver dollars, cats, minnows and several other fish. After graduating from fresh water I stepped up and converted to a cichlid brackish water tank. This was a fun tank with many different types of African cichlids. After several years of brackish water I made the jump to a full blown reef tank which housed many corals, snails, clams and fish. The reef tank was very cool but very expensive, it had very good lighting and filtration. and I was into it several thousands of dollars. I finally gave it all up as it was taking too much of my time and money....

It was a fun hobby while it lasted. I'll have to post some pictures of the reef tank I had when I get the chance.


----------



## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

I have a huge aquarium in my back yard. My wife go out and feed the blue gill every morning while enjoying our coffee. We have a large mouth bass that's no longer afraid of us. When he gets tired of missing blue gill, he eats the bread we through at him.  We named him Pedro, our pet large mouth bass.

Blue gill, sunfish.










If you look closely, you can see Pedro our pet bass.


----------



## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Nice FB, I assume that is the common lake/pond? Is it always that clear? Is it just maintained through an HOA fee or something?


----------



## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

Yes it's maintained by the HOA. They put a blue dye in to keep the weeds down. Which then keeps the electric motor props from getting clogged with swamp moss.


----------



## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Here are a couple of pic's of the reef I had.

[attachment=1:2izd3q27]rsz_imgp1130.jpg[/attachment:2izd3q27]

[attachment=0:2izd3q27]rsz_imgp1131.jpg[/attachment:2izd3q27]


----------



## massmanute (Apr 23, 2012)

DallanC said:


> Ok so this may not fit under the equiptment forum... but it fits better than any of the other fish related forums.
> 
> With the love of fishing we all share, how many people here have Aquariums? How big? What kind of fish?
> 
> ...


I used to keep aquariums, many years ago... a couple of different time periods in fact.

Anyway, depending on what your goals are, some people convert IBC totes into fish tanks by cutting open the top to make a ~200 gallon aquarium. The down side of this approach is that it can look somewhat industrial, and the view of the fishes from the side would not be good unless you could rig up some kind of viewing window.

Some people go whole hog and cut the IBC in a way to make a fish tank and a grow bed for plants. It's a version of "aquaponics", and it is a closed cycle system. People feed the fish, the grow bed converts the fish waste to plant nutrients, the plants use the nutrients, and people eat the plants. As far as the fish themselves is concerned, some people grow ornamental fish, and some grow edible fish, all depending on what their goals are.

It's possible to scale this approach down or up by using smaller container types (e.g. blue barrels, or even small aquariums) or up by using more containers/grow beds or bigger containers/grow beds.


----------



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

massmanute said:


> Some people go whole hog and cut the IBC in a way to make a fish tank and a grow bed for plants. It's a version of "aquaponics", and it is a closed cycle system. People feed the fish, the grow bed converts the fish waste to plant nutrients, the plants use the nutrients, and people eat the plants. As far as the fish themselves is concerned, some people grow ornamental fish, and some grow edible fish, all depending on what their goals are.
> 
> It's possible to scale this approach down or up by using smaller container types (e.g. blue barrels, or even small aquariums) or up by using more containers/grow beds or bigger containers/grow beds.


There's a guy on youtube that setup a system like this for raising trout at home in a hot tub. He would run the waste water off through other containers with plants and whatnot that filtered the water and oxygenated it before returning it to the fish tank. It was interesting.

He had a cost break down to see how feasible t was for a cheap food source.

-DallanC


----------

