Other Fellow fish owners

DaisyGP · Nov 27, 2005

How many of you own fish? What size tank(s) do you have? What type of fish do you keep?

I have 15 tank ranging from 1 gal to 55gal. I have lots of different fish. Goldfish, african butterfly, guppies, cray fish, oscars, and dragon gobies to many a few.

What do you guys keep?

Chloë-Jasmine · Nov 27, 2005

LOL uhmm, I have a Beta... His name is Blue Fish (like one fish two fish red fish blue fish) That's all. I'm not too much of a fish gal. I'd rather have a smelly ol' house or guineas, bunnies, and ham hams!

cavypaulita · Nov 27, 2005

Hi!! I have freshwater fish. I love them, they are very cute and sweet. They eat from my fingers

.
My oldest fish is just over a year old. (They are all goldfish, faintail, oranda, etc)
I like keeping fish, but last year I truly suffered when I lost a couple of goldies. Fortunately now my tank is stable and my goldies are well

Pauli

Kriket · Nov 27, 2005

I aheva 55 gallon freshwater. I have verious assorted fish in there, including a dragon fish! My tank population is pretty low right now, since I've been concentrating my efforts *and MONEY* on the piggie girls.

DaisyGP · Nov 27, 2005

Kriket said:
I aheva 55 gallon freshwater. I have verious assorted fish in there, including a dragon fish! My tank population is pretty low right now, since I've been concentrating my efforts *and MONEY* on the piggie girls.

Well if you have a dragon goby too it's a good thing your tank population is low. They grow slow but up to 2 ft. They are brackish water fish aswell.

Sabriel · Nov 28, 2005

I have a 10 gallon tank with 6 tetras. 3 are Black Tetras and 3 are Red Eyed Tetras.

bunnyluv17 · Nov 28, 2005

I have a ten gallon tank with three fancy goldfish, two are "pearl" goldfish, and a one gallon tank with a female betta named Julie.

If anyone knows something about goldfish, is it normal for them to change color as they age? One of the pearl goldfish was orange and white with black spots, but now he is losing his black spots

cavypaulita · Nov 28, 2005

Hi, yes it's perfectly normal for goldfish to change their colours. I've seen black telescope fish becoming orange, and other very radical changes.

Nothing to worry about

Pauli

daftscotslass · Nov 28, 2005

bunnyluv17 said:
I have a ten gallon tank with three fancy goldfish, two are "pearl" goldfish, and a one gallon tank with a female betta named Julie.

If anyone knows something about goldfish, is it normal for them to change color as they age? One of the pearl goldfish was orange and white with black spots, but now he is losing his black spots

I have a goldfish who recently lost its black areas, too, and was wondering the same thing!

I have two goldfish and an oranda.

DaisyGP · Nov 28, 2005

bunnyluv17 said:
I have a ten gallon tank with three fancy goldfish, two are "pearl" goldfish, and a one gallon tank with a female betta named Julie.

If anyone knows something about goldfish, is it normal for them to change color as they age? One of the pearl goldfish was orange and white with black spots, but now he is losing his black spots

Yeah, its normal. But one thing you have to watch out for is nitrate poisoning. When the tips of their fins turn black around the edges and you haven't done a water change in a long time it could be nitrate poisioning.

skirbo · Nov 29, 2005

Just so some of you guys know (a couple of the tanks seem a little over crowded)-- the rule of thumb for fish tanks is 1 gallon of water per 1 inch of fish for freshwater and 2 gallons of water per 1 inch of *goldfish*.

Filtration, filtration, filtration.

Sarah

Sabriel · Nov 29, 2005

My black tetras are 1 inch each an my red eyed tetras are a little under 2 inches each so I'm good

My husband wants more fish but I keep telling him we can't over crowd.

DaisyGP · Nov 29, 2005

skirbo said:
Just so some of you guys know (a couple of the tanks seem a little over crowded)-- the rule of thumb for fish tanks is 1 gallon of water per 1 inch of fish for freshwater and 2 gallons of water per 1 inch of *goldfish*.

Filtration, filtration, filtration.

Sarah

Actually the 1in per gallon rule only applies to small schooling fish. When you get into semi-aggressive aggressives or anything over 4'' that rule doesn't apply and with salt water it's a whole new ball game.

With regular fancy fantail goldfish it's 1 goldy per 10gals regardless of size, depending on who you talk to. When you keep orandas and other larger bodied goldies its 20 per goldfish because of the bioload they pact. And with koi you really need a pond because they can get several ft long. However, this takes into account the adult size of the fish. Alot of aquarists frown on keeping even a juvies in a tank that wouldn't accomidate the adult size of the fish because most people don't upgrade later.

aqh88 · Nov 29, 2005

The 1inch per gallon rule is a very basic rule meant to keep beginning aquarists from packing small tanks with tons of fish. Goldfish really belong in a starting tank size of 30gallons with at least 10g more per added goldfish. Kept in less than this and goldfish often stunt. Stunting is where the outsides stop growing but the insides keeping growing. It gives the illusion that fish only grow to the size of their tank but in reality it is a very painful condition. If the fish don't succumb to stress and die from an illness their insides will split through their outsides. A fancy goldifsh kept in a large tank in good water conditions will grow too large to even physically fit in a 10g and can live 20years. Stunting also happens when you don't change the water enough or put too many fish in a tank even if we're talking small fish in a big tank. Koi and common goldfish should not be kept in a tank unless you have one monster of a tank. These guys are carp and they get several feet long as well has having a potential lifespan of 50years. The record for a koi is 226years old. If your fish are dying in a few years you are doing something wrong unless you are keeping a fish like killies which can have a lifespan of a few months to a year. Even tetras and bettas have an average lifespan of 3-5years.
Almost all tetra and cory species are schooling and like guinea pigs which prefer friends these fish need a group of at least 6 of the same species to be truly happy and healthy. A couple of the exceptions are the cochu's blue tetra and emperor tetra which prefer groups of 2-3 and the largest of the cories(bronze and albino cories) which aren't quite as social and will get along with 4-5 fish but 6 is still a preferred number for them. Smaller cories(pandas, habrosus, salt and pepper...) are more social and prefer groups of 8+.

My tanks are all heavily planted with 3-4 watts per gallon of light and co2.
90g
9 tetras
9 threadfins
a pair of emperor tetras and their 3 fry
5 male guppies
1 male blue gourami
3 dojo loaches
5 panda cory(looking for 4 more to finish the school)
1 olive royal pleco
3 clown plecos
1 farlowella(his mate died)
at least 2 rainbowshrimp
applesnails and trumpet snails

5g rectangle
trio of sparkling gouramis

5g hex
being set up for the rest of the sparkling gouramis
current inhabitants are 5 ghost shrimp, ghost shrimp babies, trumpet snails

20g long
Growout tank
female guppies and guppy fry
2 clown pleco fry
2f, 1m young blue rams
young female opaline gourami
4 little sparkling gouramis
This is my future first marine tank when everything is grown and moved

29g left at my mom's house but I still maintain it and have final stocking say
lightly planted 1.5 watts per gallon
4 yoyo loaches
1 angelfish
1 betta
1 bristlenose pleco
2 otos

DaisyGP · Nov 29, 2005

aqh88 said:
The 1inch per gallon rule is a very basic rule meant to keep beginning aquarists from packing small tanks with tons of fish. Goldfish really belong in a starting tank size of 30gallons with at least 10g more per added goldfish. Kept in less than this and goldfish often stunt. Stunting is where the outsides stop growing but the insides keeping growing. It gives the illusion that fish only grow to the size of their tank but in reality it is a very painful condition. If the fish don't succumb to stress and die from an illness their insides will split through their outsides. A fancy goldifsh kept in a large tank in good water conditions will grow too large to even physically fit in a 10g and can live 20years. Stunting also happens when you don't change the water enough or put too many fish in a tank even if we're talking small fish in a big tank. Koi and common goldfish should not be kept in a tank unless you have one monster of a tank. These guys are carp and they get several feet long as well has having a potential lifespan of 50years. The record for a koi is 226years old. If your fish are dying in a few years you are doing something wrong unless you are keeping a fish like killies which can have a lifespan of a few months to a year. Even tetras and bettas have an average lifespan of 3-5years.
Almost all tetra and cory species are schooling and like guinea pigs which prefer friends these fish need a group of at least 6 of the same species to be truly happy and healthy. A couple of the exceptions are the cochu's blue tetra and emperor tetra which prefer groups of 2-3 and the largest of the cories(bronze and albino cories) which aren't quite as social and will get along with 4-5 fish but 6 is still a preferred number for them. Smaller cories(pandas, habrosus, salt and pepper...) are more social and prefer groups of 8+.

My tanks are all heavily planted with 3-4 watts per gallon of light and co2.
90g
9 tetras
9 threadfins
a pair of emperor tetras and their 3 fry
5 male guppies
1 male blue gourami
3 dojo loaches
5 panda cory(looking for 4 more to finish the school)
1 olive royal pleco
3 clown plecos
1 farlowella(his mate died)
at least 2 rainbowshrimp
applesnails and trumpet snails

5g rectangle
trio of sparkling gouramis

5g hex
being set up for the rest of the sparkling gouramis
current inhabitants are 5 ghost shrimp, ghost shrimp babies, trumpet snails

20g long
Growout tank
female guppies and guppy fry
2 clown pleco fry
2f, 1m young blue rams
young female opaline gourami
4 little sparkling gouramis
This is my future first marine tank when everything is grown and moved

29g left at my mom's house but I still maintain it and have final stocking say
lightly planted 1.5 watts per gallon
4 yoyo loaches
1 angelfish
1 betta
1 bristlenose pleco
2 otos

which is basically the same thing I said with more detail.

aqh88 · Nov 29, 2005

Only saying 1 goldfish per 10g means you could keep 1 in a 10g tank just like if you said 1inch per gallon and then someone thought to apply it to say an oscar or a pleco. It obviously doesn't work very well then. You need to say with a starting tank size of 30gallons or if you talk to some goldfish fanciers they will claim no less than a 55g tank for any type of goldfish. With out those extra details stating a stocking rule is pretty worthless. Almost all stocking rules break down in small tanks anyway. When dealing with something under say 20-29gallons it's not worth paying attention to rules but instead to either ask people more knowledgeable or follow your own instinct, experience, and watch how the fish are doing.

DaisyGP · Nov 29, 2005

aqh88 said:
Only saying 1 goldfish per 10g means you could keep 1 in a 10g tank just like if you said 1inch per gallon and then someone thought to apply it to say an oscar or a pleco. It obviously doesn't work very well then.

No, that's why I said it doesn't apply to aggressive fish or fish over 4''

aqh88 said:
When dealing with something under say 20-29gallons it's not worth paying attention to rules but instead to either ask people more knowledgeable or follow your own instinct, experience, and watch how the fish are doing.

True, until you get the hang of it it's better to ask someone knowledgeable. That's why they have fish forums just like guinea forums. After all, we are only human, right?

aqh88 · Nov 29, 2005

No, that's why I said it doesn't apply to aggressive fish or fish over 4''

That's why I mentioned it. You added a detail to the 1" per gallon rule which eliminated some of those times it didn't work but you didn't add any details to the goldfish rule. By itself 1 goldfish per 10g does not work. That's the only reason I added more details to it myself and compared it to someone using the 1" per gallon rule with no other details. 1 goldfish does not fit in a 10g tank. 2 goldfish would fit in a 40gallon tank or 3 goldfish in a 55g. The rule works after the detail. If you just go around saying 1 goldfish per 10g you are undoing all the work I see others putting into getting goldfish taken care of properly instead of people thinking they are cool and cheap and putting them in 10gallon tanks or even bowls. While I don't keep goldfish I'd like to help spread the word that goldfish are big, messy, long lived fish that deserve better homes than 10g tanks.

Sabriel · Nov 29, 2005

Sooo are my 3 black tetras and 3 red eyed tetras in my 10g tank a bad thing? They all seem to get along in one school now that they are used to each other. They seem happy and playful and even seem to play "tag" with each other.

This is my first "real" aquarium. Well, really it's my husbands, but I feed them, do all the research and I picked the fish type for our aquarium. My first tries at keeping fish were horribly misguided failures that happened long before I had net access. This tank has been running 4 months. That's the longest I have ever had fish live on me.

__ben · Nov 29, 2005

I had a goldfish who died a few months ago, its quite sad I got him on my fourth birthday...

P.s. Im 14 now

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