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garfieldnfish · 02-23-2006, 02:29 PM

Jclaudii, I would like to address a few points you made in your last response but before that let me explain how I got started in this fish hobby, so you know where I'm coming from. I got a 1.5gal tank for my daughter for Christmas and a pack of triops as an experiment. When we opened it on Christmas and read that they would only hatch in a mason jar with bottled water, I asked, "so what do we do with the fish tank?" My hubby promptly went out the next day to get what was needed for the Christmas present for my daughter, and also 2 goldfish and a book called "aquariums for dummies". There has never been a more fitting book written for us. It took us 10 minutes to realized we needed a much larger aquarium for our newest members of the family, the goldfish. That was 2 years and 10 fish tanks ago.
"We looked at these fish and those and picked the prettier ones", been there and done that, hence the many tanks, lol. Then you bring them home and realize, one does not go with the other. One needs different water values, the other is a know fin nipper or in our case a slime coat sucker-offer. Never buy on impulse, always research what you want, to see if it fits in your tank and not just size wise but also temps, water values and deco (substrate, live plants, or driftwood etc) wise.
"Fish will grow according to the size tank they are in". Not exactly word for word what you wrote but close enough (I have not yet figured out how to do the quote stuff) That is not entirely true. While, in a smaller then recommended tank, the total length of the fish may not get as large as what is normal for them, their organs still grow and that causes health problems, in some cases severe. I would almost bet my right arm that the goldfish in goldfish bowls in the old days never reached their 30+ year live span.
If you plan on getting the 55 gal I would recommend the following (open for discussion and trial and error, lol)
29 gal
2 dwarf puffers, sucker fish and beta
55 gal (better yet the 75 gal) all else you currently have
On the saltwater set up, wait at least 2 years before you go that way, in the meantime you may get bitten by the pleco or corydora bug and will run out of space long before you even consider saltwater again. Visit www.planetcatfish.com or
www.aquabid.com
and you know what I mean. Your local fish place is just a small glimpse of the universe.

02-23-2006, 02:29 PM	#20
garfieldnfish Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 661 User Feedback: (0)	Jclaudii, I would like to address a few points you made in your last response but before that let me explain how I got started in this fish hobby, so you know where I'm coming from. I got a 1.5gal tank for my daughter for Christmas and a pack of triops as an experiment. When we opened it on Christmas and read that they would only hatch in a mason jar with bottled water, I asked, "so what do we do with the fish tank?" My hubby promptly went out the next day to get what was needed for the Christmas present for my daughter, and also 2 goldfish and a book called "aquariums for dummies". There has never been a more fitting book written for us. It took us 10 minutes to realized we needed a much larger aquarium for our newest members of the family, the goldfish. That was 2 years and 10 fish tanks ago. "We looked at these fish and those and picked the prettier ones", been there and done that, hence the many tanks, lol. Then you bring them home and realize, one does not go with the other. One needs different water values, the other is a know fin nipper or in our case a slime coat sucker-offer. Never buy on impulse, always research what you want, to see if it fits in your tank and not just size wise but also temps, water values and deco (substrate, live plants, or driftwood etc) wise. "Fish will grow according to the size tank they are in". Not exactly word for word what you wrote but close enough (I have not yet figured out how to do the quote stuff) That is not entirely true. While, in a smaller then recommended tank, the total length of the fish may not get as large as what is normal for them, their organs still grow and that causes health problems, in some cases severe. I would almost bet my right arm that the goldfish in goldfish bowls in the old days never reached their 30+ year live span. If you plan on getting the 55 gal I would recommend the following (open for discussion and trial and error, lol) 29 gal 2 dwarf puffers, sucker fish and beta 55 gal (better yet the 75 gal) all else you currently have On the saltwater set up, wait at least 2 years before you go that way, in the meantime you may get bitten by the pleco or corydora bug and will run out of space long before you even consider saltwater again. Visit www.planetcatfish.com or www.aquabid.com and you know what I mean. Your local fish place is just a small glimpse of the universe. Last edited by garfieldnfish; 02-23-2006 at 02:33 PM.