I'm going to have to delete my signature, lol. That was from like 3 years ago when I thought that getting a business degree that May meant I was going to get a good paying job rather than me working at a call center and then living on unemployment like I am today. All those fish are dead now except for two mbuna and the black tetra. So 55 gallon never came into fruition. I moved in the fall of that year (2006) and while I was gone for two months my family neglected my tanks and I lost a few fish like my frontosa and I don't even remember what happened to my clown loaches.
Later I had a new 10 gallon set up at my house because when my parents brought my furniture they brought my empty ten gallon (what was left what was originally in the tank got put into my brothers ten gallon). A snail survived in the ecocomplete in my parents garage for an entire week and that ecocomplete was in a bucket and not really wet. So that was interesting to see him appear when I set that tank up again. I got some stuff for the new tank.
Two months later, I visited my parents for Christmas and while I was there I did the daring stunt of moving my 29 gallon thru a 5-6 hour drive to my house. Then my brother decided he didn't want his fish anymore so I inherited a bunch of fish. I moved like 27 fish and 24 or 25 survived the trip. I did not really feel like remaking that huge rock structure that made caves in my 29 gallon again because I was exhausted after taking down a 29 gallon and rebuilding it all in one day and driving for 5 hours. My 10 gallon inadvertently ended up being over stocked. And I started working alot of hours so I didn't have much time for fish and I kind of lost interest in the hobby. About 3 months later there was a huge wave of deaths. The lack of hiding spaces in the mbuna tank eventually caused the two dominate fish to push the other mbunas to extinction. After about a year and a half of not really being interested in the hobby, I eventually decided to rebuild my tank to the glory it was on the website in my signature.
My last two mbunas (the alpha males) got put into a 10 gallon. I will probably get criticized to death for this but it end up working out. I originally bought a tank divider but it required way to much physical strength to put it together so that idea got scrapped. They seem to get along well. They don't really defend the territory outside their caves and both of them have access to 90% of the territory in the tank. Between the ecocomplete and the driftwood, they each have dug their own caves under them. The smaller mbuna managed to make a cave entrance small enough that the bigger one could never get in there. They have been in this set up for about a year now and both are in good health. They are each around 4 inches long and were fully grown long before this set up so there is no stunted growth issues. The Pseudotropheus elongatus maxes out at 12 cm and the blue and red finned Pseudotropheus is about a cm longer. Mbunas are among the hardiest fish I have ever dealt with in the hobby. There is no plants in this tank and there is mostly open space above the gravel, the driftwood is mostly flat on the ground. I have always had algae issues in this tank so it often looks like crap. The ecocomplete probably fuels the algae with nutrients. I would never recommend anyone to do this set up because in my case, I more than likely got lucky that it worked out. It is far from the ideal setup but outside of less swimming space, I don't really see any problems with it.
My 29 gallon set up currently is:
5 Platies
5 Tiger Barbs
5 Cories
5 Neons
5 Rasboras
4 Otos
1 Black Tetra
1 Zebra Danio
The Black Tetra and the Zebra Danio are the last survivors from the schools they were originally in. I have no interest in restoring their schools. The 29 gallon is slightly overstocked according to the inch per gallon rule. I got a little too excited when I bought most of the new fish a month ago and forgot that cories get 2 inches long or bigger. And no the tiger barbs do not fin nip the black tetra. But since this tank is now very appealing to look it I will get taken care of.
Now, considering the post history of the people talking to me, I expect to be condemned or whatnot but it will go in one ear and out the other. I shall give a preemptive response. I don't come to this usually come to this forum for advice but yet people feel the need to give it to me anyways. If I actually followed the advice people gave me I wouldn't have this much experience with this many species of fish. Very few people can actually afford to get a 75+ gallon tank or whatever other nonsense people recommend getting because a fish might live to adulthood. It takes a frontosa 4-5 years to even reach his adult size.
This forum has a certain attitude about fish that is far different from mine. For me, this is biology and ecology research in my own home. My fish aren't pets in the same way dogs and cats are. These tanks are dynamic ecosystems and just like real ecosystems life sometimes dies. I've had people tell me I am not in the hobby for the fish and whatnot but really, why are they held to such a high standard? We give bigger fish feeder fish and that is okay but it is wrong for the main tank fish to die. What about all those fish that are caught by fishing boats? I'm sure they suffer alot worse because I don't think they get put out of their misery directly. If you ever ate fish then you are guilty of fish torture. We kill pigs which are intelligent animals for food. Our society has done alot of biological research on lab rats for the good of mankind and I am sure you all are somehow benefiting from this research in some way. Zebra Danios are used like lab rats. The concept of keeping fish in aquariums could be considered cruel because of what they go thru for delivery and the nasty conditions of the pet shop, then later on to inexperienced fish keeper that have uncycled tanks. By participating in this hobby you are supporting the very industry that causes the fish cruelty you speak out against.
So to be honest, I don't buy this logic of putting aquarium fish on a pedestal. For me, they aren't pets, they are specimens. I purposely test the common claims of this forum and find there is alot of very restrictive advice going around what can go in what tank and much of it is completely blown out of proportion. The webmaster of age of aquariums
Aquariums & Tropical Fish: My Personal Collection had alot aquariums that broke alot of the conventional wisdom that is spread on this forum. My goal here is to bring in alternate viewpoints as a way to eliminate this strong bias that in my opinion has made this forum a very unpleasant place to be due to the forum bullying against anyone that dares to treat fish like anything less than a cat or dog. It gets really old having to hide what is in your tank because some people feel the need to look at your signature and criticize your fish selection whether you ask for advice or not.
So what I do is instead of telling people that they have to absolutely buy a bigger tank, I give them pros and cons of each situation and let them decide. Things like telling people that zebra danios absolutely need a 20 gallon tank for the sake of swim space is just absolute nonsense. You see this?
Fish Tank of October '98 at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish This tank got tank of the month and it is a 5 gallon with 5 danios, 5 serpae tetras, 2 otos, and 1 cory. Aside from the lone cory, I see nothing wrong with this tank. This website has had some pretty hardcore tanks that have been featured as tank of the month, especially in later years and has featured entries from over 20 different countries. I have kept a low profile since my return to these forums until now, but I feel alot of these issues have to be addressed because of the warrantless attacks about my fish selection on my signature that I no longer even have when I haven't asked for advice on this forum to begin with.