40 gallon breeder - Looking for Ideas

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#1
Feb 27, 2009
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#1
I will be moving in the next 3-5 months into a new home! Hopefully by the end of the year, but depends on the weather. Right now, its a plot of dirt with rocks and waist-high weeds growing on it.

I have an almost empty 40gallon breeder (one oto and one kuhli loach still to be caught). Until the move, I will maintain it as a plant-only tank. I may move one of my dwarf puffers over to hunt snails if I uncover much. But she's easy to move back to her regular tank, as she's very tame.

I'm looking for ideas of fish for the tank once I move.

I know I will want to have several fish of the Farlowella species in the tank. My supplier has Farlowella acus regularly available, but I'm not sure of the actual species (the F. acus is seldom exported and highly endangered - likely it is F. vittata). The tank will be heavily planted and with manzanita driftwood in it.

I want to stick with South American fish, as the Farlowella is from there, as are the plants.

Farlowella are very laid back fish, so nothing too aggressive.

Any ideas?
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#5
Feb 27, 2009
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#5
I wouldn't want to put any plecos in with Farlowellas. They would easily outcompete the more delicate Farlowellas for food. Adding the apistos to my list of possibilities. :)
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#6
Jan 11, 2013
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East Aurora, NY
#6
How many farlowella acus do you plan to keep in the 40B? Might be a little tight on space for much else.

New-build house on the way?? Congratulations to you!! That's more exciting than the 40B LOL!!

Property taxes are so insane in my area, anything too new has always been out of the question for us.
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#7
Feb 27, 2009
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#7
I will have 6 Farlowella initially until I can determine gender. I'll keep a trio (1M, 2F) if it works out that way. The others will be given to a local mom/pop fish store to sell.

I'm lucky with this subdivision, as it is just outside the city limits. The county has a lower tax rate for 5 years to encourage building. Works for us!
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#8
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
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East Aurora, NY
#8
OrangeCones said:
I'm lucky with this subdivision, as it is just outside the city limits. The county has a lower tax rate for 5 years to encourage building. Works for us!
Click to expand...

Sweet!

Yeah, we live ~5miles outside of the "village" to keep the tax rate and housing cost less insane. Have to live with septic as opposed to sewer, but we're used to that... and it's nice being in a rural-ish area. Our home was built in 1973. ~2700 sq/ft. I think we're at ~$4500yr for taxes.
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#9
Feb 27, 2009
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#9
Ours will be 2200 sq/ft and taxes estimated at just under $2K. The subdivision breaks ground Tuesday, and we're one of the first 20 to be built. I think the plat showed 480 total units but will take 6-7 yrs to finish I think. Our lot backs up to the electric company's easement and is very rocky and slopes low, so no one way to build behind us.
 

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Thyra

Superstar Fish
#11
Jun 2, 2010
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Yelm, WA
#11
What about covenants? My daughter is looking at to built but she definitely doesn't want to get into a gated community with all the covenants. Seems that can become a big problem especially if you are use to living rural. I know I am dealing with a trust that was left to a daughter and we can't even pick the color of her house or her trim, let alone what kin of roof we want to put on her house.
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#12
Feb 27, 2009
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#12
There are rules whenever you live in a subdivision. Some have more rules than others. The only restrictions we have (for now at least) is that we cannot build the exact same model/elevation combo nor the exact same brick color as the homes on either side or immediately across from our site. The lot we picked had only one side sold and they had a different floor plan. The other side is still for sale. There is no home directly across from us as it is the beginning of a small side street that ends in a cul-de-sac. Our only restriction was the color of brick. Before they even told us that, we had already eliminated that color (very dark), so it didn't affect us at all.

As the community is built, we will form our own HOA, and be a part of making the rules we all will live by. Right now the property is gated (two entrances/exits). However, we have the choice of keeping it that way or not once all of the building is done (several years away).
 

FishDad

FishDad

Superstar Fish
#13
Mar 4, 2012
1,218
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Cleveland
#13
That sounds like a great opportunity OC. I would love to build my own home. Some day maybe...

Just curious, is your development getting geo-thermal? Here in Ohio just about every new development is built with geo-thermal and paid off by the HOA over the course of about 20 years. Pretty good deal I think.
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#14
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
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East Aurora, NY
#14
Our first home, a little brick ranch just under 1000sq/ft was on a really nice cul-de-sac. I definitely miss a lot of the aspects of living there. That was a neighborhood built in the early 1950s.

FD, I've seen some programs on geo-thermal for residential structures. Looks pretty simple. Pretty sure my 1973 hot water baseboard heat is anti-geo-thermal. Ughh.. for whatever reason tons of homes in my area built prior to the 80's or so use hot water baseboard heat. Hate it because of the clunky baseboard convectors in every room, but it works.
 

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Thyra

Superstar Fish
#16
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
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Yelm, WA
#16
We have a HOA which was formed originally for the maintenance of the residential airstrip. It has a very colorful history. 35 five acre lots - $75 down, $50 a month ($7500). They somehow scabbed in power to what was suppose to be a community area (never happened) and had an "open house". Every lot supposedly had water - there was a spigot but no pipe connecting it to anything. Every lot sold. 15 of the lots didn't front on the runway so they withdrew and didn't want to pay dues. It was 1975. Developing the lots was pretty much pioneering. Wells and septic tanks were a hodge-podge as were some of the structures. Then eventually a few of the lots were developed by people with money, but they needed loans - and the bank said we needed a road maintenance agreement so they could finance their buildings. Today all the money we get from 20 lots goes into a fund to maintain a mile and a half of gravel road. With the exception of mowing the perimeters of the runway, it pretty much takes care of itself. It isn't all that simple, though, because all 35 lots have runway access on their deeds and someday someone is going to challenge that - most people don't read all the fine print on their deeds and just because some people voted themselves out of the HOA over 35 years ago isn't going to hold up in court. Besides most of the people that where involved are either dead or moved away.
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#17
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#17
Wow.. what an experience that is Thyra.

There are some homes in my area that share a common gravel or paved road. Luckily I'm on public water, but septics are a HUGE issue, because most homes have a system that technically failed long ago, but still works well enough for the homeowner. You can run it that way until you try to sell the house. That's the only time the health dept has to get involved in testing the system. If you're a business, it's a whole'nother deal.
 

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