Aquarium photos

[fisheater]

Im feeding Aquadine spirulina in the morning and Dainichi Color Surpreme in the evening.I was thinking of taking out the gravel and replacing with some darker sand but i didnt know how to go about it without stressing them out real bad.Plus the Mbuna love sifting through the gravel.
I put some rainbow rock in there and bought it thinking it would make some cool looking caves but now that i have it in there i dont care much for it in this setup.Im glad i didnt buy more.I had a bit of fake plants in there but i didnt like the look but the smaller fish and eels and loaches loved the cover,still undeciding about putting just a little back in.
Im pretty happy with the Surfline,thought it was unique and havent seen too many and was definutely worth the cost after i set it up and looked at it..I wonder how good that holey rock would look under the moonglow leds.I bet real nice.I been keeping my eye out for some quality peices but there high so im looking for the right peice.
Id like to see your project if you can find a way to show it.Or some of the fish and set ups your running now.

[JD7.62]

Afro Cichlids are pretty hard to stress out, how new is the gravel that is in there and how old is your bio-media in the filter?

Removing the gravel is easy, I just use a net and scoop it out. Two things to worry about though. One, scratching the tank (dont scoop the gravel up against your glass...use common sense, youll be fine) Two, ammonia spikes, your gravel holds lots of bio-media so removing it will remove some bio-media allowing for a chance for an ammonia spike. Add some Seachem stability and feed very little for the first week or so after your change and all will be safe.

Afro cichlids love sand too, its more natural then peagravel, they will still exhibit the same sifting behavior. For Texas Holey Rock East End Aquatics cant be beat, they have some good pieces for good prices, still expensive though. It would be nice under some moonlights for sure.

I got another Hydrolycus armatus, and loving it. Im not powerfeeding to maximize growth like my last one though. Im in an apartment and I cant put a tank bigger then a 125 in there as Im on the second floor. His tankmates, are, well, hated by the .gov for no reason so they are my own little secret!

[Cobra190]

Great looking fish. Right now I'm still running low budget cichlids, an Oscar, A Jaguar and a Red Devil. After the first of the year I'm going to try to round up a 125 gallon tank for the Oscar and Jag so they can keep growing. You would think with all the fish lovers on this site, more of them would be fish keepers.
Fisheater, as JD7 said, check out the web site he mentioned. It's great and you can find alot of good info on there and even get the answers to alot of questions. I am Kentuckyfish on that site.

[fisheater]

Ill check out there holey rock,thanks!I may start adding some sand a little at a time so i dont mess with the bacteria.Ill definutlely check out that site and i may join.Theres nothing wrong with the fish you have,ive always found the oscars to be interesting with personality,i just dont for many of the other south americans right now so i didnt go that route this time.If i had room for another tank right now id go with some s.americans and feed them live feeders.If we buy a bigger house in the future im going to make a fish room in the basement with several tanks and species.

[Bobby Headrick]

Man you guys have some great tanks. I used to have two I had a 90 gal set up for fresh water and had a 120 for salt water, had a puffer, a lion fish,and an eel and damsels, but the lion fish ate them. I could hand feed the lion and puffer,s , lost bot during the big ice storm in 94?. The salt water tanks can be the easisest to take care of after it sets up , not as much cleaning and water changing, but I used a big bio filter set up. I lost close to 1,000 dollars worth of fish and live coral. had an arawana in the 90 fresh, they are my favorite fish he could be hand fed also. I wish I had the room to have my dream tank, I want at least a 500 gal built in. A friend of mine in BG had one and it was awsome it was salt water. After the bio system gets kicked in salt require less maintance than a fresh but the fish are costly.

[fisheater]

Ive always heard that salt water tanks were a pain in the behind so ive never attempted one.Yea and the fish are crazy high also but beautifull.Ill try one some day when i get a little more house.I was just talking with my wife the other day that i hope we dont lose power this year for a few days with the small fortune i have in fish.Other than a generator what could you do??
Oh yea those salt water Morays are pretty sweet!

[JD7.62]

I think fresh is best bang for your buck. Id rather spend my $$ on fish then equipment. For example, in my 125 I have three fish valued at around $1500 and I have only about $600 in the tank. If I took that same $2100 and did a SW 125, after buying all the equipment Id have barely enough left for any fish. Even then my 125 would be pretty much the same as the tank in the dentist office down the street. Since Im doing fresh and spending my money on rare hard to find fish instead of equipment, I can safely say that the group I have together right now the dentist down the street doesnt have, I can safely say that no one in the state of KY has ever had. I'm also fairly certain the co-hab Im attempting has never been done in this country, possibly the world so its kind of nice to know you have something that unique. The fish Im co-habing are VERY aggressive, expensive, rare and full of teeth. I could come home any day to a dead fish but so far so good. I will be gone for four days this weekend and as soon as I unlock my door Sunday night Im running to my tank and hoping for the best!

[fisheater]

Wow,im kicking myself self in the butt for not checking out that site sooner!Tons of info i need and tons i dont but stil find really interesting.Thanks for the heads up.
I know what you mean about worrying about your fish,the most expensive fish i have are the peacocks but evertime i come home i check them and if they dont eat the way i think they should i get worried.lol.
Im taking a 6 day fishing trip in april so ill need to school the wife on the care but i know she still wont do it the way i would.

[JD7.62]

Im glad you liked the site. A word of warning, be careful over there or the next thing you know youll be knocking down a wall to put in that 500 gallon tank or dropping $300 on a fish!

They also have a semi active fishing sub-forum which can be pretty comical at times.

Also the Louisville Tropical Fish Fanciers (local fish club) meets the second sunday of every month. The meetings always have a speaker that is very informative as well as a small auction to follower the speaker. Every spring and fall they have a big auction. Google LTFF for their website and yahoo group.

I got to thinking, if you really like your Africans tlak to me next time you think about picking up more. Im good friends with Eddie Martin of Bluegrass Cichlids who offers the highest quality and best selection of African and CA/SA cichlids in town.

[fisheater]

Man if i ever have a house built i will have a 500 in a wall,lol.Yea i bought my last peacock from Eddie,nice guy and great fish.Also got a very nice blue dolphin from him.Ill let you know when i need another-lol-and ive been wanting to check out that fish club.They meet over off of Bardstown rd. right?

[fisherman136]

blunt nose minnow

[Col Forbin]

Ive always heard that salt water tanks were a pain in the behind so ive never attempted one.Yea and the fish are crazy high also but beautifull.Ill try one some day when i get a little more house.I was just talking with my wife the other day that i hope we dont lose power this year for a few days with the small fortune i have in fish.Other than a generator what could you do??
Oh yea those salt water Morays are pretty sweet!

I just saw this thread and it is awesome. I think once I learned about it, alot of reading on water conditions and the ammonia/nitrate cycle - saltwater was actually easier to maintain than freshwater. I have lost more fish in a marine tank than fresh, but once the water and bio-filters (including your substrate and live rock) stabalize - it pretty much takes care of itself (of course, you need to monitor and make adjustments, and do some partial water changes). The main thing is to spned some time setting up your tank to let the water stabalize. I once set up a reef tank and spent over six months just letting the water stabalize before adding any corals or "real" fish. I did keep a few damsels in there to keep the nitrate cycle going, so the rocks and sand and all that would continue to grow bacteria that would eat the nitrates.

Losing power can wipe out a tank. I lost a great deal of valuable fish in my fish only tank. I had a cat, that I guess stepped on the power strip shutting it off while I was out of town for a few days. I guess it overheated. My lights were plugged into an outlet directly with a timer. They kept cycling on and off - however, my filters were not running, and my fans I built on my hood to help cool all the lights were not running either. I lost a puffer, an austrailian harlequin tusk (my favorite), a few tangs, a full clown trigger, an adult queen angle, and a few other small fish - it really added up. I sold my 180 gal. and filter after that. The only thing that lived was my zebra morray - I guess they are tougher.