From Reptiles to Fish Back to Reptiles.

Shamalon

Member
I'm dedicating this thread to all of the pets i've owned. I don't have any pictures of my first pets though. They were an Anole and a Gecko! I was far too young to actually know how to take care of them. Although I tried really hard haha. They lived for about two years.

Anyways, after I had reptiles I went to fish when I got older. I'm going to post some of the best pictures from my years of fish keeping along with some videos here and there.

Now that I got back into reptiles specifically chameleons, I hope to have a million pictures of them as well!
 
My first fish was a Betta. He was part of this "Community Tank" (who knew?) I couldn't stand the thought of housing a fish in a tiny bowl...

Charlie didn't care much for other fish but he wasn't ever mean about it.

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This snail seemed to always say Hello?
 
Your signature shows that you have a brackish tank??

I don't know many people with one.. other than myself. What do you have in it?
 
I have a small scale archer fish(toxetes microlepis) and a bumblebee goby. I used to have a pair of fiddlers but they died and I hope to replace them with Amano shrimp and then get and orange chromide with that too. What do you have in your's?
 
I had a beautiful, relatively small (20 gal long) tank set up a year ago and I miss it! It was the first time in my life that I tried my hand at aquascaping and made a fresh water tank with sand, gravel, natural logs, loads of plants, and mainly dwarf gourami in different colors. The way I set it up, with plants, fish, and little snails the tank essentially took care of itself. I just had to provide food and top off the water that evaporated.

I dated a marine biologist briefly and he was shocked that I barely touched my tank and that it was doing so well lol! He on the other hand kept fighting tooth and nail to get his 90 gal salfwater tank to thrive, so he was pretty shocked and jealous.
 
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I have a saltwater tank now it a reef and all the fish tanks I've had have been a lot of fun I have african cichlids too fish are awsome but there really alot more complex then herps
 
I have a small scale archer fish(toxetes microlepis) and a bumblebee goby. I used to have a pair of fiddlers but they died and I hope to replace them with Amano shrimp and then get and orange chromide with that too. What do you have in your's?

Archer fish are some of the most amazing fish I've ever seen! Especially if you can train them to shoot. I started with putting food on the glass. Right now I have some fiddlers, 2 mudskippers, a milk puffer, bumble bee gobies, target fish and a knight goby. I sadly just had a couple fish die because of a power outtage that lasted for 8 hours killing all the good bacteria in my tank. :(

I lost a milk puffer and a green spotted puffer as well. Puffers are my absolute favorite species of fish! I've had/have a lot of different ones.

Here are some pictures of my first brackish tank!

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I had a beautiful, relatively small (20 gal long) tank set up a year ago and I miss it! It was the first time in my life that I tried my hand at aquascaping and made a fresh water tank with sand, gravel, natural logs, loads of plants, and mainly dwarf gourami in different colors. The way I set it up, with plants, fish, and little snails the tank essentially took care of itself. I just had to provide food and top off the water that evaporated.

I dated a marine biologist briefly and he was shocked that I barely touched my tank and that it was doing so well lol! He on the other hand kept fighting tooth and nail to get his 90 gal salfwater tank to thrive, so he was pretty shocked and jealous.

That's the beauty of a freshwater tank! The plants act as a nutrient export for the nitrates. As far as saltwater... It's a whole different ball game. The fish are so much more sensitive to nitrates. The best natural option is to go with a deep sand bed of 6-8 inches. This sand bed if cultivated for a year or more will produce enough bacteria to keep a perfect balance. Otherwise, you have to export nutrients somehow and most plants can't do it enough.

I wish you had some pictures of your setup! It sounds really natural. Those are my favorite kinds.
 
That's the beauty of a freshwater tank! The plants act as a nutrient export for the nitrates. As far as saltwater... It's a whole different ball game. The fish are so much more sensitive to nitrates. The best natural option is to go with a deep sand bed of 6-8 inches. This sand bed if cultivated for a year or more will produce enough bacteria to keep a perfect balance. Otherwise, you have to export nutrients somehow and most plants can't do it enough.

I wish you had some pictures of your setup! It sounds really natural. Those are my favorite kinds.

Definitely, salt water tanks are a totally different beast. It just irritated him that he was a marine biologist and would have his tank crash on him every so often despite his best efforts. It was made worse because he maintained the aquariums in the research labs on campus, and all of those were thriving but his own personal one wouldn't.

I was surprised to find out that I only have one photo of the tank! From the first couple weeks I think. I think I doubled the plants (and types of plants) over the next couple weeks and in a month or two they'd filled out quite a bit. The rest stayed the same, and the tank slowly gained more dwarf gourami!

It was small but I loved it! Now I have a 55 gal aquarium that will someday become something aquatic, but for now it's in storage.

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I've always wanted to do a planted freshwater tank. That one looks great! I see you took a focal point towards the middle. From all of the display tanks I've seen I think that style is the most beautiful. I've seen some done where it has kind of a V shape in the middle pulling you in while the left and right sides have driftwood. I love those moss balls you had! You'll definitely have to post up pictures when you decide to throw your 55 together. I'd love to see it.
 
I've always wanted to do a planted freshwater tank. That one looks great! I see you took a focal point towards the middle. From all of the display tanks I've seen I think that style is the most beautiful. I've seen some done where it has kind of a V shape in the middle pulling you in while the left and right sides have driftwood. I love those moss balls you had! You'll definitely have to post up pictures when you decide to throw your 55 together. I'd love to see it.

Thank you! If you can picture it (since I didn't photograph it! lol) one the plants took over the back corners were pretty heavily planted and the center was left bare, which was nice because the fish really popped against the white sand and the green background. They would dig around in it for food, so it was easy to watch them. But like I said it was my first try at aquascaping and I was pretty pleased with it, but I learned a lot and I would change a lot of things for my next try.

I've got a collection of photos from professional and award winning aquascapers on my computer for inspiration for the next project, but it's amazing what these people do. Mine was a little crappy nothing next to theirs! It's definitely an art to make a really amazing aquascape.
 
I feel the same with every time I make a tank. I've only had a few freshwater tanks myself. I got into brackish and loved it years ago and haven't gotten out of it. I did the 75g one that I posted a couple pictures of up previously and I converted to a 110 when I moved. I would love to have real brackish plants but they are some of the hardest to keep if you can even find them in stock at stores. That goes for most brackish fish as well.

Here are some pics I recently took of my 110 it's still not totally done and it's been up for about two years. Stocking and finding the right kind of drift wood takes forever!

Naturally they all hide the moment I get the camera.

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But Bigsby poses good...
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And one of my favorite species of puffer!
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