Melodrama in a fish tank- NOW WITH 100% LEGAL FISH REPRODUCTION

[Energy Storm]

Overstock =

1. Ammonia buildup > Nitrite buildup > Nitrate buildup > Dead fish
2. Territory disputes > Stress > Sick fish > Dead fish

So yeah don't try it.

[More Cowbell]

Damn this thread is epic, it almost makes me wanna get a fish tank myself.

Question to everyone who has a fish tank or whatever, how big is yours and what did it (and everything inside it) cost?

[Arcticblast]

Mine's only 10 gallons, but the tank, filter, decorations etc. came out to around $80 I think (The tank and filter were a gift, so I'm guessing based on what I've seen). Unless you're on the black market or you're getting a really big and possibly rare fish, then the fish will probably be under four dollars each.

[Morm]

My tank was under $200, it is a 30 gallon starter kit (always get the starter kits, way cheaper) I got on sale. The gravel was an extra $30 and the newts were like $15 each. The shrimp are like $4-5 each and snails are like $3.

[Tolan]

How do you have illegal fish reproduction?

[Morm]

Asian Karp in the Mississippi, Snakeheads in Florida...pretty much any introduced species is as close as you get. It's illegal to release them, which leads to spawning as fish are like teenagers, coating each other in semen it seems. My dad's fish tank STILL reeks from it.

[Energy Storm]

I have a 55 gallon and a 10 gallon. Get a tank as large as you can afford, the smaller the tank, the more maintenance it takes (weird huh), and small tanks (under 20 gallons) are super easy to overstock. I'd suggest 55-75 gallons as a good starter size.

Aquabid.com is a good place to get cheap plants and shrimp, Morm.

[Morm]

Yeah but I live in Canada, so from mid october til start of may I can't order anything or it will die in the harsh cold.

[Poppy]

Lol fish here cost under a dollar (small and/or cheap ones) such as goldfish and most tropical small fish. Really found that tropical fish are big pussies and die a lot easier than cold/freshwater. Goldfish are by far the easier in my experience, they cost like 80 cents over here grow nicely and are sturdy as fuck.

[Morm]

unless they are bred in a 50 gallon tank of like 500 others and come out sick as all hell.

[Poppy]

retailers here are often in small stalls of their own and therefore their stock and and capital equipment are both limited, plus there isn't that much demand for them so the shop owners do take decent care of them to prevent death/illness in the long run.

[Energy Storm]

I don't like goldfish since they need fucking huge tanks to stay healthy, I believe its 20 gallons per fish or something. You can stock a bit more densely with tropical fish and they're more colorful.

[Morm]

I'm sorry but you can't be that stupid. In China they abuse imports like you wouldn't believe, bringing in all kinds of illegal shit or legal stuff in whatever quantities they want. They even lied about their fishing catch SO MUCH that even though every fishery globally reported decreases, they reported (and did) so much 'success' that it looked like global gains.

ON TOP OF THAT I have seen first hand pics of many of the stores there, keeping like 15 baby turtles in the space that 2 should be in. Keeping fish in bags, where they can only live a max of like 2 hours, instead of fucking tanks.

Open your goddamn eyes.

Edit: energystorm you ninja'd me. Goldfish produce 1.3X the shit of any other fish. The TYPICAL rule is 1 inch of fish or slightly less per gallon for a decently maintained tank. With goldfish it's 1.3 inches of fish. My dad's pond is understocked bigtime, which can actually cause cycling problems because of a certain bacterial load needed to help the slime coat, but his overwintering tanks (from mid october til may, we still have them inside despite my protests) are so overstocked it's fucking scary. I think these new eggs will pressure him into getting an additional 55-60 gallon, adding to the 2 30's he has already.

Tropical fish ARE fucking better. My newts would prefer a goddamn chiller down to 16 degrees...they like it so cold that when they are sick you stick them in some water and chuck it in the refrigerator to fuck with bacteria while helping their immune system. Definitely an abnormal tank.


ALSO

One of my shrimp just went missing. It was not ferdinand or isabella. On things that can be eaten in a few mouthfuls, that usually means it had trouble shedding, died or was sick and it triggered a feeding frenzy that ripped it apart...no evidence of the death!

[Poppy]

pet stores and the fish markets are vastly different although there are definitely elements of what you mentioned prevalent in the markets that i have mentioned. i'm just saying it's not as bad as you think, nor as widespread. certainly, when i visit fish markets targeted at wholesale consumption the conditions are terrible, however, when i used to go to the fishmarkets that sold for domestic rearing purposes the conditions, although not pristine, were certainly not as atrocious as you are describing (although I am certain they exist elsewhere).

my eyes are fairly well opened.

edit: oh yeah the goldfish in bags and shit stuff is primarily off the street, like, a tier below what i usually visit. you cannot hope to get decent (in good health) fish if you buy from there.

[Morm]

You should visit north america, poppycock. The shit we call abusive is cloud fucking nine compared to most chinese minimum regulations.

[Poppy]

that and the majority don't even adhere to said regulations. Never been to N/A, UK lol.

Of course my experiences are, as they are, experiences and I don't have much background in this area at all (more my dad) but that is just what I found.

When I initially started with a small tank with an inadequate filter the water got so grimy, shitty and whathaveyou the goldfish kept swimming like they didn't give a shit; of course after we found a better filtration system we implemented it ASAP and the fish seemed none worse for the wear.

After that tank my dad and I tried out tropical fish in a new tank and the water appeared to be clean, the ecosystem was balanced with plants / snails and some small tropical fish (and shrimp too) yet quite a few died within the first few days (although that may have been from preconceived illnesses).

How the hell do you differentiate your shrimp??

[Morm]

some are bigger, slightly, some are smaller. Two are of a different subspecies (or species), so the pattern is different on them. They all have unique patterns, they are all unique snowflakes. We should give them vintage sweaters and thick frame glasses, that's how unique they are!

[Arcticblast]

Originally Posted by Fat Poppycock

that and the majority don't even adhere to said regulations. Never been to N/A, UK lol.

Of course my experiences are, as they are, experiences and I don't have much background in this area at all (more my dad) but that is just what I found.

When I initially started with a small tank with an inadequate filter the water got so grimy, shitty and whathaveyou the goldfish kept swimming like they didn't give a shit; of course after we found a better filtration system we implemented it ASAP and the fish seemed none worse for the wear.

After that tank my dad and I tried out tropical fish in a new tank and the water appeared to be clean, the ecosystem was balanced with plants / snails and some small tropical fish (and shrimp too) yet quite a few died within the first few days (although that may have been from preconceived illnesses).

How the hell do you differentiate your shrimp??

From my experience, tropical fish just aren't as sturdy - except Betta and black skirt tetra, but Betta don't normally go over well in community tanks (although the black skirts are motherfucking tanks compared to some other tetras) - and need a better tank at first. The water quality can go down from there, but as long as they can get used to the water they'll normally be fine as long as there are no major pollutants or anything.

[WaterBomb]

LESS ARGUE MORE NEWTITY PLEASE!

[Energy Storm]

Originally Posted by Fat Poppycock

After that tank my dad and I tried out tropical fish in a new tank and the water appeared to be clean, the ecosystem was balanced with plants / snails and some small tropical fish (and shrimp too) yet quite a few died within the first few days (although that may have been from preconceived illnesses).

Probably because you didn't cycle the tank (let it go throught the Nitrogen Cycle). With a lack of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter nitrifying bacteria in the filter and substrate, the quick ammonia buildup can kill almost any fish placed in the tank.

oh god why am i reiterating aquarium concepts on a pokemon forum

[Poppy]

Yeah, my dad figured it out after several had died and the current tank is fine.

It's okay, the fish love you for it.

[Morm]

here is the outdoor pond, going with a pump big enough to empty it in 4 minutes. It's about 350 gallons, we put the big adult fish in there today with the smaller ones and the yearlings coming tomorrow I think.



Filter with fish tucked in at top of picture



This is the mommy of the yearlings and the eggs! She was solid orange but lost her color cause the tank she was in was SO shitty all the time. I'm amazed she didn't die. She is about a decade old now, fat as all fuck and has bubbles on her eyes now from an infection that never fully healed. One of the fish has a giant cyst at the best of one of it's anal fins....These fish are old, giant and fucking sweet!



the whole set up

[Morm]

As promised, I finally filmed it (at least in part): a newt fight

Usually there is a standoff and Otto just runs, but in this case he didn't get away. Last time I saw them fight, Otto's head was fully in Bowagrius's. I wanted to film, but that was a potentially life threatening encounter!

Today also was fun because Muscles was out of his hiding place during the day.


Here is muscles, clinging to the floating island that Casiopia may have abused to escape and then die. The shrimp cling to this or the water lettuce (or the filter arm, rarely) after they shed their exoskeleton during tagmatization (hardening).


Here is his shed! I was so freaking excited. I found the tail, the carapace and ALL the limbs. The front limbs are REALLY bulky, this guy is so damn tough. Nothing in this tank could even harm him. He could be the king of everything, but instead he's a coward who runs like a coward. By strange contrast, Heinrich the whisker shrimp runs the top of the cave like a TOTAL boss, nobody even thinks to bother him but he's small enough to be eaten whole by a newt (one the same size as him was eaten whole). To the left outside the container is what was called a graptolite by the tard that gave it me but it is clearly an ammonite cross section. To the right is what I call a 'cleaning sponge' to help rid myself of algae since snails either accidentally hurt my newts or die to their viciousness. I gotta do some fuckin' work in here I guess.

[Arcticblast]

That is an awesome shrimp.

[Morm]

He's generally solid blue. The giant limb is actually the foremost of his 6 walking legs, his forelimbs (equivalent to a lobsters pincers) are an array of fan-like thingers spread out to catch particles of food. He cleans my tank, him and the others.

Also I think all the fish eggs are dead, or so it seems. I'm holding up hope but fungus is raping them. I couldn't leave them in the shitted up tank long enough to ensure they were fertilized (they had at least a day but maybe they needed more) and of course the ones left behind in that overstocked tank died within a few hours. So yeah, that adventure might be over but the yearlings have yet to go out into the big pond! :D