Fish Owners Come Inside...

[SSmoked99]

I wish I had more space for a fish tank. I sold my 125gl for super cheap too about 2 years ago. 1 of my silver Arowana's grew to 13in. I wish I had the $ at the time to get the red Arowana, but If I remember they were like $200. I always liked my aggressive cichlids and there was nothing more aggressive than the Dovii. He took out Red Devil's, Managuense's, etc. like it was a walk in the park. Some day I'll definitely have another tank. I also had a salt water tank and it was a lot of work, but worth it.

 

[F8LBITEva]

aquariums were my second biggest addiction next to my cars. The management company made me get rid of my tanks after having them for a couple years. Ive been keeping fish since 1996. Check out some of my tanks and fish:

YouTube - Discus 120G HD
YouTube - All male Malawi UPDATE 12/09

 

[F8LBITEva]

 

[RYU583]

your discus are beautiful.... can you lend me some tips???

they are so friggen hard to keep alive..

I changed the water every other week, kept water at around 83 degrees, feed them different foods throughout the week, low light, low traffic areas, peaceful companions and they still wouldn't eat

$300 down the drain....

help me out please

 

[dutch]

thats awesome OP

 

[F8LBITEva]

your discus are beautiful.... can you lend me some tips???

they are so friggen hard to keep alive..

I changed the water every other week, kept water at around 83 degrees, feed them different foods throughout the week, low light, low traffic areas, peaceful companions and they still wouldn't eat

$300 down the drain....

help me out please

Well, the key is to start with young ones. Know where they come from because Discus from Asia will show brilliant colors at a very young age but that is because they pump them full of hormones so they appear healthy and colorful but the long term effect on them is stunted growth and short life span. Discus require 85F, lots of food, feed 3-5X a day, clean water, I mean 50% WC's every other day. I know its a PITA but you see the end result :-D

 

[2003GTIZZLE]

Holy shit 50% every other would turn this guy into a future goldfish owner!

I do 25% or so every other week with my Oscars and keep a strict eye on the filter/carbon. You can never over filter so I got the biggest twin wheel I could fit without turning my tank into a whirpool. It does add to the river effect though which is cool!

Horibble glare sorry...

Never miss a photo op...

F8Lbite Your cichlids look incredible man!!!

JTR

 

[129saleen]

i have 2 tanks.. one 55g and other 125g..

I turned on my light last night on the 125g and opened half the lid for half a second and my 10inch+ bala shark jumped out and landed about 8 feet away from the tank.. little ****er got some speed and flew.. There is a big gash on his head now but he is still alive so I am happy.

I have 5 bala's ranging from ~7-11 inches and they are the most skitish fish I have ever owned. They hurt themselves so dam much it's not even funny. I got them all when they were just about 1 inch long years ago and they have somehow made it even after all the injuries.
Also have a pictus catfish.. angelfish.. ugly suckercat fish.. some little see through green thing.. 3 sucker fish ranging from 4" to 14".. and then 3 other little fish.

Ill post a video of my cat trying to catch them (thorugh the glass) he is obsessed with these fish

 

[347zz5.0]

I changed the water every other week,

That's no where near enough for Discus. Some Discus breeders don't even have filters on their tanks because they do daily 100% wc's.

 

[347zz5.0]

my 10" Bala Shark committed suicide last night....

He kept ramming the glass lids what I can only guess were his attempts of escaping.
damn near shattered my tops

he hit it so hard he would fall into a coma for like 10 minutes and then go try again just to fall in several comas
poor guy... I loved him
155Gal Bow

Love Balas!

They are notorious for jumping but are you sure this wasn't a case of violent flashing instead of jumping? I've seen some fish flash so violently they do some nasty damage to themselves. I could see a larger fish, with some weight behind it, be able to kill itself with repeatedly flashing and crashing into the tank.

 

[fire_4_effect]

amazing collection that you had there! i've always wanted a nice "community" tank, however, my passion for the arowanas changed that since they will eat anything that they can swallow; that kind of left me with no other option except to keep strictly those types (for some reason they don't mess with algae eaters (sucker fishes) :thumbsup:

 

[F8LBITEva]

amazing collection that you had there! i've always wanted a nice "community" tank, however, my passion for the arowanas changed that since they will eat anything that they can swallow; that kind of left me with no other option except to keep strictly those types (for some reason they don't mess with algae eaters (sucker fishes) :thumbsup:

Thanks man. You can keep Arrows with anything that wont fit in their mouth. Large species of Geophagus, Rays, severums, catfish, plecos but youll need massive filtration and a big tank 6FT+. Definitely check out Monsterfishkeepers.com for ideas and answers to questions you may have.

 

[fire_4_effect]

Thanks man. You can keep Arrows with anything that wont fit in their mouth. Large species of Geophagus, Rays, severums, catfish, plecos but youll need massive filtration and a big tank 6FT+. Definitely check out Monsterfishkeepers.com for ideas and answers to questions you may have.

currently my 2 arowanas are in a 55g tank but i'm expecting to go up to a 100+ gallons within the next 6 months or so... they can throw down some trout/meal worms!!! :-D

the filtration that i currently have is more than enough, between the 2 filters... the water in the tank is getting circulated around 700g per hour! :thumbsup:

 

[03LCalgaryAB]

I used to have an Silver Arowana as well until it committed suicide. He was about 6 inches and managed to jump out a hole in the back

I have a 180gal that I am slowly stocking up..cichlids, silver dollars & mono at the moment

Well, the key is to start with young ones. Know where they come from because Discus from Asia will show brilliant colors at a very young age but that is because they pump them full of hormones so they appear healthy and colorful but the long term effect on them is stunted growth and short life span. Discus require 85F, lots of food, feed 3-5X a day, clean water, I mean 50% WC's every other day. I know its a PITA but you see the end result :-D

damn 50%+ water change on a 125g is a PITA. I'll stick to a more hardy fish. Your fish look amazing btw. Great setups!

 

[jcveron]

Not a fish guy but op's avatar is amazing

 

[Jack Burton]

135g setup - 14" male dovii

125g setup - community tank/grow out tank: female midas/devil/ jack dempsey, green terror, carpintes, firemouth, silver dollars, pleco.

Both tanks are running wet/dry filters for filtration. If I remember right one pump is 1,000gph and the other is 1,200gph.

With the exception of the dovii, I'm kind of keeping easy to maintain and acquire cichlids since I'm not as big into the hobby anymore. I used to keep more rare (not usually found in pet stores, usually have to order them from Rapps) cichlids such as:

red tiger motaguence
umbriferum
zonatum
pearsaei
lyonsi
etc...

I also went on a kick of keeping pure midas (99% of the ones you get at the pet store are red devil (labiatus) mixed with midas (citrinellum). So, I was usually ordering a bunch of Rapps on a consistent basis.

 

[Jack Burton]

currently my 2 arowanas are in a 55g tank but i'm expecting to go up to a 100+ gallons within the next 6 months or so... they can throw down some trout/meal worms!!! :-D

the filtration that i currently have is more than enough, between the 2 filters... the water in the tank is getting circulated around 700g per hour! :thumbsup:

Personally, with arowana I wouldn't go with anything smaller than a 180g when it comes time to upgrade. That would be the minimum I would go with.

Have you looked into wet/dry filters yet? If not, I recommend you check them out, especially if you upgrade to a tank that has already been drilled and has the overflow boxes. You can make the wet/dry pretty cheap and easy, with the most expensive part being the pump/s. Usually ends up cheaper than buying a bunch of HOB filters or canister filters.

Granted you can buy a wet/dry that's already setup, but if you are on a budget you can make one on the cheap. :beer:

 

[Wishing4Cobra]

Subing.. there are some nice setups on here.

 

[kirks5oh]

i love the arrowanas---i used to always keep one when i had fish tanks


the biggest one i had is pictured below. its roughly 12-15" in the pic below---it was over 18" when i had to part with it---just too big for my 120 gallon tank.

 

[RYU583]

That's no where near enough for Discus. Some Discus breeders don't even have filters on their tanks because they do daily 100% wc's.

It was fine for a good while.... one day my heater broke and it was all downhill from there.
100% daily water change seems like the bacteria wouldn't have a chance to grow...

Love Balas!

They are notorious for jumping but are you sure this wasn't a case of violent flashing instead of jumping? I've seen some fish flash so violently they do some nasty damage to themselves. I could see a larger fish, with some weight behind it, be able to kill itself with repeatedly flashing and crashing into the tank.

Flashing? whats that?

I tried looking up any info while he was doing this, but I did not have another tank to put him in and I could not approach the tank without him going nuts and then spearheading himself into the gravel at which point he would appear dead just to gather himself and do it another 50 times...

he had considerable damage to himself :cryying: