Fishkeeping

[Wendy]

Something else is new, I started keeping tropical fish!  Mrs BM had promised miniMikey the pikey a goldfish, but upon some internet study I found that keeping one in a bowl was cruelty of note, so we went the full tank setup.

Anyone else here keep fish?

[Tiger]

Kept fish for a long time.  We had Clown Loach, and Discus.  The loaches were very colourful black and orange and grew to a prodigious size by eating the neons we puit in from time to time. Also we think ate one of thewir own number which was quite impressive.
Discus are the most lovely tropicla fish and some of teh hardest to keep - they develop neurotic behaviour, and appear to be more intelligent than other fish types. They get quite tame and friendly - but can also be aggressive among themselves.
Gave up fish in the end as it is quite time consuming to do properly.

[Tom M]

We've got a couple of tanks of freshwater tropical at the moment. One big one with some clown loaches, a big angel fish, some plecs, and various little ones. In the other little one we have a freshwater puffer, and another plec. The puffer had to be put in 'isolation' as he was rather aggressive towards the others and nipped at fins and chased some around. I thinks he's a bit Hannibal Lector to be honest as we decided to stick 10 neon tetra in there too with him to brighten things up. By the morning not one was left...

The main thing really if starting new is to build up slowly as it takes time for the water chemistry to balance out properly. Don't become attatched to the first few fish either as they may suffer because of this.

[Wendy]

Cool!  Yes, I've done loads of studying, I didn't realise quite how complicated it all is at first.  I bought an oversized external filter, much better than the tiny internal one the tank came with.

[little miss mac]

Minimikey#2 will love them too. Gus's first trip to an aquarium, aged 3.5 months, was a huge success and he loves the London aquarium. Our local pet shop has lots of fish tanks: free entertainment!

I bought an oversized external filter, much better than the tiny internal one the tank came with.

A whole new category of Gear and Kit to buy 

[Tom M]

The externals are a lot better I think as they are less faff long-term and help keep things nice and clean. One thing to remember though is that if washing the sponges/filter medium, don't use straight tap water as the chlorine will kill off the beneficial bacteria.

When we went to Kuala Lumpur on our honeymoon recently we went scuba-diving in the giant tank thing in their aquarium. There was loads of cool stuff in there like different sharks, turtles and rays. However, I don't remember seeing much to be honest as I wasn't entirely keen on the whole scuba experience as was more concentrating on not dying...

[TimO]

My parents kept tropical fish for many years, but they seemed to go through phases of dying, when some nasty bug got into a tank (even though we tried to quarantine them in other tanks).  Also variously over the years; when we had babies, it was difficult to stop the other fish (including their Mum) from eating them, algae would grow on the tank, gravel, rocks etc which was a problem (I remember saucepans of gravel being boiled in the kitchen to clean it off! Smelly), Snails also took over a bit on occasions.

I found them OK to an extent, but I'd never have them myself, since to me the level of aggro involved seems to far outweigh the enjoyment.

My parents eventually got get up with them, and my brother took over, which was fine until one winter when he was away on holiday, and the undersoil heating in the greenhouse took out the entire house electrics.  The tropical fish tank got a little chilly, which the fish don't like much.  I think he gave up then, and didn't bother to replace them.

[Wendy]

I think things have changed quite a lot in the last ten or twenty years, from what I've read.  Regular testing and cheap water testing kits, high quality filters with all sorts of different media, and keeping water rather than the fish seem to mean that not much effort is involved, at least so far.

I'd certainly never bother trying to get rid of algae by sterilising the tank, gravel, and other kit - the spores are everywhere so the tank would be re-colonised swiftly.  It's the water conditions that would need changing.

[pcolbeck]

The other thing to think about is weight. Remember that a cubic metre of water is by definition one metric tonne ! Fish tanks are heavy, don't try to move them full of water and be careful what shelf / furniture you put them on.

[Wendy]

Oooh, excitement!  Saw my first baby MTS (malaysian trumpet snail) this morning, plus a couple of baby platies that have survived and grown.  There's a tiny chance one or two might make it to adulthood at this rate.  Most of the baby platies get munched, I'm not trying to breed them, though I do have a lot of plants.