MissMTS

Hey Everyone!!!

Its been a few months since I've been on the forum. I've been super busy but I've missed chatting with everyone I hope all of you and your fishies are doing well!

platy ben

Welcome back missMTS
Ive started coming back on the forum again about a month ago, i was wondering where you were.
How are all your fishies, you'd best update everyone on any changes you have made

pinkfloydpuffer

Haha Kate, I saw you were back and left you a visitor message, and then I see this thread!
Welcome back, it's good to see you again

MissMTS

Hi Guys

Its good to be back! I missed you guys!

Okay PlatyBen, you asked about my changes (deep breath) here it goes.....

I just downsized from 9 tanks to 3 tanks (Gasp!) and an outdoor pond. The maintanence was just getting to be too much and I was having such horrible luck with the health of my bettas. I sold a lot of my stuff on craigslist which was good since hubby and me need the money right now. Right now I have an 80 Gallon, 75 Gallon, and 70 Gallon.

My outdoor container pond is an old 55 gallon tank. I stacked some terra cotta cement bricks around it so that it looks more pleasing to the eye and not like some random tank sitting on my patio. I have my 3 goldies in there and they are doing really well. I have java fern and anarchis growing in the pond right now. I am waiting for my dad to split the lillies that he has in his pond and give me a few So far everything is thriving, but I can't wait to see how it will look with the lillies.

My 80 gallon Angel Tank is doing really well. I have 3 pairs of angels in there (marbled, platinum, and silver). Two of the pairs have kind of taken over, so I may have to move the third pair. How wierd is it that I bought all six of these guys as juvies and ended of with a male female pair of each strain? I guess I kinda lucked out The tank had some black algae problems, but I got a few SAE's and they took care of it for me. The plants have exploded and its time for me to start trimming them.

I got a new 75 gallon tank for Christmas. I have stocked it with Red Irian Rainbows, Turquoise Rainbows, Boesmani Rainbows, a BN Pleco, a King Tiger Pleco, Burmese Border Loaches, SAE's, Bolivian Rams (spawned for me a week after adding them to the tank), a Blue Acara, Keyholes, a Rainbow Cichlid, and a Curviceps cichlid. All of the fish are juvies right now so it is not overstocked, but I will need to move some of the fish out once they start to mature a bit. This is currently my favorite tank. It is so bright and colorful.

I still have my 70 gallon african cichlid tank and everything is fine there. Honestly this tank is not exciting me very much. My fish are getting bigger and that's great, but honestly the tank is starting to bore me a bit. I have really realized what interests me and that is planted community tanks. I am debating on whether or not I should sell my Africans and convert the tank to a planted South American set up and move my 3rd pair of angels into this tank. Since my plants are growing so quickly, I could propogate this tank with the trimmings from the other two tanks. My only hesetation is that I put a lot of work into getting this tanks set up. But I keep looking at it and say to myself..... hmmmmm, my jungle vals and wild silver angels would look pretty nice in here, I could maybe even add a discus......hmmmm decisions

The good news is, my house now looks more like a normal house and less like a fish store. My water changes have been cut down to an hour per week which is a huge relief.

pinkfloydpuffer

Wow, we can hardly even call you miss MTS anymore!

Hm.... you know what goes good in a South American community? South American Puffers.

Lucy

Wow, so many changes, they sound much more manageable.
It's good to see you back.

MissMTS

Don't worry, I'm still MissMTS I told my hubby that as soon as we buy a house we will have more tanks again (hopefully an even bigger one like a 125). He was like.... oh great.....

I knew you were going to suggest puffers The question is... are there any SA puffers that won't kill everything else in my tank?

Thanks Lucy Its good to be back.

pinkfloydpuffer

Hahaha, that's my girl

When would I not suggest puffers?
Check out Colomesus asellus

MissMTS

OMG I Looooooooove them! They are so cute! Now the question is if I end up converting my tank how the heck do I find them? There is not a good selection of puffers at the LFS' by me. Maybe if I decide to do it I'll check aquabid.

pinkfloydpuffer

They can be tricky to find. I'd look on aquabid, you could also join the Puffer Forum and ask if anyone there has any they'd sell you, or know where you can get some. Also, some good lfs will order fish in for you, especially if you put in a little down payment

platy ben

Wow thats alot of changes

I used to have one of those puffers!!!
They are great, i kept mine with a pair of pearly gouramis and around 20 butterfly goodeids and he was fine aslong as he got his bloodworm

MissMTS

Good idea My LFS charges an outrageous amount for special orders, but maybe I'll check in with a few other LFS and see if they would be willing

Yeah it was a lot of changes. And in case anyone was wondering, breaking down 6 tanks is a total pain in the you know what! I'm so glad that its done! Its good to hear that you had a good experience with a SA puffer. They definetely sound interesting

pinkfloydpuffer

Man, you're making me want a SAP tank even more... I've had a vision for a while of a group of puffers with a big school of cardinal tetras and some fancy pleco, like maybe a bristlenose, and lots of beautiful plants... *sigh*

MissMTS

What do you currently have in your brackish tank? Is it still empty? You could convert it to freshwater and get some SAP's........just an idea

platy ben

PFP you know you want one

Just think of there cute little faces

pinkfloydpuffer

I do want one!

My 20g brackish is empty at the moment. I was thinking of getting a figure 8 puffer for that one. I'd like some SAPs, but a 20g isn't big enough for a group of them.

MissMTS

A figure 8 puffer would be neat. They are such cuties! I can't believe that you have an empty tank sitting there. I have never had that kind of patience

pinkfloydpuffer

Yeah, well it had a nasty cyanobacteria problem, so I'm just finishing treatments for that. And my lfs gets F8s in, but only every once in a while, and last time I went they only had GSPs and Avocado puffers

MissMTS

Cynobacteria is the worst! I had a huge breakout in one of my 10 gallons that I ended up selling. No matter what I did I couldn't get rid of it.

My LFS has a congo puffer in right now and he is huge! I wish I had room for him cause I would bring him home in a second!

pinkfloydpuffer

Yeah, it's really awful. It had spread to my 10g betta/DP tank too, but amazingly I got rid of it with 1/2 dose Maracyn... it didn't even kill my cycle So I'm doing a full dose in the 20g since there's no fish in there just to be sure it's good and dead.

Ooh, I would love to see one of those guys! But I have not the room, lol. I don't know if I ever will.....

Shawnie

WB KATE!!!!!!

Im glad things are ok for you!!! We have missed you very much...

MissMTS

Thanks Shawnie! I've missed you too Things have been good, just very busy. Since I own a dance studio and competition season starts in the spring, things start getting a little hectic

Shawnie

just getting my granddaughter into dance....shes so darn cute but wont participate to save her 3 year old soul LOL ...im wondering if we should put her into gymnastics instead of dance....I hope you have a real busy season !!!

MissMTS

Me too! Busy is good when it comes to business lol. Your granddaughter might warm up to it. We had a little 5 year old girl who begged to not have to do the recital for an entire year last year. Her mom told me that she even asked god in her prayers the night before the show not to make her go onstage. Now she loves it! Gymnastics is fun too though. It think its sometimes easier than dance for kids that get stagefright.