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Fish Newbie
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New Forum-ite!
Hi! My name's Melissa (but most people call me Liz, or techie). I'm 19 years old, and I'm already a fish enthusiast.
Back when I was younger, my mother made a few attempts at keeping fish tanks, with little success. She didn't know what she was doing, and overstocked, overfed, and didn't know anything about nitrogen cycles or aggressive fish. I loved watching the fish, though, and I loved feeding the fish. I think I was part of the overfeeding problem. But after her third attempt, she stopped trying.
I made a friend in college who kept a few tanks in his room, one over-filtered amazonian catfish tank, one for guppies, one for shrimp, one for a figure 8 puffer, a reef tank, etc. I would spend time in his dorm watching his fish, and I became enthralled very quickly. Shortly into my freshman year I bought a ten gallon tank, a filter, and two African Cichlids - a Golden Mbuna and a Kenyi. Oh, I had no idea what I was getting into.
Despite not knowing a thing about the nitrogen cycle, my fish survived. I added a couple other fish to the tank, with little success. The cichlids must have been hardier, I guess. Still not knowing what I was doing, I added a CAE into the mix. In my second semester I upgraded to a 20 gallon and added various other fish - 3 giant danios, 2 more cichlids, and 2 more CAEs. The tank has been thriving, somehow.
This winter I withdrew from my first semester in my sophomore year. I moved the fish home, and started researching them further. That's when I realized what a mess I had in my tank. The CAE's can grow up to 11 inches long!
I got a job in web design in the meantime. I work for a small company about 15 minutes from where I live. We sell bedding, dinnerware, and even water fountains on the website. I'm about to hit my 3 month mark at my job, so my benefits will kick in...
Anyway, now that I have a reliable source of income, I'm upgrading my horribly overstocked tank.
Recently I had my original 20 gallon filter die (I have this OCD compulsion to overfilter my tank, so I had that filter since the get-go), and I bought a 40 gallon filter, expecting to purchase a 55 gallon tank and invest in a second filter. Looks like I'm going to have to upgrade - I'm buying a 75 gallon tank!
Aside from when the nitrogen cycle hadn't kicked in (which I actually only learned about approximately a month ago), I haven't lost any fish in my tank. There are some horrible spats in there, though. There's not enough room, even though there's dense rock cover (and plenty of dead coral to keep the hardness up for the cichlids), my M. auratus is extremely territorial and I'll notice him shaking whenever a fish gets too close. He likes to chase them around the tank, too...
Definitely a he. He's got the black underside. My other Mbuna hasn't lost its juvenile coloring yet (unless, cross my fingers, the female coloring is just so close to juvenile coloring that I can't tell), but I hope it's a female.
I love my fish very much, and I wish I had known what I was getting into when I got them.
Eventually, once I move out of my mother's house (stiiiiill stuck here, but my fiancee and I are dated to move out at the end of summer), I want to buy a 55 gallon tank to transfer the Kenyis to, and one of the CAEs, and perhaps a 30 gallon for the three danios and the last CAE (to keep the CAE's aggression in check, wayyyyy understock the tank) and get a few more cichlids to stock the 75 and 55 gallon tanks.
Anyway... that's me and my fish history. It's only been a year and a half, and already I can see PLENTY of the stupid mistakes I've made.
Oh, feeding. I've got herbivorous cichlid pellets, algae discs for the CAEs (because there's barely any algae in the tank as it is, having two nearly five-inch CAEs in the tank, and one reaching four inches), and tropical flakes for the danios. Everyone tends to munch on the flakes, so I wait until my cichlids have dined before I throw those in.
Oh, and for anyone who's super worried about the state my fish are living in, I'm picking the 75 gallon up tomorrow after work (Wednesday), bringing it home, setting it up, and starting to cycle it right away. I bought the aquarium test kit and everything I'll need to cycle the tank earlier today.
So... hi!
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~ kate