Hamstermann's tanks

55 Gal (pictures below):

Fish:
3 Molly
2 platy
3 Guppy
1 Pleco

Live Plants:
Amazon Sword
Guppy Grass
Micro Sword
Cabomba(?) not sure if it really is or not


10 Gal Hospital tank (will upload pics later):
1 Molly
1 Platy
3 Oto's

 

nicely done - I really like that one large piece of decor that you have in there.

 

nicely done - I really like that one large piece of decor that you have in there.

The castle? I like it too. I like that and my wife likes the coliseum best, so we have both in there.

 

The castle? I like it too. I like that and my wife likes the coliseum best, so we have both in there.

cool.. where did you find it? I like the coliseum too, but really go for the castle.

 

The castle? I like it too. I like that and my wife likes the coliseum best, so we have both in there.

cool.. where did you find it? I like the coliseum too, but really go for the castle.

They both came from Petsmart. I support my LFS as much as I can but they just don't have as great a selection of decorations like that as Petsmart does. and I think the castle was only around $24. Petco had one like that for near $50. I couldn't believe the price difference.

the castle came as just a castle with lots of hiding places for the fish (our pleco hides in it all day long) and we turned it into a bubbler by sticking an air stone under it.

 

that's funny because I did the same thing with a little castle in our female Betta's tank. with the little castle though, it would just build up until a huge bubble got released, lol. I was wondering where the pleco hid.. what type of pleco is he?

we only have a petco, so i'm now doing most, if not all of my shopping at the DFS website, since they are routinely 40-50% below petco's prices and pretty much always cheaper on everything.

 

that's funny because I did the same thing with a little castle in our femalle Betta's tank. with the little castle though, it would just build up until a huge bubble got released, lol. I was wondering where the pleco hid.. what type of pleco is he?
we only have a petco, so i'm now doing most, if not all of my shopping at the DFS website, since they are routinely 40-50% below petco's prices and pretty much always cheaper on everything.

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yeah, I think bubblers are much cheaper that way. And you're usually able to get closer to what you're looking for. I think on my next tank I may epoxy some rocks together to make a home-made mountain with a cave in the bottom and a bubbler in the middle. it'll be a much more natural looking aquarium and still have lots of hiding places.

the Pleco is a liposarcus anisitsi, or a common plecostymus. He's fun, though. odd how something I once thought of as so ugly could be so cute and fun now.

 

Beauty's in the eye of the beholder. We've never had a tank big enough for a common pleco and the dwarf plecos cost so much while not really being algae eaters for the most part. One day (after winning the powerball or something ) we'll put a pair of zebra plecos in a tank of their own designed for them.

 

Tanks as they now stand:
55 Gal:
4 Mollys (1 silver male, 2 black dalmation females, 1 orange dalmation female)
3 Mickey Mouse platys (1 male, 2 female)
1 red Wagtail Platy (Male)
3 Otocinclus
1 Common Pleco
total: 32.5 inch of fish
on order for this tank: 1 green mickey mouse female and 2 blue mickey females

plants:
Amazon sword
Micro sword
java moss
guppy grass
hornwort
anacharis


10 Gal (Hospital):
Fish:
3 otos
total: 4.5 inches of fish

Plants:
Anacharis
guppy grass
microsword


10 Gal:
fish:
2 comet goldfish to help cycle it

plants:
Anacharis
moneywort
hornwort
java fern


I want to get glowlights and neons, but I'm not sure I have enough tank room for a school in either of the 10 gals. Espescially if I want a "cleaner" of some sort in there. any suggestions? My landlords put the cabosh on getting another big tank, which is really too bad because I had lots of fun thinking about what to put in there.

 

2 otos could be a good cleaning crew and leave the most room for other fish.

 

2 otos could work. then I'd have room for 5 glowlights or neons. That's almost a shoal. Seems like an awfully full 10 gallon, though...

 

2 otos could work. then I'd have room for 5 glowlights or neons. That's almost a shoal. Seems like an awfully full 10 gallon, though...

it's close enough that I think if you just keep up on testing and water changes you can keep it from going bad.

 

That's True. Maybe a late Mama's day present for my wife. If I can find the money.

 

Your mollies look cool. I love that they're 3 kinds of uni-coloured (from what I can tell).

Your castle is really really really great, I agree. Am always on the look out for things like that and that one's a find!

I love the wall paper in the back. I didn't think I liked wall paper in aquariums but this is looking very good.

What sort of problems are you having?

 

one of my platys died of what we suspect to be tb or a parasite and now it looks like another one's on its way out. we also can't seem to keep our otos from dying and don't know why. the parameters are good - 0 ammonia, 0 ites 0 ates, 7.4 ph and about 78 degrees farenheit. in addition to those 2 issues, we also have pond snails that we're waging war on.

But yeah, we've worked hard to have a nice variety of colors and patterns -espescially in our mollies. we have a silver, an orange mottled, and 2 black mottleds. They're fun to watch.

 

one of my platys died of what we suspect to be tb or a parasite and now it looks like another one's on its way out. we also can't seem to keep our otos from dying and don't know why. the parameters are good - 0 ammonia, 0 ites 0 ates, 7.4 ph and about 78 degrees farenheit. in addition to those 2 issues, we also have pond snails that we're waging war on.

That sounds like a total nightmare. So sorry to hear that. Best of luck with all of this. I hate the problems with no known cause. They're the worst. I sometimes wish I had bad nitrates, then I'd know.

But yeah, we've worked hard to have a nice variety of colors and patterns -espescially in our mollies. we have a silver, an orange mottled, and 2 black mottleds. They're fun to watch.

I'd definitely agree with that. They're so entertaining.

 

we also have pond snails that we're waging war on.

can't offer any real sound advice on the mystery losses, but might be able to help with the snail problem.

I had a serious problem with snails recently, and bought a pair of botias from the lfs to sort them out. I now have very few, if any snails, and it took less than a week for the botias to get rid of them. The advantage with botias over clown loaches is that they don't grow so big, so it isn't gonna put any strain on my tank loads.

 

I don't see botias on the fish profile area of the site. what can you tell me about them?

 

Both of your aquariums are really nice.

 

Thanks.

 

Botias are a loach that likes snails for lunch! they grow to around 6" in length, are very lively and definitely personable. Here's the description from loaches online:

Scientific Name: Yasuhikotakia modesta (Bleeker, 1865)

Common name: Red-finned Loach, Blue Botia, Redtail Botia.

Synonyms: Botia modesta, Botia rubrippinis.

Distribution: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand.

Sexual Dimorphism: Females generally plumper all over than males.

Maximum size: 10 inches. More normally a max of 7" in aquaria.

Similar to: Yellow-finned populations can be mistaken for Yasuhikotakia lecontei.

 

sounds like they're big enough to keep the fry population in check too. Though I'm not sure if that's a benefit or not right now.

 

I need help with pics, I can't get my tank's pic up. I can only get one at a time and their super big. how do I shrink them>?

 

I need help with pics, I can't get my tank's pic up. I can only get one at a time and their super big. how do I shrink them>?

you'll need a picture-editing software, like photoshop or Gimp (free) to reduce the size of your pics so they can be uploaded.. if you don't have one, google Gimp and d/l it for free.