Member Spotlight on jdhef

Hi everyone, I'm John (aka JDHef). I live in Gloucester Township, New Jersey. I've kept fish on and off since I was a kid, and actually dabbled in saltwater for a little while back in the early 1980's.

My first fish were a couple of Goldfish that my Grandmother had gotten for my sister and myself. My grandmother was in a local department store and they were giving away goldfish. So she went up and asked for two goldfish for her grand children. Sadly, they would only give the goldfish to people who actually had children with them. So my grandmother, not to be discouraged, found a stranger in the store who happened to have two kids and asked if she could "borrow" them for a couple of minutes. Amazingly the woman agreed (things sure were different in the late 1960's) and that's how I got started with fish keeping.

My most recent foray into fish keeping, after a 25 year hiatus, is the fault of my 9 year old daughter. Back in May they had a little fair at her elementary school, and she won two goldfish by throwing ping pong balls into little fish bowls. So of course I had to go out and get a little tank for them. Sadly, everything I "knew" about fish keeping from back in the day was wrong. But in my defense, so was everything the salesgirl at Petco told me.

Anyway, getting those goldfish inspired me to get a tropical tank set up again. So I bought a 36 gallon bow front tank. One great piece of advice I did get from Petco was to buy a Fluval 205 canister filter which I love. In the 36 gallon tank, I have 3 Boseman's Rainbows, 5 Odessa Barbs, 2 Zebra Danios, 1 Turquoise Dwarf Gourami and 3 Panda Cories.

I also have a 12 gallon Eclipse that I had set up for my Crowntail Betta, Sid Fishious, along with some Cory cats. Sadly Sid Fishious was attacking the Cories (he seemed so laid back when he was alone). I have since moved Sid to a 6.6 gallon bookshelf tank that I purchased at Petco and put 6 Dwarf Neon Blue Rainbow Fish in the 12 gallon Eclipse to keep the cories company. Sid appears to really like the bookshelf tank, since there is a lot of horizontal swimming room and no tank mates.

I feed my fish a variety of foods. The fish in the 36 gallon tank and12 gallon tank get tropical flakes in the morning and various frozen or freeze dried foods in the evening and I throw in some sinking pellets a couple times a week for the Cory Cats. I give Sid Fishious Betta Flakes for breakfast and freeze dried bloodworms for dinner. I also give him freeze dried daphnia for lunch every Sunday, so he doesn't become constipated. Additionally I soak all of their food with Garlic Guard and Vita-chem a few times a week.

I am very grateful to all the help and information I've received on FishLore. Everyone has been more than eager to help out with really good, friendly advice. You never have to feel that your question is too stupid to ask. I feel the success I've enjoyed with my aquariums is primarily due to all help I received here. Lastly, I would like to thank my 9 year old daughter for still loving me after spending all the money I put aside for her college education on fish. Just kidding!

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