My exciting adventure in fish catching.

So I got on craigslist and I bought a 29 Gallon long aquarium to keep my guppies and tetras in so I could put an angelfish in my 29 Gallon tall aquarium and i was excited and started planning. First I scrubbed it with an algae scrapper and got it shiny clean, then I went to the pet store and bought a 25 lb bag of rocks and a filter and then I came home and through a bit of freak accident I broke the lid. As I pick up my chair to move it the lid slides off my hearth and I dropped the chair try to save the lid and wouldn't you know the chair fell on my lid! The glass broke and now I needed a knew lid so I measured my tank and did the conversion online and guess what:::My 29 gallon Long is actually a 20 gallon long! The guy on craigslist lied to me and when confronted through email he has ignored me! Anyways so i cut my losses and started searching again for a tank big enough for what I wanted and I found it the 55 gallon tank that some guy on craigslist can't afford anymore! So after talking on the phone and rearranging my truck to accomodate this little monster I went to see this guy at his house. I have agreed to take all his fish on a temporary basis til I can rehome them. I paid him 65$ for his tank and 10$ for his buckets and some supplies. Then I had to catch all the fish which are all abut 3 to 6 inches. He has a nice giant net so I start by removing the 2 part castle and realize there is 11 fish in his tank. He has 3 silver dollar fish easiest to catch. So now I tried to catch the bala sharks and they just jumped over the net when I got it near them(great circus performers) so I decided to try grabbing the unspecified fish(eventually id'd as Banded Leporinus) and I got him on the first try thinking that was easy I start to pull the net to the surface he jumped out and smacked me in the face(ewww). Now I am thinking what have I gotten myself into! Anyways so I then decided it might be easier to catch the plecostomus's and so i commence with the chasing. It took me a good 5 mins to catch one. Got him in the bucket. At this point I am tired and frustrated. So now I start chasing the other pleco and he is smart and wiley he keeps hiding under the catfish! Anyways after a few more rounds i finally got him and then I caught the catfish. Then on to the jumpers! So I chase around the balas well they keep flipping over the net and jumping over my hand! Finally I get them into the buckets and all I have left to get are the face slapping torpedos! Took me another 15mins to get them out and now all I have to do is cover them and get everything loaded. So we empty the fish tank and get everything loaded amd I am on my way Hooray! So I stopped at the local pet store to buy a filter for the tank and bring them all home. I put the fish in the house and pull the tank out to my front yard so I can clean it with my algae scrapper and my hose. So I cut my thumb cleaning it and had to go to the local fish store to pick up the stand. Got everything in the house and my hubby is sitting next to the bucket with the face smacking torpedos and talking to me about them when the big one jumps out of the bucket! My hubby loooks at me with this deer in headlightds look like WTF? and I am screaming pick him up put him back in the bucket. LOL he refused to touch him so I had to fearlessly put him back! Anyways so we decide for a temp spot to put them all in the 20 gallon long with an airstone and a piece of wood over the top and too hurry. We get the stand in place and the fish tank set up and ready for water and start filling. Then we realized We have no way to acclimate these guys to their new home!!!! So I had to run to the only open store and grab a box of 1 gallon heavy duty ZIPLOC bags!!! Then we had to catch them again! At this point my hubbby looks at me and says"its all you babe!" and I am thinking aww how cowardly! So I have to hold the bags well my MIL catches fish! BTW not any easier to catch them in a smaller tank! After all was said and done it took us 6 hrs to do everything! Sounds like fun right?
attaching a pic of my fishtank all setup...
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My goodness. That was quite an adventure. I hope you get even more enjoyment out of the new tank because of all the rigamarole.

Sounds like quit a day, but the tank realy looks good. I like the castle theam. I might have to check into a set up with that same idea, my grandkids would love it.

Rick

I really like the castle. Its a 2 piece not sure how much it costs because it vame with my tank. Looking back on all the fun we had I can laugh and so can my hubby. But I really love my new tank. It is beautiful and soothing.

It is beautiful. And you now have a great story with face-slapping fish. lol

So I rehomed all the big fish today to a nice woman who has 30+ tanks and was very happy to take them. They were not so happy to go though! I was kinda getting attached but they all deserved a bigger home and bigger tank. As I was talking to the nieghbors I mentioned my tank and they were like hey do you want our fish. turns out they had an angel and a molly and a albino catfish and a smaller pleco of course I wanted them I was so excited because I wanted the tank so i could have some angel! Anyways today was an interesting change in my tanks. I went from having 10 large fish to 4 smaller ones and one large pleco. Been one of those days. But Hooray! I got an angel.

My first time catching fish sounds so similar!! I ended up taking out almost all of the water before I could catch my data and plecos.

Lol thats great. I am not the only one. So its update time! going to take a picture of my tank but let me describe it for now. I have the castle I added a bunch of vine looking plants and I have two giant airstones beneath my castle. My MIL bought us an LED(red) Volcano bubbler. I also have 3 angels but I noticed my larger Angel is being pushy and territorial with the little ones so I pulled them all out and my hubby changed the layout of our plants and I am going to let the 2 little ones out first then add the bigger one to see if that helps a little. I am very excited with the layout and I also love my Angels The big one is very skittish though. The 2 little ones are not afraid. I also still have 2 plecos and 1 corydora catfish and a vibrantly red molly. Can't wait to post Pictures!

So this morning I checked on my fish and it seems that changing the layout helped. My bigger angel is not pushing around the babies and they all seem to have picked a spot in the tank. I do think my volcano bubbler is a little too strong for them ao going to ask my hubby to turn it down. I think my large pleco is uprooting my new plants:-( I have heard of them doing this and I would be sad to get rid of him. My 5 year old Ally had a sad day yesterday one of her snails died and upon investigation we had to pull the other because her ammonia level was moderately high. So we did a 25% water change gravel vacuumed. I hope it works. Her goldfish seem fine though. I swear they are always hungry though and when I asked her if she named her new ones she looked at me and said she was too tired to think up new names. LOL. My 8 year old Sera's Betta(Casper) has been blowing bubble nests and seems very happy in his 2.5 gallon mini bow. Allys betta(Flower) which is in our 29 gallon community tank is very full of eggs and if I thought i had the patince I would breed them. Going to attach pictures of all my tanks today.
The 55 Gallon
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My 2 little angels
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My big angel
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Castle in the 55 gallon
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Volcano in the 55
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2.5 Mini Bow
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The 10 Gallon fish tank
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The 29 Gallon Community Tank
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OMG so I got my little down for a nap and came up to check on my angels and I couldnt find my new whiteish one. So I am searching and then I spot her. She is Stuck to the filter! Of course I think shes dead so I scooped her off the filter and up to the surface and I noticed she is still moving a bit...all her fins are intact and I have her in a bag. She is swimming fine and seems no worse for wear but I am concerned this will happen again! So I have decided to set up my 20 long and move both of my babies into it with a low flow filter. The reason I say both is because the two little ones seem to like each other quite a bit. In fact he was just checking on her in the bag. I am assuming the sexes because they are unsexed. I just cant call them its anymore. I really hope she survives because she is so beautiful and I already love her .

So after a few issues this week I am updating again. LOL I ended up buying a lid for the 20 gallon breeder and setting it up so I could move my 2 small Angels into it because my big angel is being territorial and fin nipping. I am hoping to reintro when they are closer to his size. I had an interesting day my hubby and I were doing WC on all our tanks and he was getting the siphon tube set up to siphon water from my sink to the 5 gallon bucket and he got some water in his mouth while he was trying to get the flow started and what does my Hubby do He spits in the bucket! Then he looks at me and smiles and says OH S*** why did I just do that! So I am in the kitchen just dying of laughter at him and we go out and get the siphon tubes ready to empty the new water into our tank and of course it my turn to get the tube started and as I went to put it in the tank the water sprayed me full in the face. Karma is a B****. Anyways I will post pics later but I also picked up more seeds to grow in my tank since I have had much success with growing plants. We also had a horrible scare with our 8 yr olds betta he was laying sideways in his tank and we thought he was dead. We have had to move him to a 1 gal glass bowl so we can keep an eye on him. I also think i am going to have to replace the whole filter on her tank, But for all of you who worry the bowl is filtered and has an aerator stone in it. We are feeding him betta flakes and dried blood worms. Since moving him he has been fine. We checked the ammonia and I think that was the problem because it was at 2 ppm and we think its the filter because it sits under the light and after 1 week it is covered in dark green algae. I am going to get her a small one to hang on the back and get rid of the other. I also am expecting 3 momma guppies to give birth any day. I only have females in my tank but they were probably already prego when we got them from the store will be the 2 set from all of them. Anyways goodnight.

Update!!!!
So I recently acquired two angels that are the same size as my zebra from Rick. I brought them home and into the 55 they went. I figured it would take weeks for them to pair and I had time well the black and my zebra paired in the first 2 days...I had to move the gold out to a different tank and put it up on the forum to find a new home. It is going back to Rick. So anyways it been a week and my pair are cleaning the castle turrets and the filter intake and my zebra is getting round. I think they are going to spawn soon I am really excited. I can't wait. I am actually going to move them to the 29 so they lay their eggs in there and then I can move them back into the 55gal. It has been a busy week and I have so many tanks right now. My living room alone has a 10 20L 29 55 and 1gal. I am pretty excited about my angels. Can't wait to see how things go. BTW never seen my zebras stripes so dark til this last week...

So my angel is a Silver not a Zebra but besides all that my Angels just laid eggs and my silver is most assuredly a female and my black is male!!! They laid their eggs on the castle turrets! I am so excited. Anyways my hubby and I are going to try to move them to a smaller more private tank so the tetras don't eat them. I thought the spawning process would take weeks not a week. I am slightly overwhelmed by how fast this is going. Anyways I will try to get pictures soon. Currently trying to convince my hubby to switch them to the 45 gallon that is empty. We will see what happens. Any advice is surely welcome.

So as most of you know this was my first larger tank and I love it. I recently acquired several very nice plants and added them and I took pictures. Anyways I wanted to update stock list too so here goes.

Stock List
2 AngelFish( a black one and silver one)
2 blue spot gouramis
7 buenos aires tetras
2 blue tetras
1 common pleco
2 WC Columbian zebra pleco
Possibly some snails that came in on the plants. We will see if they survive(insert evil laughter here)

Plant Stock List
2 lrg Amazon swords
2 Green Tiger Lotus
2 Vallisneria grasses

And now for the promised pictures

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Full Tank pic
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Amazon Sword and Vallisneria Grass
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Valisneria Grass and Green Tiger Lotus
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Green Tiger Lotus
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My silver Angel(not the best pic)
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Blue Gourami
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Castle with the Green Tiger Lotus behind it
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Angels in the Amazon Swords
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Buenos Aires Tetra
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My Black Angel(sorry not a great picture)

Cool tanks, they're so colorful! All of my tanks look the same; black sand/driftwood/plants and rocks. Do you plan on upgrading your goldie tank? I've got mine in a 55gal but I'll need to upgrade them to 100gal+ within a year. Comets and commons just get so huge.

So I have not updated this in a few months and felt the itch to update. So here goes the stock list in my 55 gallon is
7 Angelfish(silver dollar size)
7 beunos Aires Tetras
2 Blue Tetras
2 blue spot gouramis
2 colombian zebra plecos
2 orange seam plecos
11 Corydora Catfish(bronze and albinos)
and the evil snails that came in on the plants

My 2 green tiger lotus plants died.
I had to transplant all my plants in to pots filled with flourite and they are doing better but for some reason they did not thrive well in the gravel. So as of now I have 3 planters and one coffee cup with plants in them. It is cheaper then buying flourite and putting it under the gravel bed.

We had a near miss with one of our colombian zebra plecos. I was cleaning the tank and pulled the castle out and checked and didnt see any fish and as I am gravel vacing my 5 year old says Mommy you killed a Fish!!!! SO I am trying to explain that they are not going to get hurt by the gravel vac and she is trying to explain that it is a pleco and he was under the castle on the towel! Well needless to say I was sure he wasn't going to survive but I put him back in the tank and watched him and after a month he is doing just great.

@Ratlova: I am sorry I just noticed your comment and to answer your question we actually recently upgraded our little ones goldfish to a 20L where they seem quite content and since we have a glass lid we are running 2 filters and we got her a mag floater. Pretty soon she will need her very own 55 gallon but I think we have a little time to arrange for that.

Now for a few pictures.
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Tell me what you think.

Nice! love your angels!

Hows that little female beta doing?

@kaosu: The female Beta is enjoying living in a 55 gallon with a featherfin catfish, 2 dwarf gouramis, and 3 bn plecos. She seems very happy. The tank is large enough with enough hiding spaces that she never even has to see any of the other fish. I should start a separate thread for all my wonderful bettas.