Cichlid-gal's awesome video of her amazing fish/tanks

Some pictures to hold you over for a bit.

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Looks good Donna.

Love all the live plants and the various tetras and rainbows.   

Great aquascaping! I need some lesson Donna. I think my Central Americans would love to dart in and out and around a lush jungle like you have!

 - Tease...

Thanks everyone...I encouraged Shawn to edit the video down down down as most of what I have is pretty common so quick video shots of the tanks and fish a little chatter would be best

cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks everyone...I encouraged Shawn to edit the video down down down as most of what I have is pretty common so quick video shots of the tanks and fish a little chatter would be best

Ill see what I can do, there were parts where you explained proper care on plants, why you have certain species, why they are on CARES, breeding behavior, etc...... I cant cut that out, that is why I do it.

But I will see what I can do.

I will be completing this tonight after school   

Madness wrote:

cichlid-gal wrote:Thanks everyone...I encouraged Shawn to edit the video down down down as most of what I have is pretty common so quick video shots of the tanks and fish a little chatter would be best

Ill see what I can do, there were parts where you explained proper care on plants, why you have certain species, why they are on CARES, breeding behavior, etc......  I cant cut that out, that is why I do it.

But I will see what I can do.

I, as a beginner, would love to hear this part. It would help me with if a species of plant or fish would work well in my own tanks for ideas and such.

Madness wrote:I will be completing this tonight after school   

Thanks Madness...complete it when you can. You are one busy guy so we/I understand.

Cannot wait to see it.

ya im really excited for this one as well, ive had the pleasure of donna's company before and boy does she know her fish. its always nice to get a little fish talk in with people who understand and are as excited to chat as i am. gonna be neat to hear about all the species shes keeping currently.

EEEEEEEEEEEEe!!!!!! Donna is one of the members I've been waiting to see!! I'm stoked!

Here it is, the long awaited video of Donna's beautiful planted tanks.  And 1 Tanganyikan tank with some rare beauties in it, as well.

Madness....thanks for putting together such a great video and for shortening things up. Even though it was me that you video'd I still had fun watching this just like all the others you have done. All your video's show how much fun you are having with this extension of your hobby. Taking your time to come all the way over to E-town and visit was to me....priceless. Thanks again for the wonderful day.

Very inspiring Donna! Makes me want to plant all my tanks!

Good job Shawn! Love the OnTheRoad series you have started up!

Thanks DMD...I started with all rock and sand/gravel tanks...after about a year of accumulating plants from various sources and growing up my own, this is what I have. Keeping the easier plants makes plant maintenance super simple and even anubias and ferns are lovely in tanks. After time, adding in other plants allows you to see what works and doesn't work as some plants like harder water or softer water just like fish.

Here is a comment on my YouTube page that I thought I would share.

DylanTommy Natural Aquatics
2 hours ago

.. Thanks Shawn... Cool tanks... I never see these type of African tanks with the Arnoldichthys spilopterus (RedEyeAfricanTetras)... the diversity is cool , but I like that she initially tried to keep it as a West African tank... those Biotopes are rare to see.. the Cyathopharynx foai are another sweet species... I love those type of Tanganyikan species specific biotopes .so FUN !! .. It's a beautiful setup...they All are beautiful setups!! with really cool fish! .... "Good work, Donna!"........Thanks for sharing... Tank On ! 

Thanks for sharing that Shawn, such nice comments....and its cool you have other viewers and followers on your youtube. Such fun.

Thanks everyone else for your anticipation.

Hey Donna it was my pleasure, and your tanks were amazing.

So whats up FISHBOX, you all were excited to see the video and now that it is done, no responses.    

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet 3 1/2 hours of shoveling dirt last night when I thought I was going to have the chance to watch it. I am excited to watch it, hopefully tonight!

Madness wrote:So whats up FISHBOX, you all were excited to see the video and now that it is done, no responses.     

I think we are all too green with envy about those planted tanks.   

I carved out 42 minutes last night to watch it after the house quieted down.  Pretty solid job all around.  In general, I like the opening and the road shots to set up the road trip vibe, especially when they're sort of iconic shots of where ever you're headed.  I also love that you're listening to sports radio!

This is actually the first of this series that I watched from beginning to end in its entirety ( I am going back to watch the Tom and Morgan/Jessica episodes, and the others sort of focus on the big cichlids, which aren't my thing, though I liked seeing Scruffy in DMD's tanks).  

The variety in Donna's tanks and the thoughts behind what is in the tank is pretty awesome.  Loved hearing about the different fish and plants, and appreciated hearing things like "I ran out of substrate so I just filled in with gravel" (could have fooled me, thought it was on purpose, nice little color highlight in the middle of the tank), or "this is the tank at the end of the hall that gets all the dregs" (we all probably have one of those).  Insight into the lighting and CO2 were also appreciated.  I am inspired to try and "set aside a tank for a CARES species" in the future, as I think that's a spectacular way to contribute to the longevity of the hobby.  

Boo on you, Madness, for fouling up the pond video, it was one of the things I was really looking forward to seeing/hearing about!  

Looking forward to the upcoming surprise visits and future episodes.  I met Shannon for the first time last month, and she was pretty generous with her time and with trade-ins rehoming some of my Mbuna, so I look forward to your profile on APFP and Shannon's tanks specifically, if you can make that happen.  

I think you're hitting your stride and settling in with the series.  Kudos to you and to Donna and the others who have blazed the trail so far!!

hose91 wrote:the others sort of focus on the big cichlids, which aren't my thing, though I liked seeing Scruffy in DMD's tanks).  

Thank you, I think that is the beauty of this series, that we can see all the diversity of fish people are keeping

hose91 wrote:Boo on you, Madness, for fouling up the pond video, it was one of the things I was really looking forward to seeing/hearing about!  

I know! Just like his mess up and missing Scruffy chow down a big old shrimp! If we keep this up we will have to buy him a new camera....   

Ive really enjoyed seeing all the different things our fishbox members do with their tanks. This episode with Donna really has me thinking of try a couple live plants...

I know hose91 and DMD, both times I must have hit the play button on accident so when I got to filming that portion when I clicked run I was actually pushing pause.    

And it sucks because Cruffy eating that shrimp was epic, and Donna's pond was awesome as well, I even got close ups (tried too anyway) of the fish in the pond coming up to the surface to eat.    

So Monday will be a surprise visit to a legend in the big Cichlid community and on YouTube, and then a visit to APFP after that.

Dwarfpike, Hose and DMD...thanks for the comments and input.  

I know livebearers are "smaller" and not as flashy as the bigger cichlids or even dwarf cichlids.  And I also know that most of my tanks look like each other but its been fun doing what I do with them.  I've tried some fancier things and had some more unique scapes but I had to give them up over time (the hardest was my 155 bowfront that I got from JimA) and this is where I am at now.  I still enjoy my hobby but don't have to deal with the aggression and large babies that the beautiful cichlids bring.  Livebearers seem to give me the cycle of life without major overruns (although my C. lateralis tank is getting pretty full but that's taken a year).  

Glad you enjoyed them and yes, try the plants.  Hey, worst case is they will disappear but if you attach them well and keep to the hardier, less leafy types even cichlids won't eat them so it will just be the digging you will have to work around.

And SKGurl...I think some of your tanks are probably fancier than mine. Hopefully there will be something you can take away from the video other than Donna doesn't even remember the name of her fish...LOL...shiners Donna shiners (by this time in the video it was nearing the end of the day and my mind is not what it used to be...but its something to laugh at)

very nice! I love your tanks Donna.

Donna, I thought you had lots of variety, and frankly, what stands out is that you care pretty deeply about all your tanks, and the passion surely shows through. I was thoroughly entertained by all the tanks and the stories and background on the fish and the plants. The other thing I liked was that you freely admit you're still learning about new stuff, which keeps it fresh and makes it easy to relate to for us who've not been in the hobby for very long! Keep up the good work, looking forward to some pond updates!!

OH man, I have NOTHING for fancy tanks by any means. I'm sooo basic on all my stuff. The ADA tank is my only fancy tank. May watch this video in the car on my way to puyallup tonight.

Nothing like relaxing to a great Friday evening movie after a hard week of work    Awesome video Madness.

Donna, WOW! What a great presentation. Kept me intrigued the whole 40+ minutes  

Morgan, Hose, SKGyrl, and Chad...thanks for your interest and kind words.

Chad, I have to ask...did I get my plant name right? The red one...LOL. I still get all the plants mixed up and call them the wrong names...I do that with the fish too but hey, I have age to blame (ha!).

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote: on my way to puyallup tonight.

Are coming out for a fish room tour and I forgot about it? To bad you didnt tell me I would have loved to have given you a tour.

cichlid-gal wrote:Morgan, Hose, SKGyrl, and Chad...thanks for your interest and kind words.  

Chad, I have to ask...did I get my plant name right?  The red one...LOL.  I still get all the plants mixed up and call them the wrong names...I do that with the fish too but hey, I have age to blame (ha!).

Yes you did. And you pronounced it better than I can, lol!

cichlid-gal wrote:I know livebearers are "smaller" and not as flashy as the bigger cichlids or even dwarf cichlids.

Heh, it's not about flash for me. Heck, some of your livebearers are quick a bit flashier than some of the cichlids I've kept over the years. Look at keyhole cichlids.   

What hooked me in this hobby was the pair bonding of cichlids ... angels and kribs in my own tank, convicts and jewels in the 125 gallon in our middle school computer room. Watching them work together to protect the babies. So I find even say Malawi cichlids uninteresting (I often refer to them as Malawi tetras) because they don't act like cichlids, or at least what cichlids are in my mind, ie pair bonding ones.

When I had multiple tanks, I always had different dithers in each one. While I never found them as interesting as the cichlids true, I did find them interesting in their own way. For instance, I enjoy watching my Norman's lampeyes in this current tank. They are feisty little guys. They don't school, perhaps because they are a type of killi, like I thought they would. They kind of remind me more of emperor tetras are cherry barbs, the males staking out a spot and kind of staying there flashing and displaying to rivals and females.

Will I keep liverbearer dithers some day? Most likely when I branch out more into Centrals, so it's still very interesting seeing/hearing about them.   

Me too! Madness wrote:

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote: on my way to puyallup tonight.

Are coming out for a fish room tour and I forgot about it?  To bad you didnt tell me I would have loved to have given you a tour.  

Me too! I live about 7 minutes from Madness.  What were you in puyallup for?

Nice, the Lizard loaches surprised me. Awesome!

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:Nice, the Lizard loaches surprised me. Awesome!

Thanks Cory

I picked these up, along with the Gold Ring Danios, at Finatics when I re-did the Axolotl tank to a fish tank.  I have really enjoyed watching these guys.  For those interested...here is some extra information on them

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and here are some pics I took of them
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lloyd378 wrote:

Me too! Madness wrote:

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote: on my way to puyallup tonight.

Are coming out for a fish room tour and I forgot about it?  To bad you didnt tell me I would have loved to have given you a tour.  

Me too! I live about 7 minutes from Madness.  What were you in puyallup for?

Sorry Lloyd I answered Madness on Facebook. My boyfriend was trading in his car for a truck.

So I put off house chores this morning to watch the video. Haha Donna you have awesome tanks and put mine to shame. All of mine are scraggly because I'm just starting out. And I have faith that the Bauhaus on a log will grow back. I transplanted an Bauhaus from fresh to brackish water without calculating and it didn't do anything for months, but lived. That was in February,i I just this month have new leaves on them. They are slow growing without co2 but are super hardy and will come back! As for forgetting names. I couldn't even be able to say a single species name to ANY of my fish. They all go by their basic common names. And I only know about 4 of my plants names without looking them up. And I don't have age to blame. Haha

Thanks SKGyrl...glad you enjoyed the video. I think Shawn is doing a great job on this series and like so many others I'm anticipating his next visit and travels.

Haha wow so auto correct sucks and I just reread my last posts. Fail! I'll repost with the corrected appropriate words. Smh.

So I put off house chores this morning to watch the video. Haha Donna you have awesome tanks and put mine to shame. All of mine are scraggly because I'm just starting out. And I have faith that the ANUBIAS on a log will grow back. I transplanted an ANUBIAS from fresh to brackish water without ACCLIMATING and it didn't do anything for months, but lived. That was in February, I just this month have new leaves on them. They are slow growing without co2 but are super hardy and will come back! As for forgetting names. I couldn't even BEGIN TO be able to say a single species name to ANY of my fish. They all go by their basic common names. And I only know about 4 of my plants names without looking them up. And I don't have age to blame. Haha

Really nice collection of fish Donna! You must have worked for weeks to have your tanks looking so perfect! Your loaches are homaloptera confuzona, one of my favorites! Danio tinwini or kyathit?

Thanks plaamoo...tanks got regular cleanings but I did give them an extra wipe down the day of the visit. And my tanks are not totally clean...I get algea on the glass down at the bottom of the tanks near the substrate and the intakes can look pretty shabby sometimes. The Danio's are Danio tinwini...
these

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You've got things really well balanced then. My tanks never look that good.