At what point do you become a CRAZY fish lady?!

I am new to the fish keeping hobby. But I'm ADDICTED. What I'm wondering is when I will be dubbed a "crazy fish lady."

I have hobbies, salmon fishing, dirt bike riding, four wheeling, gardening, household projects, and the list goes on. But keeping fish is quickly becoming a passion. I have dreams of a fish room, or even their own building!! My mind is being overwhelmed by fishy thoughts and ideas. What is the most popular DE fish? How can I make a living from this? Ahhh!!

I have a 20 gallon 'night light' community tank in my sons room and a 55 gallon community tank in the living room. I love my fish, and I love to tend to their needs, so I decided that my catfish need more floor space...they are getting a new 190 gallon bow front.

But what do I do with my 55? I just upgraded the filtration on it so putting it in storage seems like a waste...hmmm.

Are there any FW fishy people in the Bremerton area?
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Hey there! Sounds like you already are a crazy fish lady! lol. It's not like that's a bad thing!!! Trust me the tanks just keep getting bigger and bigger, then it get's even more crazy. I started with a 35 gal almost 2 years ago. The moved to 55 gal, then to 150 gal, 250 gal now we have a 450 and a 410 and are getting rid of the "small" tanks


What kind of catfish do you have? Catfish can never have enough room lol, I feel like no matter how big our tanks are, they always wants more, kind of like children haha.

Also, about making a living off fish. It's a pretty hard thing to do to actually make a living. I would just do it as a hobby and not expect to make money, but if you do awesome! Our 450 is actually dedicated to leopoldi rays. You should look them up it's a really neat stingray and also go for $1000 upwards. I am going to get a little breeding group of them eventually and when they DO breed their babies also go for $1k+. But I will never do it expecting to make money because I want it to still be a hobby, not a job.

Anyways thought i'd comment since we have a lot of the same hobbies, dirt bikes, my boyfriend loves to 4 wheel and gardening and all that!

Ashley

Pretty much as soon as you begin to wonder if you are a crazy fish lady..you are a crazy fish lady.

bwahah!! its an infectious disease that can spread to others!

I started with small tanks.....

now i have over 80 gallons in my bedroom....i gave the sickness to a friend, in the from of a rather restarted/stunted dwarf garami ....and her tank collection has gone from a small hex tank to 29, and a few 10s and a 3 gallon.

..We are all crazy fish ladys...!!!! ^_^ and we love it.

welcome to the pack!!

So! Just picked up the big tank, a 7' monster! Question....where do I find lighting for it?!

Ashley, I have what we believe to be a columbian shark, a pictus, 2 lace, and 2 striped rapheals. Other bottom dwellers include 2 gold algae eaters, 2 corys and 2 plecos. I got this tank and stock off a gal moving out of the country, way overstocked! That list doesn't include the other community fish.

This whole drive my boyfriend has been telling me, "you're crazy...."

LOVE IT!

lol my boyfriend encourages it... i think he like the tanks as much as me..just doesn't want to do the work lol

Oh he likes them, he just thinks I'm crazy!

Wow, Yeah that it a lot of stock! I like the colombian sharks they're pretty cool. We used to have a striped raphael and never saw the stupid thing! We got rid of it because it would never come out from under it's cave we seriously didn't see it for a good 8 months.

I guess I got lucky with the boyfriend. He is the one that got me into fish so he gets to deal with the not so fun stuff. (ie. pulling rotten food out of the tank, scrubbing the sides, fixing broken stuff, changing nasty filter pads) haha ; )

Yeah, the Raphaels are pretty lame even at night. Idont think I'll get rid of them though... any thoughts on what I should do with the 55? Maybe an aggressive bugger?

Wouldn't worry about being the crazy fish lady LOL I have 40 tanks going right now along with kids & several other projects not counting a small shop that will be going in across the street so the local folk have some place to buy there community fish.

Well, if you decide to go with the aggressive Cichlids in the 55, I would suggest you start out and use it as a grow out tank. Buy several small Cichlids around an inch. Let them grow together, they will learn to live together and wont be as territorial. But, the bad news , you will quickly fall in love with the personalities, and the attitudes of your Cichs. I believe that the Cichs think. My fish when they see me coming they all swim to the front. My sons? Nope, nothing. When I try to take pictures of them, they all seem to want a profile shot. AT THE SAME TIME!!! lol My big Dovi will not let his female flare her gills at me. When she starts to get pissy with me being there he smacks her around a bit, chases her off, and comes up to the front to see what I'm doing.

Cichlids are a crazy addiction. I am building a fish room in the back of my garage. OH, and your 55 will soon turn into something larger, if you go with Cichlids. Guaranteed.

Any questions on Cichs, feel free to ask anytime.

i was thinking melanochromis johanni, they are gorgeous! and stay fairly petite right? I will be sure to direct my questions your way when I get it going...

on second thought... maybe i should just ditch my 55 and 60 gal. corner for another big tank

So I've decided my 55 will be an African biotope.....but which one! I had my heart set completely on Malawi but I keep seeing new and exciting fish. They have to be small and packed with color!

So it has been nearly three months since I picked up my first fish for my sons room. Today the tank count is as follows:
1g Betta
3g paradise fish pair
5g planted with an Otto and cheery red shrimp
10g guppy trio
20g community, killi, ABN pleco, cherry barbs, neon tetra, ottos, platy
55g Daffodil cichlids
190g community, penguin tetras, rainbows, tiger barbs, various gourami, plecos, cats

I am doing some rearranging in my dogs room and building shelving to consolidate the tanks into one room and to get my betta and paradise fish some more space.

I love this hobby!!!!!!!!

What made you go with the Daffodils?

Size, color, attitude. They are still >1" right now and its fun watching them make out territoriesand pecking order within the group.

And I'm really excited to watch the stepped parenting situation with the older fry helping the parents. That is a really cool concept to me!

So. I am setting up a fish room, it will have 16 ten gallon tanks. There will be shrimp and guppies mostly and probably the shunned daffodils until they find homes. I'm kind of curious if i can get a spawn from my paradise after they mature. Right now we are having domestic violence and they are on a break.

My 190 gallon lost a member over the weekend, RIP Australian rainbow. They were all happy at breakfast Sunday and one was belly up a couple hours later. I'm kind of waiting for the whole group to die of old age, massive fish need homes too!

My colony of daffs are all happy and healthy. There doesn't appear to be a hierarchy established yet. The largest fish probably 2"-3" and the smallest is around 3/4". There is one deformed fish, it needs a new home. I can't let it breed and cant make myself cull it...

My betta wants his new digs finished, I'm sure he doesn't enjoy living right next to the porcelain throne.

Shrimp are doing well, just waiting for shrimplettes!

Some one ate my penguins!!!! I got 6 penguin tetras from aquarium plus and loved them! Tonight I only find three... catfish are suspect.

I am impatiently waiting for my black Moscow guppies to drop...it's almost as bad as when i was waiting to pop!

I have my shelving up in my fish/dog room, it will have 12 tanks on it. I'm sure i could cram more in there but i'm not keen on the idea of having 3 levels of tanks. I will move my guppies, paradise fish, and shrimp in there. I would like to get a pair of ABN plecos too, but in do time.

...there is not enough time in the day for fish....

I'm so proud of myself! I just made my first DIY sponge filter, and it works!!! Only 12 more to make!

I love guppies!!!!!!!! They are quirky and cute and colorful. I am picking up some new varieties today after work. Platinum mosaic, blue mosaic and red eye red grass. I am super stoked!

My daffodil cichlids are growing like weeds, for the most part everyone has their own territory. I'm sure that not to long from now some will be ousted from the group and will need a new home. Until then I will enjoy watching them mature.

I lost some, ok 6, of my shrimp to my female paradise fish. So she moved back in with her abusive hobby. Poor thing was colorless this morning... time to put up a wall.

The community tank is doing well. That's all for now!

nice glad to hear your tanks are working out decently. i to have recently gone down the guppy road. im actually impressed with the colors even right after shipping they look fantastic. if your ever looking for some new blood i suggest ordering some from finsandfeathers on site here. i just got my group from her. (snakeskins?) not sure of species but they r pretty.

I saw that, I'll have to wait a bit but I am looking for some yellow cobra guppies.

Today is very exciting for me! I'm hatching out killi eggs for the first time. I got 20 eggs from a breeder in Poland. I'm thinking positive and hoping for 15+ fry to survive, but only expect 2-4. I will probably hatch a few batches just to figure out what works best for me, I will update this afternoon!

That's exciting! Put some pics up when you have a chance!

I would put up pictures but i only have internet on my phone, and no camera. so far I have 2 wigglers!

ugh lolz. u need a camera. and do you have any cichlids there gil? seems like a lot of live bearers etc..

Yesterday only 5 of my 20 Fp. Sj. Niger delta killi eggs hatched yesterday, but I'm waiting two days before I pull all the peat out. I will dry the pear again and re-wet it in two weeks.

Another surprise this morning!! I have 3-5 Red Eye Red Grass guppy fry!!!! I've only had them since Thursday so I was defiantly caught off guard on that one, but happy!

Ive always likened my fish collection to be almost like a hording issue, ...congrats on the killifish . I'm going to try and hatch , nothos on the 25th.

This morning I had black Moscow babies! There are now 7 killi fry, and only 1 red eye red grass fry. One of the females flew the coop yesterday, I always forget to close the lids

What are you feeding your killifish fry, brine shrimp?

Infusoria, the guys are dinky. I'll be moving onto brine shrimp soon

Guess I could update everyone one eats been going on. I HAVE BLACK MOSCOW GUPPIES AND CHERRY SHRIMP COMING OUT OF MY EARS!!! I have to say everyone is healthy, I have 3 killi fry still kicking, my how they have grown! I do have 6 daffodil cichlids and a 5" pleco looking for homes. Oh gee, brain fart... well fish are good, and my son is finally a year old, I got engaged (finally) last week, dogs are kicking and all is well.

Wow! 504 views!! I feel so accomplished, thanks guys

last week I tore down my red cherry shrimp tank because it was INFESTED with pond snails. I had tried using a chunk of vegetable but my shrimp would start eating before the snails.

Did you know pond snails can float? Like starting from the bottom of the tank, just float.

So I've decided to redo my shrimp tank as a natural planted tank. This afternoon I got the substrate prepared and started my background. I'm using plastic canvas with moss to make stripped background. I hope it grows in decent.

Tomorrow is a full day of salmon fishing on the skokomish river, I'm stoked on the Skok!!!

Went fishing today in the ARMPIT of kitsap county known as gorst and caught more than a buzz! I landed a ~25lb king hen. Gorgeous fish! Curing eggs tomorrow for fishing on the rivers pictures of everything later.

it's a sad morning in my household, my entire shrimp colony died last night...

i was adding some plants when i noticed bubbles escaping from the substrate where i was planting, i'm assuming it was the bad gas... Not to long after the shrimp were lying on thier sides, having irratic movements and falling back the the ground. So i did a 50% W/C, double dosed with Prime, and added areation. The only thing I could do was wait and see. This morning everyone was dead. My two Otto cats and my three killi fry are fine, showing no signs of stress.

My question to you, is there something more i could have done?

Oh no, that sucks man!

Joke, I just found one lonely survivor.

Sounds like my one misadventure with Red Cherry shrimp. Put 25 of them into my tank, and that night while I was at work they found a slight opening in the netting I had over my filter intake. When I got home the next morning, they had all kamikaze'd into my filter. Rescued 3 out of the filter but they didn't last long afterwards.

My three killi fish are flourishing in that tank, so its not a complete loss

While chaos ensued in my shrimp tank, my purple mystery snails are doing a purple snail boogy! Keeping my fingers crossed that the eggs hatch and survive!

i woke up this morning to my purple mystery snail laying eggs hopefully all goes well and they hatch in a couple weeks!

Wow, its been a long time! Update time i suppose:
Guppies are doing great, I just added two more strains to my collection, Black Moscow AOC, Blue Moscow, and one lone golden pastel.
My red eye red grass have been slow to grow in number, they have the most insatiable appetite, thus are major fry hogs
I goofed up with my blacks and black AOC's, without thinking I dumped my aoc females in with the regular blacks. I guess I will just get a new black trio and restart that way. The males are identifiable, but the females from each strain are nearly identical.
The platinum mosaic colony is doin well, just taking time to mature and color up.

The 5 purple snails I started with in spring have multiplied exponentially! But its a good thing I did just loose one of my breeder females, and with the cooler temps in my fish room the multiplication has slowed some.

Keeping my fingers crossed that nothing catastrophic occurs over the winter

Have a fantastic holiday season!!!

Its hard to believe that I have finally stuck with something for over a year, and I still love my fish!!!

Some updates:

I currently have 7 tanks running, 4x 10 gal, 1x 20T, 1x 30 gal and my 200
- 10gal: RREA Red Grass guppy colony, I have 1 adult pair and about 5-10 fry all for sale
- 10gal: Blue Moscow/Gold Pastel Guppy colony, all of these are for sale too. I want to play more with other fish
- 10gal: solitary Astatotilapia Caliptera female holding, first spotted holding on 5/5/12
- 10gal: ~40 Astatotilapia Caliptera fry waiting for new homes and for me to get another 20T set up
- 20T: 6 Albino BN about 1.5", purple briggs snails, the last of my platinum mosaic guppies, and my female betta Harley.
- 30 Bowfront: 1M/3F Astatotilapia Caliptera, and my adult BN's
- 200 Bowfront: Malawi Community and a giant tinfoil

Plans:

- sell off all my guppies
- spawn my BN's
- spawn cherry barbs
- continue spawning the A. Caliptera
- watch my community color up! I do need to replace this tank soon, looking for another 200+ gallons, preferably acrylic. This tank is on a 10' wall so I'm not concerned about footprint. Bigger is better!!!
- participate in the outdoor white cloud minnow race with GSAS, supper excited and looking for white clouds
- I want to try to raise brine shrimp to a self sustaining colony, I emailed back and forth with Cory about this, sounds like a blast!

overall very happy with my decision to become a crazy fish lady, i love dinking around with my tanks, aquascaping and watching the fish effortlessly move through the water. also looking for floating plants, duckweed red root floater or amazon frog-bit.

I hope everyone enjoys what promises to be a beautiful weekend!!!

Thats a lot of tanks! MTS for sure! (Multiple Tank Syndrome)

I plan to have more up by the end of the summer. I've given up on baby number 2 so the would be nursery is now the new fish room fair trade?!

nice to see someone attempting to breed some community stuff. sure not much profit out of it but its by far a harder process. i wish you luck with the cherries, if u do manage to find some white clouds let me know

No kidding! White clouds at our petco (when they have them) are outlandishly priced!

We have babies!!! My holding female astatotilapia call opted (eastern happy) let out ~50 free swimmers yesterday I'm looking for homes for 40 1" fry, I can ship and I take pride in my packaging.

Started up my 'green' pond this week in anticipation of the great white cloud race with GSAS, and this week I'm also setting up a brine shrimp colony. Should be fun!!

Have a great weekend! Camping!!!!