tropical fish

Aug 12 16:08 UTC 2002

Is there any interest in discussing tropical fish?  This item is to 
find out.

response 2 of 41:

Aug 12 16:16 UTC 2002

I've gotten back into tropical fish this year.  I bought two fish 
tanks, 55 and 50 gallons, which mount on the same metal stand.  I've 
populated the 55 gallon with community fish such as angelfish, neon 
tetras, glowlight tetras, platys, and currently a half-dozen 
plecostomus catfish.

My tank has an underground filter, and recently I've added an outside 
power filter.  It's had decorations of plastic plants (which I prefer, 
they don't carry snails, and snails can be a plague in a fish tank) as 
well as rocks from the Great Lakes.

At some point I will put fish in the other tank as well.  My son is 
interested in Oscars, and a 50 gallon tank ought to be big enough for a 
half-dozen Oscars to attain breeding size in a year or two.

I've had various troubles, most recently including a severe recurring 
problem with floating algae.  I've been advised (as of yesterday) to 
change part of the water weekly.  I'm going to try that for a while and 
see if it helps.  With so many plecosomuses (plecostomi?) I don't want 
to use chemicals.  The plecos are very hardy, but they have to eat, and 
what they eat is algae.

response 6 of 41:

Aug 12 17:00 UTC 2002

I've toured the pet shops in the Ann Arbor area pretty well, and here 
are some of my impressions of them:

Pet Supplies Plus -- I work at Domino Farms, so they're the most 
convenient for me.  Sometimes it's hard to get help with fish-related 
issues, even such things as buying fish.  They have an enormous 
selection of accessories, with pretty good prices, and I've bought most 
of my stuff from them.  I ordered some black marble hatchetfish from 
them, and they got them in for me.

Coral Reef -- also on Plymouth Rd.  This place is exclusively salt 
water fish, which aren't my thing.

The Fish Doctor -- Washtenaw Ave in Ypsi -- the staff didn't seem to 
care if I was there or not, when I was there in February.  The place 
didn't seem very impressive to me.  I should go back.  They did seem to 
be knowledgeable.

Huron Pet Supply -- Washtenaw Ave, Ypsi -- I also went there in 
February.  I'm not sure why I haven't been back.  They seemed all right.

Hmm, looking through the ads in the phone book, there are several 
others I haven't been to.

Meijers, K-Mart and Walmart all carry fish.  I would never buy fish 
from a place like that.  They just don't have any time to take care of 
them, or any interest in learning about them.

Another thing that turns me off immediately is seeing dead fish in more 
than one tank.  Fish do die, and pet shops are a hazardous environment 
for them.  There's always lots of turnover (meaning lots of potential 
new diseases coming in), and kids tapping on the glass and sticking 
their fingers in the water, and the staff constantly chasing the fish 
around with nets.  When you put a new fish in your tank, you're taking 
something of a risk, no matter where you get the fish.  But dang... 
those fish are on *display*, and if the staff doesn't care enough to 
get rid of the dead ones, I don't care to buy their stock.

response 8 of 41:

Aug 12 21:32 UTC 2002

Jep, I'd remove all the rocks you've added to your problem tank if they
were found in lakes or streams.  For a while use only rock bagged for
aquarium use and see if that makes a difference. 

response 10 of 41:

Aug 13 00:50 UTC 2002

It's been a long time since I had a tropical fish tank but the
reason had something to do with minerals leaching out of the
rocks and changing the water quality to something not suitable
for tropical fish.  Quartz was okay.  Limestone was not.  Coral
(dead) was also a no-no.

response 12 of 41:

Aug 13 01:50 UTC 2002

My rocks that I added first are all hard rocks from Lake Huron.  I 
don't know that much about rocks, but these are all smooth and well-
rounded, and generally look like granite.  I no longer think they 
caused any problems, since I removed them about a month ago and the 
problems continued.

I've left some sandstone in the tank which I acquired a couple of 
months ago.

I also removed all my plastic plants, but that didn't seem to have any 
effect either.  I'm likely going to add both the hard rocks and plants 
back in.

The woman at the place in Saline spoke of nitrates being a contributing 
factor for algae.  I should have asked her -- but what causes 
nitrates?  Overfeeding?  Fish excrement?  It's got to be coming from 
somewhere.  I don't think I've been overfeeding my fish.

The woman told me that undergravel filters are an okay supplement, but 
you really need an outside filter.  She also advised me to vacuum the 
gravel with a siphon, which I did last night.  I got a lot of muck out 
of my gravel last night.  Maybe I have been overfeeding them at times.

I was surprised when she told me the UG filters are a thing of the 
past.  I first got into fish in the 1970's, when they were the hot new 
thing, sworn by by all the most experienced tropical fish nuts.  (My 
family was in a fish club when I was a teenager.  We were really into 
fish for a couple of years.)  She told me the store in Saline doesn't 
even stock them any more.  Oh, well.  I have an external filter now.

response 14 of 41:

Aug 13 04:34 UTC 2002

Nitrates come from fish piss. This contains ammonia compounds, which
are exidized by bacteria to nitrates.

response 16 of 41:

Aug 13 07:08 UTC 2002

Perhaps this is an obscure reference to the long defunct Exidy computer
company.

response 18 of 41:

Aug 24 20:19 UTC 2002

I have a small 15 gallon "cube" aquarium (take a 15L, stand it vertically,
and you'd have a good idea of what it looks like) with an underground filter
with a PowerHead 20 on the tube, a Tetra DeepWater quad pump (for a bubble
wand), cheap Meijer glass gravel, and a blue Arizona Ginseng Tea bottle
(washed with labels removed). 

At one time, I had about 14 fish in there. I found that most of the fish I
bought from Pet Supplies Plus died quickly, or gave the other fish "ick". And
when I moved from Farmington Hills to South Lyon, many of the fish didn't
survive. 

Right now, I have three fish: a pleco, knife fish, and paradise gourami. All
of them were purchased from PetSmart in 1998. There was also a sunset platty
from the same group, but it died last month. This leads me to two conclusions:
PetSmart (at least, in Northville) sells amazingly healthy fish, and I'm one
of the best fishkeepers alive ;)

I would add more to the tank, but I'm afraid of introducing diseases to dish
so old. I'm genuinely curious to see just how long they'll live.

As far as maintenance, I siphon 2/3 of the water every 6 months with a gravel
cleaner, and replace it with cold tap water that has reached room temperature.
I have a heater, but it isn't plugged in. I generally keep the house around
75 degrees year-round, and the tank temperature is pretty close to that. I
think the PowerHead may radiate just enough heat to make the water nice for
the fish.

Every now and then, the water will get a little brown. When that happens, I
use Acurel*F, which makes it even browner for a couple hours, then magically
turns the water crystal clear. (Acurel*F is imported from Britain, but most
pet stores that sell fish seem to have it. It beats the pants off of every
similar product I've tried. If your water isn't clear, you should spend the
$5, and buy some.)

Other than that, I don't put any other chemicals in the water, unless the fish
are sick and need medicine. I test the pH every now and then, and it usually
comes up a bit acidic, but not dangerously so. The only time I've actually
altered the pH was when I moved the tank to South Lyon. Since then, it seems
to have balanced. (Probably because the water pipes hadn't seen "normal" usage
in a couple months when I moved in.)

I noticed someone up there mentioned Fish Doctor, and was unhappy with the
service. I've found that the one in Ann Arbor (Ypsi?) tends to cater to people
with massive tanks, who need someone to come out and perform maintenance on
a regular schedule. We had the Fish Doctor come out to Beyond Interactive
every other month, or so...and it wasn't cheap. Presumably, they have several
clients who are similar, and don't need the $100 you'd spend to set up a 20
gallon tank of $3 fish. 

That said, the Fish Doctor location in Plymouth has employees who are much
more customer-oriented, and willing to help. If I were setting up a saltwater
tank, that's probably the only store I'd go to. Their knowledge is amazing,
and their fish always look healthy and well taken care of. 

Other than that, I'd check out PetSmart on Haggerty and 6 Mile in Northville.
(If you take M-14 to I-275, it's the first exit, about 1/4 mile left) They
have a great selection (compared to the Ann Arbor location) and like I said
above, they sell very healthy fish. 

response 20 of 41:

Sep 5 03:20 UTC 2002

I e-mailed the fw's of "pets" to ask for a link for this item, but got 
no response.  That was weeks ago.  I've now entered item #50 in pets to 
start a new discussion about tropical fish.

response 22 of 41:

Sep 5 21:56 UTC 2002

Heh.  Not a biggie.

response 24 of 41:

Sep 6 15:54 UTC 2002

Thanks!  This is now item #51 in pets.