# New To The Forum, Not to Fish! Lots of Pics!



## 9311dan

Ello there, I'm Dan, I'm 21 from West Chester, PA....just getting back into the whole fish deal, had a 20 Gal for 15 years in my room, and took a 5 year break, but now I got back into it full force and can't get enough!

Instead of getting another basic 20 Gal, I went with a 45 Gal Bow Front for Cichlids, a 10 Gal for smaller non-agressive fish, and a 1 Gal. for my Betta (my fave).

Everything is artificial, but only because I don't have time to keep up with live plants because of 5 classes/40 hours of work a week. When I move out in may I'm picking up a 125 Gal long for my apartment to go along with these..should be a lot of fun :-D

So here's some pics and descriptions of what I have for now....

45 Gallon
Top Fin 60 Filter
Glass Top/Florescent Light
-Blood Parrot
-Convict
-Albino Oscar
-Tiger Oscar (didn't take pics of yet)
-Large Bala Shark-->R.I.P. 12/15/08 
-Large Goldfish....doing surprisingly well
-"shark" of some sort

sorry for the poor quality pics in advance...




































RIP buddy

10 Gallon
Top Fin "Petsmart Special" tank hahaha
Top Fin 10 Filter
-Female Betta
-Blue Gourami (no pics yet)
-Baby Goldfish (2)
-Spotted Molly (fat-ass)
-_____Tetra's
-Red-tailed Shark









looks cloudy...not in real life though...



















1 Gallon
Top Fin Ghetto 1 Gallon 
-Male Betta, my favorite fish...he's so cool.



















I'm goin to East Coast Aquatics to pick up a couple more fish tomorrow, but I'd like to know what you think! The pics are terrible I know, but in person everything looks mint, so I'm really happy with it...all in the same room too haha.

I've noticed that all the Cichlids get along fairly well, which is surprising because I see a lot of people on here have issues with their Convicts, but the most he does is chase a little, but nothing more...The Parrot is really calm as well as the Oscars.

That's it for now, I'll post more pics up tomorrow after I get more stuff....peace


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## iamntbatman

Hello, and welcome to the forum! Welcome back to the hobby!

Great to see pictures of your tanks and fish. Another fish I saw in the pictures that you didn't mention: I believe that's a gold gourami behind the bala shark in the 4th picture down.

If you don't mind some constructive criticism, here goes:
For the big tank - a 45g tank is big enough for the convict and possibly the parrot but definitely won't be able to house the oscars long term. The 125g you plan on getting would be a good upgrade for them. Also, goldfish shouldn't be housed with the tropical fish you've got in this tank, since they do much better at lower temperatures. Not to mention that it will probably get beaten up quite badly by the cichlids you've got there.
For the small tank - As I mentioned, goldfish shouldn't be housed with tropicals, and goldfish will grow much, much too large for a 10g tank. The shark will also outgrow the tank. Watch for aggression between the betta and gourami, as these are both anabantids and these fish can be fiercely territorial with close relatives.

My advice would be: move the big tropical fish to the 125g as soon as you get it up and cycled. The convict, oscars, parrot, red-tailed shark from the 10g, and possibly the "shark" listed in the 45g should all do well in that tank. Then, you could probably get away with keeping your goldfish in the 45g long-term (this all really depends on what kind of goldfish they are. Fancy varieties stay a bit smaller, while regular comets can get to be a foot and a half long. If those are shubunkins you've got there, you're probably ok with the 45g). Then, of course, leave the smaller fish in the 10g.

Any way you could post a picture of the unidentified shark from the 45g? It could be any number of things, and I can think of several that would be completely inappropriate for even a 125g tank (iridescent shark, Colombian shark to name a couple).


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## Juruense

^ agree, Oscar will outgrow... goldfish inappropriate... corrective action required as soon as possible...

research before you buy


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## 9311dan

> If you don't mind some constructive criticism, here goes:
> For the big tank - a 45g tank is big enough for the convict and possibly the parrot but definitely won't be able to house the oscars long term. The 125g you plan on getting would be a good upgrade for them. Also, goldfish shouldn't be housed with the tropical fish you've got in this tank, since they do much better at lower temperatures. Not to mention that it will probably get beaten up quite badly by the cichlids you've got there.
> For the small tank - As I mentioned, goldfish shouldn't be housed with tropicals, and goldfish will grow much, much too large for a 10g tank. The shark will also outgrow the tank. Watch for aggression between the betta and gourami, as these are both anabantids and these fish can be fiercely territorial with close relatives.
> 
> My advice would be: move the big tropical fish to the 125g as soon as you get it up and cycled. The convict, oscars, parrot, red-tailed shark from the 10g, and possibly the "shark" listed in the 45g should all do well in that tank. Then, you could probably get away with keeping your goldfish in the 45g long-term (this all really depends on what kind of goldfish they are. Fancy varieties stay a bit smaller, while regular comets can get to be a foot and a half long. If those are shubunkins you've got there, you're probably ok with the 45g). Then, of course, leave the smaller fish in the 10g.
> 
> Any way you could post a picture of the unidentified shark from the 45g? It could be any number of things, and I can think of several that would be completely inappropriate for even a 125g tank (iridescent shark, Colombian shark to name a couple).


hey, i really appreciate everything said, so here we go...

I know the Oscar's get rather large and will outgrow the 45 Gal, and the 125 is for them actually, the 45 is a temporary holding place for them till I move out in the spring.

The goldfish were really a fluke...I decided that it would be a great idea to throw some feeders into the tank to give it color. I thought wrong. Some got sick, some killed, and now only one remains in the big tank and two in the small tank. I took all the sick ones out (they started turning black) and put them in what i call the "hospess tank." Hopefully they do okay at room temp here...it's not nice and I regret ever getting them because I don't what the starter tank in my room anymore.

Hospess Tank









As for the bullying, the Convict is pretty aggressive toward the Tiger Oscar, but he leaves the one goldfish, gold gourami, parrot, and albino oscar alone entirely. I think that since the Oscar is bigger than him, he feels threatened and they occasionally go back and forth, nothing too serious though.

The shark from the 45G was murdered last night, I'm assuming by the Oscar...missing both his eyes, it was bad.

The red-tailed shark will be transferred to the 45G once the 125 is up and running. I want the 125 for aggressive, larger fish. The 45 will be for semi-aggressive medium size fish, and the 10G I want to be for something different...like crayfish or something...there's actually a crayfish in the 45G now, and he's getting really big, but never comes out so I cant take pics of him...



> ^ agree, Oscar will outgrow... goldfish inappropriate... corrective action required as soon as possible...
> 
> research before you buy


Corrective action will be taken asap...I've done as much research as time will allow, and hopefully the goldfish will be gone soon...i wish i never bought them.

Will the Oscar really outgrow the 45 though? There's a nice amount of space in there...thought i'd be okay until May.

Also last question, I did the weekly water change yesterday in the 45, and this morning I woke up to extremely cloudy water. I don't know if the new water being poured in lifted up some stuff on the substrate, or if there was a serious incident between the Cichlids or what..I put drops of water clear in there, and it's only gotten slightly better...I'm picking up new filter sponges now, hopefully that helps. oh, pH is 7.2 as of last night, water temp is 78 F, and no new fish have been added since the Oscar 2 weeks ago...

Thanks guys


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## iamntbatman

I couldn't really tell from the pictures, but how big are the oscars now? If they're both still very small you might be able to make it until May. The idea is not to stunt their growth at all. Stunting a fish's growth can lead to long term health problems and a shorter life.


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## 9311dan

The Tiger Oscar is about 3" and the Albino is 2"....both babies haha


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## willow

hello and welcome,
nice set ups.


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