Some of you might remember my thread about 6months back asking about aquariums.
http://qgl.ausforums.com/?agn=thread&id=1904965

Since then we now have three tanks and thought you guys might want to see some pics. Originally we only had a normal tropical tank. Second we got a Discus tank and last weekend we have finally expanded into the world of Cichlids.

Comments are welcome. Pics can be found here.
http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/

If anyone has some pics they would like to show, feel free.

Wow that's really looking lush.

How much did all that set you back at the end ? I know it's a very expensive hobby innit.

Looks good

thats lush, i wish i could have heaps of tanks in my room, but my floor wont support all the weight :P (cos its upstairs)

love this one! :

http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/Tropicals/P1003212.jpg

The tropical tank was the most expensive as it was bought new. I can't remember the exact price but can find out if you really want to know.

The discus tanka and cichlid tank was bought second hand. The discus tank was $300 which came with filters, gravel, heater etc. In the tank there is about $400 worth of discus.

The cichlid tank came with everything that can be seen including the fish. $300.

I'm still getting around to settinmg up my uber tank (6"x3"x3") which will have BIG cichilids in it (an hopefully a Saratoga Jardini eventually).

Here is my old Red Devil Raptors watching us.. just begging to have someone be stupid enough to put their hand/arm/neighbours babies in = )

http://www.users.on.net/~thevault/HERMITech/Raptors.jpg

"Raptors" going for my arm.

http://www.users.on.net/~thevault/HERMITech/Raptors2.jpg

He died of old age an overeating I'm sure (or just got sick of killing anything I'd try to get to "cohavbit" with him - quite a few years ago (dammit). Can still see the scars on my hands an arms from him.

At present I've got a large juvenile Flowerhorn - affectionately names "Petal", a 35+ cm HUGE sulky old Oscar named "Quaker", 2x 8 inch plecos (man those guys leave some stringy turds) named "spot" & "Mott", 2 Bristlenose (who shall remane nameless) an on odd occasions - some very scared goldfish. I'm hopingthat the female (same size as Petal) Festae that I'm picking up on Saturday will hold her own as they have such beautiful colours.

I'm planning to order my new stand this weekend, though I've said that before and had to change my plans before.

Ah well, fingers crossed

Some very nice african ciclids there! 300 is a bargain for those fish alone!! :D
What sort of cichlid is that metalic looking one in this pic ? -> Click
pity about the reflection of the light you get in some pix :/
here is a pic of a mate of mine's tomasi cichlid...
http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/tomasi4.jpg
EDIT:
HermitECH That red devil is a fukn monster! :P~ Large cichlids are cool how they follow you when you walk past the tank & go nuts if you show something that looks like a food container :P


last edited by demon at 23:52:21 22/Jun/04

whats going on on the right of this pic?

maxe: reflection of flash off the glass maybe?

I have a cichlid setup...will post pics when i get the camera back the w'end.

I have a big ghost knife too which is kinda cool...will be literally impossible to photograph tho...only comes out when it's dark.

looks like bad development or overexposure.

I am going to clean my tank later on, I shall post pics later :)

Here's my tank not long after we set it up ....

http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Misc/20040419/DSC00673.JPG

And here it is more recently (no the water isn't dirty, just bad lighting).

http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Misc/20040525/DSC00800.JPG


I've got a Saratoga, a Barramundi, a Murray Cod, and a Pleco. As well as a Red Claw and two Blue Claws.


Have just set up 9 2'x1' breeding tanks downstairs and for now will just be breeding feeder fish (they'll eat 5+ goldfish in one sitting).

When the Saratoga gets too big for that tank we'll be getting an 8 footer for him.

last edited by stinky at 09:19:07 23/Jun/04

Stinky...

YOU SUCK !

Can't wait to get a Saratoga myself. First time a mate an I saw one @ Scotts Aquarium - which has since closed :( it split my mates fingernail (you know how you just have to play with big fish). Wanted one ever since then !

Also, is that a Bengal cat on top as well??

If it is

YOU SUCK x 2

=)

No actually Hermi, that's TWO bengal cat's ... the white one is the Snow Leopard colouring but is only about 7 months so he's not fully coloured yet.

The standard Bengal is about 9 months.

*tip* To get into the good books for a long time, buy the girlfriend a snow leopard Bengal for her birthday and hide it in the bedroom so when she gets home from work on her birthday and sees it for the first time she wets herself :)

if i had a camera i'd take some photo's of our tanks, you'd be impressed ;)

one of our tanks is 8 feet long and a metre deep. we used to have a red arowana in it but it died :D

No actually Hermi, that's TWO bengal cat's

Well, in that case,

YOU SUCK X 3

[sigh] dammit, you have things I want
1. Saratoga
2. Bengal Cat

So, whats your woman look like?

*grins*

she looks remarkably like YOUR MUM!

:)

Damn dude, you into 68 year old women then eh?

Here are 2 more pix I took with my digicam...

Festivum cichlid & a big phat congo tetra! :D

http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/festivum.jpg
http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/congo_tetra.jpg

cool fish, I wish I had fish in my tank not a turtle, cause it s***s too much and is a pain in the ass to clean. It's due for a clean now as it is so will take a picture of the tank when it's clean.

Stinky love how the cats are ready to pounce! :)

low quality photo of this 200L tank.. (6x4 feet?) was gonna put fish in it, but damn it costs too much :(

http://members.optusnet.com.au/subex/tank.JPG

What are you going to put in it then dude?

Scorpions?
Snakes?
Bubblebath an women?

Also, 6x4 is a LOT bigger than 200 litres =P
Length(cm) * Width(cm) * Height(cm) / 1000 = Capacity (litres)

For example, my 6"x 3"x 3" (180cm x 90cm x 90cm) holds approx 1,458 litres

last edited by HERMITech at 12:16:18 23/Jun/04

well i was hoping to capture your mum and stick her in there... but i don't think she'll fit :(


j/k.


nar... maybe i'll get a small tank and just put some basic small colourful fishies!

looks good hermi

Discus are cichlids... so your second tank was you branching out into cichlids

Heck even your tropical tank seems to have Apisograma Ramirez (blue rams), Angel fish and discus ... all cichlids.

Your third tank looks to be african cichlids from the rift valley.

I have a barramundi... i'd have to go outside to take a pic though.

It is only a baby though, ~250mm.

Pics now





last edited by aaa aardvark at 14:06:38 23/Jun/04

last edited by aaa aardvark at 14:07:23 23/Jun/04

Just some questions...

does anyone know how to stop aquarium water going yellow from driftwood ?? I don't want to pull it out either.

Also does anyone else find that in the colder months they get more algae growth ?? I get the usual green stuff all year round but in winter I seem to get this really dark (almost black) s*** growing everywhere... I recently had to pull out my plants as they were covered in the stuff.

does anyone know how to stop aquarium water going yellow from driftwood ??

it really depends on the state of the wood. if it is newly water-logged... it wil take aaaages for all the colour to leech out. the best thing i have found in the past is to chuck it in a laundry tub... fill the tub with boiling or as hot as possible & let it soak till the water is cool, then drain & repeat until it doesnt seem to be discolouring the water anymore.
logs & root systems are renowned for carrying the spores for white-spot (one of the most common tropical fish diseases) which is another reason it is good to boil em first before putting them in your tank.

What sort of cichlid is that metalic looking one in this pic ? -> Click

:D

cheers demon, I will try that. I have 2 pieces of driftwood, one of the pieces I bought and the other I found. The bought one was in first and it turned the water yellow, and the second one was put in later and I assume it also contributes to the discolouration.

It will be hard on the other fish and crayfish if I take out the driftwood though, that is their only hiding place to get away from the barra haha.

When I was getting a crayfish a few weeks ago this dude was returning a blueclaw because it ate his barramundi (musta been a small one) man was he pissed!

*edit*

here's a photo of my car doing its best fishtank impression.

http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Subaru/4x4_1st_may_2004/DSC00495 (Medium).JPG

last edited by stinky at 15:12:17 23/Jun/04

When I was getting a crayfish a few weeks ago this dude was returning a blueclaw because it ate his barramundi (musta been a small one) man was he pissed!

Hahaha, actual you should see goremans, fish setups, there pretty nice :), I've got a pick up another tin of White Cain, if you want to be cheeaty get white cain :)

nice looking red devil there Hermitech. We had an awesome oscar about 30cm. He died though when we moved the tank for some unknown reason.

demon, nice little tomasi. got one of those in the tropical tank. As for the metalic looking fish. Im not sure. Only just starting to get into the world of cichlids, so if you could tell me that would be great :D. interesting fish the Festivum is. haven't seen them before.

whats going on on the right of this pic?

Just flash reflection...


Nice tank stinky. would love to get a barra one day.

Heck even your tropical tank seems to have Apisograma Ramirez (blue rams), Angel fish and discus ... all cichlids.

Your third tank looks to be african cichlids from the rift valley.

yeah, aware that discus are cichlids. they have been moved out of the tropical tank and got their own tank along with the angels. the rams are staying with the tropicals.

last edited by Excruci@ting at 15:41:14 23/Jun/04

oh, seems that alot of you know ur fish. can you identify these for me please?

1
http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/Identify Cichlid/P1003418.jpg

2 - Electric Blue yeah?
http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/Identify Cichlid/P1003433.jpg

3
http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/Identify Cichlid/P1003434.jpg

4
http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/Identify Cichlid/P1003435.jpg

5
http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/Identify Cichlid/P1003438.jpg

6
http://members.optushome.com.au/exz0r/Fish/Identify Cichlid/P1003458.jpg

1. Zebra sp - there are so many varieties I couldn't even begin to guess.

2. Leccy Blue

3. Eureka gold peacock

4. Another Zebra, prolly redtop.

5. not clear enough

6. Yet another zebra, standard colour.



My tanks:

http://www.fishprofiles.net/files/~adam/new1.jpg

http://www.fishprofiles.net/files/~adam/new2.jpg

http://www.fishprofiles.net/files/~adam/dsc00135.jpg

http://www.fishprofiles.net/files/~adam/dsc00136.jpg


Heaps more of my photos of individual fish (300+) available here: http://www.fishprofiles.com/ (just click on profiles->freshwater).

+ Gotta include obligatory link to my new business: http://www.equarium.com.au/

If yer from QGL, I'll give ya 10% off + Free shipping, for orders over $55 (use voucher code QGLQGLQGLQGL)



last edited by Furgle at 16:53:25 23/Jun/04

View my crab of j0r:

http://www.fishprofiles.net/files/~adam/crab.jpg

My next project will be a new SW tank with an octopus - Diatom filtration required whenever they squirt ink :D

last edited by Furgle at 16:52:11 23/Jun/04

I used to into fish a fair bit 35 tanks or so. But I have been out of it a while. I have a bunch of books in storage somewhere almost entirely devoted to cichlids. Its rediculous how many "types" of cichlid there are, particularly african ones. The african ones look spectacular but I am not a big fan of them, 1 becuase alot of the local ones are mongrels and cross breed 2 becuase they are so hard to identify and get "pure" version of and 3 becuase they annoyingly agressive and adept at killing each other, they usually totally ignore other inhabitants tho.
Unlike the central and south american counterparts that will devour anything that will fit in their mouths. ie. Discus are great neon/cardinal hunters, tho alot of the local ones are pussy inbred ones that have lost all natural instincts. Wild angels and discus are quite adept at hunting, Discus will even hunt as a pack.


1. Looks like an underfed or ill subdominant male pseudotropheus / zebra. To pick the exact one is basically impossible as there are thousands of regional variations, and breeders have interbred the various regional species, not to mention water conditions, ph temperature and other external pressures affecting their colourations. It may not be a pseudotropheus it could be one of its related species. If you bought it you should know, what they were calling it atleast (even if its not right).

2. More then Likely an electric blue (Sciaenochromis ahli) but again alot of species are similar in appearance and have slightly different scientific names. So unless you plan on counting scales and teeth etc. Electric Blue will do. Could even be a peacock but more then likely then not an electric blue.

3. Aulonocara / Peacock .. again thousands of varieties so unless you know which one it is... good luck. could be a Sciaenochromis family as well, but looks more peacock. Possibly even a Protomelas but honestly first guess would be peacock. Its male that much I can tell you. The female of all those species look almost identical (s***ty brown / grey colour) and as such should not be kept with any of its "similar" species .. x-breeding = bad.

4 and 6 look like underfed / ill pseudo tropheus again. 6 looks like a dominate male by the egg spots and blue coloring, 4 is more then likely a sub-sominate male (possibly also a female, but it shows poor form if it is ie. egg spots) it has egg spots and a slight blue hint, but has the yellow/orange colouring of a female. Defence mechanism from getting the s*** kicked out of it all day long by more dominate males. They may not be a pseudotropheus it could be one of its related species.

5. Is a Blurrius Photoalis. (ie. are you sure its even a fish and not a peanut paste stain on your jocks?)

At any rate they'd all come from Lake Malawi

i used to have a breeding pair of manganese, the were tough fish. around 25cm long each, and i used to feed the gugeons i bread in the pond out the back. i treat for them used to be a goldfish or to. i ended up selling them to pets superstore in capalaba for $150 worth of fish tank equip/tropical fish when i got over them. i brought them for just $8 each when they were babies


last edited by defi at 16:58:49 23/Jun/04

We had a barramundi, called mundy, for a couple of years(he was supposed to be dinner but we convinced dad to let us keep him), we also bought some perch to keep him company but they bullied him so we ate them(without remorse). Then we had to move house so we ate him, he was getting too big for the tank anyway(he was 2ft).

my fish was happy

http://www.chillz.net/Photos/images/Axolotl.jpg



















my fish died :(

http://www.chillz.net/Photos/images/dead meat.jpg

GROSS, it looks like your fish died 3 weeks ago in the second pic.

was more like the night before :(, stunk though - was from damn hot summer

Thanks furgle and obes with your identifing.

Furgle, we have bought a couple of things from your business. Is it actually yours? Where abouts do you live. It would have come in through the name of Hamilton.

Yep, it's 100% funded and run by myself. More and more of my house (geebung) is being overrun with stock.

Hey guys.

www.ausfishforum.com is a forum for fish lovers like yourself! Started off by a few guys from OCAU.

Loads of Brissy based users too.

I myself only got into the game about 6 months ago. I started off with a tropical tank that went awry when I put in 3 clown loaches and they got white spot pretty much the 2nd day. It wiped out my tank.

Since then i've changed it to a cichlid tank.

I've got 7 african cichlids, all male. Sizes are including rear fin.

1 Electric blue - 8 cm
1 Electric yellow - 8 cm
1 Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos - 5-6cm

1 Eureka red (aust) <-- not sure of the scientific name - 8cm
1 Red shoulder peacock - 8cm
1 Labidochromis "Hongi"- 7-8cm

I also have one Neolamprologus brichardi, who is the only odd one out in a tank full of Malawi's. -7cm




last edited by Prophet at 15:37:22 24/Jun/04

Prophet.

1 4m d4 r3n3g4d3 m4$73r

I'm sorry, I can't take you seriously with that as a sig...

hahahaha.. yeah.. i haven't used this account in 2/3 years or so :P

We recently (a few weeks ago) got a new Blueclaw crayfish (already had 1 blue and 1 red ones). He didn't get on too well with the others and was always picking fights.

Well yesterday he shed his shell so he could grow some, and the others took the opportunity to kill and eat him (and his shell).

His Shell:
http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Fish/20040629/Image(030).jpg

His Carcass:
http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Fish/20040629/Image(026).jpg

Barramundi taking a chomp:
http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Fish/20040629/Image(035).jpg

Saratoga ignoring them all:
http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Fish/20040629/Image(032).jpg

Pleco staying right out of the way
http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Fish/20040629/Image(029).jpg

Other Blueclaw after good dish of cannibal stew:
http://xesla.ro/gallery/gallery/Fish/20040629/Image(036).jpg

last edited by stinky at 11:55:54 29/Jun/04

see! arnt pleco's cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute! :D

hell yeah, except for the amount of poopy they make!

I've seen pleco poo that goes for half the length of the tank (i.e 2 foot). Especially after they've eaten zuchinni.

One time I couldn't find him, and eventually discovered he'd hollowed out a piece of zuchinni and was inside it.

this is making me wana get back into fish breeding. hmmm

*ponders*

Did you breed Pleco's Nat? If so, what sort of conditions did they need in the breeding tanks?

I have 9 2'x1' breeding tanks hooked up to a sump filter and all I'm doing in them at the moment is goldfish / gudgeons.

well i actually bread bristlenose catfish amoung other things for a while. theyre easy to breed, just stick em in a dark tank with a heap of pipes and rocks and crap :)

real plecos on the other hand need to be bread in big ponds...or so im told :(

i also bread electric yellows and blues for a while

Nat get a big ass fishtank at your appartment! :D nice for recoveries! :D

If anyones interested, I just did some web cams clips of my fish "playing" with each other

These guys are in a a pretty small tank (4' x 2'x 2') at present as I'm waiting on my stand for my uber 6'x3'x3' to be finished. So tensions get a bit "active" at times.

To make matters worse, I've had to petition the tank off so that Petal can't damage Petunia until I can get the new stand built & delivered in approx 2 weeks (3 max)


Tank roll Call:
Quaker: +/- 35 cm Tiger Oscar
Petal: +/-16cm Male Flowerhorn
Petunia: +/-14cm Femal Festae

Edit: whups, almost forgot
Mott: +/- 17cm Pleco
Spott: +/- 17cm Pleco

I bought the 2 plecos about 4 months ago for $8 each an they've just GROWN!

+ 2 large Blue Claws (hiding for a good reason)
an 2 Bristlenose (also hiding but hey, thats what they do)

I'll add some new clips on the weekend after I go pick up some feeder fish ;P

12.7 Mb

2.9 Mb

3.4 Mb

2.4 Mb

4.7 Mb


last edited by HERMITech at 00:46:44 30/Jun/04

Naming your fish is a distinctly feminine activity.

Any critter that has a personality creates it's own name. Besides that, they're ain't nothing feminine about these viscious bastards (well, I'm not including the Oscar cause it is a sook ).

The fact that I gave some of em "gentle" names is part of the joke in the house, ask anyone who comes round the house.