Aquariums

Yea, there are a few species that are freshwater. They are found in a few of the South American rivers. Really nice looking but difficult to keep from what I hear.

Some people keep them in a large tank with an Arowana... now that would be a really interesting combo.

Brad

 

Unfortunately, no time at all! I don't have a tank anymore - but after all this talk, I am SO ready to start up another!

 

What about brackish?

Good place to start?

Octapus available for those?

 

I spent a couple of hours staring at rocks while the tank was getting prepped...

As for the tank. I'm not surprised. It is a custom job by some bling bling fish place in Tokyo. It is specifically designed for keeping fish in theatres, clubs, etc, where the noise is loud. They made it sound so believable...albeit in broken English! HAHAHA! Well, guess the jokes on me. The warming glass is pretty cool though.

Thanks all for those links. I'll read up on it.

Cheers

 

Check out this cool link...

http://www.livingcolor.com/

 

glass is the way to go. i have an acryllic salt water tank and it keeps getting scratched up and then the algae grows in these cracks which you have to constantly scrap away. pain in the a**. get glass!

 

Oh...another thing...

get a long tank legth-wise. Try to avoid the tanks that are tall in height but not that wide. Fish prefer to swim back and forth inside of up and down.

 

Check out the gallery pics on this site www.seavisions.com Really cool stuff.

 

nice

 

Very nice indeed... I've never been much of a fan for that "fake reef" stuff, though... real fiji live rock is the way to go for me! But very nice indeed...

 

Just joining this thread but I've been into aquariums for about 10 years now. Started with fresh water then moved over to salt water. Currently I have a 90 gallon reef all live rock/corals/shrimp/crabs/starfish/reef friendly fish.

I did have a leopard shark until he out grew my 135 gallon tank. Then he moved to a 300 gallon tank of a friend.

Fun hobby, but can be time consuming because you have to clean the glass/feeding and so on.

 

Someone asked about brakish? Only good for Paraina(sp) tank. Maybe stingrays...but I don't know that.



Short arms? No problem... how many of you guys have this serious gear hidden under your hard wood floor?

 

OMG!! That's freakin' awesome! Mark, where do you find these pictures? You always have the coolest pix.

Anyways, there are lots of brackish fish out there.. Mollies, spotted, figure-8 puffers, painted glassfish (cruel!!), arowana (well slightly brackish), etc...

Some of the brackish fish, esp. the mollies and puffers can be trained to be saltwater fish. I had a brackish puffer in my saltwater tank for years... until my nurse shark accidentally ate him. But then again, my shark also ate another smooth-hound shark, too! damn... $50 gourmet meal for him!

I want a tank like that guy!! ... that would be ideal for some large yellow jacks and some cool Look-down fish!

B.

 

that is f*cking nice!!!

 

Hubert,

What kind of fish do you keep?

Byron,

I've been doing some reading and this sounds like something I might do! Now that I'm semi retired I sit on my fat ass and read all day so I might as well pick up a hobby!

That was a pretty interesting list of fish you had!

How hard is it to keep sharks? I've read that generally they are pretty hardy fish and therefore easy to keep. Are there specific ones I should stay away from? How big does the tank need to be?

I also like Mark's octopus. That thing is PIMP!!

Mark,

I can't say that I would want to mess with a poisonous one. Are there any other bling bling octopi (read: bright colors) out there that might be good for a beginner? Does it have to be in it's own tank even if it isn't poisonous? From the sounds of it the octopus seems tough to take care of. People on the forum Ricky posted seem to really think they are very intelligent and about as interactive as a tank animal can get.

How about eels? They look cool too! Maybe an easier one to take care of? At least one that eats! My friend in South Beach had a really cool one that was black with white lines randomly spread across it. He said it was easy to care for.

J,

Stingrays? Too cool. One of these days I'll fill my pimp tank in Tokyo with good stuff. My previous tenant kept three sharks in there. The things were huge! Scary when you walked by and the thing would follow you down the tank.

Feel free to PM me to exchange emails guys if you don't want to waste bandwidth.

Cheers

 

Taek,
I know you asked a bunch of questions to other people, but let me just take a stab at a few of them...

Sharks are generally easy to take care - they have a voracious diet, but I've found an easy, economical way of satiating them! They are generally very hardy, but require large tanks. There are several types of sharks - bottom-dwelling and reef-sharks are generally what are kept in captivity. Of the Reef sharks, black tip reef sharks are popular, but even the smallest one may require 1000+ gal aquarium. They are expensive to buy and to feed. Other reef type sharks that may be kept in captivity (temporarily, until they out grow your tank) are lemon sharks and possibly white tip reefs.

The "starter" sharks include ones like banded cat sharks, horned sharks, and as you move up, smoothound sharks, nurse sharks, and others. leopards are illegal in california under a certain size, so not worth exploring... The bottom-dwelling sharks don't require as much space to swim around b/c for the most part, they don't swim around. Some sharks just sit all day - horned sharks look cool but are especially boring! Skates are neat, but require much space to swim around.

I've found that feeding my sharks was easy - just go to 99 ranch market and get fresh squid by the lb. You can get a whole bag for like $2. And it lasts forever! Keep other organisms, like hermit crabs, shrimps, etc... that will clean up the excrement of the shark... that will keep your tank clean. Remember - ecosystem!! Don't keep too many other fish with your shark... b/c if they find the other fish a nuisance, they might just eat them.

Octopi aren't hard to take care of... but they do tend to dominate a tank with fish. They are aggressive feeders and may at times become very territorial. I kept mine separate b/c it was threatening my other fish. Don't ask how I managed to catch it! I would steer clear from the blue ring octopi... they have been known to kill more than one owner in their day! I wouldn't bother with octopi...neat to look at, but overrated. Sharks are way cool.

Eels are incredible creatures, as well! The beginner eels range from your standard morays to snowflake moray eels. They have an amazing knack to escape your tank (as do octopi), and if they jump out of your tank or swim into your filter, you can literally pick them up, throw them back into the water and they will still live... unbelievable. I had a number of eels...they are great once you get them eating. The ribbon eels are hard to keep b/c of that reason - hard to get them eating. Hawaiian species of eels are great looking animals ... I've always wanted a Hawaiian dragon eel - never got one though! sharks and eels generally do not mix, so pick one or the other!

I think a nice looking tank is one with a medium sized eel (that eats medium sized goldfish), some colorful tangs, clown fish, anemones,... and maybe a small horned shark that sits at the bottom... The frogfish is also an amazing fish...it is otherwise known as an angler b/c it has a little "bait" at the end of a long thin "antennae" that it would use to taunt unsuspecting fish, then *CHOMP*....they are gone.

I'll attach a picture of a frogfish/angler. It's really neat.
Feel free to contact me offline if you want to talk more about fish... man, all this talk makes ME want to get off my lazy ass and start another tank, too!!

 

I found these pics of freshwater rays

http://www.vipets.com/id42.htm

I really like the saltwater rays with the blue spots. I would like to have a tank of leopard sharks and the blue spot rays

 

Byron,

Thanks for great info! Lots to think about. I definitely would not want a blue ring. Mark's got sack to keep a pet like that!

I think the smaller sharks are going to be the way to go. I was thinking a 200 gallon tank right now. Something small so that I won't screw it up by trying to take care of too many things. If I make it to Asia this coming January I'll post pics of my pimp daddy tank. I think you'll like it. 6m x 3m x 2m. Huge. The thing needs it's own room for all the gizmos to keep it going. I don't know what anything does yet though. You get the idea of how freaky it would be to walk along the tank and be stalked by a big ass shark! Yikes! It was emptied by my previous tenant who took all his fish with him. For now I just want a cool little shark or two. Or maybe an eel or two and save the sharks for the really big tank.

Mark's comment of how pretty his blue eel would look swimming really captured my attention. I'm sure its quite a sight!

How expensive and hard to get are these fish? I'm guessing the tank is the cheap part? Judging by pictures maybe 10 fish per tank? $500 a pop? Are the bling bling fish horribly expensive? That would put a damper on that idea at least until I become a good enough caretaker to deserve some of these pimp daddy fish. I'm travelling right now so I have no clue where there are fish stores around me, and I'm guessing your run of the mill pet store won't have some of the more exotic fish? Hopefully I'll give myself a Christmas present!

I think I may still have your phone number from when last I met you. If I remember I didn't have paper so I stored your number on my phone. I'll give you a call tomorrow or the day after and stop wasting bandwidth here. I also want to talk to you about some other car related stuff.

Thanks again for the info! Much appreciated.

Ike,

Those are awesome! Love the tiger one. But I think I want to step into the challenge of a saltwater tank. Especially seeing how fantastic some of these other fish look. Thanks for the link!

Cheers

 

I have kept many types of Octopus for over 20 years.
After 20 years you get very good at understanding the smart, tricky, funny, things that Octopi do.

Blue Ring is only for the advanced.... about the same danger factor as driving a car over 140mph. Yes it can kill you...but it is still worth doing, if done right.


Best Octopus is a "BiMac" it only has one blue ring patch, not 40 or 50 patches all over its body which are the warning colors for the deadly animal. The BiMac has the best personality. Very freindly.... can tell you from your friends, very smart. Likes to play with people. likes to watch TV.

All octopus change colors from tan(happy) White(fear) black(angry) Red(excited) and they can do half patterns.... Tan/Red, or Black/White all color canges happin in split secend.


This is a new octopus just discovered... not named yet. Most likely deadly. In the wild...bright colors are for warning of danger! to other animals.

If you keep Octopus well fed, you can keep them with clown fish and other fun little fish no problem. Octo's like crabs and shrimp as food best. But the first time you forget to feed him (1 to 3 days) he will start hunting the fish.

 

As well as clown fish... my octo never attacked the Royal Gramma.
But I kept him well fed. Better to just to keep him in a seperat tank.

 

Neat photo... Mating Blue Rings
Female below is showing excited colors. Male sitting on her head...is showing non-excited color.

Warnning- I do not recomend these as pets!

 

This is the octo to get! It only has one blue spot under the eye.

These guys are great and small enough for a 20 gallon but better in a 30 gallon tank.

Its neat to watch them hunt. They tend to have 4 unique ways to catch their food. You never know what they will do next.

$20 to $35 at pet store. Only buy from store that knows one Octopus from another. Most pet stores don't.

BiMac is short hand way to write scientific name. Also called blue spot octopus.

 

Mark,
Can you keep more than one Octapus together or do they prefer to be solo? I think they would be pretty cool, and love the way they are so inteligent. Only problem is it would be cool to have a few other things in with it to move around. You mentioned clown fish, would the Octopus mess with an anenome(sp?)?