Aquariums

[Dannyalcatraz]

No, I got ya. I’ve done my fair share of cleaning- and moving!- aquariums. The water is heavy, the tanks can be awkward to move. Sometimes, the fish can be less than helpful.

When we were moving the office aquarium from its original location to a different office, we had to break that thing down almost completely. Most of the fish went by styrofoam or Igloo Cooler.

But two were very difficult. We had a pair of Banjo catfish. They’re about 4-5” long, very flat, with big heads and skinny bodies. (They look somewhat like banjos from the top down, hence the name.)

The thing is, they spend most of their time buried in the gravel. So there I am with an almost empty tank, just gravel and the last few inches of water, and I haven‘t found the banjos yet! I couldn’t just stick my net down into the gravel for fear of injuring the fish. I had to use one hand to sift gravel and the other to man the net.

It took forever. I did learn from that experience, though- banjo cats grunt!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Speaking of catfish, the biggest, long lived fish we had in our office tank were a pair of striped raphaels. Ours survived that aforementioned move, and grew to about 7” in length. Each lived more than a decade.

 

[prabe]

We haven't moved the tank itself since we put the water in it. When I was talking about "moving water around," I was talking about swapping out about a quarter of the tank, once a week. It's not the worst thing in the world; where the tank is would be difficult for one person to wrangle everything, so I manage one siphon while my wife manages the other.

 

[ccs]

I would love to have a large salt water tank (the big ones you see at pet stores, not sure what size exactly).

Unfortunately none of them automagically clean or maintain themselves....

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Aquariums of various kinds are my favorite parts of zoos, and I like the freestanding attractions and the tanks that show up in some stores, restaurants, and office spaces.

I grew up with tropical freshwater setups in the homes of my grandparents on both sides, plus our own. When he went into private practice, Dad added one to his office. The office tank was the pinnacle of our time in the hobby. Not only did we have beautiful fish of many species, we even had a nice array of live plants.

But after many decades in the hobby, for a variety of reasons, we no longer have one. Kinda miss it though, and I often check out the tanks in the pet stores when I’m shopping for my dogs. And I’ve checked out some of the high-end builds on Youtube,

Anyone else here into keeping fish & other aquatic life forms?

My wife works at her father’s auto repair shop, and they have a quite large tank with 3 red-eared sliders (turtles). They’re really cool, but the oldest one, Lenny, is getting too big for the tank.

Contrary to popular belief, they don’t stop growing in a small tank, they just start growing wrong. Her she’ll is getting taller. This happened before, which is why we got a double-the-size tank a few years ago.

We are going to see if the local wildlife place can take her, soon, and if not that we gotta find her a place to live that isn’t too small. My wife can’t take care of a bigger tank!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

We haven't moved the tank itself since we put the water in it. When I was talking about "moving water around," I was talking about swapping out about a quarter of the tank, once a week. It's not the worst thing in the world; where the tank is would be difficult for one person to wrangle everything, so I manage one siphon while my wife manages the other.

I understood- I was just thinking I’d share one of the worst tank maintenance duties I ever had to participate in.

Changing the water was a chore, no question. But the person who got the worst of that was my Dad. I did it most often, but he got unlucky one day when he decided to do it himself whil I was doing some other work in his office. A bubble of air was trapped in the draining tube, and he had to suck it out. We had the radio going.

In between songs, the DJ told this funny story about Air Supply’s first big tour in the USA. When Dad heard the punch line, he inhaled deeply to laugh...and simultanously cleared the bubble, getting him a mouthful of old tank water.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I would love to have a large salt water tank (the big ones you see at pet stores, not sure what size exactly).

Unfortunately none of them automagically clean or maintain themselves....

A lot of those places hire cleaning services. Some even have contracts for restocking or removing of fish, as needed.

 

[ccs]

A lot of those places hire cleaning services. Some even have contracts for restocking or removing of fish, as needed.

Yeah I know. Unfortunately I doubt such a service is my budget.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My wife works at her father’s auto repair shop, and they have a quite large tank with 3 red-eared sliders (turtles). They’re really cool, but the oldest one, Lenny, is getting too big for the tank.

Contrary to popular belief, they don’t stop growing in a small tank, they just start growing wrong. Her she’ll is getting taller. This happened before, which is why we got a double-the-size tank a few years ago.

We are going to see if the local wildlife place can take her, soon, and if not that we gotta find her a place to live that isn’t too small. My wife can’t take care of a bigger tank!

If the rescue place doesn’t have answers, call some veterinarians or pet stores.

Or schools. Lots of biology departments have aquarium/terrarium displays. My 2nd grade school- Tillicum Elementary in Tacoma, WA- used to have a large, full on saltwater tank with plenty of anemones.

 

[pogre]

I have two tanks - a 138-gallon and a 160-gallon. Honestly, big tanks are much easier to maintain and keep healthy. I also match my fish to local water's ph - thus I have tanks full of African Cichlids. One is Lake Malawi and the other is Lake Tanganyika. I have had the tanks for about nine years now.