other hobbies??? Aquariums???

[magnumwheelman]

I was a total fish geek, back when I was a single guy, & the 1st couple years we were married... when we moved into the farm, I built in about a dozen tanks between 45 & 65 gallons... my life got busy, & one of my special water sources I had plumbed to refill tanks broke, & slowly the hobby died... all the tanks still built in, but empty...

years passed, a decade passed... when I had fish, I had everything from Angel fish to Sea Horses... never did much with live plants, except for the reef tank I kept, that had a high pressure sodium light ( red ) that came on in the morning, then a metal halide ( white ) light came on through the day, & the High Pressure Sodium, came on again at sun set... corals aren't really like live fresh water plants... I got the itch a few weeks back, & fired up my 1st, a 55 gallon, with tropical water lilies, & switched to LED plant light strips... because the water lilies require real mud, they are all in shallow pots filled with mud, with black aquarium gravel topping... no blooms yet, but the "tubers" are growing... there are supposed to be some bright colors in the group I 1st chose... slowly adding other live plants... I re-started with just a gold fish to swim around in the tank... the hardware has changed a lot in 10-15 years... I think I can get some of my old Whisper power filters going, & had had a lot of spare filter components... but I'm not sure if that huge brand 15 years ago, even makes anything now???

one fish that I never played with, was discus fish... I'm thinking about starting up a 2nd one ( a 45 gallon ) I fixed my old broken water supply with "Shark Bite" fittings, & plastic pipe... I will likely not do lily pads in this one, but lots more live plants, as the weather warms enough to ship them to Minnesota... thinking I'd like to get an Angel breeding tank going, & try an other one with Discus fish...

anyone like to get their hands wet???

[kevshell]

While I admire aquariums, I don't have any. I do like to tie flies (like reloading but for fly boxes) for trout fishing and my wife and I scuba dive. So that's like one big aquarium.

(That's me with one of the residents in the Bahamas)

[magnumwheelman]

I'm also certified, & have dove at Grand Caiman, Jamaica, & Florida, but as a resident of MN, & married to the farm, I have dove before at Lake Okoboji, IA and a few gravel pits around here, but lake diving is nothing like the ocean... I just never get off the farm anymore...

started lambing this year already...

these guys are only 2-3 days old here... now at a week, they are running & jumping over each other

[kings6]

I lived in the Bahamas for a year and went snorkeling for fresh groceries several times a week. I saw enough tropical fish, eels, sharks and sea turtles to satisfy any tropical fish urges. I scuba dove a couple times down there but didn’t enjoy it. Way too noisy after free diving with a Hawaiian sling, snorkel and mask.

[bushog]

Kept African cichlids for years. Mostly from Malawi but a couple tanks from Tanganyika. Many of them breed readily and many are mouth breeders so that was fun. They're aggressive too which kept things interesting. Kept salt too but the fish were boring after the cichlids.

[45MAN]

I GOT MY PLATE FULL WITH HUNTING, SHOOTING, RELOADING AND GUN ACQUIRING AND DISPOSAL.

[clintsfolly]

Trying a new hobby! The land we bought on the island is well stocked with maples. So I been buying and building syrup making equipment! Few day ago I tapped three trees and today I cooked down and made about 12 oz of great stuff! Dinner was waffles,bacon and eggs. Was fun and interesting!

[magnumwheelman]

I also had a variety of both African and South American Cichlids, both of which were always try to breed… at one time I had a 220 gallon tank, in which I grew a Pacu, that got about 20” long, before it got over zealous trying to catch a gold fish, and jumped out of the tank… also grew a silver Arrowana that got to 18”, before it leapt to the floor… both tanks were covered, but at that size, both were powerful enough, to knock the glass lid off

Used to have a 12” pink and purple salt water snail, that would push the cover open, with it’s spire point of it’s shell, and squirt water at anyone walking by the tank…had Oscars, piranha, and salt water lion fish

[bushog]

Feb 13, 2023 18:42:04 GMT -5 magnumwheelman said:

I also had a variety of both African and South American Cichlids, both of which were always try to breed… at one time I had a 220 gallon tank, in which I grew a Pacu, that got about 20” long, before it got over zealous trying to catch a gold fish, and jumped out of the tank… also grew a silver Arrowana that got to 18”, before it leapt to the floor… both tanks were covered, but at that size, both were powerful enough, to knock the glass lid off

Used to have a 12” pink and purple salt water snail, that would push the cover open, with it’s spire point of it’s shell, and squirt water at anyone walking by the tank…had Oscars, piranha, and salt water lion fish

Used to feed my Arrowana live mice to make the college girls squeal!

[magnumwheelman]

Well I was pretty tame… I mostly fed gold fish
Sea horses got Molly babies raised in brackish, so they wouldn’t go into salt shock before the sea horses found them still alive

Did Scats for a while before in a brackish tank

Lion fish was a beast, he would inhale goldfish, long before they salt shocked

Tried doing brine shrimp, for the sea horses, as they only are live food... but didn’t have the patience, I had better luck using molly babies

[magnumwheelman]

Cool that someone actually had an Arrowana… I always tried to raise up a black one, but could only get them with egg sacks, and could never get them started… my silver was big enough, that I had it mounted, when it jumped out

[magnumwheelman]

Used to feed my pacu carrots, as well as gold fish… started out cutting them up the size of big pellets, once he learned what they were, he was eating whole small carrots, you could here him crunching them up through the water and tank, was pretty cool, and they helped keep his belly red

[contender]

I had a few small tanks as a kid. Nothing special. But in the 70's I learned to scuba dive,, and eventually became a Master Instructor Trainer. I did all kinds of trips & had access to catching my own fish for a tropical tank anytime I wanted to put one together. However,, I chose to just keep freshwater tanks. I had (4) at one time for many, many years. I raised Africans, Oscars, & Pacu's. In my 55 gal tank,, my Pacu went 16-1/2" before I lost him. I had several Oscars that also grew quite large. I liked the Tigers the most.
Due to my traveling all the time,, I decided to not attempt any salt water tanks.

Finally, I slowly got away from having aquariums. I do occasionally think about starting up another one or two,, but since we moved into this house about 15 years ago,, I really don't have a "good" place to put a larger tank.
And I still dive,, so I get to enjoy seeing all the stuff anyway.

[JM]

Had a "White Tipped Shark" for about 12 yrs. Custom tank 6'L x 3'W x 18"T 3/8" glass. Fish was about the size of my thumb when I bought him. Many Flathead Minnows later, he grew to over 28" long when I found him a new home.

[bushog]

Feb 13, 2023 21:29:56 GMT -5 magnumwheelman said:

Cool that someone actually had an Arrowana… I always tried to raise up a black one, but could only get them with egg sacks, and could never get them started… my silver was big enough, that I had it mounted, when it jumped out

I took a bunch of my big stuff to a local bar and became their aquarium service. They had a BIG bull Red Devil I brought them mounted. Went back last year and it’s still there after 2 new owners…. Got paid in beer and burgers…