Hey! I’m Sean and I like aquariums and tropical fish.
As with many of us, my first experience with fish keeping came when I was about 8 years old and I won 4 goldfish as the fair. You know the whole “throw a ping pong ball into a cup” game? Turns out 8 year old me was pretty good at it and I sunk 4 of the 5 shots. Pretty good deal for a buck if you ask me.
Unfortunately, me and my parents were uninformed and just stuck them in a fish bowl. Then it ended quickly in tragedy with all 4 fish dying within 2 weeks. I was sad, but moved on quickly.
My first REAL experience with tropical fish keeping came in college. I was living in the basement of a 3 story townhouse and my bedroom didn’t have any windows. I was looking for something with light and moving scenery. After some looking, I figured an aquarium fit what I was looking for.
This time I spent time researching and properly setting up an aquarium with adequate heating, filtration, lighting, etc. And so my first 20 gallon tank came to be. It was stocked with swordtails, zebra danios, cory catfish, and an otto catfish to keep any algae in check.
After I graduated college, I moved into a house and my 20 gallon tank came with me. But now I had space. Not just a small room in the basement, but a whole house.
I quickly picked up a 5 gallon tank and put a beta in it.
Then I started to get a bit more ambitious. I wanted a bigger tank and some “more interesting” fish. So came to be the 55 gallon cichlid tank. I was happy to have some active fish that grew to be bigger than the fish in my 20 gallon.
But cichlids can be tough. And some are aggressive and bullies. It took about a month of rearranging their tank that everyone settled in. The bully found his territory in a corner near a large rock and some fake plants. Finally the rest of the tank could relax. With happy cichlids, their colors really started to show.
My current setup consists of the 5 gallon betta tank, the 55 gallon African Cichlid tank, and a 29 gallon tank with about 18 harlequin rasboras and an albino bristlenose pleco. Check back in with me next month though because it could change at any time!
Throughout my 20 years of fishkeeping, I’ve dealt with just about everything – overly aggressive fish, dick and dying fish due to a number of diseases (ich being the primary one), a snail infestation from new plants, algae overgrowth, unexpected pregnant fish, and just about everything else!
I hope I can teach you something about our underwater friends and I hope you can teach me something!
Happy reading!