I have been posting here for several months at this point, but tonight I'd like to share an update on my fishing keeping efforts.
I was brand new to fishing keeping when I found this site. When I decided to start up a fish tank I knew nothing about it at all. I read what I could find via Google, but much of the information was contradictory. Through those initial Google searches I found the forum.
I didn't know what kind of fish I wanted to keep at first, but my nephew had a blood parrot that he inherited from a friend when the family relocated several states away. During a visit I feel in love with large aggressive looking fish. I found it very cool that whenever my nephew entered the room his fish "greeted" him.
I progressed through several species before I settled on the kind of fish I wanted to keep. I started cycling my tank with some of the start up stuff from PetSmart. I struggled and struggled with water quality before I stumbled onto a phosphate issue. My water has lots and lots of it straight out of the faucet. So I bought a phosphate pad from another LFS. I put the pad in the HOB filter and that cleared up my phosphate issues within a couple of days.
I ended up buying 6 rotkiels from a LFS. Everything was great for a few weeks and then we took an out of town trip. Upon our return I had 3 dead fish. It turns out that when I was doing water changes every few days, the fish were fine but due to a not so fully cycled tank a week of no water changes was a few days too many.
The other fish died within a couple of days.
So I bought some danios to finish the cycling process. Waited a few weeks and tried again.
By this time I changed course and went to the LFS in search of an Oscar and Severum. I came home with an Oscar, Gold Severum and Jack Dempsey.
It didn't take long until I was having a serious case of MTS. I am sure I drove some on the forum crazy for a few weeks as I asked questions about different species, water quality, etc. Thanks to all who took the time to answer my questions without ridicule. And thanks to Blair especially because I sent him several pm's that were all over the map; and he answered every one of them with quality responses.
Inevitably I decided to emulate many here who breed fish. That was a entirely new process to obsess about for a few weeks. I progressed through a few species and found some very cool looking fish only to be nudged in another direction because the fish I really liked were difficult for even experienced fish keepers to breed successfully. It was recommended that I look in the direction of tropheus. So I obsessed about tropheus for a while, but the idea of spending $250 on fish that I may or not really like or be able to successfully breed wore thin on me after a while. I kept circling back to them over and over again; wanting them to be "the fish" that I'd been searching for.
But deep down I found myself pulled toward Central Americans. So there was a phase of obsessing over different possibilities all over again.
I have finally settled on "the fish" and located a supplier that can provide them whenever I am ready in a few weeks.
Now that I have found "the fish" I am sure there will be an entirely new obsession with finding out everything I can to successfully breed them. Apparently, it's never ending. But I have enjoyed every minute of it.
And earlier this week I purchased a membership in the association. I find it hard to attend the meetings due to the location and time related to where I live, but I have benefitted tremendously from the forum/Facebook group and I am sure I will continue to benefit. It has made the learning curve a little more pleasant, but there are a few things you can learn best by "messing it up" and then trying again. I do feel sorry for some of the fish who have had to experience that learning curve along with me (RIP).
Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way. I may have to rehome my Jack Dempsey eventually because he's a lot more rambunctious than the Oscar and Severum. For now he's too small to do much more than pester them occasionally, but down the road he's going to wear out his welcome I suspect.
I'll post him here if needed.
Right now I am enjoying the planning process for the arrival of my red tiger mota's in a few weeks.
