Aquarium husbandry???

Flowerhorns all the way!

You do seem to have the idea for the most part. Been working with fish for years, here what I would recommend:

A gravel vac that hooks up to the sink: This will make it super easy to do lots of cleaning. The key to getting these guys to grow at a good rate is the same as any other aquatic livestock...lots of fresh, clean water.

Filter: The filter is tough to advise on. I recommend power, its been my experience that those canister filters are nitrate factories. I love Marineland, they make good quality stuff. Also, look into the tetra-tec. The larger ones have 4 carbon pads for filtering, a sponge, adjustable flow rates and direction and a place to put the heater inside of the filter. I have also found tetras customer service to be top notch, sending me free part replacements when needed.

Heater: Recommending a titanium or plastic coated heater in this case. Much better then glass, big livestock can break delicate heaters. Also 2 smaller heaters is much better then 1 big heater. If one fails then you have a backup.

In addition, if someone talks you into one of those bacteria-in-a-bottle products, bio-spira is the only one that works in my experience.

Good luck!

Oh and first post, nice to meet everyone! :rockon:

Yes I did get the devils from Chris, and actually a whole bunch of advice about them as well :)

I ended up going with the same size filter that he has been using, with the larger size for the two that would be appropriate for my tank. I'm also getting a second bigger tank so that I can in the long run keep more of them :) I will probably rehome some of them - special colourings going back to Chris :)

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Originally Posted by ArcticBlue

A gravel vac that hooks up to the sink:
...
Heater: Recommending a titanium or plastic coated heater in this case.
...
In addition, if someone talks you into one of those bacteria-in-a-bottle products, bio-spira is the only one that works in my experience.

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Well welcome to the site!

Do you happen to know of any good brands of the vacs that you could use with a bucket? I set up my aquarium pretty far from the sink, so I'd need about a 25 foot hose to reach it. The vac for the bottom was definately something I was considering, especially since at the moment I am going without gravel to guage just how messy they truly are (that, and I actually had to move the aquarium from one house to another 4 days after bringing the fish home, and gravel was just too heavy to think of moving with the tank, then some of the fish like to hide under my large decorative rocks which they couldn't do if there was gravel in there, so I might actually go without. Any brands you recommend etc for Vacs?

I got a glass one for now, at the moment they are way too small to damage it, glass was all I saw though when I was out, so I guess I'll be hunting a bit more before they get larger.

And I was talked out of any of the stuff you put in the water on the exact basis that they don't really work :)

Congrats on on the new additions!! What did you end up going with for decor?

For gravel vacs, Pythons are great, and come in long enough hose lengths that you wouldn't need to use the bucket method. A couple questions now that you got the fish in. As far as cycling the tank, how long have you been running the filter? Has there been any bioload or addition of ammonia in the tank before this? If so, have you tested ammonia and nitrite levels since you added the fish? If you have no filter media from an established system, and the filter hasn't been running for very long, just keep a close eye on ammonia levels in the tank. I would hate for you to lose your new additions to a spike.

Oh, and where are the pics? :D

-Evan

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Originally Posted by Evan Jamison

Congrats on on the new additions!! What did you end up going with for decor?

For gravel vacs, Pythons are great, and come in long enough hose lengths that you wouldn't need to use the bucket method. A couple questions now that you got the fish in. As far as cycling the tank, how long have you been running the filter? Has there been any bioload or addition of ammonia in the tank before this? If so, have you tested ammonia and nitrite levels since you added the fish? If you have no filter media from an established system, and the filter hasn't been running for very long, just keep a close eye on ammonia levels in the tank. I would hate for you to lose your new additions to a spike.

Oh, and where are the pics? :D

-Evan

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I got precycled filter materials :) As for decorations, one largeish glass rock that looks kind of like a huge chunk of carmel and then two lighter creamy coloured ones, a terracota coloured cave and a grey stone cave for them to hide in.


I am kind of waiting to get pictures once we get stuff um... Unpacked :D It took us 4 days to get fully moved in, and then we helped our old roommate move into his new place... We currently have boxes everywhere, and since we just got the last of our stuff in yesterday and were exhausted a good deal of our furniture is still in our front hallway :)

I tried to take pictures before we moved, but they didn't turn out!

I'll have more pictures of cleo (aka Kitty) too once we get unpacked and she's settled from her Thursday night meal :carrot:

I agree, I think Pythons are the way to go, and the smallest size the length of tubing comes in is 25ft to the best of my knowledge. As far as the standard gravel vacs go, they are all basically the same. I would get one that is very basic. I have used the ones with the special "gravel guards" and things like that and have found them to be more of an inconvenience then anything.

Also, not that surprised that you didn't find the heaters in the stores yet. They are starting to catch on but aren't mainstream as far as distribution goes. I would imagine in less then 5 years the old glass ones will become obsolete, and hopefully the hang on tank kind won't even be made anymore. Anyway, the ViaAqua titanium heater is one brand, and the Visi-Therm Stealth is another. When you look to upgrade, both of those work well based on my experience with them.

Again, congrats on your new babies, hope to see some pics soon :)

A "Python" or similar hose is essential! I use mine to siphon the tanks (I let it drain outside into the garden.) I then attach it to the sink in the utility room and fill the tanks; it is sooo easy. I would never have the tanks that I have if i had to use buckets to fill them.

A 6' tank is the minimum to even consider keeping devils together. Marinelands are not that great for the money. You'd need the biggest one and for 30$ more you should be able to get an Eheim Pro which is the best. Look at getting a Filstar xP3 and an Emperor 400. You mentioned ph, completely ignore that. Unless you have ph bouncing around then it means nothing. I haven't checked the ph in a freshwater tank in years.