TANK INHABITANTS

Its been a while and I figured I would post some pictures of the fish that live in my 29 gal tank. The first and second photos show some shots of my Black Neons which there are nine of. The photo under those two show a shot of a Kuhli Loach which there are three of. The tanks plants are also growing quite nicely and require frequent trimming.

Planted Tank

Here are the first pictures of my planted tank. So far its going quite well. Just need to get a better camera so I can tank some photos that do the tank justice. Its stocked with 3 black neon tetras and 3 otos algea eaters who by the way are great fun to watch.

A visit to the local Petsmart

Well, I'm just back from a visit to the local Petsmarts and boy I gotta say their prices do smart Ouch !!!. They wanted a $109.00 for a Rena Filstar XP1 that sells for $63.75 on the web at Fosters and Smith or Big Als online. The hell with that!!!!!! I came home and ordered online a Eheim 2026 pro II for $135.00. This filter is the mercedes of canister filters. I was however encouraged by the live plant assortment that Petsmart had. Lots of Echinodorus bleheri (amazon swords) and a few Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag) all in good condition. The fish left a little to be desired. I don't care for the filtration system on their tanks. All the tanks are hooked up to a main filter which means if one of the tanks is infected with a disease then it would quickly spread to all the tanks. I'll say one thing for petland discounts, at least each tank has its own filter and a ich outbreak can be somewhat contained. To bad most of their tanks have outbreaks of ich!! Well , bye for now. I plan on heading to Manhattan on Tuesday for visits to local fish stores.

Just What I Expected

Well, I'm just back from my trip to the peoples republic of Brooklyn. I saw just what I was afraid I would see but pretty much expected. Dead Fish, Crummy or dying plants and no eco-complete substrate or filstar canister filters. Believe it or not petland discounts on 5th Ave had the best looking plants compared to the world of pets shop on 86th street. Not that I would ever purchase any live plants or fish from the McDonald's of pet stores. Next week I will venture to the Isle of Manhattan to visit some mom-pop type aquariums to check out their wares.
See you then.

Somethings Fishy Begins

Well, Off too the races. My aquarium hood light as finally arrived and I'm going to visit 86th street in Brooklyn tomorrow and check out the pet store for any thing of interest I might need like eco-complete substrate of which I will need some 60lbs of. I also hope they have a decent selection of live plants and fish. Living close by on Staten Island which used to have a good number of mom and pop fish stores that actually had decent non-diseased fish and plants. Most often the person behind the counter was the owner. Now sadly all you find is the typical chain store petsmart or petco crap that offers nothing but pimply faced kids who know nothing about what they sell nor do they care. Anyway, I look forward to a rewarding experience with a old hobby I had with a new twist...........LIVE PLANTS !!!!!!!!!