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Swapping Fish

Superman

Member
Joined
29 Jan 2008
Messages
1,802
Location
Cheltenham
I'm in a bit of a predicament at the minute, when I started fish keeping in August '07, I got fish that looked nice and was active for my aquarium. Don't get me wrong is still love the danios, tiger barbs and my bristlenose but since visting TGM and looking at other people's tanks, I'm getting interested in replacing my fish and starting again with some fish which are more suited to a planted tank and some fish that a little bit more specialised.

I don't really want to copy TGM's tanks but did fall in love with the pencilfish whilst I was there and was interested in harlequins when I got my tank in the first place.

Just wondering if like trading your fish is a bad thing to do? Or is it something that people generally do when they re organise their tanks. The only problem is you wouldn't replace your dog when you painted your livingroom?!
 
I'd swap and change them as i see fit and im currently looking for a home for my 15 cardinals. I don't get too attached to my fish certainly the small ones. I did however get very attached to my discus and i sacrificed them since they never suited the scape! :rolleyes:
 
Same here, luckily I can persuade my dad to take any fish from me , for his tank. He's not too bothered as long as they are all community fish and FREE!
 
I have the same problem, I love my fish dearly but they do make scaping difficult, especially the corys as I need to leave them a good amount of floor space. I keep saying I'm going to get rid of all of them and the tanks and just have 1 large tank around 6ftx2ftx2ft and set it up properly, best substrate, top of the range equipment, lighting etc and get appropriate fish. Only problem is I seem to love bottom dwellers more then anything else, particularly catfish & oddballs and I don't find small shoaling fish particularly interesting, apart from threadfin rainbows.

I could probably bring myself to get rid of all of them except my gold corys, I'm way too attached to them, it's finding a decent home for them all, I couldn't return them to a shop not even a nice one like MA because there is no telling what kind of home they will end up in.

It's really annoying I have a love / hate relationship with my fish, I just wish I had the heart to get rid and not worry about what was going to happen to them.
 
I'm 'terrible' for swapping fish. I think the longest I've kept one species is about 12 months - my cardinal tetras when I started the hobby. Because my main interest is aquascaping, the fish are an essential component to complement the composition. And because I invariably only keep an aquascape for a few months, I end up swapping the fish. Also the trouble is, there's so many great fish out there to try, I would find it impossible not to swap them now and again, even if aquascaping was not my priority.

I'm very lucky in that my LFS are always happy to accept my 'old' fish and give me a good deal on new.

Ideally I'd keep my own fish house, like Jeremy Gay is planning, and keep all sorts of my favourite fish for aquascaping, so they'd be no need to expose the fish to the stresses of netting and transportion etc. Trouble is, I'd likely try and aquascape each holding tank and wouldn't be satisfied until they were all looking good! I have enough trouble juggling my time with my current set ups, so this pipe dream will have to wait until I retire...
 
I'm getting very temped to do this myself. My clown and 5 banded loaches are preventing me getting Nertie snails and I really could use a dozen or so to clean up the GSA in my 20g. Trouble is I love them to much!! Esp the 5 banded loaches which are just to playful to get rid of and I've had them since they were babies. If only I had the space for two new 4ft tanks... :rolleyes:

Sam
 
I fell in love with the Beckfordi (spelling?) pencils, as well as the chocolate gouramis in that one long tank at TGM. Gorgeous fish.

I think the answer might be to have multiple tanks ;) One for aquascaping and one or two for the fish you like. Right now I'm deciding whether or not I want to keep my 5 leopard danios or re-home them.
 
Themuleous said:
If only I had the space for two new 4ft tanks... :rolleyes:

Sam


If you have 4ft in space you can have 2 4ft tanks on a double stand like what I'm going to be doing. At the moment I have a double 39" stand but once I get the 4fts in the 39" stand will be going. Or better still get some racking and have 3 or 4 4ft tanks in the 1 space as long as you anchor it to a supporting wall.
 
Yeh the beckfordi pencil fish where gorgeous and cheapest Ive every seen them, not a common fish in the hobby. So where the choc gouramis, but they do get quite a bit bigger so not ideal for a mixed species tank, as I've no doubt they will eat anything they can get in their mouth!

Azaezl - thats an idea, but I dont think my wife would go for that in the living room! :lol: I'm also not 100% sure the floor is going to support one tank, let along 4, which would be getting on for a ton of water!

Sam
 
Personally, i have swapped and changed fish all the time. From wild discus, breeding bristlenose catfish, shoals of tetras to plant munching L numbered plecs. The only fish i will never get return are my 12 zebra plecs. ;) :p
 
Well to buck the above comments, once I have a fish it stays in one of my tanks. The only exceptions are the fish I've bred who go to my LFS in return for store credit. I'm lucky enough to have a few tanks around at home and school to keep the fish in if I need to move them out for 'retirement'.
 
Im definately with Ed here. I've never replaced a fish. Scapes change but the fish don't.

Dan Can you post the cardinals? If so how much do you want for them. I was going to get 11 from the LFS but 15 isn't much more and then my stocking is complete.

Andy
 
Dan Crawford said:
I'd swap and change them as i see fit and im currently looking for a home for my 15 cardinals. I don't get too attached to my fish certainly the small ones. I did however get very attached to my discus and i sacrificed them since they never suited the scape! :rolleyes:

I'll take them off you if your getting rid. I'm after some cardinals for my tank. I can collect as well.
 
I'm with Ed on this too, once I buy a fish it stays until it dies:) only ones that go are the ones that I breed and don't have the extra room for and they all go to good LFS or friends

JOHNNY
 
Superman said:
Any suggestions for fish in a planted tank at 180 ltrs?

Well my 180 has 22 Pseudomugil gertrudae and I love them. A big shoal of Pencilfish would look great too and different. Maybe 20-odd Nannobrycon eques which swim at a 45 degree angle? I have 10 and am thinking of getting another 10 or so for my other 180.
 
Stocking level doesn't matter really as long as its not ridiculously large. lol

You can adjust your dosing to the amount of fishload there is.

I personally stock very heavily and when fully stocked my 33USG tank will have:

I ignore the inch per gallon rule totally in that I tend to have up to 2" per gallon which of course would bring a chorus of dissaproval in a non planted forum, but they are a mix of bottom and middle dwellers and with plants and overfiltering they are fine and there isn't overcrowding (IMO).

Most pure scapers who add fish to compliment their scape tend to lean stock whereas people who just have plants (like me.lol) tend to 'overstock'

Choice is yours really but if having a heavy fishload it is better IMO to have fish that occupy different levels of the tank.

Andy
 
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