Things you wish newbies knew.

"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...

20. Fish aren't cheap. If you can't afford a tank that fits the fish, a
heater and test kits, this hobby isn't for you. Get a cat. They're
easier and cheaper to care for.

Tell that to an uninterested parent whose child is badgering and nagging
them to death for a fish. Said parent knowing the child will lose
interest
after a week at most.

Too true, that's why I'm stuck here with a bearded dragon next to my desk.
(Will they get enough calcium from crickets gut loaded with tortillas
which are made with lime? I know this is usenet, but no guessing, anybody
know?).

I don't know. I used to shake 'n bake the crickets in a special
vitamin/mineral powder for captive lizards and amphibians. The crickets
themselves were fed cereals and wheat germ.

Ithink the petshop should have the wits to point out to the kid mommy or
daddy may have to feed ralphie the wonder fish when kiddo is away at a
friends
house and if they get a fish mummy or daddy like a lot too I bet they'll
take care of it better. Harm reduction. if you're gonna get stuck with
a kids animal, make it one you like. Bettas are good.

Fortunately my son liked whatever I pointed out so BOTH of us were happy.
I'm thrilled that my grandson has an interest in fish now. :-)
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

and they wouldn't sell me fish either until it was set up and running...


We don't have the other regs you were speaking of. Here if you ask about or
buy a tank, they will not let you purchase the fish for a week, and they
won't let you then unless you bring in a water sample for them to test.
That's about the only defense a fishy has here.

Sean

"Mr. Gardener" wrote in message
news
Tell the badgering and nagging child that if he doesn't get his act
together you will send him to the reptile department and lock him in
with the snakes.
====================
LOL!!!! Nowadays they'll arrest you for child abuse if you said that to
the little rug-rat. ;-)
--

Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

I was standing today in the LFS inspecting the fish to see if anything
caught my fancy...it was quiet but there was a woman beside me who was
very concerned about one of the Oscars in the tank and mentioned it to
me...it looked as if it had a large piece of gravel stuck in it's mouth -
gills going ten to a dozen...I was on the verge of calling one of the
staff over when it spat out whatever was in its mouth - looked like a bit
of shrimp....it then hastily picked it up and lodged it in it's mouth
again....and bits of shrimp flew out left, right and centre....

I guess they have character...not a fish for me though...couldn't bear to
give up that amount of tank space :-)

Gill


I like to affectionately call them the "sick beagle" of the fish world.
They inhale everything and usually yak it sometime later. And if they don't
like an ornament or plant they are quite a pain in the bottom. A friend of
mine had very large Oscar living solo in a 120 gallon tank (alone because he
ate everyone else) that would pick up and kind of throw the small ceramic
bubble chest my friend had in the tank. Often we would come home from a
party and there was the chest swinging by the air tubing outside the tank.
He changed out a broken heater with a larger one. Mr. Oscar didn't like
that. When the heater would start up a red light would come on inside the
glass tube. We had the privilege of watching Oscar ram the heater like a
bull on a matador. He was a character to say the least. Cute! Whatever!



Sean

"IDzine01" wrote in message
oups.com...
Ooo. I wanna play...

20. Fish aren't cheap. If you can't afford a tank that fits the fish, a
heater and test kits, this hobby isn't for you. Get a cat. They're
easier and cheaper to care for.

Yeah, but the fish don't wake me up at 5 am because they're hungry or they
want to play.

"Victor Martinez" wrote in message
...
Elaine T wrote:
11. You have to use a gravel vacuum to clean the gravel when you change
water. If you've never cleaned the gravel before, start out gradually,

Not true at all. I never vaccum my gravel anymore. Plants like fertilizer.


14. Never buy a fish on impulse. Research its future size, housing

But we've all done that, haven't we?

Not usually fish, but definitely plants. Mostly becuase the damn LFS never
has the plants I want.



--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:10:53 -0500, "Bill Stock"
wrote:


"IDzine01" wrote in message
roups.com...
Ooo. I wanna play...

20. Fish aren't cheap. If you can't afford a tank that fits the fish, a
heater and test kits, this hobby isn't for you. Get a cat. They're
easier and cheaper to care for.

Yeah, but the fish don't wake me up at 5 am because they're hungry or they
want to play.



I've had filters wake me up at 3 AM when they decided to seize.

"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...
I would suggest people know the PH of their water before buying fish.
Since
our water is hard and alkaline I only buy fish that are known to thrive in
such water. It's pointless to buy a fish native to waters with a PH of
6.8
or below when my water is almost off the scale at 300 = liquid limestone.

1) pH doesn't matter, hardness does.

I forgot to mention the PH which varies from 7.8 to 8.2, even higher at
times. My kit (hardness) only goes to 300.

2) you can safely move fishes from soft to hard water but not the other
way.

I loose too many within a few days of purchase even when I take hours to
acclimate them. I add the hard water little by little, little by
little..... then put them in the quarantine tank. Virtually all survive if
the water they were in at the store was over 7. Below 7 and I have problems
so avoid the Petco store.

3) you can change half the water a day if you're moving them to softer
water.

Softer water? No such thing here unless you buy it or make your own.

he fishes tissues dont care what kind of ions, alkaline or acid are
flaoting
around in their gills but if you change the amount of those ions
drastically
then, osmosis being what it is, the fish loses all it's body chemical
rather quickly. And dies.

I understand that. The water at that one store is also soft. It's not
worth the hassle. OTOH even when I bought soft-water fish they seldom
thrived in our water. Bettas adapt but don't breed for instance.

300 is "medium soft". 50 is "soft". 0 is "pure" and very difficut to
deal with although there are fish that live in this, usually with
a pH of about 4.

Ok. The kit I have says 0 to 25 is very soft, 75 is soft, 150 is hard and
300 is very hard = GH. This is the Jungle Quick-Dip kit. There are mineral
deposits on everything. Mine is at 300, that's as high as the kit goes.

efernece, LS tapwater is 600-900 ppm and is "hard". Liquid rock
begins at 1200ppm and is great for plants - lousy for Apistogrammas;
ask me how I know. Did I mention we have a limestone well? But living
on the Canadian shield has its advantages material wise; I jsut scooped
up about 40 pounds of flourite size of chocolate limestone gravel
from a spot near here. yes yes,too hard it'll leech carbonates into
the water. Good, I have to add lots as it is. Some crypts grow in
limestone, such as balansae ("BAL") and pontiderifolia ("PON").

Yikes! That's beyond hard!
--

Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

Koi-Lo wrote:
"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...
In article ,
NetMax wrote:
I seen a tank full of Tropheus duboisi last week, for $11.88 cdn each
(!!).
I should never go into pet shops.

Yeah we got that here, too. 50 of the buggers in a tank at $12 ea, all
good.
It's an advertised special in a flyer. I mean I open up the stupis redneck
local
counry paper and a flyer pops out offering cheap T. duboisi. WTF?

Where I live in TN all the cichlids have gone down in price, by more than
half from a few years ago.


Carolyn Adamo Gulley
3245 North Lamar Road Mount Juliet TN 37122-7806
Phone 615-459-9345

has been caught in various vicious lies!
Before plaguing ARJW with her nonsense, she use to plague the Health NG
do a google search on Yarrow / windsong / Carol for more details.

http://tinyurl.com/99azt
http://tinyurl.com/87ow4
http://tinyurl.com/d6t5m
http://tinyurl.com/aheek
http://tinyurl.com/ck97r
http://tinyurl.com/cm3dp
http://tinyurl.com/8bscg
http://tinyurl.com/7epdg
http://tinyurl.com/bya3z
When she is best by a man she accuse him of stalking

http://tinyurl.com/8wryt


Before you reply, you may want to ask her a few things or only one.
_Where does she get her information?
_Can her information be verified?
_Is the information up to date?

wrote:
[A lot of whatever]

Your application for fast track into my killfile has been approved

jue