Fish keeping may help cope with loneliness

[lonely_aryan]

Hi,
I am 30 years old, unemployed, don't have any more friends.

6 months back it occurred to me why not keep a fish tank at home. Then I went for it & got myself a medium sized tank.

Since then I am feeling a lot less lonely coz caring for the fishes is a big thing if want to keep them healthy.

Feeding them, buying new fishes, buying other equipments for the fish has been a wonderful experience.

But one needs to know some facts about fish keeping otherwise it will be hard to keep the fishes alive.

Hope to maintain this hobby life long.

Thanks for reading & feel free to reply.

 

[lonely_aryan]

Video of the aquarium

 

[Lilianna]

Nice aquarium I used to keep fish when I was a teenager, my aquarium looked very natural like yours. It is very relaxing and fun hobby and the only reason why I don't anymore is because I travel fairly often and wouldn't want to get someone else to take care of them for me.

 

[Stranger]

What an awesome idea! When I was a teenager I used to keep a relatively small (20L) aquarium, and I've been thinking about starting one for the past couple years, but have been too lazy to actually do it... A new aquarium requires at least two trips to the fish store, because for a proper setup, it needs to sit with just water and plants for a week, before it can be populated with fish...

I used to de-clorinate tap water by letting it sit in an open container for 24hrs. I also kept a sand bottom - the sand was stolen from sandboxes at playgrounds (hehe), and then painstakingly cleaned by 4-5 rounds of boiling then throwing out the top layers of water from the pot with all the suspended floating dirt....

Many little tropical fish (neons, guppies...) are very cheap and easy to care for, except they need heated water... I used to suspend a lamp above the aquarium (regular 40W lightbulb, not energy efficient one), at a height that was just right for maintaining the required temperature... but these days I think sleeping in a room with a light always on would bother me, so I'm thinking about just a goldfish bowl...

I really love your aquarium though - it's actually quite big, and very well set up! The sucker fish, and the other ones are beautiful. They really do seem like a happy community. Not a beta fish in sight - seems like you've done your research!

 

[Lady X]

I keep tropical fish myself - I can happily sit for ages watching them, and I do find that I don't worry so much about loneliness when I have lots of little dependents to care for lol

So looking at your video I can see Swordtails, Dalmation Mollies, a Black molly? A plec, but unsure what the two larger ones are?


My tank currently is a Jewel Rio 180lt, with about 10 Swordtails, a couple of Dalmation Mollies (most died off - not the most hardy around other fish), a couple of Neon Tetras, some Guppies (3 adults but too many babies to count - they breed like rabbits lol), a Bristlenose Plec, About 10/11 Yellow Platys, around 4/5 Cherry Barbs, 1 Bamboo Shrimp and a small breeding (finally! ) colony of Cherry Shrimp.

I was lucky as the tank was a gift from a friend, so we kept the gravel and the filter to keep in the good bacteria and then filled with water treated with tank-safe and it was good to go for fish within a couple of days.

The plants we have have done really well, and having bogwood has really helped the java moss. In turn, that has helped the breeding of many fish and shrimp.



Here are a few pics of mine:


One of the elusive Cherry Shrimp:

A few greedy Platys waiting to be fed:

A couple of Tetras and baby Guppies (blurred as they are so bloody fast)

A view of most of the tank (there is a bit more to the right that wouldn't quite fit on - unfortunately thats where most of the fish were - they know where they get fed and when I go to close to the tank they go straight there waiting for food lol):

 

[Gutted]

Glad to see you've found something to make you happy

I have a Goldfish. I've had it for about 20 Months now.

 

[lonely_aryan]

So looking at your video I can see Swordtails, Dalmation Mollies, a Black molly? A plec, but unsure what the two larger ones are?

I think you saw the the Golden gourami & Blue gourami.

Your tank looks rally awesome specially because of the live plants.

Thanks for sharing the pics

Thanks to all for your replies..

 

[Lilianna]

I had; Blue gourami, neon tetras, cory catfish, Black Kuhlli Loach, Guppies (rabbits ) a huge snail, and some sort of Discus that grew way to big for my aquarium

My aquarium looked like both of yours very natural, lots of live plants and such. I wanted to do a Dutch aquarium but never did, maybe I will some day!

 

[Politician]

Oh I used to have fish, those ******* didn't ever die (like literally, I can't recall the exact age they got to however they kept reproducing and exceeded all life expectations for their kind) , bought them at this auctionhouse for fish instead of from fish stores. The ones we bought at stores were a bit more fragile, however I managed to keep most of them alive throughout the time I had the tank. It was only when our family was leaving for a four week long vacation they passed away. I bought one of these automatic feeders, and either the fish didn't eat the stuff that machine spitted out or is over-fed them like crazy. When we got back the tank was grimy as honeysuckle and all the fish dead, with a huge pile of food in the middle...

Pretty depressing I know, still feel bad for what happened lol...

Anyways yeah, I could also sit and stare at those great fish for literally an hour or so without getting bored. I really enjoyed watching them getting on with their life and taking good care of them. I'm pretty sure I'll purchase a new larger tank once I move out, as long as my funds are sufficient, I actually kinda miss the fish now that I reflect the past.

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Also, great fish Ladyx ^^