New Tank and new to the hobby

[ooferret]

This is true but unless your crazy or loaded it makes no sense to go spend 300 dollars on a clownfish pair as your first one lol the store I am going to has some clowns and damsels and what not for under 20 all the way up to the expensive ones. I found one store with 3 dollar damsels. 20 to 30 seems to be the range of most common fish around here though. It is not cheap but is way more affordable than 300 dollars!

 

[ooferret]

I would think that since they are hard to find the fish would be expensive here but maybe it's because the cost of living is so low? I did get my 30gallon biocube for 30 dollars with everything but a filter which I built for very cheap....any who does the order of the afore mentioned fish matter?

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ooferret http:///t/395155/new-tank-and-new-to-the-hobby/20#post_3518466
I would think that since they are hard to find the fish would be expensive here but maybe it's because the cost of living is so low? I did get my 30gallon biocube for 30 dollars with everything but a filter which I built for very cheap....any who does the order of the afore mentioned fish matter?
I assumed the $300.00 for a pair of clowns was purchased as some special rare type, and an established breeding pair.
Damsels are mean evil little fish, they are beautiful, but unless you plan to keep aggressive fish, don't get them. They kill everything in the tank not as mean as themselves, and murder off each other as well. The worst thing about them is that they bite you drawing blood when they mature. Nothing is worse then trying to catch a fish to remove it when it has a ton of rock to hide in. There is a reason they sell for $3.00
I paid $18.00 each for my Perc clowns. I was willing to pay $145.00 each for my Potbelly seahorses +$40.00 to ship. So what a person pays for fish is a personal thing on how willing you are to pay the price for what you want. However if it's just a regular pair of clowns...that's way over priced IMO.

 

[ooferret]

Yea it was definetly a special breeding pair. They are pretty but you are right everyone has their own value and the value is whatever someone is willing to pay. As for the damsels thanks for the heads up! I heard they could get aggressive but was not aware that it was that severe! I had not decided against them but I think I will now! Another problem I'm having is with algae overgrowth. It is growing very fast. What is the best way to combat this? I have 5 snails and roughly that many hermits and the glass has alot of trails where the snails chewed but not nearly enough to keep it at bay. Any idea what the best way is for a beginner?

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ooferret http:///t/395155/new-tank-and-new-to-the-hobby/20#post_3518561
Yea it was definetly a special breeding pair. They are pretty but you are right everyone has their own value and the value is whatever someone is willing to pay. As for the damsels thanks for the heads up! I heard they could get aggressive but was not aware that it was that severe! I had not decided against them but I think I will now! Another problem I'm having is with algae overgrowth. It is growing very fast. What is the best way to combat this? I have 5 snails and roughly that many hermits and the glass has alot of trails where the snails chewed but not nearly enough to keep it at bay. Any idea what the best way is for a beginner?
Hi,
Some people like aggressive fish tanks, and others like myself, want a community tank. Damsels are not very good at playing nice with the tank mates. I hate to down speak such beautiful little fish, but so many people just don't know how mean they are...They see cheap and go for it, then put gentle critters like a firefish in with them, and wonder what happened.
What kind of algae are you having a problem with? Hair algae, or the slime coat that develops on the glass? Hair algae is a big problem to eliminate, only water changes and less feeding (sometimes new bulbs) will get rid of it over time. The slime coat is very normal... we use mag floats to "erase" the algae off the glass each day, and sometimes a few times a day depending on the tank.

 

[ooferret]

It's the slime coat which just grows faster than I expected. It is all over my base rock which looks better than the white rock but not as cool as the purple colors on my original LR. Will it prevent the purple from expanding and if so how should I fix it? I know you can help seed it by brushing off some from the other rock and letting it colonize the base rock but is it to late now that the base rock is a goldenish color?

 

[ooferret]

Also I bought a bunch of hermits and shells and one has two white hair looking things on it. At first I thought it was the remains of a poor snail trapped with the hungry/unhappy hermits but a week later it looks like it's moved to the outside of the shell. Any idea what this could be? It is only half an inch long and clearish so it would be hard to get a picture.

 

[ooferret]

It now looks like it has built a mound kinda like a crayfish does. Does this sound like a good or bad freebie? There's two of them I just noticed both on snail shells