Your Best Aquarium Stories Featured Monthly!

jerth6932

Active Member
You make me laugh traveler, thing about the internet is....... well..... potentially billions of people have acess to it..... if we put it here, we have shared it. I appreciate your polite mannor to which you ask, but once its posted, its fair game! And I have a sinking feeling Sip feels the same way....
 
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siptang

Guest
Lol, same as what Jerth said.
I don't mind at all, go right ahead.
 

ladyreefseeker

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Everyone! I featured Siptangs story in a new "featured" thread as the winner for October! Please keep the stories coming. We appreciate them all!
 

mr. limpid

Active Member
Ok I will submit another story for November. Even tho I know Siptang has it sowed up for the next 6 months. Siptang do not stop tell us your stories we need to here them as bad as you need to tell them.
This is my story of how I got my first tank in my mother’s house. We always had a dog and then my sister brought home a cat and just one more creature of any kind was not going to be allowed. So when my future wife bought me a tank for my birthday I had to do some convincing to get my mother to allow it to get set up. The final battle was won only if it was set up in my room and because it would give me and my girlfriend something to look at while listening to records, wink wink. I made room on my dresser top (it was a 30 long) it fit and weight was never even considered lucky my dresser never collapsed. Remember this was 30 years ago, cycling what was that; over flow what; refum from what; within a 3 weeks I had 1 blue damsel, 1 three spot damsel and an anemone; with aragonite base under gravel filter with lift tubes and a silent giant air pump and one rock with a hole in middle. My mother finally went in to see this tank, came out and said “Pretty blue fish dumb black fish and you have some mold growing in the corner you should clean your tank. Fish are dumb pets you can’t even pet them.” I informed here that it wasn’t mold it was an anemone a live animal and that you could pet the anemone it feels really cool. It always hung out at the top of the tank, I know no now why because it was starving for light. Not believing that my mother would actual touch the anemone, a little while later my mother came to me and said that while petting my anemone here finger was numb and was turning red. I asked here if she was touching the tentacles or the base she said the flowery part. We immediately rushed to the hospital the emergency doctor claimed there was nothing to worry about the numbness will eventual go away, even thou he had never had anemone sting case before. My mother never understood my new found interest in fish.
 

travelerjp98

Active Member
Haha... this one is quite funny... more of a failure story.... but it was funny!
It was thanksgiving last year. Our house was perfectly clean. The table was set up beautifully. Guests were coming in a few hours. Our whole family was going around perfecting everything. We only host thanksgiving, no other holidays... so when we do, we really go all the way. Then I look at my tank, and it was a disaster. I hated the way the live rock was arranged, it was dirty, the gravel needed to be vacuumed, and it needed a water change. Now keep in mind that my tank is 6' long, so it is basically the centerpiece of our family room. So I take out my big water change bucket, and start vacuuming the gravel. I stood on a chair, looking down into the tank as I vacuum the gravel.... then I take a break and looked into the bucket in which all the dirt gravel was collecting in, and there was very little water in it. I was still standing on the chair. So I get down off of the chair, and my-oh-my, the whole family room was soaking wet... the area rug... the bases of the furniture.... EVERYTHING. Looking at my bucket, there was a crack on the bottom that I failed to notice.... SO.. Thanksgiving dinner was on the table. Guests were arriving in... by then... an hour. The floor of the family room was soaking wet. The tank was still a mess... not to mention that it wasn't even full of water. Well... let me continue. In my family, we love sitting out on the back porch area of our house after we eat meals.... to just chat and talk. But, I had to finish vacuuming the gravel. Obviously I was not just going to pour the dirty water into the family room. So, I decided to just let the dirty water pour out into the backyard. Well, when I was done... the backyard was soaked too. It was quite a disaster. Quickly getting towels out, well... we had thanksgiving... in not ideal conditions... surrounded by the smell of the ocean.
Hope you guys enjoyed reading.
 

rainbow grouper

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by travelerjp98 http:///t/388649/your-best-aquarium-stories-featured-monthly/40#post_3431889
Haha... this one is quite funny... more of a failure story.... but it was funny!
It was thanksgiving last year. Our house was perfectly clean. The table was set up beautifully. Guests were coming in a few hours. Our whole family was going around perfecting everything. We only host thanksgiving, no other holidays... so when we do, we really go all the way. Then I look at my tank, and it was a disaster. I hated the way the live rock was arranged, it was dirty, the gravel needed to be vacuumed, and it needed a water change. Now keep in mind that my tank is 6' long, so it is basically the centerpiece of our family room. So I take out my big water change bucket, and start vacuuming the gravel. I stood on a chair, looking down into the tank as I vacuum the gravel.... then I take a break and looked into the bucket in which all the dirt gravel was collecting in, and there was very little water in it. I was still standing on the chair. So I get down off of the chair, and my-oh-my, the whole family room was soaking wet... the area rug... the bases of the furniture.... EVERYTHING. Looking at my bucket, there was a crack on the bottom that I failed to notice.... SO.. Thanksgiving dinner was on the table. Guests were arriving in... by then... an hour. The floor of the family room was soaking wet
. The tank was still a mess... not to mention that it wasn't even full of water. Well... let me continue. In my family, we love sitting out on the back porch area of our house after we eat meals.... to just chat and talk. But, I had to finish vacuuming the gravel. Obviously I was not just going to pour the dirty water into the family room. So, I decided to just let the dirty water pour out into the backyard. Well, when I was done... the backyard was soaked too. It was quite a disaster. Quickly getting towels out, well... we had thanksgiving... in not ideal conditions... surrounded by the smell of the ocean.
Hope you guys enjoyed reading.
I would love to have my back garden smell of the ocean. that post was a great read.
 
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siptang

Guest
Mr Limpid - Lol, thank you sir. :) I will continue to share.
I will post another story up today when I'm on my break.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Siptang...Do you vacuum a saltwater tank, and you have gravel in it?
I use sand in my tanks and after ...what...8 or 9 years I have yet to ever vacuum my saltwater tank. I hated doing it on the freshwater tank and consider not having to do so on the SW tank one my main reason for having one.
 
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siptang

Guest
Jp - not, true. Alot of good stories here.
Flower- no, I have never vacuumed my sand. I have fine sand bed that's about 2" deep.
 
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siptang

Guest
I hope you guys are not sick of my stories. I know that they are little depressing and I'm sorry that if you are affected by it. It has been helping me but if it offends anyone, I will stop.
I was about to post this story yesterday but I was so depressed yesterday, I couldn't muster up the courage to do so.
Here it goes.
I got into the hobby while I was in college and believe it or not, as soon as my tank was settled, one of my first fish was a dwarf lion.
Why you might ask.
Well, I was always fascinated by angler fish and lion fish and their ways of hunting their pray. I used to be mesmerized when ever they came on the animal planet or other nature channels. (Come on, I don't think I'm the only one that was fascinated by them) I loved him and fed him well and he was very happy and active until he ate my cleaner shrimp. (again no researching in the early days and damn pet store employees telling me that it will be ok to put them together that the shrimp will "clean" him.)
Well the shrimp was bit big and he choked and he died. Even when I forced the shrimp out of his mouth, he didn't make it.
Fast forward about little less then ten years. (don't feel like doing math in the morning lol)
I'm now settled, out of college and having my own family.
So I start myself a predator tank.
Reasons are as follows.
1.) They are relatively very hardy so I can't possibly mess this up if I gave some effort.
2.) Less maintenance (according to the pet store at least again, I was a fool)
3.) Very cool looking
4.) Bad arse chomping down live meals.
I used to gut load the ghost shrimps for my baby panther grouper,2 triggers, wrasse. (tangs ate something else)
My son never took notice of the shrimps and was never really interested, I was thinking to add some cool exotic fish then it hit me while watching the movie Deuce Bigalow.
I NEEDED a volitan lionfish!!!!!!!!!!
I ran to the store with my son and wife in hand and checked out all the cool fish and then came to the lionfish tank.
They had all sorts over there and I could see my son was getting really into it, so that made me happy.
He's little below one and him interacting with the fish has always put a smile in my face and made me realize how good this hobby is for all ages.
I picked out a lionfish after I was told again by the employee that triggers and lionfish will co exist without any problems. (Fool me thrice, shame on me I know)
I picked out lot of goldfish as a feeder. My son takes liking to these fish, I think it was shiny colors that attracted his little eyes. On our way back home, he whines in his car seat until we let him hold the bag containing the goldfish. (To me it didn't matter if they died or not because they were going to die regardless in couple of days.) (also very bad idea given by the employees again. You would think I would have learned by now right? WRONG
)
I came home, acclimated the lionfish, set up a small bucket full of ro and acclimate the lot of goldfish and put a power head and a air stone in there to aerate the water.
After couple of hours of acclimating and him pouncing around the goldfish bucket. (Had to pry him off of it because he was trying to go into the bucket)
In went the lionfish. My son was like "ahhhhh" and was pointing at the newest addition.
Lionfish is swimming around, settling in and looking magnificent while all the other fish are startled and move away from it. I immediately crown him as a king and crown jewel of my predator tank and my wife laughs at this idea.
About 30 mins of watching him, I feel that it's time to feed the king. Like I said earlier, I was always fascinated by the way they hunt their prey and swallow them whole and I was eager to show it off to my wife and my son to be impressed. I take out the goldfish on the net and bring it towards the tank. Lionfish looking at the fish and the net, (I'm guessing that's how fed them at the store) came close to the top and started to beg for food. My son, staring at the goldfish, was saying "ahh!!!" while pointing at it. (He was less then one, please excuse the lack of actual words) I drop the goldfish in and as soon as it hit the water, lionfish swallows him whole.
My son actually jumped. He didn't know what had happened, he saw a fish then he didn't. He was confused at the sudden movement of the lionfish and the disappearing act of the goldfish. I laughed and grabbed another gold fish. My son once again pointed and was excited. (kids are so easy to amuse at this stage of their life) Lion is swimming in circles in the top, anticipating for the meal to come. By this time, my panther grouper gets the gist of it and joins the lion. I drop the fish, lion fends off the panther with his fins and swallows him whole after chasing the goldfish down to the bottom of the tank where my son was leaning against the tank. My son saw what happened now. No mistake about where about the fish because lionfish had little bit of the hind fin sticking out of his lips.
My son looks at me and makes this face.
(This wasn't for that instance but he made the same face)
Then he cried. To my surprise, he didn't like goldfish disappearing into lionfish's mouth. In fact, he LOVED the goldfish. (Should have connected the dots when I was at the fish store, car and the house) My wife was very fascinated though.

After a while, I started to buy ghost shrimps again and load them up because it didn't bother my son.
Now what had happened to my lionfish? My crown jewel and king of my tank?
Well huma trigger nipped the fins until he couldn't take it any more and two triggers devoured him. Just like that... (took about 3 months from purchase date)
Very sad and I had learned my lesson not to trust anyone in the fish store.
Flushed him down the toilet for the royal water burial and my son waved to him saying "BAAAAAI" when I said "bye, lionfish."
Lesson to be learned here.
1.) Don't show your young children how aggressive meat eating fish eat.
2.) Don't listen to the fish store employees. (Always take any advice with grain of salt and always search search search)
3.) Triggers and lions don't mix well.
4.) Goldfish are bad for the lions. Any fish actually.
Thanks for reading again and have a good one guys.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Traveler......Do you vacuum a saltwater tank, and you have gravel in it?
I use sand in my tanks and after ...what...8 or 9 years I have yet to ever vacuum my saltwater tank. I hated doing it on the freshwater tank and consider not having to do so on the SW tank one my main reason for having one
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/388649/your-best-aquarium-stories-featured-monthly/40#post_3431982
Siptang...Do you vacuum a saltwater tank, and you have gravel in it?
I use sand in my tanks and after ...what...8 or 9 years I have yet to ever vacuum my saltwater tank. I hated doing it on the freshwater tank and consider not having to do so on the SW tank one my main reason for having one.
Sorry Siptang...I thought I was reading your story.
 
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siptang

Guest
No worries. :)
My dad has crushed corals but I'm too lazy to vacuum those as well. That's what the cuc is there for right?
 

travelerjp98

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/388649/your-best-aquarium-stories-featured-monthly/40#post_3432338
Traveler......Do you vacuum a saltwater tank, and you have gravel in it?
I use sand in my tanks and after ...what...8 or 9 years I have yet to ever vacuum my saltwater tank. I hated doing it on the freshwater tank and consider not having to do so on the SW tank one my main reason for having one
Sorry Siptang...I thought I was reading your story.
Hi flower... yes, I have gravel in my tank and I vacuum it. If I had set up the tank from scratch, I would have chosen sand. But, the tank (got it used off of a family member) already had gravel in it... so.. it stayed...lol.
 

gemmy

Active Member
My Journey to Reefkeeping
I must say growing up I never had the desire to keep a fish tank. I was more interested in keeping pets that I could directly interact with (dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs, goats, and even a chinchilla). I thought fish were boring and wanted nothing to do with them. Then, by chance I found myself working in a big box pet store. In the irony of it, I wound up working in the pet care department. Since fish is the bulk of our sales (for the pet care department), I was thrown in to learning about fish keeping. I began to learn everything I could and quickly became a great pet care associate with a following of customers who would only come to me for advice. I figured if I help people take care of their tanks, maybe I should start my own. I bought a biorb 4 gallon tank and successfully rehabbed an angelfish back to health and it grew very quickly. To accommodate the size of the angelfish, I got a 16 gallon tank. I set up the tank, properly cycled it, and put my angel in it. The angel died after a week. I was bummed, but determined. I tried several types of tetras, guppies and other tropical community fish, and they all died. I became defeated and gave up my freshwater tank. Now at work, I moved on from the pet care department and moved to the stock department (promotion woohoo). There was something missing, I found that I missed taking care of fish. I was totally turned off by freshwater, but intrigued by saltwater. I took the plunge and made my tank saltwater, with the intention of making it reef. I got the sand, the salt and converted the tank. I made every rookie mistake from tap water to having incorrect lighting for my corals. My tank was spiralling out of control, but I took charge I researched thoroughly and upgraded my tank to a 55. I did everything I could to make this tank perfect (perfect for me). I have had minimal losses with my 55 and everything is thriving. One of the main reasons I keep my reef is for the reaction that I get from the people that see my tank. They are in awe of what I have in my personal slice of the ocean. I truly enjoy seeing my nieces and nephews stare at my tank longer than they focus on a movie. This is the reason why I continue to maintain my reef. It is also one of the reasons I am embarking of the journey to keep seahorses.
 
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siptang

Guest
Krista - I know exactly what you mean by having alive your own ocean where people look on with envy. Lol definitely a big perl of this hobby.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Jp that must have been some messy thanksgiving lol. Was anyone really upset? I also agree with rg that I don't mind the smell of the ocean either.
I like the fact that im getting to know you guys bit better.
 

travelerjp98

Active Member
Haha... no one was too upset, they understood my addiction! LOL.
The ocean smells very good to me too. I absolutely love it... but not a concentrated form of it while your trying to eat thanksgiving dinner. LOL.
 
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