# Fishroom



## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

The new fish room is coming together nicely.

Spent the last few days drilling aquariums for overflows, but stuff is finally beginning to get there!














































Next job is to replace all the seperate stands on the right with some 6' three tier stands, then drill all those tanks and link them into the system.

Graham


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## webby06_2007 (Jul 15, 2008)

very nice my fish room was alot messyer than that lol and u had about 2ft walking space between the tanks if u need anything like exspternal filters and bits like that i got loads free to u if u want them some will need pipes i got heaters allsorts give me a pm if u are intrested 
craig


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

looking good. You can tell a decent fish room because it will always be a mess lol.


What fish you keeping? apart from the discus


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Thanks guys, It's actually a lot tidier than my last one .

Eventually all the current tanks will be re-racked onto three tier racks on one side, and there will be two eight foot tanks the other.

That's the plan anyway.

Keeping all sorts in there; Picasso triggerfish, discus, wild angelfish, 9 species of polypterus, various catfish, tilapia snyderae, salvini, channa marulioides, channa orientalis, wolffish, various other cichlids

A few pics;


























































































Graham


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

nice selection of fish. Loving the snakeheads.

is that a poly. delehezi at the bottom?


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

mike515 said:


> is that a poly. delehezi at the bottom?


Looks like it. :mf_dribble:

Xyra, do you know if it's captive bred, or wild caught?


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Thanks 
Yep, it's a delhezi.

I've currently got:
Delhezi, lapradei, lapradei sp. Guinea (often sold as P. bichir), Endlicheri, Palmas Polli, Palmas Buettikofferi, Ornatipinnis, Senegalus, Erpetoichthys calabaricus

No idea if the delhezi is wild caught, it is getting on for 3 years old, and they weren't so widely available then, so may well be a wild. Oddly enough it's barely grown ever, and is still only about 6" long!

Mike515: Snakehead's are some of my favorite fish, keep meaning to pick up some groups of a few more species and see what I can get breeding. I'm hoping the orientalis will think about breeding soon.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

ah just wondering, cause wild caughts tend to have really straight "bars" like this:










and captive breds tend to have more of a mottled patern:










yours is somewhere in the middle. :lol2:

What do you feed him? Mine didnt grow for ages, then suddenly grew like 3" overnight. :lol2:


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Yeh  It came from a maidenhead aquatics branch, only one they had, and the first I had seen for sale at the time for less than silly money. My guess is probably wild, but nothing really to base it on.

Lancefish is the main food, mainly as I can buy it for £6/kg which beats pretty much all else. Plus I've rarely had anything refuse it, and it doesn't seem to polute the water much.

Out of interest do you know how large the fish in that second pic you posted is? Just wondering as it still has external gills (I know they can stay until 12"+ but it is still pretty unusual to see them)


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

xyra said:


> Out of interest do you know how large the fish in that second pic you posted is? Just wondering as it still has external gills (I know they can stay until 12"+ but it is still pretty unusual to see them)


Judging by the banana plant behind it, i'd say about 6"?


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

What else do you feed?


I've taken to feeding trout slices. My redtail cat takes whole trout and it's a lot cheaper to buy loads than to buy 2 or 3 every couple of weeks. So I used a bit for the others and most of them love it.


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Tetra prima, JMC Catfish pellets (not much likes them though), bloodworm are pretty much the other staples. I've tried various other stuff like new era & dragon feeds, but they're far to pricey for the amount I would get through!

Isn't trout really oily and a good way to ruin water quality? Or am I thinking of something else? On the otherhand, if your filters can handle a redtail cat, then there probably wouldn't be much problem with putting anything through it <grin> 

Trout slices? filletted or bones 'n' all? just from the local asda, or somewhere else cheaper?

Thanks,
Graham


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

yeah you gotta be careful how much you feed but they are great for underweight fish or ones your trying to grow on. I use them to fill up the redtail. I put alsorts of vitamin liquids and tablets into them and feed him them whole.

As for the slices, it depends what im feeding them to. the true piscivores like my dovii get them bones and all. Stuff like the nics and the veija get them filleted.

Have you used hikari at all? apart from the stuff I make up myself sometimes it's the best food I've ever used. Floats, eventually sinks and doesn't cloud the water plus it's quite rich so you don't have to feed tons of the stuff


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## simonas (Apr 12, 2008)

wow the fish look great!!!

I like your Orientalis. I got three but no sign of breeding yet. had them about 4 months from a when they were tiny. how big are yours

Good pic of a toadfish as well , I can never get mine out to take pics , they only come out at night and I hear them grunting first!!


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Yeh, I've used hikari before. The floating stuff none of mine would eat (even an oscar turned up his nose!) and it fell apart when it sunk, I have heard other good things, so perhaps I'll pick up some more to try. Is it the red Cichlid Gold stuff you use?

The sinking pellets were liked, and I was going to try the massivore sinking pellets, but not at £20 for a bag that wouldn't last that long!

Simonas> They're about 4" (have four of them), had them since january and they've grown from ~1.5" in that time. No sparring or anything yet. Hopefully they will hit 5" by the end of the year and maybe start pairing in the spring. These are kottawa forest, what about yours? Do you find them less greedy than other SHs? Mine don't and never have shown the same high interest in food my marioloides does or bleheri did.

The toadfish isn't to bad to photograph, but then again he doesn't have anywhere he can completely disappear in though. Greedy thing though, he will come out to feed during the day now


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

Love the tanks with frames ,thought i`d gone back in time had to do a double take.

Some great fish as well .

Regards G


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

I use the cichlid staple stuff mainly because I can get 15kg buckets of it. I use the gold as well but only for my fav fish lol. With the fish I've got I can't afford to use gold exclusively.


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

mike515: fair enough, I can understand that  Where do you get the trout from? Just supermarket/fishmongers? I will try some out. Think I will pick up some hikari and try again with it as well

darwengray: Yeh, they're great - weigh a ton though, a 3x18x18 takes two men to lift  ! Mainly came from a few friends in the local aquatic society who were reducing the amount of tanks they had. I've had them a couple of years now (when I first set up a fishroom). Some even have proper slate bottoms! I've got a couple of bigger ones (4x18x18 & 3x18x18) sat in the garden that need resealing, all the others held water fine though!


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

xyra said:


> mike515: fair enough, I can understand that  Where do you get the trout from? Just supermarket/fishmongers? I will try some out. Think I will pick up some hikari and try again with it as well
> 
> darwengray: Yeh, they're great - weigh a ton though, a 3x18x18 takes two men to lift  ! Mainly came from a few friends in the local aquatic society who were reducing the amount of tanks they had. I've had them a couple of years now (when I first set up a fishroom). Some even have proper slate bottoms! I've got a couple of bigger ones (4x18x18 & 3x18x18) sat in the garden that need resealing, all the others held water fine though!


SLATE! good god thats even before my time :lol2:

making me feel all dewy eyed and nostalgic though looking at those frames anything that remotely held water was an excuse to add more fish.

YouTube - barbs barbs everywhere !

above is a link to a tank i had with large unusual barbs in maybe not your cup of tea but you and mike may still be interested.


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

woah thats quite the population of barbs.

Did I spot a few leptobarbus hoevenii in there?


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

mike515 said:


> woah thats quite the population of barbs.
> 
> Did I spot a few leptobarbus hoevenii in there?


No Leptobarbus but a few neollissachilus and tor species as well as some uncommom labeo species Rohita and Calbasu i think they were.

They only ones i`ve still got from that tank are three Puntioplites .

(And some Gymnocorymbus Thayeri tetras)how they survived in there i don`t know.

As you can gather i`m well into my asian cyprinids.

Have you ever kept hogoboomorum by the way?


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

The slate tanks are quite special. The toadfish is in one - you can see the slate under it in the pic I posted earlier (there's only a tiny amount of gravel in there)

That's quite an incredible amount of activity! What size was the tank? Haven't got any barbs at the moment, but am feeling the need now 

Were they all over the tank, or all up close as you were there and they thought food was coming?

What's the little catfish in the middle bottom at 33seconds in?


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## Graylord (Jul 17, 2007)

xyra said:


> The slate tanks are quite special. The toadfish is in one - you can see the slate under it in the pic I posted earlier (there's only a tiny amount of gravel in there)
> 
> That's quite an incredible amount of activity! What size was the tank? Haven't got any barbs at the moment, but am feeling the need now
> 
> ...


the tank wa 76 x 18 wide 15 high thats inches of course:lol2:

the catfish was some kind of mystus probably part of the wolfii group .

it was heavily stocked but the good thing about barbs is they are not territorial in the main and just weave in and out of each other.

most of them finished up with Richard up at wharf last december as i was then developing my interest in snakes.


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Nice size for that. Tropical barb's don't produce that much waste in comparison to many other fish of a similar size do they (can't remember where I read that origonally)?

Never been to wharf - fair old distance from me, heard good things about it though!

Graham


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## Trillian (Jul 14, 2008)

Wow, fantastic selection of fish there - some very interesting oddities and great fish room! :2thumb:


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## simonas (Apr 12, 2008)

xyra said:


> Simonas> They're about 4" (have four of them), had them since january and they've grown from ~1.5" in that time. No sparring or anything yet. Hopefully they will hit 5" by the end of the year and maybe start pairing in the spring. These are kottawa forest, what about yours? Do you find them less greedy than other SHs? Mine don't and never have shown the same high interest in food my marioloides does or bleheri did.
> 
> The toadfish isn't to bad to photograph, but then again he doesn't have anywhere he can completely disappear in though. Greedy thing though, he will come out to feed during the day now


Mine look the same as yours, I bought them off aquariust ads Steve Cunmmings I think. Thery look the same as yours. Mine are very greedy but they are first Channa I've had. I've paid for 4 Pulchra but ggoing away for a week today so will get them when I'm back

Toadfish are great. Mine are in with two G tiles morays. the way they demolish lancefish is great and the noise makes me laugh everytime


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

darwengray said:


> Have you ever kept hogoboomorum by the way?


Nah not yeah, I've been looking for them but just can't seem to find them. I did nearly get some from a shop in leicester about 8 months ago but I missed them by a few days. Was gutted



darwengray said:


> the catfish was some kind of mystus probably part of the wolfii group .
> .


quality little cats they are. I love the mystus family in general (and hemibagrus as well) particuarly mystus/hemibagrus wyckii



xyra said:


> Nice size for that. Tropical barb's don't produce that much waste in comparison to many other fish of a similar size do they (can't remember where I read that origonally)?
> 
> Never been to wharf - fair old distance from me, heard good things about it though!
> 
> Graham


 
Well worth the road trip. Even if it was in scotland I'd go there at least twice a yeah. It's a brilliant shop. Possibly only overshadowed by wildwoods but that went bust and now re-opened, but nowhere near it's former self.

Or Wholesale tropicals in bethnall green. Awesome shop for oddballs and cichlids


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Trillian: Thanks 

Simonas: Mine came from Paul Jordan (found them on eBay). I'd love to find some C. orientalis "Bentota Ganga", but they don't seem to be as available. The toadfish noise is great, mine isn't very vocal though, even rarely growls when netted (although he's probably used to it as I show him). Do you find yours is fine with tankmates? I've not tried it with anything (most of my tanks are species tanks)

Mike515: Been to Wholesale Trops a couple of times, good shop, spent plenty of money in there
I've been to Wildwoods quite a lot as well, used to live in high wycombe while my fiancee was at university so was quite close. Last time I went was while they were having problems and couldn't get any more stock, but not been since they became WoW.
There is a small shop up the road from Wildwoods, near the corner in an industrial bit behind a garden centre that also gets in some really unusual stuff. Had various lungfish, some unusual golden piranhas, gar, couple of lungfish, caecilians and other stuff last time I dropped in.

Trying out pier aquatics next weekend, not been before but heard great things...


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Pier is good. I haven't been for a fair bit though. Got a lot of driving over the next few months though so I will be visiting quite a few shops.

Going wharf next week though so that should be good. Im not taking much cash though. I'm running a littile low on space now plus I've spent a lot recently


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## _jake_ (Jul 3, 2008)

How do you catch them in a fish net:hmm:


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

mike515: Hope you find something unusual!

herpmad_boi: Varies, if it is spiny then I use a bag or a jar for them to swim into so they don't get tangled. Otherwise a nice big koi net on bigger stuff, or a good fine mesh net.


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

mike515: back now, Pier was rather disappoiting, only a few cobra pikes and gulper catfish that took my fancy (didn't pick them up though). I heard the other day they are having problems with some stock due to new export regs in brazil.

Went to BAS in bolton though, and had more success, some very nice cichlids. Picked up 5 large Channa pulchra


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Yeah I had heard that recently about pier. Strange really. From what I can gather the export regs are purely the Brazillian gov. closing more rivers and lakes from collecting. The Rio Xingu is basically closed again. That happened a while back due to the Zebra plecs being over collected. Then it re-opened but zebras were banned from collection. Not sure what other rivers are down yet. That's the problem with the brazillian law system on wildlife export. They will pillage an area for nearly everything then completely close it off to allow for re-growth which will take decades for most species.

But yeah, not a lot coming out at the moment. The only way round it, is to import into the states then export from the states into the UK. But it's very expensive to do that.


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Apparently Peru has a blanket ban on exporting L numbers now, not just Brazil in on the act.

Fishroom coming on...



















Graham


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## susanamck (May 22, 2007)

lookin good, nearly finished?!?


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Getting there, getting it ready for a couple of 6' tanks shortly. Re-racking everything slowly into 3 tiers at the moment to free up space ready.


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Getting there...


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## _jake_ (Jul 3, 2008)

wooooooooow wooooooow wooooooow wooooooow woooooow wooooow WOW!


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## sophs87 (Jan 25, 2009)

xyra said:


> Thanks guys, It's actually a lot tidier than my last one .
> 
> Eventually all the current tanks will be re-racked onto three tier racks on one side, and there will be two eight foot tanks the other.
> 
> ...


whats the second fish down called? lil guys so ugly hes cute :flrt:

would love one in my tank what is he tropical or marine? xx


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

_jake_ said:


> wooooooooow wooooooow wooooooow wooooooow woooooow wooooow WOW!


Thanks


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

sophs87 said:


> whats the second fish down called? lil guys so ugly hes cute :flrt:
> 
> would love one in my tank what is he tropical or marine? xx



Frontosa cichlid. a lake tanganika deep water fish. Freshwater, gets to about 12" - 14" long (he's currently about 11"). Aggression varies some are pretty peaceful. Mine is a menace, fine with bottom dwellers but won't tolerate any other cichlids in the tank.


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

Oh esfa fancy seeing you in here hehehehe


Nice fish!!!!

Marina


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Marinam2 said:


> Oh esfa fancy seeing you in here hehehehe


eh?



Marinam2 said:


> Nice fish!!!!
> 
> Marina


Thanks


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

xyra said:


> eh?


Moi.


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## Sitting_duck (Nov 13, 2008)

Very cool looking fish. I'm not that into fish, but some of them interest me.


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Sitting_duck said:


> Very cool looking fish. I'm not that into fish, but some of them interest me.


Thanks..fish are great. Some don't interest me, plenty do. Most of mine are mid sized predators (12" - 24"), but with a few smaller species thrown in, again mostly preds and cichlids. I have a particular interest in prehistoric species (polypterus, stingrays, lungfish etc.).


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

I love prehistoric species too. And Wolffish. :flrt:


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

Esfa said:


> I love prehistoric species too. And Wolffish. :flrt:


Wolffish are great. I will try and get a photo of mine sometime. he is a bit reclusive (read: seen about 6 times a year). Here's a photo from ages ago;


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

Very cool xyra


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

He's stunning! :flrt:


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

that fish room is missing a dovii lol. Just a nice big male and it would be sorted.



Looking good mate. You filled those 6 footers yet?


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

mike515 said:


> that fish room is missing a dovii lol. Just a nice big male and it would be sorted.
> 
> 
> 
> Looking good mate. You filled those 6 footers yet?


Thanks 

Dovii is tempting...I past up on a couple (including a breeding pair) that were up for auction at the festival of fishkeeping last year. Maybe in the summer once the 8 footers are in, I might put on in the 6 footer... I tend to prefer predatory communities though, and have already got a big tank with a lone fish (channa marulia). Dovii would tend to destroy anything with them...

Yep, one of them already has fish in, is just being moved into the fishroom (oscar, severums, synspilum, sailfin plec) next weekend. The second one (the new one) has the rays, leirious longibarbus/marmoratus, cichla temensis, giraffe catfish.










more photos on http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/fish-keeping/256531-new-rack.html along with shots of moving them etc.


Of course, what it is REALLY missing is a breeding group of Crenicichla sp. Xingu III. Don't happen to have any do you?


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## xyra (Apr 26, 2007)

mike515 said:


> that fish room is missing a dovii lol. Just a nice big male and it would be sorted.


Just had practical fishkeeping drop through the door. I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that they are recommending Dovii for a great pet fish


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