Howdi...

[TheDiplomat]

Hi all,

My name is Mike and I am getting into this whole Aquarium thing (again)... not that I am old or anything! A BIG thanks to LiftCrazy*, my nephew. Lee is going flat out and spending copious amounts on money on his kit. I wait, listen and learn from his successes (and his mistakes).

I have chosen to start off with a small tank that sits on top of my bar, off to one side. I find it really relaxing sitting there, just watching the fish being fish. The bubbles... the sound of water flowing out of my HOB filter... Peaceful... My escape...

The initial idea of the tank was to keep a couple of large mouth bass in a riverbed setting. I was unable to source bass and found that there is a 'blacklist' of species you may not keep (thanks to Lee and Henk). Oops! That changed things a bit but the Aquarium bug had bit... This made me get rid of the tilapia that were wrecking my plant life.

Over this weekend, I popped in at Sam's Aquarium and bought 4x Rams (Ramirezi). I also have 2x suckerfish (when I post some pics you can help me identify them). I plan to get a few Cockatoos (Cacatuoides) and Agassizii... (LiftCrazy* is trying to make a plan to source these).

My next project is building a Koi pond... I will post pictures, etc. as I go along. This, however, will only kick off in a couple of months - probably around April / May 2009. I will be seeking advice on this forum... (Henk - this is aimed at you...).

Thanks for a cool forum.

TheDiplomat
(Mike)

:cool:

[LiftCrazy*]

Don't say the "S" word here... it's dirty

[Singularity]

Hi and welcome to TASA Mike !

[solex69]

Don't say the "S" word here... it's dirty

:p The S word isn't dirty here...let's just say that one shouldn't do all your aquatic purchases there :blink1:

Welcome to TASA Mike. I trust you will enjoy the stay here

Cheers mate
Dale

[Rory]

Welcome Mike!

[Dolphin]

Welcome to TASA

[High-wash]

Welcome to TASA Mike :)

[Henk Hugo]

hey hey!

Well there's many option when it comes to setting up a type of river systems thats not on the black list :D

There's some stunning blockheads in the trade. If you look at them you can actually see how they evolved to cope with the flow of the Congo river. i saw a tank the other day with some stunning aqua scaping. Some rond stones, wood that looked like dried bottle brush coming in from the top - looked like fallen branches - and 2 power heads hooked u to a wave maker... worked great!

As for the black list - ja nee - it is a problem at the moment but the new black list is MUCH MUCH smaller. We will soon be able to get REALLY cool fish like pike ciclids and FW sting rays

Lifty sent me the drawing of the pond. The only thing you have to rememebr to do is to have the bottom drain at the lowest point in the pond. Then you have all of the fish crap going into your sand filter.

Have you decided what type of lining you will be using on the pond?