Allow myself to introduce myself... :)

Hi everyone, RelaxWithFish here!

So I am not a complete noob when it comes to forums or to fish, although it’s been over 25 years since I’ve had a pet fish, and it looks like the fish keeping bug is biting me again - so I have signed up here to connect with local fish heads, or whatever freshwater enthusiasts are called. I am based in Gauteng, Johannesburg.

I had a tropical community tank in my room when I was younger, and I can remember spending hours watching fish and reading tropical fish magazines from cover to cover (when I could find one, they were pretty pricey and hard to find). I had guppies, neon tetra, an angel fish and some khuli loaches. I started off taking my water to my LFS to get it tested, but that drove my parents mad, so eventually we got a test kit, and I managed to some how get a stable tank up and running which I maintained for about six months or a bit longer.

Unfortunately, being a kid, I messed up my tank one day after a water change and some maintenance. I landed up leaving an air stone and some tubing partially connected to an air pump, and it obviously disconnected after an hour or two. I’m sure what followed is a common occurrence, waking up the next morning to the water all on the floor and a tank of dead fish - hopefully one never makes that same mistake twice, but my parents weren’t willing to give me a second chance (don’t blame them) and I think they ditched the tank to a family friend not long after.

During the lockdown I landed up spending a ton of time on reddit, where I came across a post of a time lapse of some tropical fish eating blanched vegetables. It wasn’t even in a fish subreddit, it was some “nature is amazing” group I was browsing. I have no idea why, but this triggered me to go and do a little more research and then I started googling and watching people’s freshwater setups on YT and Reddit. About two months of browsing posts and being inspired and now I’m really keen to get my hands wet again - and so now the plan is to relax with fish!

I guess I plan to get myself a nice community tank, hopefully starting the process sometime this year still. At this stage me and the missus are house hunting, and there is unfortunately no space at our current spot (to be honest spare space is pretty much over run with models, another hobby of mine) so I’m quietly doing research and preparing myself for when I have the space. I’m thinking some guppies, some loaches, maybe a cory school and some cardinal tetra

Hopefully before year end I will be asking you guys for some seed media to help me kick start the cycling process. I also need to find out what the jhb water conditions are like - specifically how much chloramine there is to contend with, and whether there is any ammonia straight out of the tap. When I have the time I plan to get stuck into the forum archives, but happy to be here in the mean time.

Dan AKA RelaxWithFish

 

Welcome, Dan!

I'm looking forward to following your journey. I can't help you with JHB water chemistry, but if I can help at any point, I shall.

Cheers
Luke

 

Welcome to the forum and welcome back to fish keeping Dan

 

Welcome.

 

Welcome, we look forward to seeing your setup.....Just a tip, look for a house with a spare room, preferably tiled.....can you say Fishroom

 

Welcome to TASA.

 

Welcome and best of luck!- I store water outside due to a massive chloramine problem in my area in Jozi North and dose with Prime and SCAPE Bac-up

 

Also happy to help you with media and plants

 

Hey guys, thank you for the warm welcome and for some interesting and useful information. I’m enjoying the vibe here already

 

It's a pretty small forum but the information is generally good. Hope you enjoy your stay