Hi! I am so glad I have found this site
I am from Northern California and I honestly cannot imagine having some kind of pet. I grew up with dogs and cats, rabbits, fish...we even had a duck at one point, which is weird because I grew up in what used to be called the burbs.
Whenever I meet someone new who tells me they have never had pets, or never will, it just blows me away.
There was one point when we had some friends living with us and our total pet population was 11 german shepherds, 4 huskies, a mini schnauzer (I thought he was a giant but I was little at the time so he looked huge), I think there was about 3 cats, and then the countless fish. That lasted for several years with all those dogs. And it is because of that experience that I now only rescue low shedding dogs, and keep it at like 1 or maybe 2.
We also had a 200g community tank that split at one of the seems once...I will never forget all of us scrambling to get the fish back into water with my he-man dad trying to hold the tank together best he could...it took the carpet forever to dry, but we didn't lose any fish!
So anyway, glad to have found ya'll and God bless you!
Thanks I now have just a lil mini schanuzer rescue lets see...born around nov 2010. He is just getting over the chewing stage (I hope!) and he has moved onto digging! :/ lol
The other dogs at the house here however, are 1 pom, 1 german shepherd, and 2 chihuahua's. Those are not mine! but I still have to clean up after them...ya know it's the hair really that annoys me. It gets everywhere! sheeesh. The little dogs, not so much...its the shepherd that makes me vacuum everyday. I also have a lil 5g tank, but it is not set up yet, not really. I have a snail in there but thats it until I change it to how I like it and put a betta in there. When I get that set up I will post some pictures, just as soon as I learn how I guess to my profile? I do have some pics of the little destructive boy that sleeps on my daughters bed. oh but at least he is over the whole hiking his leg in the house! I swear I was gonna break that thing off...lol.
Hi jeeplassie, it is nice to have you joining us and finally introduced yourself.
Sounds like you have had a lot more experience with fish than you are letting on. 200 gallon tanks would be a dream for me, but I don't have the energy for that kind of giant tank lol. The bigger the fish tank, the more water I have to change during weekly maintenance.
I can't imagine how over a dozen dogs stay together. Was it noisy? lol. I don't know why, but I have this "video" playing in my head with dogs never stop barking.
lol...well it wasn't as noisy as you would think. They were all trained, mostly. I can guarantee that thieves never thought to try to rob us. When sirens would go off, like a fire truck or ambulance, the huskies would all start howling and some of the shepherds even tried doing that. But that is when it would get noisy. It just seemed they all blew their coats at the same time...I think we could have spun it into yarn and made whole quilts there was so much
As for the tank...well back then I guess it wasn't as big of a deal as nowadays to do the water changing. Dad rarely changed it, and he would just bring the hose into the house to drain and fill. The fish were hardy and didn't mind. The particular fish that were in there did a pretty good job of keeping it clean themselves, but I cannot remember all that was in there. The only tank that large that I personally had was a 150g, and it only had two catfish in it (one that dad caught, and one I had caught). I never cleaned that one (it was filtered however) and they were fine through the winter but then it just got too hot for them in spring. I won't say what ultimately happened to them....we'll just say that bread coated them well...lol. omgosh that's just awful isn't it?
Now there is a show on Animal Planet (I think) that has those brothers that custom made tanks...have you seen that? wow, they are good! Now those are some big tanks...and some salt too! which I have never had. The one they made for the church is just amazing.
Hi jeeplassie, I have never seen any church with aquariums, although I haven't been to that many in the first place.
We do partial water change of 30~50% once a week, and it is highly recommended for the health of the fish. It is necessary for getting ride of the nitrate buildup, as well as to restore water buffer and minerals. It is why the larger the tank, the more water we have to remove and to restore.
Do you mean custom made fish tank or custom designed aquascaping?
I actually plan to get a custom made 90 gallon tank eventually. I have specific requirement for the dimension which I can't find in typical 90 gallon.
The church I am talking about is in Dallas, and I saw it on a show on animal Planet called Tanked...omgosh go here to see the tank: http://themedaquariums.com/iboc.htm . It is a 75,000g salt tank...took two years to make and that has all the pictures of them building it. I think they built the church around the tank. ITS HUGE! But these guys, they are kinda funny too, but they make some really cool tanks all custom built. They made a shark tank for a lawyers office that went up the sides and was also the desk for the receptionist, they made a tank for a little boy that was to have heart surgery and he was not going to be able to leave his bed. they made his bed under the tank so he could look up at the fish...it's just really trippy what they have done. I think that is their site directly, so you can look through it and see the other tanks they have made. I can't imagine the price tags on those though....
LOL...well I think it would be fun to swim in with all those fish in there...cept if any of them were poisonous...
I like tanks but yea a whole house?? geez yes too much work, and money, to maintain. but go check out the show when ya can, they are now in season two. I am usually blown away by their ideas and just the sheer size of some of them. too crazy. I would always be worried the thing will collapse, or break open at a seam but of course that's just past experience..lol. omgosh can you imagine the house one breaking open? LOL nooo specially not with salt fish. I have lost entire tanks of fresh before (inexperience and diseases) and was out some money, but I cannot imagine how much money I would be out if I lost salts...
Saltwater fish are generally more expensive than freshwater fish, because they are mostly wild caught. It is also more expensive and harder to maintain a saltwater aquarium. There are tens millions freshwater fish keepers compare to only 700,000 saltwater fish keepers in the U.S. I have no plan to get saltwater fish any time soon.
Welcome! I love your sense of humor and writing style. Right now I have a long haired cat that's blowing coat, except it doesn't shed on it's own. If I don't comb him daily and get it all out, it mats. The rest of the year Combing every other week is more than enough. But spring...! So you're in northern CA? I'd love to know your views and experience with earthquake prep. Living in WI, it's not something I've ever dealt with, and I'm doing a sries on disaster prep. Chime in down on the Unrelated Discusions area.
(05-07-2012, 06:11 PM)jeeplassie Wrote: they made a tank for a little boy that was to have heart surgery and he was not going to be able to leave his bed. they made his bed under the tank so he could look up at the fish...
I would hate to imagine what would happen if that collapsed or split open,especially while sleeping.
