New Members Welcome Wagon post

This is a post for all new members . Please post some info about you that includes the town you live in fish that you have kept in the past and currently. Please make sure that you put any info about fish that you breed.

I will start off, I am Mark, as I say the old guy for those who forget my name. I live in Bloomington and have been keeping fish for 40 plus years. I have always been interested in angel fish but as a kid I could never get them to breed. The Internet came along and wit a little reading and lots of attempts I had success.



I keep angelfish, a few discus, which I am having limited success with breeding, guppy's and a few africians. I have some severums which I really like because they seem to get attach to their owners( no I am not crazy but that is what I think). My e mail address is twocat123@aim.com

I am Jeff, been keeping fish for 25 years. I used to have about 500 gallons worth of tanks in my apartment, but do not have that kind of time anymore to breed and upkeep with the house, work, wife, kids ect. Currently have one african tank and am working on getting my first planted tank up and running with my son.

Hi. I'm David and I'm a fishololic. I have 30-some tanks in my basement and just got Marks Angels to spawn. Working on Skunk and Julii Corries and maybe Bettas and Bumble Bee Gobies. Might try a breeding setup with a adult pair of Pearl Gouramis I have. Obviously I have no direction here as I'm kind of all over the place.

I've been keeing fish on and off for 40 years and got my first tank when I was 10 or so.

Hi,

I'm Alex. I have been keeping fish for about ten years. I was always fascinated with fish as a kid, but I could never afford it as a kid, then I joined the Navy and fish don't fare well when you leave them for months on end. When I got into college I was finally stable enough and responsible enough that I thought I could give it a go.

My first tank was a disaster. I followed all the recommendations of the Petsmart employee in Champaign. I ended up with a (1) dwarf gourami, (1) angelfish, (1) giant danio, (1) tiger barb, (1) black molly, and (1) stripped danio. These were all purchased the day I got the tank (29gal.) Luckily I stuck with the hobby, Since then I have had and bred angels (had a baby so this was my first and last fish breeding project.) I have had various community tanks with plecos, danios, neon tetras, sparkling gourami, peacock gudgeon, rainbows, platties, mollies, and cherry red shrimp. I would like to set up an African tank, but I can't convince the wife to make the investment in money or space. I currently have a heavily planted low light 55 with loaches, tiger barbs, a SAE, and gouramis, and a 29 with what I thought were all male rainbows until some babies showed up recently.

Hello,

For those who don'y know me, my name is Joshua, I have had fish for 20 years but just within the last 5 I have gotten serious about it!!!!

My current tanks include: 300 gal goldfish tank, a 75 & 55 community tank with angels loaches molly's swords ect.... 10, 30 gal tubs for goldfish, 4, 30 gal tanks 1 angels, 1 breeding (I hope) pair of kribensis, 1 goldfishes, 1 guppy and now Rainbows (Werneri), and a couple of 55's for angels and one opaline gourami!!!! couple of 10's for guppy babies, and a few more to set up this weekend!!!! About 20 Betta' that I am hoping to breed after the wedding, ohh and I also keep and breed mystery snails and orange rabbit snails.

Totals

GF 100
Angels 50
loaches 50
kribs 3
guppies who knows
and a lot of odds and ends!!!

Hi, I just moved to the Peoria area about a week ago and just found this site.

I moved here from Minnesota after living there for 7 years, and I grew up and lived in North East Wisconsin before that.

I've been keeping fish for about 25 years or so, and I've mostly been into Tanganyikan cichlids, but with the water down here I'm looking to branch out a bit while I'm here and have been looking around the forum to see what the "locals" are keeping.

Right now I have a proven pair of Neolamprologus Obscurus, ppr of Julidochromis Dickfeldi, a group of neolamprologus longicaudatus that I'm growing out, about 30 steatocranus tinanti fry that I'm growing out (sold my breeders just before my move here), a group of 10 telmatochromis vittatus that I'm growing out (sold parents b4 move), a ppr of Firemouths, 2 groups of steatocranus casuarius that are unrelated that I'm growing out, altolamprologus Calvus (yellow), neolamprologus savoryi, and a group of lamprologus callipterus.

I have a few other odds and ends, but those are my favorites.

I just set up a 40L tank and I'm toying with setting up a tank of hatchets, tetras, silver dollars and corys, but I haven't made any purchases yet.

Anyway, enough about me! How are you?

Welcome! We're having our monthly CITAC meeting on Sunday if you want to come by and say Hi. Details about that are on the website at www.citac-il.org.

Welcome, I hope to see you at the meeting.
Any fry for sale?

twocat, I have a bunch of steatocranus tinanti, but they are only about 3 weeks old right now. they are pretty large fry for their age, but they're still pretty darn small.

If you're interested let me know in a few months and I'm sure we could work out a trade.

I have about 10 telmatochromis vittatus also, but right now I'd like to keep them until I can sex them and that will probably be 6 months away or so. They are pretty young too. Once I get a few that I like though, the rest would be up for grabs.

Are you interested in "teenage" steatocranus casuarius (buffalo heads) at all? I have two bloodlines and they are pretty sexable now so I'll probably be looking to re-home a half dozen or so in the not too distant future. I have I think 5 here and I have another 5 up in Wisconsin that I need to bring down in early September, if we don't talk about them before then, drop me a line like the second week of Sept and I should have them down here and ready to go.

I would be interested in some steatocranus tinanti or telmatochromis vittatus if you ever are wanting to part with some,

Mark

Hello I'm new to the group and have been keeping fish for some time. I was at the meeting this past Sunday and walked away with a considerable amount of new ideas and inspiration to pick up some forgotten projects. I'll try to keep this brief and get pics up of tanks and setups soon.

My first fish tank was a 30 gallon at the house where I grew up. We kept black mollies, sword tails, and platy's. It had an under gravel filter and artificial plants. After leaving home and roaming about for some time I ended up here in Bloomington Il. in 1999. In 2006 I re-entered the aquarium hobby and really found it even more enjoyable than I did as a kid. I worked, ( more like voluntered ) for Pet Supply Center after it moved to Towanda Barnes Rd. and stuck with it til they closed the doors. While working there I was fortunate enough to pick up on a large amount of knowledge from the owners, previous and the current and the other long term employees. I also learned a considerable amount from the regular customers. If I did not know something I always took the time to research it.

During this time I raised and bred dalmation mollies, fancy tail guppies, and cherry shrimp. I also grew red ludwiga, java moss, and java fern. I've always struggled with the dwarf sagitara and pygmy hairgrass. I'm 80% certain due to lighting issues which is one of my current projects. Currently we host a total of 4 aquariums, and an experimatal 4 just shy of 1 gallon self sustaining ecosystems including self feeding and cleaning.

1. 55 Gal with 2 Gold Mystery Snails, 1 Skunk Botia, Gold Sailfin Mollies, 12 Juli Cories, 2 amano shrimp, and Guppies.
   Planted with java fern, anubias, java moss, and hornwort, plus the inevitable nuisance snails. 50% water Change Monthly
   
2. 55 Gal with breeding Mystery Snails, 5 Angels, 6 Platy's, breeding brevis, 1 bristlenose pleco, 1 ghost shrimp, 1 amano, ( don't ask on the shrimp on this one. lol ) planted with thick growth of annubias, jungle val, some java moss and java fern 1 piece of drift wood. 50% water Change Monthly
   
3. 30 Gal 1 Onion Snail, 1 Sunset Leopard Snakeskin Discus, Fake plants and undergravel filter. (15% water change 2x week)
   
4. 40 Tall Gal 1 Female Angel, Fake plants. ( I know what I did wrong with this tank.)
   

I've learned a considerable amount on my journey's and am always looking to learn more. I know brackish conditions tend to make caring for mollies easier but I love the challenge of pure fresh water not to mention brackish can have adverse affects to inverts, snails and shrimp. As I love the scavenger functionality will avoid brackish unless I set up a sick tank and drip to and from brackish. I rarely have a need to resort to this for mollies. Some fav foods for mollies, live mosquito larva, live earthworms ( chopped ), bloodworms, brine shrimp, flake food and shelled Peas. I notice that should they get constipated which is common the peas help to do the trick. I use frozen but thaw before introducing. If having a large string algae outbreak or problem I will reduce feeding and let these omnivores graze on the algae. Between them a good snail and bristle nose pleco don't have much to algae to worry about.

Well I've rambled enough and don't like putting people to sleep so I'll cap off with a highlight of some projects I'm working on:

1. Inexpensive cfl sho diy lighting recycling my old hoods
   
2. diy refugium/sump - making certain the water volume of the sump will not spill out should a pump fail or power outage.
   
3. Self Contained and sustaining ecosystem in enclosed and sealed gallon containers
   

I know there's more on my todo list but it's across the room and moving that far just doesn't sound appealing right now.

Goodnight and take care,
Kevin

New to the forum as of last night!
My name is Logan Benedict,
I am a graduate student at UIS in biology. Specifically I study alternative stable states in a floodplain lake system. I live in Riverton Illinois. I just moved here from Carbondale where I did my undergrad.

I have kept fish for a decade or so, newts for longer. I currently am working with angels, bolivian rams, corydoras sterbai, aeneus, bristlenose plecos, neon tetras, and plenty of snails. I do planted tanks I always have extra Vallisneria americana and dwarf hairgrass. Newts I work with, cynops ensicauda ensicauda, Hypselotriton orientalis, Triturus dobrogicus, Hypselotriton cyanurus, and Ichthyosaura alpestris apaunus.

Looking to get into Mbuna such as afra, elongatus, or demasoni. I also love most Tanganyikan cichlids, I am open to all african cichlids though.

Anyway glad to be here. I hope to be at the next meeting.

Welcome Logan, looks like you have a lot of varied interests. Feel free to look around the forum and post anything interesting.

Not sure where the next meeting is going to be, but stayed tuned to the front page of the forum or at www.citac-il.org and it will be on those when it's decided.

Thanks for joining.

DavidZ

Hello, all! I'm Becky. I'm a mom of one kid, 3 cats, and now various fishes. I used to keep, raise, breed, photograph, and study hundreds of numerous species of exotic praying mantids (buying, selling, and trading globally) for several years; but it became too expensive and extremely time intensive (along with breeding and keeping all the feeders - and hubby wasn't too keen on the dubia roach breeding after the "great escape" fiasco ), so I've since abandoned it. Gardening/landscaping is and has always been a major hobby. I like animal, nature, and history documentaries, true-crime, and cooking shows. My son is the major focus in my life... and if we both make it through his teenage years , I'll be home free (and then probably won't know what to do with myself)! I'm a laborer, Local 362, working mainly road construction and asbestos removal (when there are jobs, but I won't boo-hoo about that now).

I've had 3 freshwater aquariums: a 5 gal. with a mated pair, then one (oops) angelfish in my early 20's (didn't know a thing!). I cringe when I think of it... I don't know how she survived as long as she did (and kept laying eggs to boot)! Then I had a 29 gal. of goldfish for about a year at one point in my 30's. Now I have one 75 gal. with angelfishes, an assorted herd of cory cats, and a shoal of glowlight tetras. It's been an up and down affair; with me just recently putting time, effort, (and fishes!) into it, since taking over the upkeep on it after a divorce (my ex used to take care of it previously). Thankfully we're still great friends, and he's helped me a lot with teaching me how to maintain it. I've been doing a lot of research online, but I still feel like a shaky newbie... and I've had some losses lately when actively trying to get everything "right." I'm hoping to meet other fish enthusiasts and gain more knowledge to best care for my fishes.

Welcome Becky,

Feel free to post any questions you have as there is a lot of years of experience here is the forum. Our monthly meetings are a great place to get answers as well.

Our website is www.citac-il.org if you havent been there. Not a lot of stuff there yet, but some helpful links.

Best general advice I can give you for any tank is feed lightly and change water frequently.

DavidZ

Stop doing extensive water changes and gravel cleaning every week.

To everybody else out here.....Im the ex hubby LOL.

We are great friends and I try to help her but..... sometimes.

Hi All, Im Brad.

If you did not see from the post above.....Im Katnappers ex (better half ) We are great friends .....we just cant live around each other. She says im messy....but I think it is more like she does not understand my piles of inovation buried under the heaps of my Chaos.

I got into the hobby say back in the mid 90's. I started with a Wal-Mart box 29gal. Set it up and had decent successs after trial and error. The internet sure makes it easier...and Im sure that back then my occasional "floaters" would have been happy if it had come sooner.

I have had multiple sizes of aquariums at times. All freshwater. I have had everything from Danio's to Red Asian Snake Heads. yes, your read that right. I had a pair back in the late 90's ? In a old metal chrome rimmed 55. Nasty mean killing machines those are. Had a fantastic 190 Oceanic tank that I picked up and turned it into a cool fresh water with angels and rainbows. I had drilled lava rock colums to hide uplift tubes. Drilled drift wood to hide airlines....etc. Had to sell it later becasue of a move.
That Aprtment had: 1 55 gal. with Red Asian Snake Head. 2x 45 Gal. Corner tanks. 1 with community. 1 with Africans. 1x 190 gal fresh Angels and Rainbows. 1x 29 fresh with assort. Found out the hard way the tank that had the Africans tank was dirrectly over the entire Apt. complex's boiler system.....I.E. constant 90+ temp. Needless to say that tank did not fair so well.
The Snake Heads were cool but got some funny stories about those mean machines.

Currently I have a 150 gal in my apt. That is Angels, Rainbows, assorted Tetra's, couple of clown loaches. 1 male Betta. 2 catfish (forget the name). 1/2 real wood and couple of plastics. Crushed rose colored granite for rock bed. Undergravel filter with 3 cannister filters.
Because of my life, Job. Im an Over the Road truck driver (home on the weekends). Everything is on timers and automated. All seems to be well.

Here in the near future I will be posting some questions. I have seen a new tank that I want and I have been trying to talk myself out of buying it. But, oh the obbsession to get it. A new shiny 220 gal. Because Im only home on the weekends....the logistics would be a nightmatre. Moving from a up and running healthy 150....to move the new 220 to THAT spot....and do it all in a weekend + 1 day max.
Or there is a 95% rebuild of the 150 comming. New look. Lots of new drift wood to add and take out the fake stuff. (see post about eco complete on planted aquariums)

So before I ramble on.....ssshhhht ! Becky I'll cut it off here.
Brad

Hey guys I'm new to the forum..I will just let you know about myself a little bit. I'm 15 yes I know only 15 but I have had some fish keeping experience such as planted aquariums, nano reefs, oscar tank, and now I'm working on a community tank project.i have been keeping fish for about 5 years.By the way the club meetings I'm not sure if i will be able to make it to many but i will try. I live I rockford Illinois. So yeah that's about it for now

Hello, and thanks for the invite! I got to meet some of you today at the meeting, and it was really nice to be introduced to people who share my addiction

I just moved to Normal and got some tanks off Craigslist. There's a 29g in my room with a single female Salvini who's my companion fish, a 125g in my living room that came with random african cichlids, and a resealed steel frame 5g that I'd love to set up as a planted shrimp tank.

I've had fish all my life, but only really began to care and learn about them about 6 years ago. One fun thing about this hobby is that there's always more to learn. Tiger barbs are still my all time favorite!

Have a great day!
John Glabe

Welcome John,

Let us know how we can help with your fish.

You can goto https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/centralillinoistac/info and sign up on the email list to get notified of events, etc.

DavidZ

Dear John,

I always wanted to write a "Dear John" letter!    haha

Welcome to the group, and I'm sorry I missed meeting you yesterday.  Hopefully I'll see you at the next, or a future, meeting.  This "Dear John" letter is definitely a "Hello" and not a "Goodbye!"   I'm glad you're here and I look forward to seeing you around.  

Becky

Hello all!

My name is Corrie. I'm 20 years old and from East Peoria. I found this group while looking for something on craigslist and you can't imagine how excited I was to discover a group dedicated to what I love the most!!! I've been keeping fish since I was 16 when my parents finally let me have a goldfish... in a bowl... it was terrible and no surprise, it died shortly after. I didn't know a thing about fish keeping. I fell in love with it and now know much much more. In the past I've kept betta fish as well as zebra danios and bristlenose plecos. Currently I have Corys, bettas (including a sorority of them), and a long fin rubbernose pleco. I've recently received what I believe now to be 3 peacock gudgeons from an elderly breeder who could no longer care for his fish due to health problems. I went in and took in some of them to prevent his family from sending some fish to a corporate fish store so I'm a bit overstocked right now. Within the next few months I hope to start a 29 gallon saltwater tank!!!

Currently I work for a company called Aquamoon. We build and maintain large aquariums. For example, if you ever go to the Bass Pro Shop in East Peoria, I work with a partner to maintain the 2 massive aquariums there as well as several other aquariums at various locations throughout the area. If you ever end up in Bass Pro on a Saturday, make sure you come at noon and you'll be able to see me feed the Illinois River Fish in our 27000 gallon tank!

As far as the meetings go, I won't be able to make it to this month's because I work until the time the meeting starts but I would really really love to come to some in the future!!!

Can't wait to meet you all!

Corrie

Welcome Corrie!

That's a pretty cool job for a fish lover.

Our meetings are usually the 2nd Sunday here in B-N, but January's is on a special date. I'll always update the website (www.citac-il.org) and this site with that information.

Browse around the forum and feel free to contribute anything you desire.

Looking forward to meeting you.

DavidZ

Hi Corrie, and welcome to the group! Ditto what David said about the cool job... perfect.  Glad to see you've got a job doing something you love, not everyone is so lucky.  Glad to have you, and look forward to seeing you around the forum and meeting you in person at, um, well, a meeting!