# Vote now!!!



## Blazer (Apr 15, 2011)

Just wondered what kind of fish people have.:fish:


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

I have an albino emerald green cory (how does that work out lol) a goldfish in with the cory, a male betta named flare and a female betta named marble. They are in the album "the two to be bred."


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

Um, bettas are indeed Freshwater fish, in a group called Anabantoids. Gouramis and such are also in the Anabantoid family.

And my current fishes are in my signature.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Freshwater because it's cheaper and easier to maintain when compared to saltwater or brackish.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Cheaper, yes. Easier, no. Or at least no IME. Give it a try. Find out what I mean.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

All of the above! . I currently just have tropical fish (including a betta) goldfish, and snails. Will have shrimp within a week, and desperate to start a saltwater tank.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

funlad3 said:


> Cheaper, yes. Easier, no. Or at least no IME. Give it a try. Find out what I mean.


I thought about doing saltwater when I bought my 125 gallon almost 2 years ago. That was until I discovered that the lighting would cost over $1000 and that most saltwater fish are over $50 a piece. No thank you.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I don't know what lights you were looking at! Wow!!! I'm writing a mini-write up to show people who may be interested in a SW that they're not at all as hard to keep as they're rumored to be. 

As for the price of the fish, that's true. But which would would you rather have?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

funlad3 said:


> I don't know what lights you were looking at! Wow!!! I'm writing a mini-write up to show people who may be interested in a SW that they're not at all as hard to keep as they're rumored to be.
> 
> As for the price of the fish, that's true. But which would would you rather have?


I'd choose a Knife species or Cory species over a saltwater species any day of the week.


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

Its not in english but...come on freshwater is cool! We don't all have to turn into those saltwater crazy people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BATdMa9cBI0&feature=related


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

I want to start a reef tank. Is it true that the lighting needed for a reef tank is more expensive than lighting for any other saltwater setup?


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

funlad3 said:


> I don't know what lights you were looking at! Wow!!! I'm writing a mini-write up to show people who may be interested in a SW that they're not at all as hard to keep as they're rumored to be.
> 
> As for the price of the fish, that's true. But which would would you rather have?


saltwater lights for a $125 can easily cost almost $1,000 or more depending on what you get. if you are talking about top notch metal halids or fixtures with 8 bulbs in them lol.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

I am also not a fan of SW TBH. Its not the cost either its the silly stocking. You have so few fish in SW tanks it is silly IMO. I can't do that no way no how. As far as the two fish you posted: betta or SW thingy. I don't want either lol. 

Reef lights are the most expensive because you need very high light for the polyps. 3-4 watts of T5 HO I believe is considered normal. Then you get to enjoy paying for those energy costs. A grand though is very very excessive cost for lights. 

I keep only freshwater planted ATM. Some tanks barely stocked, others excessively stocked.


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## Danio king (Feb 25, 2011)

i voted saltwater even though i have all fresh aquariums. the fish are no doubt cooler looking. a pair of clowns beats a whole school of danios sadly...


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

all freshwater here.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Danio king said:


> i voted saltwater even though i have all fresh aquariums. the fish are no doubt cooler looking. a pair of clowns beats a whole school of danios sadly...


Not if they are Giant Danios.


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

funlad3 said:


> I don't know what lights you were looking at! Wow!!! I'm writing a mini-write up to show people who may be interested in a SW that they're not at all as hard to keep as they're rumored to be.
> 
> As for the price of the fish, that's true. But which would would you rather have?


I would choose the betta.  I can train a betta to do tricks, hand-tame them...but that's just how I personally prefer fish. 

Watching a SW tank is very enjoyable, but if actually keeping them I'd choose the FW.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

how do you teach a betta tricks?


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

I haven't decided which way I'd vote since I keep both freshwater and saltwater tanks.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so it's impossible to say fish from either group are more colorful or beautiful than the other, though I will admit that many SW fish possess some wild psychodelic patterns (just take a look at that pinkface wrasse funlad posted).



Mikaila31 said:


> ...You have so few fish in SW tanks it is silly IMO...


It's true that the bio-loads of most SW tanks are typically smaller than their freshwater counterparts (as an example I have only three small fish in my 65gal reef tank which is in stark contrast to my overstocked african cichlid tank), but there are actually reasons for the lighter bio-load.


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

Betta man said:


> how do you teach a betta tricks?


Like any pet, except with the precautions of not overfeeding or introducing something toxic into the water. A good start is finding some spare airline tubing from your fishy pile (I'm pretty sure everyone has one of these somewhere...right? ). Make a little loop out of it either with your fingers or some rubberbands. 

Your betta should already be hand-tamed (not afraid of you, eats from your fingers, chases your fingers around, etc) before you can do any sort of trick "training." 

Then it's just a simple task of luring your fish through the hoop of tubing and letting him nibble a bit of food (I used one of those sinking pellets for bottom feeders. He could nibble it, but not actually eat a whole lot) whenever he swims through. Eventually he'll figure it out and swim right through when you present the hoop. 

That's a pretty good way to begin with "tricks". A more useful one is getting him used to swimming into a cup for you. That way, if you ever need to catch him, he'll be comfortable swimming right in, and you won't have to net him and potentially damage those gorgeous fins.


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## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

I have never owned saltwater but i would probably choose salt over fresh because they fish a so much nicer plus you have coral and all that other stuff but recently i have been into brackish.




Ghost Knife said:


> Not if they are Giant Danios.


nope clowns still beat them.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

kay-bee said:


> there are actually reasons for the lighter bio-load.


I don't know the reasons, but I could care less really because I won't go to all that work and expense for a couple of fish. Likely wild caught. 

3 fish in a 65 is very stark indeed. IDK what fish they are but its just not worth it IMO. My planted 55 houses my 2 adult caecilians, 10 boesemani rainbows, 8 emperor tetras, 2 angelfish, and 6 panda garra.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

But what you lack in fish you get back and more in corals!


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

funlad3 said:


> But what you lack in fish you get back and more in corals!


I have plants though too! You have no plants in SW.... 

I don't see the fascination in corals. I mean they are pretty, but thats about it to me. They don't do much and are sensitive things that often need their own food and specialized care. Even if you have corals over 100% of the hardscape/gravel, FW you can still have a extremely densely planted tank with a very high fish stock. 

Everyone sees things differently though and I accept that. One thing I know is I have a VERY long list of stuff I want to keep and breed before I will even start thinking about the dark side. When I setup a FW tank I prefer to have everything from macro to micro life and it should be exploding with activity. The more unique and odd the behavior of the fish the better. I'm not huge on super colored fish. I perfer fish that look bland at first glance, but then can turn around and show a explosion of color. Rainbowfish and sparkling gouramis I love because of this.


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

Mikaila31 said:


> I don't know the reasons...


:?



Mikaila31 said:


> You have no* plants *in SW...


Not my tank, but really?
(see pic #2 in this post, the full tank shot)
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/279723-post18.html



Mikaila31 said:


> The more unique and odd the behavior of the fish the better...


I think in this category SW has an edge on FW: lure-waving frogfish, sand diving wrasses, alien-like cowfish/boxfish, the hosting behavior of clownfish, the symbiotic partnership between certain gobies and shrimp, etc, etc. (marine inverts also definately score big as well when compared to their FW counterparts).


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Yes you can keep kelp or algae.... if you want

again all in opinion. I have my caecilians for starters. In FW you have sparkling gouramis that make noise, the awesome behavior of garras, filter-feeding bamboo shrimp, thai mirco crabs, a plethora of nano fish, real plants, stingrays, discus, the freshwater toadfish, ect. 

What it still comes down to though IMO is the impossible stocking.

Also FW lacks the plethora of poisons that love SW. I'm okay with the lion fish and the other toxic fish. Whats concerning is poisonous nuisance creatures like nudibranchs and Zoa. More then one SW keeper has been rushed to the hospital due to the latter. 

And we worry about fish TB......lol


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

You can spend as much as you like on FW, no upper limit. But it is far easier to do FW cheaply. Everyone says a big saltwater tank is easier. But every time one of my FW buds gets one SW tank, it starts eating all his money and time and the FW stuff gets sold. When I retire rich, I'll try salt. I'd want to do it right and not watch fish slowly starve.


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

humdedum said:


> Like any pet, except with the precautions of not overfeeding or introducing something toxic into the water. A good start is finding some spare airline tubing from your fishy pile (I'm pretty sure everyone has one of these somewhere...right? ). Make a little loop out of it either with your fingers or some rubberbands.
> 
> Your betta should already be hand-tamed (not afraid of you, eats from your fingers, chases your fingers around, etc) before you can do any sort of trick "training."
> 
> ...



Yea its like when our friends see the tanks and they are like "HOLY TANKS!!" I hide the cabinet with all the chems and accessories. Because its seriously were all the money goes, I literally have hundreds if not thousands of dollars in extra stuff! (I try not to keep track)


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

as you can see i like to keep my salt and vinegar chips with my fish food! mmm salty


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

I hope that cabinet has a lock, grogan! I'm coming over to take all your awesome stuff!


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## cossie (Dec 19, 2010)

i got fw, sw and pond, so i voted pond


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

cossie said:


> i got fw, sw and pond, so i voted pond


Are you doing POTM or not? You obviously have time to post here so you should be able to handle it. If not you need to hand it off to someone ASAP.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

I wish my fish cabinets were that well organized. Both my stands are just a mess, though the one is a bit more organized then the other. Then I have a shoe box overflowing with extra equipment. So much stuff.... I also don't want to know how much I have spent on my tanks. Back in highschool I know it was a ton. Once I started college though I watched it closely. I honestly spend very little on my tanks in the last 2 years. I sell plants and fish when I am able to. I get most everything through my local club. We have auctions 4 or 5 times a year that generally last 8 hours, one this Saturday. I do a lot of DIY too. Hoods, substrates, filters, fertilizers, ect... I do my most to keep costs low now. Aquarium keeping can certainly be an expensive hobby if thats what you make it. There are definitely methods to take the bite out of it. 

My 20 gallons stand right after I put custom shelves in it. The most organized its ever been. Its a mess ATM, like most of my stuff.


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## DTetras2 (Jan 20, 2010)

I voted FW cause they're cheaper. If SW were as cheap as FW, than all 5 of my tanks would be SW, I just love fuzzy dwarf lionfish, but for FW, I love a good ol' school of tetras, they're so cool You can take a look at my album to see my tetras


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

I voted bettas.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i don't do saltwater..i have...but it just isn't productive enough...and i don't care ; i just ain't gonna spend a thousand bucks on a light..
you don't think freshwater fish have enough color.....then you don't know freshwater fish..

go to www.aquabid.com and look in the "killiefish egg" section...they will rival any saltwater fish.....and a whole lot cheaper..


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I know, killies are crazy. BUT I like the behavior patterns of SW fish better. That and I've seen most of my SW fish in the wild too.


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

lohachata said:


> ... i just ain't gonna spend a thousand bucks on a light..


I wouldn't either.

In most cases lighting for SW tanks won't cost that much. In fact a Fish Only or Fish Only With Live Rock set up can use 'normal output' fluorescent bulbs used with most FW tanks. I've got a single 40-watt bulb over my 75gal SW tank as I have no photosynthetic lifeforms in the tank.

Lighting costs only get 'astronomical' when trying to illuminate extremely large tanks (180gal+) stocked with SPS corals (acropora's and such). But even then retrofit lighting kits (for those DIY-inclined) would significantly cut costs.

Mikaila31, nice set up! BTW, are you studying katakana? (I see the cards for "ma", "ya" and "ra" attached to the desk on the far right).


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

kay-bee said:


> Mikaila31, nice set up! BTW, are you studying katakana? (I see the cards for "ma", "ya" and "ra" attached to the desk on the far right).


Yep


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

kay-bee said:


> Mikaila31, nice set up! BTW, are you studying katakana? (I see the cards for "ma", "ya" and "ra" attached to the desk on the far right).


 Behold, the Sherlock Holmes of the fish world!


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## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

I took a few japanese language classes and also spent over 7 years living in Japan, so those katakana cards jumped out at me :fun:


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

bettas have SO much color!


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## Blazer (Apr 15, 2011)

FW Vs. SW 


FW: Fatality


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## PhsychoFish (Apr 10, 2011)

i love fresh water!!! platys are probably my favourite; red-finned sharks and cory cats are the runners up!


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