Some of my fishies

[RandomWiktor]

As requested in the Freshwater Fish thread, here's some of my fishies! All adoptions/rescues unless otherwise noted.

Cortex (top) and Fogarty (bottom). Cortex has one eye and is an oranda. Fogarty is an oranda/fantail mix and is blind in one eye.

Uggo is a calico fantail with no upper jaw

Odeipus is a blind goldfish (no eyes). He was in a QT tank in this pic; he is now living in the 75g.

The common goldies Tangaloor Firefins, Prodigy, and Monkey. Hard to get an idea of scale from these pics, but the big guy is a scootch over a foot in length.

Close-up of Tangaloor Firefins.

Failboat the baby Koi; he has no real tail to speak of. It was ripped off at the base when I was called to rescue him so I'm shocked anything grew back at all. Despite this he swims fairly well. He's still a tiny baby right now but once he's a little bigger he'll be living in the 300g stock tank/pond we keep our common goldies in (until he outgrows it).

Here's Scofflaw, my baby convict cichlid. He has a crooked spine and is runty; he was a breeder cull but thankfully the breeder was compassionate enough to put him for adoption to a non-breeding home.

Harar Goldeye is a Chinese algae eater. This is NOT a good community species, please don't be suckered into buying them by pet stores.

Quon the dojo/weather loach. I have another one, albino, names Midas, but he's a jerk about having his photo taken.

Stygian, Avarice& Pitaya,three of my 20 bettas.

 

[paul2641]

OMG your fish are amazing, I don't even think people in Ireland would bother with Rescuing fish, It is extremely good of you to do so, Plus there all pretty cool, Post more pictures, And pictures of all 20 betta's please, I'm so demanding lol!

 

[pocketsizedrhino]

Thanks for sharing pictures!
It looks like you take really great care of your fish. I'm sure they appreciate having a home with you.

What kind of camera/settings do you use for your fish pictures?

 

[degrassi]

Nice pics and fish!

Goldfish aren't my thing. I"m more into planted tanks and goldfish+plants dont' work, lol.

Where do you get your rescues from? I've had a couple rescues but most were given to me through the aquarium club or by friends giving out my name since i'm the "fish girl"

 

[RandomWiktor]

My fish come from all over the place, really. A good number of them are breeder culls - imperfect animals that would normally be killed to prevent their breeding. Many are adoptions from a myriad of situations, be it owners who could no longer keep them to school lab programs that were done with them. Some come from pet stores as surrenders/freebies; several local pet stores have my card and call me if they get in a very sick or injured fish. I rehabilitate it and adopt it out or keep it. For example, my fancy goldfish were pet store surrenders due to special needs, as was the koi. The big common goldfish was a pet store surrender due to illness; the other two are his sons. The cichlid was a breeder cull, the algae eater was an adoption from a former owner, and of the bettas pictured, one as a cull, one was an adoption, and one was a store surrender.

I'm currently fostering several bettas, three goldfish, and a wolf fish. The bettas were from a variety of sources; one was an owner surrender after he killed the female he was kept with, another was an owner surrender who was going to be flushed due to illness, one was a breeder cull, two came from school labs, one was a store surrender due to fin damage from being placed in another male's cup, and one was a store surrender with severe pop-eye. The goldfish were unwanted "leftovers" from a community event, and the wolf fish was an owner surrender due to its medical issues.

 

[slavetoabunny]

Gorgeous fish! I had no idea there was such a thing as fish rescue and adoption!

 

[luvthempigs]

Wow, All your fish are beautiful! And your pictures are great. I have always loved goldfish even before my fish keeping days. And agift of a betta in a vase was what got me started with bettas. Of course they are not living in vases anymore lol

Is the wen on the Oranda in the first picture covering the eye or is the eye missing?

It's amazing how animals (including fish) can adapt. I'm amazed that the koi can swim with out much of a tail.

Thanks for sharing

 

[RandomWiktor]

Heidi, I have a Canon PowerShot SX120. I just got it at Christmas and still don't really have any idea of how to use it. I'm really a dummy when it comes to photography, I basically just fiddle with the settings until the picture comes out halfway decent.

Maria, the oranda has a missing eye. The wen has simply filled in the void! His wen is growing over the other eye though, so I may have to do some wen trimming unless I want two totally blind goldfish. And yeah, the Koi is actually a strikingly good swimmer. I guess it's because fish swim more with their bodies than their tails, though the tail certainly improves their speed & direction. I thought he'd have to live solo for life when he came in with that injury, but he's doing so well that I'm definitely gonna try him in with my commons as soon as they move back out into the pond this spring.

And paul, haha, I don't know if I have up to date pics of all 20 bettas! I guess they're overdue for a photo shoot though, and I finally got a little acrylic cube I can photograph them in instead of chasing them through their plants trying to get a shot.

Here are two more pics though: the wolf fish I'm fostering, and the other loach FINALLY! I cornered him at feeding time.

Midas!

The wolf fish. His habitat is currently lackluster; he came in with pop-eye so with all of the medications I need a tank I can do frequent, thoroughly cleanings on with ease. That means bare bottoms and PVC decor.

Oh, and this pic was lousy because of the lighting, but here's one of my foster bettas: TINY runty little breeder cull girl. She was very skinny with a lot of fin damage when she came in, but she's doing great - albiet still tiny - and is ready for a new home

 

[Nela]

Wow :shock:I head never heard of rescuing fish... Now how cool is that?! I think they are awesome! How many tanks do you have? Do you have salt water fish as well? Such delicate creatures... And yet they seem so sturdy when you point out what they've pulled though. I can imagine you have to be really strict about quarantine... How long until you can add a fish to a group in general? Really I'm just amazed, I think it's a wonderful thing that you are doing :biggrin2::rose:

 

[luvthempigs]

Will you do the wen trim yourself?Or do you have access to an aquatic vet? I'm not so sure I would be up to doing something like that myself

Do you bring the pond fish indoors for the winter? I just set up my first pond this past spring/summer (it's really not even completely done) I picked up a rubbermaid stock tank so that I could bring the fish indoors for the winter. It's pretty cool because since they have been in the house I get to see more of them :dude:In the pond they have too many plants to hide in or under.

 

[missyscove]

Do you have any pictures of your fish room? I'm interested in what sort of set up you have for that many tanks.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Nela,
- I have 24 fish tanks/bins/ponds (20 betta bins, algae eater tank, convict tank, goldfish tank, and goldfish pond) that are always set up, and others set up on an "as needed" basis for foster and QT.
- I do not keep saltwater fish; they are not my preference, especially due to the % that are wild caught, and because they have a big price tag you rarely see them as adoptions or needing rescue.
- The minimum QT for healthy fish is 2 weeks. I prefer to go at least a month, especially with goldfish. Obviously sick fish may be in QT longer than healthy fish.

Maria
- I have anesthetic for fish (Finquel) and have performed minor "surgery" on fish before, so I am indeed comfortable with wen trimming. We do not have a private aquatics vet in our area to my knowledge.
- Yeah, the goldies are in for the winter. The outdoor "pond" is made of a 300g rubbermaid stocktank, and the winter quarters are a 110g stock tank. We wanted the 300g to be indoors in our basement initially - perfect temps for goldfish - but it wouldn't fit through our door (oops) so we dug and hole and made it an outdoor endeavor, haha.

Christina,
No pics at the moment, though I suppose I could get some. I use bins drilled for ventillation rather than aquariums for the bettas for space and weight reasons. The bins have a 3g holding capacity and are shallow with a wide, long footprint (length and slightly greater width than a 5g), which is preferable for a primarily surface-dwelling species. These bins are set up on a shelving unit for space efficiency in an exotics & fish room that stays at 78 in cool months and 82 in warm months. The chinese algae eater and convict also live in this room, but in aquariums. Any tropical fosters are in bins or tanks in this room as well. The 75g goldfish tank is a centerpiece tank so it is in our dining room. The goldfish pond is outdoors and the goldfish winter quaters are in the basement.

 

[missyscove]

I guess that makes more sense. Thanks!

My betta, Eric (so named because he has a Little Mermaid statue so naturally he's her prince), lives on my desk in a 5 gallon tank that I keep around 80. I couldn't imagine having 20 betta in one room!

 

[mistyjr]

Well... Adorable fish ya have!!

 

[luvthempigs]

RandomWiktor wrote:

Maria
- I have anesthetic for fish (Finquel) and have performed minor "surgery" on fish before, so I am indeed comfortable with wen trimming. We do not have a private aquatics vet in our area to my knowledge.
- Yeah, the goldies are in for the winter. The outdoor "pond" is made of a 300g rubbermaid stocktank, and the winter quarters are a 110g stock tank. We wanted the 300g to be indoors in our basement initially - perfect temps for goldfish - but it wouldn't fit through our door (oops) so we dug and hole and made it an outdoor endeavor, haha.

LOL! That's too funny about the stock tank not fitting through the door. And I only say that because a similiar thing happened to me when I was setting up the indoor stock tank. My husband wasn't too thrilled with the situation What we won't do for our pets :biggrin2:

 

[degrassi]

With all this fishy talk and pics I thought i'd share some of my own :biggrin2:

Here is my 15g planted tank

Mr. Pinchy my giant prawn lives in it. He was a rescue as people didn't realize he got 8"+ and would eat their fish, lol. He still freaks me out, lol.

Here is my male Phenochilus. I grew him out from a tiny baby. Its taken 3 years but he has finally started to fleck out. He's the boss of the 90g.

I'm bit into Inverts and here is one of my Amano shrimp. I also breed cherry shrimp and i'm starting to breed Crystal red shrimp.

Here is my Male Blue ram.

And here is my 90g African tank.

I tried to find a pic of my other rescue I had. It was an Anableps anablep. Weirdest fish I had ever owned. It was a brackish fish similar to a mudskipper. Someone gave him to me as they couldn't care for him anymore. He recently passed away but he was so neat. Totally had personality and character.

 

[luvthempigs]

Valerie, Very nice photos. I especially like the photo of the amano shrimp, thanks for sharing

So what's the difference between the cherry shrimp and the crystal red?

What else do you have in the tank with the blue ram? He is beautiful.

 

[degrassi]

So what's the difference between the cherry shrimp and the crystal red?

They are different species of shrimp. The cherry shrimp(the females) are a solid red. Crystal red shrimp are red and white striped, looks like a candy cane. I have a mix of Crystal red and Crystal black shrimp right now that I"m trying to get to breed. IN the process of trying to lower my ph as they won't breeding in higher pHs.

I also have Green shrimp. But they aren't as flashy as the red shrimps. They are more of a light green color.

My "shrimp farm" as I call it helps fund my fish addiction. People are willing to pay 2-3$ a shrimp and my small 10g shrimp farm can crank out the shrimp, lol. Thats why i'm trying to move onto breeding the crystal reds. There is a HUGE demand for them and I could easily get 6-8$/shrimp for a low grade(they go by color grades). Helps keep the costs of fishkeeping down.

Right now I have a pair of blue rams in with some cardinals and a Bristlenose pleco in a 20g.

 

[Myia09]

I love blue rams!

Great fish lovethmepigs!