Hello!

[AnneMarie]

Hello! I'm Anne-Marie. I am 24 and I enjoy painting, sewing, shopping, and aquariums. ^_^ I don't have a puffer quite yet but I've ordered a GSP now that my tank is cycled. It's not my first time having a GSP, sadly when I was younger I bought one at Wal-Mart and I could not accommodate the care that he needed and I had to give him to a fish store. His face always stuck with me though, the way he was so interactive and begged for food. I told myself that when I could care for one properly I would buy another and the time has come! Yay! I have my hydrometer ready to begin the transition once he's settled in...I might need your help with that >.> I've read a lot here and I am so thankful for this forum!

Other than puffers I have an interest in cichlids. Jack Dempseys are my favorite. Someday I'd like to have a Red-Head cichlid. I also like silver dollars a lot, their faces are...it's hard to describe what I like about them. I've never found the same interaction I had with that GSP when I would drop a snail into his tank or show him I had a piece of krill and have him follow it along the glass.

My cockerspaniel was a rescue and I feel strongly about rescue. I really like supporting the dogs and cats at the shelter. He's a ham, he really is. He likes to watch fish too and inspects the tanks during water changes to make sure I don't disturb anything (?) I'm not sure why he does it. It's funny.

Well...not sure what else to say. Happy to be here with you all!

[Pufferpunk]

I'm partial to cichlids too & have several large ones.

Here's a few articles for you to read:
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19348

[bertie 83]

Welcome to the forum

[AnneMarie]

Thank you for the articles! I am very excited to have my puffer. One day I hope to have a porcupine puffer as well. I love their faces. Once in a fish store I saw one that was around ten inches and he was darling. Puffers have the most expressive little faces. Thank you all for making this community so great, I've learned a lot lurking ^^

[Master of Puffers]

Bonjour et bienvenue.

[RTR]

There are several Cichlid keepers hanging around here. I am one myself.

[AnneMarie]

Hello and thank you ^^ I enjoy cichlids. Their behavior is interesting.

[RTR]

And many of them are breedable, with many different breeding behaviors. Quite a few can be high-personality fish (as are many puffers). Many are also long lived fish.

[AnneMarie]

I've bred convicts, but that's no great feat lol I love my dempseys. I have a female green terror I am growing quite fond of too though. She's young still but coloring up nicely and very personable. I also love corydora. I don't have any right now but they're my favorite community fish. Such cute little things.

[RTR]

I am bit specialized in my fish-keeping, and not very mainstream for the hobby. I do not and will not do anything that could be labeled a "community" tank. I consider then superb devices for shortening fish's lives. Very few hobbyists seem to realize how long captive fish should live in captivity, because so few are kept in low-stress environments.

Breeding also shortens the lives of captive fish, but is a way we pay forward for all the mistakes we have made while learning how to keep fish.

[AnneMarie]

I didn't realize that community tanks could cause stress that way. Even peaceful fish like corydora and certain tetra? I love learning, thank you for sharing that with me.

[RTR]

Cory cats are quite frequently the ones stressed in mixed tanks, not the ones who do the stressing. They can and should live to their mid-teens at least, and over 20 years is common. That is quite comparable to puffers FWIW, but in general Cory cats and puffer do not mix well at all. Puffer tend to nip the Cory's dorsal and caudal fins.

Because LFS tend to push them, few hobbyists realize that community tanks are not that at all. Most mixed tanks are quite high stress situations for fish which should be in schools or shoals. Ask a LFS worker how long Cardinals and Neons should live in captivity and you are most likely to be told "a few months up to a year or two". The correct response is that they should average >8 years for Cardinals and over 10 years for Neons. So-called community tanks are effectively devices for shortening the lives of captive fish. In the wild, few Cardinals or Neons live more than a year or two, but captivity is different situation entirely. If not stressed, they have much longer lives in captivity. That is equally true for most other hobby fish. Many years ago, the owner of a LFS pointed out to me that knowledgeable and experienced hobbyist's tank do not change much when you visit their homes, largely because they have no "community" tanks. What she called "confetti" or "Noah's Ark" tanks (all the possible fish, two by two) doom the fish to short, stressful lives, equal or worse than that in the wild. It took me a while, but I learned a lot from her.

[AnneMarie]

Oh wow, I didn't know that. Thank you for letting me know!

[sgtmyers88]

Welcome aboard!