Hello fellow Aquarium enthusiasts!

I've been dabbling in the hobby for 20 years (10 and 20 gallon tanks) and am thrilled to finally have a 55 gallon freshwater tank of my own. I enjoy getting back issues of fish magazines and reading fish 'how to' books.

I currently have a thriving guppy colony (which is occasionally thinned to feed a friend's oscar) in my 20gal, some lovely cardinal tetras in my 10gal quarantine, and my 55gal hosts a 10 inch pleco "Cthulu" (who came with the tank, I did not intentionally purchase her) and a few mutated guppies on canary duty.

My toddler daughter calls my pleco 'Lulu' and loves to watch her eat zuchinni.
I've never had a fish this big and friendly before, and want to be absolutely sure I'm treating her well.

I look forward to chatting with other 'fish-people'!
~ Betti

UPDATE:
After much online and book research and consulting with my favorite employees at Petco and PetSmart, I decided to put Lulu up for adoption. She needed more space than I was able to provide. The pet store employees were delighted to receive her and promised to prepare her nightly zuchinni slice (I provided the z) until she's adopted and tell potential adoptive parents that she needs at least 75gal.

Now the tank seems huge with just tiny guppies cycling it. I'm sad about not keeping my mega-pleco, so I'm glad I've got a month or so to figure out who is going to ultimately live in the 55gal.

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current tanks:
20gal: one small fancy goldfish, 4 mystery snails
10gal: many mystery snail hatchlings & 2 female guppies
55gal: 4 juvenile blood parrots & 5 giant danios, 2 gold tetras.
55gal: 10 mystery snails, 1 CAE, 7 guppies and 6 cory cats
wishlist: 75+ gal for BPs before they get big

Welcome

Yea, I have a 22 month old boy who loves to feed the fish. Especially the oscars.

Hello and welcome to the site

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55gallon
Light - 6500K CFL, 23wattsx5 5hr/day
Substrate - Red Mexican Clay, Sphagnum Peat moss, Eco-Complete
Misc- Pressurized CO2, EI Dose KNO3, KH2PO4, CSM-B
Plants -Limnophila Aromatica, Stargrass, Dwarf Hair Grass, Christmas Moss, Baby Tears (HM), Dwarf Baby Tears(HC), Rotala Rotundifolia, Ludwigia Glandulosa, Riccia Fluitans

I saw a deal on Criagslist that I couldn't pass up - so far it has been worth the budgeting.
I've started a thread in the "New to the Freshwater Aquarium Hobby" forum where I'm whining about not knowing what to do about 'Lulu'. The more research I do, the more I'm convinced that 55gal is not enough space for a 10 inch common pleco.

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current tanks:
20gal: one small fancy goldfish, 4 mystery snails
10gal: many mystery snail hatchlings & 2 female guppies
55gal: 4 juvenile blood parrots & 5 giant danios, 2 gold tetras.
55gal: 10 mystery snails, 1 CAE, 7 guppies and 6 cory cats
wishlist: 75+ gal for BPs before they get big

Welcome to the site!

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I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!