Welcome to the Neighborhood Rick (rickztahone)

[Second Hand Pat]

Well, the homesteader section is popping. I would like to welcome Rick to the hood where I hope he grows beyond the 50 gallon he is currently working on.

Rick, once you settle in we can talk about a adding a fishroom...with one tank I bet soon there will be more. :D :D
Enjoy,
Pat

[rickztahone]

Well, the homesteader section is popping. I would like to welcome Rick to the hood where I hope he grows beyond the 50 gallon he is currently working on.

Rick, once you settle in we can talk about a adding a fishroom...with one tank I bet soon there will be more. :D :D
Enjoy,
Pat

:laugh:

Thanks Pat. Over the years I have had many tanks. However, discus has been the love of my aquarium world. I always seem to come back. I started with discus back in 2006 if I remember correctly but didn't join SD till 2008. That means that I had a few stunted discus before SD, lol.

My pride and joy at one point was my half BB/Half retain wall 125 seen here:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/discus%20tanks/P4112254.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/discus%20tanks/P4112254.jpg.html)

I've dealt with fully planted tanks:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/Planted%20tanks/P3300456.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/Planted%20tanks/P3300456.jpg.html)
This one housed nothing but chili rasboras. About 100 or so if I remember correctly, and RCS

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/Planted%20tanks/P3300453.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/Planted%20tanks/P3300453.jpg.html)
and I've also dealt with high grade crystal red shrimp which were housed in these two tanks

All in all, I always have some kind of hobby in the air that I'm juggling. I'm also married and have 2 children. One of which is in my avatar in his first birthday :)

Thanks for the welcome Pat and thanks for all your help

[Second Hand Pat]

Rick, those are absolutely beautiful tanks and you are more then welcome. :)
Pat

[rickztahone]

I figure instead of making an introductory thread for my Homesteader section, I could just use this one :)

Here is a photo of the second discus batch I bought. The first batch was of 3 in a 29 gallon tank but I have no pictures of those:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/DSC02331_zpsab113d81.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/DSC02331_zpsab113d81.jpg.html)
I forgot where I got these from but they were bought online. Only the red melons survived which you can see in the first photo of my 125.

Like I said, I was in to shrimp keeping as well, this is what I started with:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/DSC00624_zps6faf5950.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/DSC00624_zps6faf5950.jpg.html)
It quickly escalated since shrimp are so easy to breed, lol. I started breeding for grade and the highest I got were SSS with Mosura crowns. Eventually, the market was saturated with high grade shrimp and prices plummeted. It wasn't that financially viable anymore. But I still liked keeping them:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/DSC00001_zpsedbc1c8b.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/DSC00001_zpsedbc1c8b.jpg.html)
You can see the babies on this one (berried)
One cool thing is that I bred a mutation by accident. Someone told me that this was a one in something million odds. Many were asking to buy this shrimp and I kept him to the end. The end was a bad batch of water from a local supplier and it destroyed my two high grade shrimp tanks and I lost over 300 shrimp!:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/FishTank_39_zps074e9e65.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/FishTank_39_zps074e9e65.jpg.html)

I also had yellow shrimp, and my favorite, the Orange Eyed Black tigers:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/DSC00143_zps81cf5782.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/DSC00143_zps81cf5782.jpg.html)
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/rickztahone/DSC00556_zpsdf0353e7.jpg (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/rickztahone/media/DSC00556_zpsdf0353e7.jpg.html)
I was one of the first people in the US to actually get some of these shrimp. These were imported from Germany and I bought like 5 or so for over $200 expecting to breed them. Well, there wasn't much info on them and although I kept them longer than almost anyone else in the US, they still ended up dying after a couple of months. I was pretty bummed about that.

Anyway, that has been my venture in to other aquarium setups. Again, discus is the only thing that has ever drawn me back. The most tanks I have had at once was 5 and that was a little too much for me. Additionally, my wife is the one that insisted I get rid of my fish tanks, and I listened to her. Sadly, I missed having A tank around and when a free bowfront came around, i took it. So, no fish room for me, but I will make this one and only tank my main show piece!

Thanks for reading and stopping by.

[dkeef]

rick r u member of scape club?
u would fit right in.
my friend next to me also into plants, shrimps, and discus.

[rickztahone]

rick r u member of scape club?
u would fit right in.
my friend next to me also into plants, shrimps, and discus.

Yeah, scapeclub.org is still a place I frequent. I got many of my scape ideas from that forum as well as tpt. I will say that a planted healthy hitech tank is one of the most difficult things to manage, and expensive

[Nick Klimkowski]

Welcome Rick, nice pics.

[sgchick]

Beautiful tanks and photos!

[MKD]

I remember your 125 gallon tank when I started browsing on SD. It's really nice setup and lay out. Usually people come back for more, will see.

Welcome back Rick.
Tony

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[rickztahone]

Thanks Tony. I see you are doing well for yourself :). I hope to see you if we set up the LA meet.

[musicmarn1]

Welcome! What's the state scape is in? Trying to register and keep failing

[treemanone2003]

Welcome Rick. Gorgeous shrimp you've got there. Orange Eyed is marvelous !!!