Hello! My name is Jennifer and I got my first fish tank this year. 60 gallons! I should take a pic and post. Where are your meetings and what are they about? Also does anyone know orbs place I can get a few hearty low maintenance plants (I don't have plant light) for a good deal? I bought a tiny one from petco and it was 6 dollars and not that perfect looking. I wanted a couple more to give my tank some more real planty goodness. Is petco even a good place to get fish?

Hello PinkNinja, welcome to CVAS. And thank you for joining us. We have been having our meetings in Richmond. Our meetings are always about fish. Our last meeting we had a Rep. from API informing us about the different products from water conditioning to fish health. It was very nice and helpful. What kind of fish do you have in your tank. I dont stay in Richmond myself but we have a great group of people that do and I am sure they will be glad to help you out with some of lfs (local fish stores) to know which place has some good fish and also finding the types of plants you want. Also if you look on the main page and scroll almost all the way to the bottom of the page we have a section called Fish Stores and Reviews. That info. should help you to find and know some of the stores in you area. I hope this helps you with some of the info you are looking for.

Welcome Jennifer. Koolaid summed us up pretty well. We have members with 1 or two tanks, some with over a hundred, salty's and freshwater fans. We have members like yourself just starting and some with over 40 to 50 years experience, pro's and novices. Ask away any questions and your likely to get some pretty good answers or directions where to find answers. We all are looking forward to pics of your tank, and fish list. The board has not set another meeting date yet. They normally are every two months. Our last was in April so next one should be coming up soon. Watch for the posting. Looking forward to having you attend, and meeting with you.

Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to CVAS!

Click here for a look at our last meeting. Photos on page 5!

Welcome Jennifer. PinkNinja is a good screen name, WE look forward to seeing the pics and hopefully seeing you at the meets.

Hi I'm on my phone just took a pic will upload shortly! This is my 1st fish tank and my 1st group of fishies. The 60 gallon tank water was cycled for 1 week with the petstore's filter inside to speed things up. I only have 1 real plant but will get more. Still researching what my 2nd group of fishies will be! Hope my new fishies are happy!

Welcome to CVAS! Looking forward to seeing your tank!

I emailed the pic from my phone to my comptuer and just posted it! All I have in there are 6 black skirt tetras right now. Doing more research before buying more fishies.

Very nice. I like the red plants as accent

Hello Pink, Glad you found us.

Thanks everyone. Does anyone know of a good site that they use for reference on how much and when to feed different fish? I have 6 black skirt tetras and want to make sure I'm feeding it right. I saw on one site feed 2x a day, another site said a pinch, and another said as much as it can eat in 5 min. But...if I put a "pinch" and after 1 min its gone do I keep putting I pinches for 5 minutes? Sorry seems like a stupid q. But this is my 1st tank and first set off fish.

welcome i havent went to a meeting yet my self but i would say the guy who works at petco on midlo is very helpfull i had asked for help with a sicness my jack dempsey had and she said it was pretty much dead and dont bother but when the guy walked over he told me how to make them better and it worked he also breeds fish

i also just recently went to cichlid solutions wih my family and he was very helpfull and nice i like how your tank looks i just started my self this year with a 55 gal and now i am getting ready to purchase a 125 gal

good luck on your fish i will try to help when i can i like cichlids and jack dempseys my self
and your tank looks awesome

Hi PinkNinja! Nice to have you here.

Did you get your feeding question answered? It's not a stupid question at all. There are a lot of different opinions out there and it can be confusing if you're new to it. It's great that you're concerned about it and doing the research to make sure you're taking care of your fish well. I think everyone does it a little differently. The main thing is that you don't want a lot of uneaten food in your tank. Eventually you'll get a good idea of how much your fish can eat without much going to waste. What I do personally is just feed a bit, then if they eat it all I feed a bit more. It only takes a few minutes and during that time I check everyone out to make sure they are all eating, looking healthy, etc. You'll notice they tend to go from frantic to get the food, to slowing down a bit and letting a piece of two get away and drift towards the bottom of the tank. When they get to that point, I stop feeding. When I'm home, I'll often feed twice a day. When I do this I generally feed a bit less then if I'm feeding them once a day. That's what works for me. *shrug*

Good luck with your fish! It sounds like you're off to a great start.

Hello! Thanks Blue CatFish! That is exactly what I did. I haven't been back to the this site for a while. But I got a bunch more fish! I'll put a few of their pics.

I have a How often should one clean a 60 gallon tank?
I read all you have to do is suction out 25% of the water. But...my tank doesn't look dirty at all and it's been 2 months and I haven't suctioned it.

Do you guys know where to get some snails? I went to petstore 5 times and everytime they didn't get any.

And also do you guys know where to buy a dwarf frog? I want one of those too!

I would at a minimum do a 50% water change every two weeks. There are a ton of non visible harmful things in a fish tank. You can not see ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates with the naked eye. All of these are harmful to fish in different degrees. This is why water changes are a must in this hobby. All questions are good questions when it comes to this hobby, if you have any questions please ask.