Oh yeah forgot poor Tigger, my other clown loach.
He will be joining the bunch soon after he's over quarantine.  Tony LOVES that lighthouse.  He squeezes into it and that's his new house/hidey hole!

Sweet! I support the idea of shells!! I say, you should wait until you've got them and the plants in place and then see if the mermaid is needed. But that's a very nice idea too
It's really beautiful already!

LOL!~ Thanx guyz.
Hey I was actually thinking of adding some sound when people come over...like waves crashing, haha seagulls crying.

Is that stripey one a clown loach?? Ahh my friend has a couple of them and they are very slow growers, his are still pretty much the same size as when he brought them. They are very cute and probably my second favourite in his tank after his bristle nose

Tank looks lovely, Tony is a lucky fishie to have been accidentally brought by you haha 

Wow what a great set up Minde!!! It's so pretty So this is the fish that hitched a ride in a log? or did I dream that??? aging what can ya do LOL! Anyhoo, your fish are real beauties and you must be so pleased! You mentioned quarantine for plants, how do you do that? Does that remove any bugs or snails and crap that might have mingled with them in the store? I so want to get live plants for the new tank too so any info would be awesome! Sit back and enjoy - it's gorgeous!

  LOL!  I know... husbands!! Right?  They always want the "manly" fish!  If he had his way we probably would have brought home an oscar or piranna!    Heh...I only brought him along to play undertaker and carry "the body" (dead goldfish) into the store  Shhhhhhhh! Don't tell him! LOL!
Yeah the "stripey" fish was the one that hitched a ride home with us in a piece of driftwood!
You didn't dream it!

I have to say, I bought the packaged live plants this time.  They are by Topfin at Petsmart and supposedly sterilized, pre-quarantined and snail free!!!  I was very pleased.  First time I bought them too and for $3.99 I was surprised that 1 pkg had 4 plants in it instead of just one!  What a deal!!  The plants are very healthy.  This probably the better way to go!
If I would buy any plants out of the tank, I would put them in a quarantine tank, container for at least a week!  last time I rinsed them and put them right in my tank as I always did in the past and a few days later my fish broke out in ich!  Had to treat the whole tank!  What a nightmare that was.  I sure learned my lesson!

Minde, get another tank for your hubby and add a few cichlids, blues and yellows, sand, some nice rocks... you can give it a look of a marine tank... if we get another one I think we'll have a cichlid one...      

Awesome!

If only you lived over here Nossie, I know someone who has and breeds Oscars! Those are some crazy fish haha 

I just saw the craziest picture!
A big old oscar and a big old telescope eyed goldfish living together as friends!!
I would have thought the oscar would have had the goldfish for lunch!

I honestly cannot remember!
I was just browsing the internet, came across I believe a forum, didn't join but it had pictures.
If I come across it again I will post it.
Now you have me wondering where I saw it.....
HaHa! did I dream it? LOL! 

Wow that's crazy!!! The guy I know who has Oscars fed them goldfish once, they are known goldfish eaters! He never did it again cause he felt bad which is good. It's actually my boyfriend's brother and he lives in a little apartment with his partner, baby and lots of tanks. I'll have to get some photos for you guys and find out what the Oscar's tank mates are

You know it's very weird but I had Blossom in with the clown loach and he didn't get sick at all.  Not even a speck of ich!
Maybe tropicals have different disease resistants to some disease goldfish get and vise versa? 

That could be it... but if you read that "Manual on Fish Health" yet, it says there that fish can aquire diseases from eating contaminated dead fish? In other words... it's like eating the infection, and I'm pretty sure that it's not healthy! Even if they won't get sick right away, there's always the risk! By the way, yes, I did hear that humans can get TB from fish, but rather from open wounds on your hands if you touch the tank water
Humans can carry the TB infection without getting the TB disease as well so you can infect others... because of your fish o_o

Very pretty BEACH

I think cichlids would be great to have, but I'm not ready for them yet.  There's this really amazing fish store I was just in, called Aquarium Adventure.  They had 2 gorgeous wall tanks that were about 10' long x 5' tall, full of very colorful cichlids that were at about 1 foot long.  It was so nice, and they must have had a couple hundred tanks with fish for sale.

As for TB and other diseases, my hands get really dry in the winter so I bought a pair of aquarium gloves just in case I need them.  I haven't used them yet, but I thought they would also help on the days where I keep putting on tons of hand lotion, so the lotion doesn't get in the tank.