Newbie in TX

[Cherie Jones]

Need to go east more...

LOL I only say it jokingly. I do use the little Texas sayings a lot though. I've got to get some Texas in there somewhere. People always say that I have the TX accent. I should, I've lived here my whole life.

 

[Cherie Jones]

Howdy. East Texas here.

We are originally from NE Texas close to Texarkana.

 

[Cherie Jones]

Welcome. Let see some pictures.

I don't have a lot to show so far. I feel VERY inadequate. lol

 

[Fudsey]

We all had to start somewhere

 

[jolt]

Cool. We live in Harlingen. We drive through Weslaco all the time. We have only lived here a year and half.

I think there may be a decent local fish store down in that vicinity, but I've never checked it out. San Antonio has several stores and a pretty lively reefing community, as does Austin and Houston. I've caught sargent majors and peppermint shrimp down at the jetties in south padre island many times, and I've seen where others have found seahorses down there in the bay.

 

[Cherie Jones]

This is my tank. 45 gallons. I bought it from a guy that does freshwater tanks and had all the equipment etc. He really took good care of it and drained it only after I committed to buying, so I knew it hadn't sat in the heat in his garage or something. I wish I had thought about it being so tall! I've run into a lot of issues with that. But...live and learn.

My cute little clownfish. They were only 1 1/4 inches. Tweddle Dee and Dumb. lol I couldn't tell them apart until later. Sadly, my pistol shrimp killed one of them. Broke my heart. They had finally paired up and were actually being nice to each other. *sniff* He's already killed my clown and multiple snails! Ugh! The shrimp is a serial killer and the goby is an accessory after the fact! Stupid shrimp.


Look at him! He's not even remorseful.

I also have a Royal Grama (Alice). I'll try to get a good pic of her. I have snails and 3 little hermit crabs. I love the little hermies. My daughter named all the snails "Bob" and all the hermits "Hermi".

I didn't want to spend a fortune (little did I know), so I used the equipment that came with the tank. Which surprisingly has worked pretty well. A Sachem Tidal55 filter, a Sun Sun 302 canister filter, Eheim Jager 100w heater. Very simple compared to everyone else's. I added a cheap skimmer also. Knock on wood, all my perimeters have been spot on so I guess it is doing something right. I did have a diatom bloom but the snails keep that in check so far....unless they are assasinated by the shrimp. I think I may get some frozen shrimp and give him little pieces to keep him satisfied. Stupid shrimp.

I don't want to add too much so I won't overload on the equipment until I can get a better set up. But, there she is.

 

[Cherie Jones]

I think there may be a decent local fish store down in that vicinity, but I've never checked it out. San Antonio has several stores and a pretty lively reefing community, as does Austin and Houston. I've caught sargent majors and peppermint shrimp down at the jetties in south padre island many times, and I've seen where others have found seahorses down there in the bay.

We have one here in Harlingen with a lot of bigger fish but not a big variety. The one in McAllen doesn't have a very big selection. I ordered my goby and stupid shrimp from Harlingen. There is one guy there that is very helpful but he isn't always there. We were in San Antonio so I popped into one when I was thinking about starting a tank. Elegant Reef. They had "everything" that I had read about and beautiful corals. That's what sealed the deal with wanting to do this. I wish it was here instead of there. lol

 

[jolt]

We have one here in Harlingen with a lot of bigger fish but not a big variety. The one in McAllen doesn't have a very big selection. I ordered my goby and stupid shrimp from Harlingen. There is one guy there that is very helpful but he isn't always there. We were in San Antonio so I popped into one when I was thinking about starting a tank. Elegant Reef. They had "everything" that I had read about and beautiful corals. That's what sealed the deal with wanting to do this. I wish it was here instead of there. lol

There is a frag swap in San Antonio from time to time called LMAR - might be worth going to that when the time comes. No date currently set, the last one was in April.

 

[Cherie Jones]

There is a frag swap in San Antonio from time to time called LMAR - might be worth going to that when the time comes. No date currently set, the last one was in April.

Oh wow. I'd love that. I'll keep my eyes open. I ordered 3 zoas from a live sale this past weekend. Everything says they are good to start with. We shall see.....