New member from Austin, TX

I am in the process of simultaneously and slowly stocking two decent sized aquariums. In the past, I have been an anal retentive biotope aquarist and eschewed popular choices in favor of more esoteric ones (Indian mudskipper community with brackish tankmates and a tidal flow anyone?).

This time around, I am embracing the chaos (in a controlled, anal retentive fashion). Both the 150 and 220 are planned out as the ever popular, but unattempted by me, planted community discus tanks. I am keeping both at similar water parameters and stocking slowly.

While both are intended to house discus, the majority of tankmates will be different in each as I am not trying to reproduce the same community. Rather, I want the freedom to move fish between tanks if necessary and hope to get by with a single 36g, bare-bottom quarantine/spawning/growth tank. (Six months from now, I may look back at those words and sigh over my good intentions while figuring out where to put ANOTHER "small" tank for just one more thing.)

It's not biotope and not purist in that I did not get anal about the species of plants and locality appropriate aquascape. I don't intend to challenge any of the proven water parameters and everything will still be South American, but I am hoping to be a bit more adventurous regarding the tankmates.

I am not a breeder and have no desire to deal with the business side of the equation. I appreciate the aesthetics of the aquariums in the house, but am uninterested in converting the garage to a fish store. However, I stock my fish as pairs, trios, or mixed groups and try to keep them happy. More often than not, I get lucky with offspring and then scramble to deal with it accordingly.

I stumbled onto this thread while looking for local breeders of some of desired species. I registered to contact one and ended up actually including details about me when I realized that there were a respectable number of members within a drivable distance from me.

Welcome to the Box!

Good luck with setting up your tanks it sounds like a very good plan.

Welcome to the box. Very knowledgeable people on here.

Welcome!!! Retentive isn't a bad thing is closer to being a perfectionism person. Which is a good thing!!!

Welcome! Lots of knowledgeable people here.

And neither retentive nor perfectionist is bad, in and of itself. : )

Welcome to the Box ! Jump in , swim around , enjoy yourself . Comment . and add your knowledge when you can . And remember ,,, WE LOVE pictures here ! LOL
Ray

Welcome