Off topic [Sticky] Introduce Yourself.

I'll start, I'm Julian, on most of my social media accounts its @julianaquatics. I currently have nine freshwater aquariums. Four are caridina shrimp tanks, and the rest are a mix of nano fish. Nano fish I keep are guppies and lampeye killifish, and starting out with rice fish. I'll probably replace the guppies with rice fish or killis over time. All of my tanks are planted, I have two "high-tech" tech tanks. The rest of my planted tanks are pretty low-tech. I also enjoy aquascaping, but mostly just growing plants for fun. I also have a jungle in my apartment, I have a wide array of terrestrial plants. I grow philodendrons, monsteras, alocasias, citrus trees, begonias, and pothos, but by far my favorite to grow are carnivorous plants. My favorite is nepenthes, but I also grow pinguiculas and sundews. During the summer months I do grow super hot peppers like ghost peppers, and Carolina reapers. I hope my intro helps break the ice a bit as we grow the fish club and forum. hope to see some of you at the meetings.

I'm Jeff Curts. As a young child we had the sad goldfish bowl with a fish or 2 my sister and I would pick out for them only to die a short wild later until my mom got tired of replacing them. Fast forward to high school and I needed an aquarium to keep a snake in. My Dad had a friend at work who was getting out of keeping fish so I bought his 29 long for the snake and he threw in a 5 gallon with his remaining fish for free. I have had fish ever since. I college my Ichthyology professor turned me on to a job at a local tropical fish wholesaler. I stayed in the wholesale fish business for approximately 20 years during which I keep and sold all types of freshwater fish. Then in the mid 2000s I left the fish industry to become a high school science teacher. Now in my retirement I have returned to the club and the fish hobby. After all these years I can probably say I have killed more fish than most hobbyists have even seen. So don't feel bad when you lose a fish. Let me restate that feel bad about the fish you lost but don't get discouraged and learn why it died. 

I am Walter Grunden. (mofunnyfarm) I have had fish since the late 60's. When I got married, I had 100 fish tanks. The largest was a 150 gallon tank. It was an angle iron frame with plate glass and a concrete bottom. We moved them twice and my wife told me we were not moving again. We haven't, but I have 1/2 of the number of tanks all in a fish room.  The largest are 75 gallon tanks. I have quite an assortment of vintage tanks. Currently I have African Cichlids, guppies, endlers, barbs, tetras, danios, panda garas and several fish from Mexico that are endangered in the wild. I like to put fish outside in tubs and tanks in the shade. I have a 1,000 gallon stock tank that has Koi and goldfish in it. We live in Independence Mo. on 10 acres of land with numerous different animals thus mofunnyfarm.  We have horses, a miniature rescue horse, a BLM wild donkey (30+ years old) We have meat sheep, an Emu, chickens a pot bellied pig and a Great pyrenes guard dog. Lots of feral cats who have been fixed, 2 indoor cats and 55 fish tanks. All are Subject to change at anytime without notice.   

My name is Jan Olson. I started in the hobby with a 5 gallon metal frame aquarium 60 years ago.  Like most folks I started with a pair of guppies and once I got to see the miracle of live birth up close and personal I was hooked.  I sold baby guppies for a nickel a piece by advertising the local paper.  By investing the profits in new tanks and equipment I eventually grew the fish room to 50 or 60 tanks.  During the 70s I got 'African fever' and spent a lot of time and energy chasing down and breeding all of the cool new cichlids coming out of Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika. I drug my family all over the country every summer to the various ACA meetings in search of cichlids. At some point I got bored with fish that just shot or spit out fry and ignored them or ate them and discovered that the cichlids from America actually cared about their offspring and became fascinated with parental brood care.  I raised thousands of Angelfish to sell or trade with the local shops as well as many of the typical South and Central American cichlids.  As I got older I realized I couldn't keep up with all of the requirements of big tanks and fortunately discovered dwarf cichlids.  Currently my basement fish room has only 25 tanks mostly 10s and 20s with a few others scattered around the house.  My "real job" as a grownup was in horticulture but somehow can only successfully grow a handful of species of aquarium plants. 

Hi Everyone! 

Went to my first meeting today. It was great meeting all in attendance and learning new things. I'm looking forward to seeing y'all at  the May swap!

Cheers,

Marcey 

My name is Michael Meyer. I started this hobby when I was 9. A neighbor of ours was moving and gave us a 29 gallon setup with some zebra danios. They gave me tiny little fry buried in the oversized gravel. I've been hooked ever since.

My wife - Trish and my kids - Corey and Makenzie don't share my same enthusiasm. However, they do enjoy doing a little collecting with me in the Ozarks.

I started in HAAS back in the late 80s and have been active in the club pretty much since day 1.

My biggest issue with the hobby is there is so many directions to go. My primary passion is catfish, there are 1000's of varieties and so many never spawned in captivity. I love the corys, plecos, and synodontis, but also like to keep odd catfish from south american, asia, africa and even native madtoms. I keep a wide variety of fish but most have very mild temperaments. I routinely keep all types of cichlids, livebearers, tetras, danios, barbs, gouramis and even Saltwater. It's been a while since I have been to the dark side of Saltwater, but may try again soon. I do keep most of my fish in species only tanks so I can focus on breeding them. I am a huge believer in trying to propagate as much as I can in order to keep pressure off of the wild types of fish. Besides enjoying the parenting behavior of fish is really amazing. They are not always great parents but a lot are wonderful parents and do a great job protecting and raising their fry. Breeding fish is amazing to enjoy if you are so fortunate!

My name is Dale , live in the Northland .

Looking to reconnect and make new connections in the KC area.

I'm always looking to increase my knowledge in this hobby

Vendor sold me fish loaded with calmallanus worms. 

@abri_lil_fish

We are writing to apologize for the negative experience you had with the fish you purchased from our swap. Our team at HAAS KC is committed to providing the best experience to all our guests, and we deeply regret that we fell short of that goal in this instance.

We understand that the fish you purchased had parasitic worms, and we want to assure you that we take this situation very seriously. While we cannot control every aspect of our vendors' husbandry and health practices, we are doing everything in our power to identify the vendor responsible and remedy the situation for future events.

We would greatly appreciate your assistance in identifying the vendor. If you could view the vendor table map and let us know which vendor sold you the fish in question, we can take steps to ensure that they provide healthy and well-cared-for livestock at future events.

Once again, we apologize for the negative experience you had with your purchase and appreciate your understanding as we work to address this issue. If there is anything further we can do to assist you, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Hi all,

I'm Patti and my online is kayakpatti so that's me.  I can blame Walter G for my interest in aquariums. I lived a couple of houses down from his home when we lived in Westport area of KC. 

His home was filled with plants and aquariums and was an absolute wonderland for all the neighborhood kids. And there were lots of us. That's where my love of aquariums and plants started. 

Many years have past and now I'm able to get back into the hobby - but hopefully keeping a limits on number of tanks that will keep things "under control"!

Last table sale at the fish club I picked up a  bag of Cave mollies, that had been caught in caves in Mexico.  These wee silver white wee fish have captured my interest and just might cause me to set up yet one more tank so I have a SS 55 gal. tank... so far they're faring well in a community tank that is a peaceable  kingdom.

All my tanks are dirted and have live plants, including one that is home to a little musk turtle - 40 long. 

Glad to be part of this community of crazy, like-minded aquarists. 

@abri_lil_fish

When I first started in the hobby I purchased some fish from a reputable fish seller and unfortunately some of these worms got to me.  I didn't quarantine but I didn't know it was a thing.  

I struggled to get rid of them, mostly because of my inexperience.  I wanted to let you know that eventually I ordered Plymouth Discus product wormer plus and it worked great. It does eventually kill pest snails.  I'd remove any snails you want to keep. I no issues with my shrimp, and it reduced the algae in my tank.

For what it's worth. I hope it helps.

Hi, I’m Nicole, a hobbyist from Olathe. I have just one tank, a planted freshwater 40 gallon breeder with community fish. I have run CO2 in the past, but I am not currently.

@nblackwell33 welcome Nicole. We are a good group to answer questions you may have about anything aquarium related. I personally have caused the death of more fish and aquarium plants than most people in the hobby. I invite you to come out to our swap on August 12th there will be a little of everything available for sale, fish plants and equipment.

Greetings! I’m Mark, a seasoned hobbyist with two decades of experience in the aquatic world. My passion led me to manage an array of breeding and display tanks. After a hiatus, I revived my Fishroom in 2020, eager to engage with the community and exchange valuable insights. Let’s dive into the depths of fishkeeping together!