I’ve been caring for aquatic animals for nearly as long as I’ve been playing guitar. One day I’ll get into larger aquariums, but so far I’ve had fresh- and saltwater tanks of the following sizes (in U.S. gallons): 1, 2.5, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 28, 29, 40, 55, 75.
Gallery
Below are some of the more photogenic animals I’ve owned. Some of my old favorites predate digital photography and are absent here–sorry, Gus!
Orange maze discus.
Red shoulder angelfish.
Diablo, a red dragon flowerhorn cichlid.
Pair of percula clowns that spawned every 14 days for about 13 years.
Zeke, a honeycomb moray eel who grew from about 28″ to nearly 48″ during the 3.5 years before he outgrew his tank. There was almost always at least one cleaner shrimp at work on Zeke.
Silvia, a female rose queen cichlid who grew from about 7″ to more than 12″ between July, 2014 and May, 2019. I kept hoping she was done growing, but she continued to expand in every dimension.
Tukey, a peacock mantis shrimp. These are one of the most amazing animals in the world–you should Google it!
Octopus, another of the most amazing animals in the world. You probably don’t need to Google this one, they’re pretty familiar.
Toma, a red-tailed catfish who grew to nearly 24″ as she outgrew her tank (and later tub).
Rufus, a tiger shovelnose catfish that reached about 22″ as it outgrew the tank.
Pinky, a red-bellied piranha.
Gold piranha.
Volitans lionfish.
Clown triggerfish. Probably the messiest eater I’ve ever seen, would positively shred its food and only seemed to eat a small fraction of it.
The smaller of two pairs of managuense, or jaguar cichlids. The male is in front above hundreds of eggs on this pair’s spawning slate.
Species List
To the best of my recollection, these are the species I’ve owned. Asterisks mark those that have spawned. On the rare occasions when an animal was given a name, that’s listed in parentheses.
Freshwater
Angelfish
Red shoulder
White crystal (platinum)*
Arowana
Black
Silver (Jerry)
Barb
Cherry
Filament
Rosy
Catfish
Corydoras, sterbai
Corydoras, julii
Corydoras, albino aeneus
Corydoras, panda
Corydoras, spotted
Marmoratus
Otocinclus
Pictus
Pleco, bristlenose
Pleco, bristlenose, albino
Pleco, common
Pleco, gibbiceps
Pleco, gray spotted
Pleco, leopard
Pleco, royal
Pleco, gold-striped royal
Pleco, clown
Red-tailed (Toma)
Synodontis, angelicus
Synodontis, petricola
Synodontis, multipunctatus
Synodontis, decorus
Synodontis, nigrita
Tiger shovelnose (Rufus)
Cichlid
Blue acara
Blue acara, electric
Buttikoferi
Convict*
Electric blue johanni
Firemouth
Flowerhorn, red dragon (Diablo)
Green terror (Terri)
Jack Dempsey
Julidochromis, regani
Julidochromis, marlieri
Managuense*
Mbuna, albino
Oscar
Peacock, dragon blood
Purple rose queen (Sylvia)
Red devil (Petey)
Red terror
Synspilum
Discus
Brown
Heckel
Orange maze
Red turquoise*
Loach
Clown
Kuhli
Weather
Tetra
Black neon
Cardinal (oh so many times)
Exodon
Pacu, red-belly
Piranha, gold
Piranha, red-belly (Gus; Pinky)
Red-eye
Serpae
Silver tip
Miscellaneous
Bala shark
Blue lobster
Cigar shark
Dwarf frog
Newt
Snakehead, blue
Snakehead, red-line
Saltwater
Angelfish
Coral beauty
Flame
Potter’s
Clownfish
Maroon
Ocellaris*
Percula*
Crab
Blue-leg hermit
Sally lightfoot
Lionfish
Radiata
Volitans
Moray eel
Black-edge
Chainlink (Bernie)
Honeycomb (Zeke)
Snowflake
Viper
Shrimp
Cleaner
Fire
Peacock mantis (Tukey)
Triggerfish
Clown
Picasso
Undulated
Miscellaneous
Anglerfish
Blue damsel
Brittle star
Octopus