Rob Peterson, Herndon, Va

[ltrepeter2000]

Hmmm

Always fun to join a new group and realize how much the fish and plants have changed since I started doing fish.

My name is Rob Peterson, and I am in Herndon, VA. I am currently the co manager of the Annandale Home Depot. Previously was an Army Engineer Officer and Construction Manager for Hovnanian Homes.

These days I have 19 tanks set up between my apartment and my parents house. My joining CCA can be attributed to a few members of GWAPA that attend or belong to CCA, Francine, Kevin and Kris being the ones that really piqued my interest in the meetings.

I joined GWAPA about 2 years ago after moving back to the area from the Army. Just recently returned from Atlanta for Home Depot and joined PVAS and CCA in quick succession. I am fairly active in the hobby, always looking to learn something new. More into a balanced tank than any of the big tanks of large cichlids, kind of concentrating on Dwarfs at the moment and when I find out what Home Depot I will be the actual manager of I plan to move and buy a house which will allow me to begin breeding heavily as well as growing plants. I have 7 tanks currently empty that will really establish my fish room once I get them up. A 75, 2 50 Breeders, 2 40 Breeders, a 30 breeder, and a 33 long. I also have a spattering of 15 gallons and smaller that I use on a random basis for quarantine and grow out.

At the Parents is

120 gallon
Convicts, 3 Green Severums, 3 Silver Dollars, 1 Rainbow fish, 1 8" High backed Headstander, 1 13" Black Banded Leporinus.

55 gallon(About to upgrade to 75)
Ameca Splendens colony(or as Francine would say: Food) I also have several Africans that someone gave me which will be housed elsewhere after some rearranging.

30 Tall:
Honey Gouramis, Fancy Guppies

10 gallon
Guppy Fry

My apartment
75
Convicts, 6 Clown Loaches, 3 mature plecos, Rafael Catfish
Planted with Sword plants
75
Breeding pair of Pelvicachromis Pulcher, 6 juvenile Laetacara Curviceps, 15 Blue tetras, 6 Black Neons, spattering of other random tetras. 3 Brochis Planted with Anubias Nana, Crypt Balansae, Hygro sp 'Bold', baby tears, several other crypts, bacopa monieri, rotala indica, rotala macranda, glosso,
65
Pair of Pelvicachromis Rolofi, 4 male Apisto sp Steel Blue, 10 mixed Corydoras, 6 adult Trichogaster trichopterus, 4 male rainbows, This is my grow out tank for plants so the number of plants is too long to list.

40
25 cardinal tetras, 8 peacock gudgeons, cherry shrimp, bristlenose babies and female bristlenose(breeding male jumped the tank last week) handful of endlers livebearers and heterandia formosa Plants list again too long to list

30 tall
10 Apistogramma sp Rotpunkt, 4 SAEs, 3 male flexipinnis vittatus, one male endler Planted with Anubias, java fern, Hygro Corymbosa narrow leaf, Crypt Balansae

30 long
6 apisto cacauotides, 1 male and 4 female gardneri gold killies, 6 platys Planted with Hygro Corymbosa Narrow Leaf, Ludwigia Arcuata-Repens, Crypts Wendtii, Java Moss, Anubias barteri, Hygro Sunset, Hygro Green

30
4 Bolivian Rams, 6 Apisto Agassizzi, 5 corydoras, 2 female endlers, 2 female flexipinnis Vittatus Heavily planted.

30
2 pairs of Apisto Panduro, male Apisto Maulbruter, mollies heavily planted with Java Moss, Hygro Difformis and Hygro Sunset

30
10 Anomalochromis Thomasi with light planting(Also seen these listed as Pelmatochromis thomasi)

20 long
1 male, 3 females Pseudocrenilabrus Multicolor

14 gallon Oceanic
Molly fry

12 gallon
Pair of Aphyosemion Bivittatum Mundemba Killies, male betta

10 gallon
Male Pseudocrenilabrus Nicholsi

5.5 gallon
Endler Fry

5 gallon
Breeder for Multicolor. All three females are holding at the moment.

Thats me in a nutshell for now, things change weekly so who knows.

 

[Theresa_M]

Welcome, it sounds like you have a nice variety of tanks! Any pics to share?

Do you know if you'll end up at a Home Depot in this area?

I got my first 'real' tank (non-betta bowl lol) five years ago...I now have nine tanks running and two of my children have taken an active interest in the hobby as well. Seven of my tanks are planted, but they are very, very low tech (no special lighting, no CO2, etc). We've thought about joining GWAPA but aren't sure if we're quite at that level yet.

 

[mscichlid]

Welcome home Rob! Good to see you here! Man you have more than I thought!
Francine

 

[maddog10]

Welcome Rob, that is a nice assortment. You are right, Francine was readind that list going nice fish, food, food, large food, nice fish....you get the point. I am sure you cant wait to get settled, so you can get serious. Hmmm....Home Depot sells wood, my new racks will be made of wood....Hmmm!

 

[Pat Kelly]

Nice to have you here Rob.

Mike, take it easy. Don't scare the new guys off.

They can't all go from 1 tank to 5000 tanks like you in 2 years....lol

 

[ltrepeter2000]

Here are a few photos that one of the members took when the Feb meeting of GWAPA was held at my apartment as an emergency fill in for someone else. GWAPA members really span the gammut from low tech low light to CO2, Metal Halides, etc. I have just recently started using CO2 and thats just DIY on any of my tanks. I usually save my yearly membership fee to GWAPA at the first auction of plants as some of the members have contacts across the world that send them things. They sometimes are the first people in the United States to have certain plants and you definitely wont see many of the plants in the LFS any time soon, except possibly SCALES as they purchase a large number of plants from members. This months meeting is in Columbia, MD and next month in Ashburn, VA as we meet in members homes to allow them to discuss their set up, usually there is also a meeting topic, in Feb since it was an emergency change several of the senior members of GWAPA aquascaped a tank that I had recently brought back from Atlanta, which I can proudly say I have managed to get that tank to thrive. Usually the meeting alternates between MD and VA.

Home Depot has been known to traffic in some wood every once in a while, and I will probably be in a store in this area although I have given a wish list that has stores in other parts of VA and NC.

I am only limited by space and load bearing walls for tanks. I have just recently added several of the fish species, two of them last night. I got the Cardinals and Blue tetras from Petland in Fairfax, that I just stumbled on my way home to find out that on Tuesday nights they do a sale on fish. I picked up the Cardinals for $1 and the Blues for $.50 each. The store manager said that he is open to negotiating club discounts if the board here would like to contact him. He also did not have a problem with me plugging the groups I belong to with some of the shoppers and might be interested in having CCA set up a display tank for him or at least provide knowledgeable advice on his current set up.

His information is:
Kareem Koshok
9404 A Main Street
Fairfax, VA 22031
703-323-6355

Thanks
Rob

 

[Theresa_M]

Thanks for the GWAPA info, I might try to attend this month.

Beautiful tanks ! It's nice to actually see fish; so often planted tank shots are just that: plants.

 

[longstocking]

Welcome

 

[marge618]

:blush: Wow! You have a mini-fish-store in the making. I love the pictures of the planted tanks. Welcome to the club!

 

[marge618]

Here are a few photos that one of the members took when the Feb meeting of GWAPA was held at my apartment as an emergency fill in for someone else. GWAPA members really span the gammut from low tech low light to CO2, Metal Halides, etc. I have just recently started using CO2 and thats just DIY on any of my tanks. I usually save my yearly membership fee to GWAPA at the first auction of plants as some of the members have contacts across the world that send them things. They sometimes are the first people in the United States to have certain plants and you definitely wont see many of the plants in the LFS any time soon, except possibly SCALES as they purchase a large number of plants from members. ...Feb since it was an emergency change several of the senior members of GWAPA aquascaped a tank that I had recently brought back from Atlanta, which I can proudly say I have managed to get that tank to thrive....

The store manager said that he is open to negotiating club discounts if the board here would like to contact him. He also did not have a problem with me plugging the groups I belong to with some of the shoppers and might be interested in having CCA set up a display tank for him or at least provide knowledgeable advice on his current set up.[/b]

Wow! Soooo many tank pics... soooo many plants. I was already planning to check out GWAPA following the aquascaping demo at AquaFest. (Is the GWAPA scaped tank pic in the thumbnails? Your pics have convinced me to take more interest in my planted tanks. See you at GWAPA soon.

Also, HOW DO YOU approach a store manager on the topic of club discounts? I have distributed posters for CCA, displayed hand-outs for membership and AquaFest at local stores. (Never got to the topic of club discounts .. or sponsorship.) :smashfreakB:
Later,
Marge

 

[maddog10]

Just ask!

"Would you be interested in providing a discount to our members and/or donating items to our raffle and mini-auctions in exchange for mention at our meetings and in our quarterly publication, The Biotope?"

All they can do is say no. (then you kick them in the *censored*)

 

[ltrepeter2000]

Glad the tanks were an inspiration....you can see many better examples of tanks on GWAPA's forum as I am by no means the aquascaper that some of the other members are. There is so much you can learn very quickly about planted tanks on their forum, as much so as I have learned about many cichlids here. The next meeting topic for GWAPA may be hardscaping a tank(ie, substrates to use and how to place rocks and driftwood appropriately) but that is up for a vote opposed by a potluck. If it doesnt happen at the December meeting then more than likely it will be the January topic, as the board intends to do in depth talks about each phase of setting up a tank to follow on to the tank setup they did at Aquafest. Hopefully if you saw that you will at least make the time to come learn the way to do it step by step even if you dont intend to make this your focus.

As for getting businesses to support, the advice already given was all I did and I didnt even offer the Biotope because I wasnt involved enough with CCA at the time to feel comfortable offering that and the manager their had no problem giving a discount anyway.

Hope the meeting goes well as I unfortunately will not be able to make it. I look forward to a summary and photos.

Rob