Fish tanks and fish - looking for advice!

[Parm]

Need to get my gf something for our upcoming anniversary, and I'm thinking of getting her a pet.

Trouble is, I've never had pets myself and I'm not particularly fond of them - don't like the mess, the smell, the noise, or the cost!

However, fish don't seem too bad...? I'm thinking they'll be relatively cheap to maintain, pretty quiet, and smell free, too. I'm assuming all that, though, as I know nothing about fish other than the ones they serve at the local chippy.

Before I even think about getting fish, they need to pass this checklist:

• Must be cheap to maintain
• Must be easy to clean (or self-cleaning! is that possible?!)
• Must not make too much noise (can you get near-silent or completely-silent tanks?)

If that's yes to all of the above, where should I start looking? How much I'm willing to pay is going to be a big factor, but I've really no idea how much these things cost. I'll say £100 off the top of my head, but I could go up or down on that.

Any thoughts?

Oh, and I like the look of the fish in Finding Nemo - the orange ones!

[Betty_Swallocks]

£100 should get you started. I'd spend the bulk of it on tank and equipment with just a few fish. Leaves you plenty of options for presents in the future.
Is there a specialist fish shop near you?

[HSK]

hmm finding nemo fish are Clown fish, its probably not best to have a marine setup for beginners! but tropical fish will be more then fine.

just make sure u have a decent size tank for the amount of fish u plan to have (i dont know the ratio off the top of my head), a heater suited to the size of the tank, undergravel filter with a pump. and a drop in filter maybe?

first thing is, make sure u set up ur tank around 2 week in advance with the water, so all the chemicals in the water reduce. or have water in buckets standing still for a week weeks before hand.

the types of fish? it is a good idea to research a tropical fish book and find out which are suited to each other. some fish are aggressive (tiger barbs, zebra fish especially) and tend to nip other fish or get territorial. some fish like guppies and platties are the basic tropical fish, super easy to keep, and colourful. but be careful if u keep females in there, u'll have loads of baby fry sooner or later, which will all get eaten.

Chiclids are a nice type of tropical fish though, nicer colours etc. or you could go with basic cold water fish (gold fish etc).

[j1979]

hmm finding nemo fish are Clown fish, its probably not best to have a marine setup for beginners! but tropical fish will be more then fine.

just make sure u have a decent size tank for the amount of fish u plan to have (i dont know the ratio off the top of my head), a heater suited to the size of the tank, undergravel filter with a pump. and a drop in filter maybe?

first thing is, make sure u set up ur tank around 2 week in advance with the water, so all the chemicals in the water reduce. or have water in buckets standing still for a week weeks before hand.

the types of fish? it is a good idea to research a tropical fish book and find out which are suited to each other. some fish are aggressive (tiger barbs, zebra fish especially) and tend to nip other fish or get territorial. some fish like guppies and platties are the basic tropical fish, super easy to keep, and colourful. but be careful if u keep females in there, u'll have loads of baby fry sooner or later, which will all get eaten.

Cichlids are a nice type of tropical fish though, nicer colours etc. or you could go with basic cold water fish (gold fish etc).

yer i second that, marines are hard work and expensive to buy / maintain .

[Parm]

Just had a look at the Juwel tanks and they've very nice, but crikey they're big, and expensive!

Whilst looking I came across some Biorb ones - they look like a pretty near solution, are they any good?

Completely amateur question coming up; do the tanks need to be connected to a constant water supply?

[shadowmaster]

Completely amateur question coming up; do the tanks need to be connected to a constant water supply?

Nope

Anyhow, what type of fish are looking to buy? You can get freshwater fish which can either be coldwater (mainly goldfish) or tropical,

Or you can get marine water (Saltwater) fish. The nemo fish is a marine tropical fish, and are quite tricky to maintain.

Anyhow the juwel tanks are quite nice, I personally have a Rena Panoramic 100 Aquarium.

Depending on what type of fish you want, you will basically need the following to start off.

Fish tank
Fish
Fish pump and filter (Some filters also act as air pumps)
Gravel
Various decorations
Decholorinator
Fish bacteria to help with the cycling (not needed, but can help)
Fish net
Aquarium salt (if you get marine fish)
Fish food (flakes normally do the job)
Decorations
Magnetic algae scruber
Natural plants, some fish just love them
Heater (only for tropical)
Fish water testing kit (preferably the test tube ones, not the strips)
Pump and gravel cleaner
Thermometer
Lots of water and a bucket

I can give you recommended links + prices to all of the above items.

I think that’s it. Keeping fish is not hard as it looks but it requires time and patience. Once you get everything set, it all about regular maintenance of the environment.

The main pieces of advice I can give you are-

1) Only add a few fish (max 3) when you start off. This will allow the fish tank to cycle (allows the nitrogen cycle to set up). The add couple of fish at a time, only after about 2 weeks.
2) Don’t buy aggressive fish, as much as it is tempting do not buy piranhas.
3) Change about 25% of your water every week, make sure you dechlorinate it first
4) Hoover the gravel about once a week
5) Don’t overfeed, twice a day should be enough for most fish.
6) Monitor your fish, they can get ill which will mean you will need to go out and get medicine
7) Start off with something simple like freshwater coldwater or tropical then move onto marine when you gain experience. I have tropical freshwater at the moment but I hope to move to marine soon.

Taking care of fish, is not really about looking after the actual fish, its all about looking after their environment.

[TheAnimus]

avoid curved glass, its much harder to keep clean, even the plec's don't seam to like em.

I'd recomend getting a very good filter system, and the largest tank you can fit. Its easyer to keep clean, this way i only do my cleaning 1nce a month. The fish are very happy, and i've had some amazing growth from the Angels.

[shadowmaster]

Has anyone had a problem with fish breeding? My platties and mollies cannot help themselves.

My platties just gave birth to 4 fry last month, and my molly has given birth to another 10 fry, and I don't know what to do with them? They are growing well fast, and I've just noticed my molly is pregnant again!!!

[TheAnimus]

no in my community tank they lay eggs, and get eaten rather quickly whilst their still eggs, normally by the parents (it makes sense, they not their eggs aren't safe so they should get back all the food wasted)

[shadowmaster]

no in my community tank they lay eggs, and get eaten rather quickly whilst their still eggs, normally by the parents (it makes sense, they not their eggs aren't safe so they should get back all the food wasted)

I'm guessing you don't have live bearers?

I have a curved glass fish tank, its a bit harder to clean as animus said but it does look quite nice.

[TheAnimus]

no i've some mollies but they again they get eaten so quickly when the spawn. Its only the eggs i get to see them lay/eat (it takes quite a while for them to lay!)

[Barakka]

The important distinctions in fishkeeping you need to know are:
1) Coldwater - Goldfish, and some other fish like dannios etc - These are the easiest to keep as they are tollerant to various water conditions and it doesn't need to be heated. Goldfish are also a lot more intelligent and fun than most people believe.
2) Tropical - Need more care and looking after, less tollerant to variations in water conditions (ph, NO2/3 etc) and the water has to be heated.
3) Specialised Tropical - to get some of the more exotic species of tropical fish can get quite specialised when you start looking at Lake Malawi Cichlids or Discus. The level of care also goes up as you're looking to keep the ph/Temp/Ni/NO in a certain range rather than just down/up for example.
4) Marine - Here is where the specialists thrive - the fish are fantastic, this is where Nemo is, along with Lionfish, Yellow Tangs etc but the level of care needed is much higher as these are salwater fish and much less tollerant to variations in water conditions.

Whilst looking I came across some Biorb ones - they look like a pretty near solution, are they any good?

I've been keeping fish for about 10 years and have had about 7 tanks (4 at once for a while) and currently have a Medium BiOrb in the lounge with 1 goldfish in. I highly recommend them, they're easy to maintain, you just buy the filter kit and change it every 6 weeks or so and you can save by buying in bulk from somewhere like Urmston Aquatics.

My advice if you've never had fish would be to go for a BiOrb - either medium or large and get a couple of goldfish to start it off, if you/she really like it then you can always get a conversion kit to turn it tropical.

Or go straight for a tropical setup, but if you do I would always recommend you go as big as you can, if it's the BiOrb then the Large model, otherwise as big as possible. People make the mistake of thinking to start with a small tank and see if they like it. The problem is a fish tank is like a living chemistry set, it's all about keeping the water consistent so the more water there is the less concentrated any pollutant/infection would be.

[JK Ferret]

My advice is don't get fish, bloomin waste of time if ours are much to go by

Don't get any pets, all pets are evil

Just be a tight git and say the credit crunch is biting

[neonplanet40]

Its a pity parm that u dont live here in n.ireland. im selling my juwel record 120 with cabinet + my fish and other equipment!

[Rob]

Hi Parm...

If you're going to get a tank, get the biggest you can afford! For two reasons...

1 - Smaller tanks are far more prone to water quality fluctuations, and are more unstable. You have to remember that a tank is a closed environment. If the water starts getting nasty, it will happen a lot slower in a large tank due to greater capacity, which gives you more time to make sure the fish are not suffering and do water changes.

2 - If you get hooked, and chances are you will, you will want to fill it with more fish. I ended up with 6 tanks at one point!. The basic rule of thumb is one inch of fish per gallon. So a five gallon tank would give you 5 small tetra's.

You must also 'cycle' the tank. This is where you allow the bacteria that eat ammonia (fish pee) to develop to a large enough colony to cope with your fish numbers. Without them (nitrifying bacteria) your fish will be swimming in their own, well... you get the picture! There are two schools of thought on cycling a tank. With fish, or fishless. Fishless involves putting ammonia in the tank and testing the levels with test kits, once the ammonia is no longer present (usually around a month) it is safe to put fish in. This is kinder on the fish, but involves patience.

Sorry, I'm waffling now! Basically, work out where you are going to put the tank, and the biggest one you could put there. Then start deciding what fish you want, cos they don't all go together. It's a PITA to spend good money on a fish, just for it to become breakfast for that big bugger that spends all day hiding under a log


Hope this helps...