Fish Tank

[Sheka]

Well i used to have a saltwater aquarium and then the hurricane came along and well.. u can imagine the rest. Id like something that Lower maintnance but better that a goldfish bowl. I want freshwater but i dont know what size or fish to put in it.
Anyone have an aquarium and know a great one for begginers?

thanks,
Fransheska

 

[Gempress]

I'd go for a 20-gallon aquarium. Big enough to have variety, but not so big that it would be overwhelming. There are plenty of kits out there that would be ideal.

Also, if you want minimal maintenance, stay away from tetras, livebearers (like guppies and platy) and goldfish. Tetras can be extremely sensitive to water temperate and water quality, livebearers can reproduce so much that your tank will crash from the bioload, and goldfish are very messy.

I'd go with a large school of white cloud minnows or zebra danios. They are some of my favorite types of fish. While some people sneer at them for being less colorful than some of the other fishes, I personally think they're quite lovely. They're great little fish, and very active. They look absolutely amazing when they're zooming around in a school together, just glittering in the light.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

Gempress gave some good suggestions, though I don't agree with everything she said.
The bigger the tank, the better. This allows more room for mistakes and will give you more flexibility with species and what-not. Not only that, but bigger tanks are often less work. I would reccomend 15-30g.
As for fish species, this is where I will disagree with Gempress. There are many sensitive species of tetra's, but there are also less needy species. For example, Neon and Cardinal Tetra's are easy to keep and stunning, especially in larger schools. White Cloud Mountin Minnows are great, as well as Leopard or Zebra Danio's. Infact, I have some Leopard Danios and they are very amusing, and curious. They come 'visit' with me when I feed them and are quite attractive and active. Some species of Corydoras catfish and livebearers are easy to keep and hardy. However, expect lots of fry if you go down the livebearer route. I hesitate to reccomend these, but Betta's CAN make great pets. However, MAKE SURE you get him from a private breeder or a MUCH trusted petstore. Unfortunately, the quality of these fish has decreased alarmingly due to mass production.
Have fun .

~Tucker

 

[Gempress]

Cardinal tetras are weird. It seems like you either get fish that could live through a nuclear blast, or fish that die if you look at them wrong. That's been my experience, anyway.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

Hmmmm...
I have had Cardinals and they have always been great, hardy little fish.
Could it be that you got them from a bad source...?

~Tucker

 

[Gempress]

Hmmmm...
I have had Cardinals and they have always been great, hardy little fish.
Could it be that you got them from a bad source...?

~Tucker

I don't think it's just me. I know of several fish stores that do not carry cardinals because of that reason. The die-off ratio was just too high. The store could still potentially make enough profit despite the loss, but as one manager told me, "I just feel bad knowing that three fish died so I could sell two."

 

[joce]

How big do you want? we got a 55 for like a hundred bucks form wal mart and it was cheaper than getting a smaller one and adding filters etc. I think it came with everything.

We had oscars but I like the pretty community fish. If I got another tank right now I would probally get a couple tiny stuff jsut like guppies(cuz thats my favorite fish )or some little tetray fish. And I love having a crayfish in the tank,they are so fun to watch adn I think I like them more than the fish!

chaz used this to look at fish he was interested in and then he would go to pet supplies plus and jsut request them to order them
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830&ref=3392&subref=AI

the only place our fish wouldn't die form was pet supplies plus. The crappy thing was we couldn't get any yellow lab ciclids(sp) from them and we went through five from petsmart before giving up.

the only tank I have right now is a five gallon with two goldfish I saved form the feeder tank when we still had our 75. sharky is my huge goldfish who is going to require a bigger tank soon.

 

[blue]

A 30g would be minimum for most comunity fish, and that is starting small. In a 30 you can get a good size tetra or similar size fish school, plus 3 or 4 cories and maybe a pleco for cleanup on the bottom.

 

[4WheelVFR]

A 55 g tank would be great to start with. The size gives you a little room for beginners errors, and your options for inhabitants will be better. I've currently got a 265g, 135g, 120g, 55g, and a 48g setup right now. Everything from
20" Arrowana to little tetras, I love all of em. Go check out Fishgeeks.com, they have a nice bunch of people on their forum there. Aquabid.com has a unique forum as well. Good luck.

 

[blue]

A 55 g tank would be great to start with. The size gives you a little room for beginners errors, and your options for inhabitants will be better. I've currently got a 265g, 135g, 120g, 55g, and a 48g setup right now. Everything from
20" Arrowana to little tetras, I love all of em. Go check out Fishgeeks.com, they have a nice bunch of people on their forum there. Aquabid.com has a unique forum as well. Good luck.

Ive been to fishgeeks when I still had fish. What type of Arrowana? Some of them get huge! My biggest tank was a 125g w/2 Motoro stingrays as the main attraction.

Cant speak for salt but what 4WVFR said about more room for error is true.

 

[4WheelVFR]

Ive been to fishgeeks when I still had fish. What type of Arrowana? Some of them get huge! My biggest tank was a 125g w/2 Motoro stingrays as the main attraction.

Cant speak for salt but what 4WVFR said about more room for error is true.

I've got an Australian Jardini Arrowana. He is very cool looking. His scales have a pearl red color to them. Feeding time can be interesting too, although he confused cleaning time with feeding time and tried to eat my arm! I also have some "coveted" L46 Zebra plecos, the coolest freshwater fish on earth.

 

[blue]

The lady I bought my 125g and rays from was setting up a breeding stock of Zebra plecs. She runs Fishaholics.org. She also helped me get my Royal and Snowflake plecs for good prices, as well as gave me a breeding group of Albino Bristlenose plecs.

I am a big fan of plecs and SA bottom dwellers.

 

[4WheelVFR]

The lady I bought my 125g and rays from was setting up a breeding stock of Zebra plecs. She runs Fishaholics.org. She also helped me get my Royal and Snowflake plecs for good prices, as well as gave me a breeding group of Albino Bristlenose plecs.

I am a big fan of plecs and SA bottom dwellers.

That's awsome! I currently have 5 zebras, 1 cactus pleco (forgot the L#), 1 royal, 1 bristlenose, and 2 LDA 18's. Very cool fish. I'll have to check that site out.

 

[blue]

Barbie is the name of my friend at Fishaholics, she has quite a bit of knowlege on fish. Ill pm her and Faith who bought the 125g and the rays from me about Chaz, Faith is a dog trainer rescuer, and Barbs has a beautifull Rottie.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

Gempress,
That's a shame about Cardinals where you live. Over here they are excellent beginner fish and ever so stunning.


~Tucker