Anyone have a fish aquarium?

[chippered]

I'm getting a ten gallon aquarium in the next week or so, something for my son, and sort of for me. I had one when I was a kid and have always wanted to get another one, and now that he seems into it, it seems like a good time to go ahead and get one.

I've never had one that i've actually had to be responsible for, so can anyone give me any tips? Its just gonna be a freshwater tank, he wants to get a goldfish, and we'll probably end up with 8 or so fish in the end.

Any helpful tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Bacardi151]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

I'm getting a ten gallon aquarium in the next week or so, something for my son, and sort of for me. I had one when I was a kid and have always wanted to get another one, and now that he seems into it, it seems like a good time to go ahead and get one.

I've never had one that i've actually had to be responsible for, so can anyone give me any tips? Its just gonna be a freshwater tank, he wants to get a goldfish, and we'll probably end up with 8 or so fish in the end.

Any helpful tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

one piece of advice i can give you is this; the bigger the tank, the less of a headache it will be. the reason being that if you screw up somehow, there is more water to keep the fishing from stressing.

depending on size of tank, 8 fish seems to be a pretty tight fit with a 10 gallon tank. from my experience, you get as many fish as their size will equal the number of gallons in the tank. IE - you have a 3 inch clown loach, so you have 17 inches left of fish to give.

best place to start you off is the krib

http://www.thekrib.com/

they will have lots of answers to questions that might come up. There is somewhat of a science, and yet some setups worked good for some and bad for others.

best advice i can give is to make sure your tank stays clean, has the right amount of nitrates, and enough light for the fish.

be prepared to lose a few fish( or many if you are unlucky) as you get the hang of it.

[chippered]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

Good deal, thanks for the tip on the number of fish. I think we'll initially start with smaller fish.

The only thing I know for sure is we'll have one of those sunken treasure chests that had the top come up and it bubbles. My son saw one of those at one of the area pet shops and said he had to have it if we got a tank.

From what I understand, the water balance is pretty important. We have a shop here that sells water that is pre treated, so that should help. I need to go in there later this week and ask some questions, but figured i'd get some good help here also.

[Bacardi151]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

Good deal, thanks for the tip on the number of fish. I think we'll initially start with smaller fish.

The only thing I know for sure is we'll have one of those sunken treasure chests that had the top come up and it bubbles. My son saw one of those at one of the area pet shops and said he had to have it if we got a tank.

From what I understand, the water balance is pretty important. We have a shop here that sells water that is pre treated, so that should help. I need to go in there later this week and ask some questions, but figured i'd get some good help here also.

yes fish need aeration. Aeration is the process of re-oxygenating the water in the tank. the little treasure box thing does this by bubbling air through the water.

a filter is also necessary to maintain the overall health of the tank. it needs to remove all nasty stuff that would otherwise make your fish sick. you can replace the water on your own; you just need to buy chemicals that will make tap water "fish ready".

i am going through this stuff real quickly, so i might be leaving things out, but it sounds like you have most of the items that you need. only other thing is to make sure the fish you get are community fish. wouldnt want to put an oscar in with anything else, specially in a 10 gallon tank

[chippered]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

yes fish need aeration. Aeration is the process of re-oxygenating the water in the tank. the little treasure box thing does this by bubbling air through the water.

a filter is also necessary to maintain the overall health of the tank. it needs to remove all nasty stuff that would otherwise make your fish sick. you can replace the water on your own; you just need to buy chemicals that will make tap water "fish ready".

i am going through this stuff real quickly, so i might be leaving things out, but it sounds like you have most of the items that you need. only other thing is to make sure the fish you get are community fish. wouldnt want to put an oscar in with anything else, specially in a 10 gallon tank

Thanks. The tank i'm looking at has a filter, water care stuff, and a bunch of other stuff. I'm gonna pick it up later this week, read up on stuff, and go this weekend or the beginning of next week and get some fish. I also say a pebble/stone filter or cleaner that i'm gonna pick up. Should be fun.

[SportsAce]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

one piece of advice i can give you is this; the bigger the tank, the less of a headache it will be. the reason being that if you screw up somehow, there is more water to keep the fishing from stressing.

depending on size of tank, 8 fish seems to be a pretty tight fit with a 10 gallon tank. from my experience, you get as many fish as their size will equal the number of gallons in the tank. IE - you have a 3 inch clown loach, so you have 17 inches left of fish to give.

best place to start you off is the krib

http://www.thekrib.com/

they will have lots of answers to questions that might come up. There is somewhat of a science, and yet some setups worked good for some and bad for others.

best advice i can give is to make sure your tank stays clean, has the right amount of nitrates, and enough light for the fish.

be prepared to lose a few fish( or many if you are unlucky) as you get the hang of it.

How big of a tank do you have?

[Bacardi151]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

How big of a tank do you have?

right now a 30. originally started with a 10 about 7 years ago. will probably go to a 50 or 75 gallon in the near future.

[SportsAce]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

right now a 30. originally started with a 10 about 7 years ago. will probably go to a 50 or 75 gallon in the near future.

I just upgraded to a 50 gallon about a month ago and it's one of the best upgrades I think I've ever made.

[PdiddyPop]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

To the original poster getting goldfish in a 10 gal tank is a bad idea IMO. At most you can get by with 2-3 fish. Normally its 1 inch of fish per gallon of water which in your case is 10 inchs of fish. Most goldfish get up to about 6 inchs or so. Goldfish are very dirty and keeping a small tank like that up will be somework. However, since it's going to be a new tank it will take about 30 days to fully "cycle" meaning getting the good bacteria for the fish in there. You might have some fish loss, and some days its going to be cloudy, and some days its going to be clear. It's nothing you are doing wrong its just the tank is going through its cycle phase.


Just a follow fish tank owner, and fish/small animal manager at PetSmart looking out for you.

[p_rushing]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

Goldfish like cold water and tropical fish like warm water, so I wouldn't mix them. It could work, but the tropical fish will probably be less active.

I have a 75-90g tank, I don't know the exact size as its a hex flatback that was made by a local dealer. I have a bunch of community fish and some SA Cichlids, but those died during my move. I also got live plants growing in it.

[WTF]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

yes fish need aeration. Aeration is the process of re-oxygenating the water in the tank. the little treasure box thing does this by bubbling air through the water.

a filter is also necessary to maintain the overall health of the tank. it needs to remove all nasty stuff that would otherwise make your fish sick. you can replace the water on your own; you just need to buy chemicals that will make tap water "fish ready".

i am going through this stuff real quickly, so i might be leaving things out, but it sounds like you have most of the items that you need. only other thing is to make sure the fish you get are community fish. wouldnt want to put an oscar in with anything else, specially in a 10 gallon tank

Because we all know that Oscar is a grouch.

[WazzuRC]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

I have a 10 gallon tank, with 5 fish at the moment (one just died after 8 months) and an algae eater. I can say that goldfish are a bad idea. Go for the tropical fish.

[aukevin]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

My cousin has a saltwater tank, he put some tips on his webpage if you are interested: http://aurx.net/saltwater.html

[Coach Bryant]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

We have big one here in Chattanooga!

[chippered]

Re: Anyone have a fish aquarium?

Alright guys, thanks for all of the good advice. I'm gonna go with some basic not to dirty/not to easy to kill fish to start with, so we'll see. My son is pretty excited and we've got the tank all set up, so all we need to do is get the fish and we're set to go. Thanks again!