Tropical fish - What they need and what to buy

[Greedyfly]

My other half has been hinting at having either a reptile or some fish as a pet - so I am looking into how to look after tropical fish, what sort of aquarium they will need, which fish to get, where to buy all the stuff we will need etc... Where we live there is one pet shop, I have an untrusting nature towards pet shops beacuse half of them dont actually know what they are talking about. So I have been googling but havent come up with much. Obviously i want as much info as possible before I buy any fish as I dont believe in havong pets if you dont know how to care for them. So fish lovers any info would be great also any websites you know of. Thanks

[hammerman]

Right, first of all, buy yourself a good book....i can't really recommend any because there are so many about but most of them are fine.

Secondly, get a monthly magazine such as practical fishkeeping

Thirdly, join a forum such as http://www.uk-aquarist.com/index.php?act=idx

Then ask lots of questions...however silly they seem (the only stupid question is the one you don't ask !!!)

Generally speaking, tropical fish will require an aquarium, some form of filteration system, a heater and thermostat, lighting, thermometer, decor (gravel, plants, rocks, bogwood etc).

A slight insight into how the filters break down fish waste will be helpful and a knowledge of what species can be kept with what.

From then on, fishkeeping becomes an obsession.

Now get reading !!!

Good luck

[andrea81]

Again get abook as you will need to understand about the filters and heaters. We have tropical fish and the first thing you need to do is get your tank and filters and heaters and get all the treatments you need i.e. algee treatment and let the water settle. they you can get some fish.

You could go with small colourful ones such as neon tetras or ruby tetras or gupies, but you will certainly need a sucker fish to clean up all the cr@p that your fish will poo out!

You have to be careful not to mix up some fish as ones that look all colourful and have long tails get attacked by some little fish, so keep them to same variety!

Ummm what else...... best to ask for top mid and bottom feeders too! thats me, I can't remember anything else!

[hammerman]

Ok...sorry to be a bit contraversial but (after 35 years of keeping tropical fish, 20 years of marine reef keeping and 5 years keeping koi) some of the above is a little misleading.

Hopefully, if you take your time and do things properly, you won't need "treatments" and i've never used an "algea treatment" in 35 years of keeping trops.

The fish mentioned...neons, ruby tetras (never heard of them) and guppies were once considdered "beginners" fish. However through years of inbreeding, the genetics of these fish has become very weak. Guppies will get picked on....even by neons and as for "a suckerfish to clean up all the cr@p that your fish poo out" is the most rediculous statement i've ever heard.

There are catfish that will "hoover" the bottom but only for uneaten food.....they certainly won't eat "fish poo" Suckermouth catfish....plecostamus, sucking loaches etc need big tanks and are mainly algea eaters...although they will eat meaty food. Fish poo is "eaten" by your filters and the bacteria that lives in the gravel.

As i said originally, join the forum i've linked to and ask away...there's lots of knowledgable people on there who are more than willing to help newbies out

[B00]

I'd also shy away from guppies, especially male AND female ones together. Before you know it you'll be over run with em, same with platys.

As above, I cant stress how important it is to get as much info about tropical fishkeeping as you can. We started this hobby (pah, its far too stressful to be called that at first...lol) about 2 years ago, we bought the tank set it up with the water THEN read up on it. I nearly cried when I looked deeper into it.

Also, don't get attached to them either, I very naively gave all my new inhabitants names, then become devastated when "Fred" was found stiff as a board on the bottom of the tank, or worse...stuck behind the filter!

Good luck, you'll need it.....lol