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Fish Keeping 101: Purchasing Fish (Good Fish to begin with) | |
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by Russell D. Carroll
I have a simple theory behind buying your first aquarium set-up. The theory is basically this, if you don’t buy something interesting, you will not spend much time watching your fish. If you don’t spend much time watching your fish, you will probably not take proper care of your fish. If you don’t take proper care of your fish, they will probably live shorter lives. If your fish don’t live too long, you’re likely to get frustrated and put your aquarium set-up in the garage until next spring’s garage sale. The key to avoiding this downward spiral is to buy something interesting to begin with. It is with that concept in mind that I have prepared the following suggestions for your first aquarium set-up. Be aware that these set-ups don’t offer the initial freedom that many people have with the aquarium hobby. They don’t allow you to walk into a pet store and start randomly picking out fish. The upside is that the following set-ups will provide you with an exciting new aquarium experience, that I can nearly guarantee will be more fun than just randomly throwing a bunch of fish together in an aquarium. Suggested Fish:
Not Suggested:
Suggested Setups and Explanations: Kribensis
Break 1 flowerpot 1 ½-2" from the bottom in a horizontal fashion (parallel w/bottom of the flower pot) with hammer and chisel to create a raged-edged 1 ½" mini-flower pot, invert this in the aquarium. It’ll probably be used as the breading quarters, so consider that when placing it. Break What’s left of the pot in half vertically and arrange as you like. I would personally make a cave in the 2nd pot, email me if interested to know how. Otherwise, just place it in the aquarium; fill it as full of gravel as you desire and placing the Amazon sword at the top of your gravel. I’m convinced that the "Krib" is the best possible fish for a beginner for many reasons. First of it is a beautiful hardy fish that will do splendidly well in a 10-gallon aquarium. Secondly it is a very interesting fish to watch. Breeding the Krib is easy and a breeding pair will provide tremendous excitement for a new hobbyist. I admit there are few things I find cooler then watching the female Krib tend to all the young fish, putting them to bed every night, and scouting out the tank to make sure it is free of predators first thing every morning before bring all the baby fish out into the open. You can buy the fish for $4.00 a piece and any local pet store other than PetSmart and Petco should be able to sex them for you so you can take home a pair. Usually pairs don’t need much encouragement to breed, just time. Brown Spike-tailed Paradise Fish
Plant the tank heavily and fill it halfway full of water. You won’t need a heater if you keep the aquarium in the house and the filter on 10-12 hours per day. Make sure the tank is only half full of water. Place the airline 1" below the surface of the water in one of the back corners to break up surface film. This fish will permit glass and algae shrimp while breeding if you are itching for tank mates. This fish is a showy fish that is somewhat hard to find. They are very hardy and will do just fine in a tank without a heater. They’ll breed readily at 72-82° F, though the fry will hatch and grow more quickly at the high end of that temperature range. The male and female can be kept together up until breeding, but the female should be removed soon after, as she will devour the eggs and fry. The male can be removed once the young have hatched. Though the parents can be fed just about anything, the young are very picky, and require very small food. This can be accomplished in part by having a very well planted tank, as this will provide a lot of microscopic food. In addition, I would suggest using a very fine powder food. Grinding up flake on your own will probably not cut it unless you’ve come up with a way to get it much finer than I’ve seen. Most live foods are too large for this and most Gourami. Platy
There are many good tank mates you can add to a platy tank, I’d recommend loaches and perhaps a mid-water small fish like a tetra. However if you want to save the babies you’ll need a tank FULL of plants, or you will have a hard time getting the young to survive with the parents. Breeding traps are a good alternative to plants if you watch your platys enough to know when they are going to give birth. Of all the livebearers, the platy is the best suited for the beginning hobbyist. They have a longer lifespan than the guppy, are not disease-prone like the molly, and don’t require the large tank that a swordtail needs. In addition, the young are brightly colored and easy to raise. The platy is a great beginner’s fish. Betta
Plant the tank heavily and fill it halfway full of water. You won’t need a heater if you keep the aquarium in the house and the filter on 10-12 hours per day. Make sure the tank is only half full of water. (for breeding purposes) Place the airline 1" below the surface of the water in one of the back corners to break up surface film. This fish will permit glass and algae shrimp while breeding if you are itching for tank mates. The betta is a pretty fish that is hardy and interesting to watch. In fact other than the fact that they are prone to fighting, I can’t see anything wrong with this fish. Now that said, I wouldn’t keep them in a cup as is commonly done. I would recommend trying to breed the fish if have opportunity of finding a female. They breed like most anabantids, for more info on what that means, look at the Brown Spiketail Paradise fish This fish requires no special care and will live happily for 2 years as long as you keep the tank at room temperature and feed twice a decent flake food. Betta’s also make good community fish as long as there aren’t any barbs or other fin-nipping fish in the aquarium. Assort. African Cichlids
Now to many people this may seem a strange fish to have in a beginner’s tank, but there is good reason here. As long as you only have 1 African in a small tank, you won’t have to worry about the only drawback to having a cichlid: aggressiveness. What you will have is a pretty or beautiful fish, if you choose carefully, that is likely to survive 5+ years if you take care of it correctly. Sparkling/Pygmy Gourami
Plant the tank heavily and fill it halfway full of water. You won’t need a heater if you keep the aquarium in the house and the filter on 10-12 hours per day. Make sure the tank is only half full of water. Place the airline 1" below the surface of the water in one of the back corners to break up surface film. This fish will permit glass and algae shrimp while breeding if you are itching for tank mates. This is the smallest of the Gourami, but also one of the prettiest. They are easy to breed and do so much in the same fashion as the brown spike-tailed paradise fish, except they are likely to build the nest on the underside of a leaf if you have one that reaches up to near the surface of the water. The only downside to this fish is the short lifespan of the fish. You can keep it without a heater, but if you have the money, I’d recommend getting an undergravel heater for the fish, as it will do better that way. Angelfish
You could switch the plastic for live plants, but be aware that most broad leafed aquarium plants require softer, acidic water that is not available in all areas. For a beginner, I’d just suggest the plastic plants. Arrange everything, as you like. I really couldn’t decide where the put the Angelfish. At once this fish can be nearly impossible and nearly perfect for a beginner. If placed in a large enough aquarium (20 gallon plus where water conditions are well monitored, the Angelfish can be a very interesting fish. They are a cichlid, and they will display much of the interesting behavior that make cichlids so fun to keep and unlike many of their brethren, they are not very aggressive at all. They are a large fish, so they will be easy to watch and sure to catch your eye. Angelfish usually inhabit the middle water, making them even more accessible. A main key to enjoying the hobby is just watching the fish. However, just read the not recommended list as to why I think it’s a terrible beginner’s fish. Convict Cichlid
Set-up everything as you wish. You can try to use plants, but Convict cichlids are not very tolerant of plants. Despite its aggressive nature, the convict cichlid is a fun fish to keep. A tank with a pair of these is exciting to watch as the will breed readily, and you will soon see around a hundred little fry following their parents around the tank. The fry are fun to watch and should be relatively safe if you have enough rock for them to take cover in. Other wise, you’ll find the parents attacking them as they move onto the next batch. Unfortunately these fish are so easy to breed that you’ll be unable to get most pet stores to take the young off your hands for any price, but that shouldn’t dissuade you from trying this fish out. Blue/Gold Gourami
Plant the tank heavily and fill it halfway full of water. You won’t need a heater if you keep the aquarium in the house and the filter on 10-12 hours per day. Make sure the tank is only half full of water. Place the airline 1" below the surface of the water in one of the back corners to break up surface film. The Blue, Gold, Crosby, and Three-spot are actually all the same species of fish. Though this fish does get somewhat large it is very peaceful and fun to breed. They breed in typical anabantid style with the male making a bubble nest. Breeding is interesting to watch, but some of the high points of this species is that the male won’t beat the female up after breeding, and that the parents are very tolerant of the young. If you have a good amount of live plants, you should be able to raise the young with the parents without too much difficulty. However, feeding the young can be a challenge as is the case with most anabantids. Look at the section about the Brown-Spike tailed paradise fish for more information about raising young anabantids. Anything but a Goldfish Suggested Set-Up - Depends on the Fish. Being someone who started with goldfish, there seems to be some hypocrisy in this opinion, but hear me out. I think goldfish are often mistreated in small quarters with terrible water quality. In addition, they’re just not interesting. Goldfish don’t "do" anything. There’s no behavior to observe. My opinion is that fish are much more interesting when they do something. (see my intro) On to the fish I didn't recommend...-> The following list of set-ups are ones that I would not recommend to a beginning hobbyist, with a brief explanation of why I wouldn’t suggest it. I’ve also included the suggested minimal set-up size, though in most cases size isn’t the only reason I would recommend avoiding the following fish as a beginning hobbyist. Oscar (60-gallon+) This fish grows two big for a beginner’s aquarium, and they are quite messy. You will need a very good filter and constant water changes to keep them, and beginners usually don’t. Goldfish My feeling is that the Goldfish is the most boring fish on the planet. If the fish isn’t interesting, it won’t help you further into the hobby, and you’ll miss out on all the wonders there are to be had. Now the goldfish is hardy and can survive in just a bowl if you clean it enough, but far too many goldfish suffer at the hands of a beginning aquarist who refuses to put any effort into keeping the pet, don’t be one of them if you do buy a goldfish. Various Tetras Though tetras are a very pretty fish, they also tend to be short-lived and picky on water quality. Often a neon tetra is a hobbyists first fish, but realize that even in the best of conditions you’ll be lucky to keep it alive for a year. I’d instead recommend one of the barbs available, as they are hardier, and live longer. Guppy Frankly the guppy is a great beginner’s fish except for the fact that it has a very short life span, and that it’s not very hardy. I’d recommend a platy instead. Puffer Puffer’s can be a great fish, but they also are very temperamental and almost always require special feeding arrangements. Nothing too hard, but I’d recommend that beginners try something else. Discus (60-gallon+) Though very beautiful, Discus are not hardy enough to survive in most beginner’s tanks. They need larger tanks to grow, but most beginners don’t start with large well-kept tanks. Piranha (60-gallon+) Piranhas are outlawed in most states b/c people buy them and then put them in lakes when they’re tired of their new pet. They get too big for a beginner’s aquarium, and aren’t really interesting outside of eating other fish. Leave them in Public Aquariums. Angelfish The angelfish can at times be very temperamental. Though some strains are quite hardy, others are weak and may not last a week in a beginner’s aquarium. Red-Tailed Shark Some people have had luck with them, but they tend to kill my fish when they get larger, and they do get big. Try a Botia instead. A Clown loach or something similar would be great, and they tend to be a bit more fun to watch. Assort. South American Cichlids Though some of them are very pretty, they are not nearly as hardy as their African cousins, most of the ones commonly available are larger, and they require more work as far as cleaning the aquarium. I’d instead recommend an African cichlid. So that does it. I hope that this was of some value to you. There are many interesting set-ups that you can have, I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg. The main key to your set-up is to get something that you will find interesting.
I’ve included many of the easy tank set-ups that I’ve found to be interesting over the years I’ve spent in the hobby. Above all else, I’m convinced that having the right aquarium set-up will make your time in the aquarium hobby much more enjoyable. So now that you’ve read this, you are ready to buy your aquarium.
Go out and enjoy, but don’t forget to come back for the remaining articles in this series. The hardest part isn’t over yet!
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