[surebet]

Greets,

I'll be working from home for the next months because of ear-ravaging renovations at my office and I'm having some issues adapting since I basically have no set schedule.

The responsibility of pets will do wonders to anchor me again to the real world, and being conscious of noise for my new neighbors (I just changed apartments, it's been a weird month), fish would work great and look even better.

Over the years, I've had cats, geckos and chinchillas, so this isn't a short term thing done out of boredom. I've been reading on and off for the past weeks, but I'm lost.

I'm looking to setup a 20 to 40 gallon tank with minimal fuss. I'm not looking to raise overly complicated fish.

I'm from another forum where individual research is valued, I'm not looking for a spoon-feed, just some of your favorite online resources.

Any pointers?

 

[fishfish]

Greets,

I'll be working from home for the next months because of ear-ravaging renovations at my office and I'm having some issues adapting since I basically have no set schedule.

The responsibility of pets will do wonders to anchor me again to the real world, and being conscious of noise for my new neighbors (I just changed apartments, it's been a weird month), fish would work great and look even better.

Over the years, I've had cats, geckos and chinchillas, so this isn't a short term thing done out of boredom. I've been reading on and off for the past weeks, but I'm lost.

I'm looking to setup a 20 to 40 gallon tank with minimal fuss. I'm not looking to raise overly complicated fish.

I'm from another forum where individual research is valued, I'm not looking for a spoon-feed, just some of your favorite online resources.

Any pointers?

Bettas are easy. I got one from the store, dumped it in filtered tap water and I was in business. No chemicals, no nothing. They do fine with corys and siamese algae eaters.

 

[gypsyfla]

hello and welcome

 

[longtail4711]

Hello and welcome!

I completely understand where you are coming from. I work from home also and having my pets keeps my sanity. My dog makes sure I get up and take my breaks and get some exercise, and my fish help my stress.

My favorite pointers:

- More tank is always better than not enough. Most people when they start keeping fish overstock their tank because they want this, and this, and that and another of that, and this, and a few of these and...

So if you are really looking for a lot of fish that you like, go with the 40 gal. It will be easier for you to manage and keep.

- Spend the money for a GOOD filter and heater (if you are doing tropical fish). Hagen products are really good. People seem to really like the Aquaclear filters around here.

- Make sure to get a good liquid test kit like API Master Freshwater Test Kit. It's really important that you have accuracy when you are testing your water and the little testing strips are notorious for being off.

For learning how to cycle your aquarium without fish and make it optimal, this is a very helpful article:

Fishless Cycling - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish

My second pointer is to RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH your fish and plants before you get any. Don't just accept what the guy at the pet store says, because frequently, they aren't fish keepers. They just work there. It's critical that you understand and know what you are getting, and whether it can peacefully live with others in your tank.

A couple of my favorite reference links for fish look-up:

Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums

The Aquarium Wiki

 

[mk4gti]

yeah the LFS is stupid sometimes, they will tell you something like "ohh you should add aquarium salt to your tank, it improves the fish health" true but it also causes a rapid decline in the health of live plants and corys dont take well to it either. As fare as recomendations live plants are always better (research wich ones you want), get a good substrate to plant them in, flourite not gravel and most importantly once you have cycled your tank pick out fish you like that also like eachother. Dont pick something like a beta just becuase they are easy to care for, there are many hearty fresh water fish that are easy to care for. Im a fan of cherry barbs. They are small, colorfull and fairly peacefull. If your going to get a fish that does well in schools make sure you get enough and make sure you have the proper size tank to sustain a small to medium school. For a 20 gallon, if u went with the small option, you could probabally house 6-7 cherry barbs some corys and maybe maybe an algea eater of some sort. Thats not professional advice thats just my oppinion.

 

[Big Dog]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[jrman83]

Welcome to the site.