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Got an aquarium for my 2 year old...aquarium virgin needs advice

vi edit

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
My two year old is completely enamoured with "fishy!". We can't leave daycare without stopping and waving bye! to the fish tank there. We can't drive past Petsmart without screaming "fishy!".

So for her birthday coming up I broke down and got the first aquarium I've ever had. It's funny how you can walk in seeking a $40 aquarium and walk out $150 poorer. 😱

Anywhoo....I bought a 10 gallon "half moon" one at Petsmart for $80. Plus gravel...fake plants...decorative rock thingy...water treatments stuff...extra filters...and so on.

I'm doing cold/freshwater fish. I don't want to deal with temps and salt for tropical. So we're talking guppies/goldfish/betas/ect.

The tank came with an LED light, a basic charcoal intank filter, and a non-adjustable heater.

***QUESTIONS***
Do I need some sort of aerator thingy that does all the bubble action you see in the fancy tanks?

What sort of fish should I look at for...uh...durability and how many would I put in a 10 gallon tank? Something that doesn't need a heater on non-stop would be preferred. Any other advice you can give a fish owning idiot would be appreciated as well.

Here's a pic of my first go-round at tank setup 🙂

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/viedit/fishy.jpg
 
Yes, you need an air pump and air stone of some shape. It provides O2 for the fishes.

Stick to the 1" of fully grown fish per gallon rule. Also, don't plan on buying fish for about two weeks. The tank needs time to cycle.

<----- One 75g fresh water and two 30g salt water tanks. Feel free to PM questions you run into along the way.
 
Aeration is always a plus. For a tank like yours, gravel's only use is for looking pretty - cleaning is harder.

Hook up your filter and add some household ammonia. Doing the calculations now for how much...

EDIT: 1 tsp of 10&#37; ammonia by weight (household ammonia) should get you just under 20ppm of ammonia when the tank has 10 gallons of water in it. Wait about a week and then test the water for both ammonia and nitrite, which both must read ZERO before you can put fish in it.
 
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Howard said:
Aeration is always a plus. For a tank like yours, gravel's only use is for looking pretty - cleaning is harder.

Hook up your filter and add some household ammonia. Doing the calculations now for how much...
Click to expand...

Inorganic seeding is probably not the best thing for a novice. 😉
 
Yes, you need an air pump and air stone of some shape. It provides O2 for the fishes.
Click to expand...

Essentially anything that breaks up the surface of the water, or mixes it up will work. You do not want a stangnant pond.

You need to understand "the cycle" which is the "biological filter".

Not only do you need to "mechanically filter" (typically pumping water through some filter media to remove particulate matter), but also need to remove dangerous fish and food waste.

It goes like this:

Ammonia -> Nitrites -> Nitrate.

Fish pee and poo turns to ammonia, as does broken down uneaten food.

Try breathing some ammonia buddy, see how long you last. Yeah, your fish swims in that after a couple days of peeing in it.

SO bacteria that exist in the air take hold in the tank and are helper bacteria, they break down the ammonia to nitrite. Nitrite is also toxic to fish. Other bacteria break that down into nitrate, which is basically fertilizer.

If you add fertilizer to aerated water, eventually you get algae..... so you gotta do water changes to rid of the nitrates.

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html
 
OUCaptain said:
I always recommend getting a few gallons of wasted water from a friend's tanks to get things started. I've cycled my tanks in under a week this way.
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Yes the initial NH3 spike is too high with the inorganic method (especially considering the inadequate filters supplied by pet shops) and when the nitrosomonas get cranked up it can take weeks for the nitrites to come down. Granted they're not as toxic to freshwater fishes as marine and at a pH of 6.5-7 in freshwater aquaria less free ammonia is available to do damage.

A small setup like that can do just fine on its own with a few small hardy fishes to start out. They also make products that hasten the cycling process. Just avoid sudden temperature swings when introducing new animals and quarantine to reduce the risk of parasites being introduced into their home!
 
vi edit said:
...
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/viedit/fishy.jpg
Click to expand...
Looks nice. I had freshwater fish for years. Ended with a 30 gallon tank.

Four suggestions:
- Get an algae eater. I had a plecostomus. It lived many years and outlasted almost all the other fish.

- The legend about having one of those pretty oscars is true in that it will eventually be the only fish left in the tank (except for a plecostomus).

- Don't overfeed. Almost none of the food should hit the bottom of the tank.

- Clean often. I cleaned the tank ~two weeks. I would exchange ~20% of the water with tap water that sat for several days aerating. Didn't use chemicals. I used this suction device that would go through the gravel removing the fish excrement so I was able to get by for years without breaking down the tank.
 
So...I'm kinda reading that I need to get the ammonia and ph levels to a particular range and then I can get something hardy in there to start the aquarium "cycle of life".

Also seeing that maybe a school of 6 or so cherry or tiger barbs might be a good starter set of fish.
 
Get feeder guppies. They don't come any cheaper, and they can be very pretty. They'll add a lot of life to the tank for very little money.
 
My daughter (3) has a 10 gallon she's had for a year or so. We thought goldfish, but they are borning so we got two of the ornamental type goldfish. Three fake plants, and algae eater, some bubble makers and a scuba diving Elmo finish it off. She gets to feed them and does a good job at it!
 
Soundmanred said:
My daughter (3) has a 10 gallon she's had for a year or so. We thought goldfish, but they are borning so we got two of the ornamental type goldfish. Three fake plants, and algae eater, some bubble makers and a scuba diving Elmo finish it off. She gets to feed them and does a good job at it!
Click to expand...

I gotta know where the Elmo came from. I think in the dichotemy of all that is good in this word to my 2 year old it goes something like Mommy --> Elmo ---> Grandpa --->Milk ---> Fishy ----> Cheese ---> Cookies ----> random sparkly thingy ----> Daddy
 
Liet said:
I really didn't know how complex this whole aquarium business was. Very interesting!
Click to expand...

No kidding! You walk into the Pet store and they have like 800 beta's in a Chinese food wonton soup takeout bowl and make it seem like you just buy a bigger tank, add water, drop in the fish, feed it every now and then and then all is well.

:O

Hell...it was easier rasing a newborn.
 
Ok, advice from someone who has done this for 20+ years 🙂

1. Get a heater and set it at the range for tropical fish, once you have the range set you will never have to touch it again. Make sure you get one with a plastic cap over the temp knob so you don't hit it by accident.

2. Start with some zebra danios, they are nice pretty fish that are VERY active and will swim non-stop. Your 2 year old will love them. And they are nearly impossible to kill.
zebra_danio.jpg


3. After a week or two with just danio's add some neon tetras. They are very small and very colorful and are rather hardy too so they shouldn't die off if your water balance is bad.
Neon_tetra.jpg


3. After that I would add some of the colorful tetras such as lemon or Serpae Tetra. Nice pretty fishes that get along with all the other fishes and are hardy fish that don't die easily.
LemonTetra1.jpg

serpae-tetra-profile.jpg


4. After that add one cat fish and one algae eater and TADA! You are done and have a nice easy to maintain aquarium.

BTW I have a 55 gallon that has all the above fish and then some. I normally have 40+ fish in my tank and it is nearly maintenance free because of excessive filtration.
 
vi edit said:
Do I need some sort of aerator thingy that does all the bubble action you see in the fancy tanks?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, yes. How else are you fish going to breathe?

What sort of fish should I look at for...uh...durability and how many would I put in a 10 gallon tank?
Click to expand...

Little fish won't live long anyway, but if you're going fresh water (easier to maintain Ph) then pick up a kissing gourami. You can stick the tip of your finger in the tank and it'll "kiss" your finger thinking it's food. Kids get a kick out of it.

Neon Tetra is another good one. Small, cheap, doesn't eat much, and you can have a bunch of them for even more "FISHIES!! PRETTY!!" screaming.

The number of fish in the tank depends on the size and type of fish you're considering. Some fish prefer to be alone and like larger open areas (fewer per tank) while others love being in groups but are small enough to have a dozen in the tank your size (tetras).

You should go back to PetSmart and ask the person in charge of the fish tanks these great questions.

Something that doesn't need a heater on non-stop would be preferred. Any other advice you can give a fish owning idiot would be appreciated as well.
Click to expand...

Change the water once a month or buy a Plecostomus (fresh water) and do it as needed.
 
You should go back to PetSmart and ask the person in charge of the fish tanks these great questions.
Click to expand...


Except the sales drone at petsmart won't give an answer that is correct, or even well thought out. Unless there is a mom/pop local fish store, I would trust the Internet over anything local. If you happen to have "Big Al's" they are a notable exception.

www.fishlore.com is rather nice and informative.
 
vi edit said:
I gotta know where the Elmo came from. I think in the dichotemy of all that is good in this word to my 2 year old it goes something like Mommy --> Elmo ---> Grandpa --->Milk ---> Fishy ----> Cheese ---> Cookies ----> random sparkly thingy ----> Daddy
Click to expand...

It was a fish tank decoration at the pet store. Took the parts off of the rock they were mounted to and seperated them (Elmo, a fish and a crab) after the paint began coming off of the rock. Can't find a pic anywhere online, all they have now is a weird looking Elmo spread eagled on a rock.
 
bobdole369 said:
Except the sales drone at petsmart won't give an answer that is correct, or even well thought out. Unless there is a mom/pop local fish store, I would trust the Internet over anything local. If you happen to have "Big Al's" they are a notable exception.

www.fishlore.com is rather nice and informative.
Click to expand...

I was pretty surprised that the ones at Petsmart were so knowledgable about the fish and what they needed, etc. When I got hamsters for someone they knew what they were talking about too. I figured it would be rare!
 
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