Starter aquariums for a 13yo girl

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Jack Ryan
2 Gallon Tank

A STARTER aquarium would be one of those small "all-inclusive" deals. Get 1 Betta and let her have at it.

20+ Gallons is far from starter for a 13 y/o.

As has already been pointed out, a small "starter" aquarium would better be called "death camp for fish." The bigger the aquarium, the easier it is to maintain. If you have the space, I'd go for a 30 gallon, or even a 55 gallon "starter" tank. As far as fish go, I'd leave that entirely up to your niece. Choices range from having her learn how to raise something like guppies that breed very easily (and she could get the little breeder containers that hang inside the tank to save the fry, etc.) to the other end of the spectrum - simply having the fish there to enjoy their beauty.

Also, it'd be good to simultaneously give her a book or two at her reading level about care and maintenance. Plus, it's a very good idea to give her a few of the common medications for fish ailments to have on hand (before it's too late if the fish get something common yet simple to cure, such as ick)

 

[halik]

oh yeah definitely stay with fresh water fish... my brother had a salt water aquarium and that thing was a PITA to take care of. Not to mention everything in 2ft radius was covered in salt.

 

[Rubycon]

Get her a Redtail catfish.

 

[Shame]

Guppies!

 

[rahul]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn
Get her a Redtail catfish.

They taste good.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: rahul

They taste good.

I don't know - never had.

Tigrinus taste good though and they're a giant pimelodid as well so those redtails probably do taste good.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: rahul

They taste good.

I don't know - never had.

Tigrinus taste good though and they're a giant pimelodid as well so those redtails probably do taste good.

tilapia?

 

[50cent1228]

10 gallons or up

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: randay

tilapia?

They are fine scaled fish and we have them on our menu too! Surprisingly non fishy but then again I eat a lot of fish so I'm probably used to that.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Get a kit at Wal*Mart that has everything you need except the gravel. Get some gravel, get it started, and let it start running for a while. I'd grab a small live plant or two along with danio zebras, they'll get the water to the proper ammonia levels, maybe 3 of them or so for a 10 gallon, 5-6 for a 20 gallon.

After a week of that, you can start getting other fish slowly.

 

[Rubycon]

Oh VERY IMPORTANT!

If you have "city water" be SURE to purchase something called "conditioner" or "dechlorinator". Municipal water supplies have high levels of free chorine and/or chloramine. These will put any animals in the system in shock immediately and death follows shortly thereafter.

Follow the directions! Insufficient treatment may result in losing beneficial nitrobacter/nitrosomonas on an established system thus making the need to cycle the system all over again - this will cause undo stress.

If this bothers you, pick up a novice handbook at the place of purchase and read it. Twice.

 

[montypythizzle]

hahaha wth are u guys talking about? let fishtank with city water filter through and such for 2 weeks and then put some fish you caught at the lake in there boo yah free fish FTW

 

[WW]

How about something instead of fish. Hermit crabs (land) are awesome pets for kids. No water to mess with, they eat anything, and you can actually hold them and play with them.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Everyone is an internet expert. If you want someone who knows a little something about it, just go to a pet store and ask the fish mongers.

The reason these jokers are talking down a small tank is because they try to put 5 fish in there at once. This is clearly a mistake and internet experts should know better.

A 2 gallon tank, w/filter, is perfect to house 1 betta fish. This is enough responsibility that a 13 y/o should have to feed it occasionally and change some of the water every few weeks.

If you want to jump right into keeping a bigger tank, that is your choice. You asked for a starter, there is not much easier than a 2 gallon tank w/ 1 betta.

 

[Old Hippie]

If she's a responsible young lady, go for the Walmart 10 gallon starter. If not, the 2 gallon with 1 Betta sounds like the ticket. Her attitude should be your guide.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Jack Ryan
Everyone is an internet expert. If you want someone who knows a little something about it, just go to a pet store and ask the fish mongers.

The reason these jokers are talking down a small tank is because they try to put 5 fish in there at once. This is clearly a mistake and internet experts should know better.

A 2 gallon tank, w/filter, is perfect to house 1 betta fish. This is enough responsibility that a 13 y/o should have to feed it occasionally and change some of the water every few weeks.

If you want to jump right into keeping a bigger tank, that is your choice. You asked for a starter, there is not much easier than a 2 gallon tank w/ 1 betta.

That's akin to saying you will get great advice from someone at Best Buy. :Q

Most of the folks bagging fish as the local fish store don't know enough to provide the beginner with tips to steer them in the right direction. Just as the computer analogy goes; not everyone out there is clueless. Problem is the beginner doesn't know good advice from bad advice. It's like the AOL'ers first trip to a newsgroup. :shocked:

 

[TygGer]

Take advice with a grain of salt. IME, internet advice has been better than local fish store advice. But often times, internet advice can be a bit extreme...

A 2g tank for 1 betta is fine, but will you be happy with just one fish? The problem with small tanks are that parameters fluctuate more drastically. eg. temp changes, etc.

It is really not that much more difficult to maintain a 10g tank vs a larger 20g or even a 55g tank. Doing weekly water changes is also not necessary. If you keep your bioload relatively low and don't overfeed, you could do bi-monthly or even monthly water changes. General rule of thumb is 10-20% water changes... more if you are doing longer intervals.

Your neice may get bored with it after some time, but other family members may also grow to enjoy the tank. Being that she is young, you will want to assist her in water changes until she gets the hang of it. In a 10g tank, I would change out about 2g every other week or so (again, depends on your load). She should be able to handle 2gs.

I would consider doing a fishless cycle. This generally takes 3-4 weeks and I would start it now if you want to have fish (and keep them successfully) by xmas. Do a search on fishless cycle and understand the nitrogen cycle. Much easier than trying to cycle with live fish. In a nutshell, setup your tank, fill it with dechlorinated water, gravel, deco, heater, power filter (imo, easiest to maintain), aeration and just drop in a raw shrimp from the grocery store. Sit back and let nature take it's course. Then, 1-2 days prior to adding fish, do at least a 50% water change. It's important to add fish slowly. On a 10g tank, I wouldn't add more than 3" of fish for the first 1-2 weeks.

Also read up on acclimation procedures for the fish. Need to be sure you don't "shock" the fish when putting them in their new environment.

Also, check out www.aquariumadvice.com for more info. Lots of helpful people there...

hth

 

[Jack Ryan]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn

Originally posted by: Jack Ryan
Everyone is an internet expert. If you want someone who knows a little something about it, just go to a pet store and ask the fish mongers.

The reason these jokers are talking down a small tank is because they try to put 5 fish in there at once. This is clearly a mistake and internet experts should know better.

A 2 gallon tank, w/filter, is perfect to house 1 betta fish. This is enough responsibility that a 13 y/o should have to feed it occasionally and change some of the water every few weeks.

If you want to jump right into keeping a bigger tank, that is your choice. You asked for a starter, there is not much easier than a 2 gallon tank w/ 1 betta.

That's akin to saying you will get great advice from someone at Best Buy. :Q

Most of the folks bagging fish as the local fish store don't know enough to provide the beginner with tips to steer them in the right direction. Just as the computer analogy goes; not everyone out there is clueless. Problem is the beginner doesn't know good advice from bad advice. It's like the AOL'ers first trip to a newsgroup. :shocked:

Edit:

Have a nice day.

 

[purepolly]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. It sounds like a 10 gal freshwater tank is the way to proceed. I'm off to Petco and Walmart to check out the options!

 

[gsellis]

I have to disagree with two posts. Tiger Barbs are not a good first fish for a young girl as a first pet. Tiger barbs are fin nippers of the upper tier just under cichlids. That comes across as bullying and it is not something that might be acceptable.

But then, I will list something even meaner. It is a little more advanced as it takes more attention too. If you want a 'pet', a 40-55g with an Oscar (just 1, they get big) is it. Oscars recognize their owners and develop unique personalities. While I do not recommend this, Oscars have been trained to jump out of the water to take food from your hand and jump from one tank to another to eat feeder goldfish. An oscar we owned would spit gravel at the glass to get your attention to feed him. He would push big plastic marbles around his aquarium. But, oscars need water changes as they can be messy. Oscars also will NOT leave any plant in the gravel and will move any gravel around the aquarium with glee. Oscars are NOT community fish (they will eat tiger barbs.) Sometimes, a plecostomus (algae eating sucker style catfish with armor and sometimes barbs) can exist with Oscars, but it depends on the personality. Oscars come in normal (a green/brown/black), red (red and black), tiger (combo of red and normal), albino red (pinkish), and albino tiger (pink with hot pink striping).

Not sure I would recommend an oscar as a first fish, but I also don't know your daughter. You do. If you want more reading, just found this site that looks kind of cool
http://www.oscarfish.com/

 

[JRich]

I've always liked Tetras

 

[BoomerD]

Having been in the hobby in one way or another, I'd recommend something easy like platies or swordfish for her to keep. Lots of color options, non-aggressive, easy to breed, and stay small. IMO, a 10 is too small for long term, BUT, might be a good learning tank. I second using a piece of shrimp to kick off the cycle. Much more humane than subjecting fish to the ammonia/nitrite of a cycle, and you introduce no parasites, compared to the myriad of potential problems that can come with feeder goldfish...
The old "Undergravel filter standard" is becoming pretty much looked at as a bad way to go. BIG detritus trap/nitrate factory, and can create lots of problems, especially for a newbie. Just a thin layer of gravel in the bottom, and a bio-wheel filter should make a healthier tank. Easy to clean (siphon) the crap out of a thin layer without damaging the biological filter that develops in an UGF, which can cause severe ammonia spikes.

There are lots of good internet forums out there, but possibly twice as many BAD ones...I highly recommend buying her a good book for beginners, and will also recommend Bob Fenner's WetWebMedia for an information source:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/

 

[randay]

Ive kept aquariums from 5-150 gallons for over 12 years.

Get her any size tank with adequate filtration and a single fish. Goldfish, betta, guppy, barb, molly, whatever. The single most important aspect of keeping fish is water quality. You can control the water quality in many ways. I suggest you read a book first before buying anything, or at least ask someone at the pet store for advice first. In the end it all comes down to upkeep, its not a set it and forget it ron popeil convection oven thing.

 

[purepolly]

Any suggestions on an easy to read book for beginners?

 

[DrPizza]

Didn't I read that she's 13? A 6 or 7 year old should be able to handle the responsibility of taking care of 1 fish. Most 13 year olds are perfectly capable of dealing with the care of a larger tank and a community of fish.