Childs frst fish tank

[Skyedriver]

There are a few aquarium threads on this forum but cannot see one that might help so here goes.
Thinking about a tank with a few easy to keep fish for a 6 year old on his birthday. TBH always fancied one myself too.
Do we go for one of these bio orbs or are they overpriced fashion things. They seem "complete"
Would a cheaper £15 tank be better (bigger)
Do we go cold or tropical
Just stick with goldfish?
Thanks in advance

[832ark]

Right, you're going to need to do a lot of reading, I'll post up some links.

A few points though

- Keeping Goldfish or freshwater tropicals is basically the same apart from a heater.

- Goldfish are often purchased in the belief that they're 'easy' to keep. This is not true, they're possibly more demanding than freshwater tropicals as they require lots of space and are very messy fish.

- Common goldfish are really pond fish and should not be kept in tanks unless the tank is massive, fancy goldfish are more suited to being kept in tanks and will require 100 litres per fish and 40 litres per additional fish (they're sociable fish and should not be kept alone)

- Bi-orbs are generally not considered good tanks as they don't have much surface area.

- A minimum size tank should really be 60 litres and this will make a nice community tropical freshwater tank.

- You need to read up on the Nitrogen Cycle and learn about cycling a fish tank. This is done using a source of ammonia and will usually take 4-6 weeks before you can add fish. Any shops that tell you to run the tank for a week and then bring a sample of water for testing so that you can have fish are basically talking rubbish. If you add fish to an uncycled tank and do a 'fish-in' cycle then expect to be doing lots of water changes or have dead fish.

- Goldfish do not grow to fit their surroundings, they stop growing externally but their internal organs continue to grow, they will then suffer a slow painful death.

- A healthy, well cared for Goldfish should live 20+ years and grow to 10"-12"

- Make sure you get a decent 'liquid drop' type water testing kit, the strips are not accurate.

Hope this helps

[832ark]

Cycling explained
http://forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/showthread...

Cycling and the Nitrogen Cycle
http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

Goldfish sizing
http://forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/showthread...

Fancy Goldfish (Black Moor) Caresheet
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/caresheets/ca...

Useful beginners articles
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/beginners_articles/

Something like this would be a good start (possibly excluding the coral)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FISHBOX-TROPICAL-AQAURIU...

You can get some good deals on eBay, Aquarist Classifieds and Freecycle.

Edited by 832ark on Friday 16th September 23:03

[Turn7]

If you want to enjoy watching the fish, then I would avoid orbs for a number of reasons.

The curvature ruins any decent views of the fish being one of many.

Please, also, do not get caught up in the "nano" tank culture as it is no good way to keep fish.

A good rectangular tank of, ideally 36x15x12 is a good starter, with a good external power filter.

As for breeds, any of the popular regulars will do from barbs/minnows/guppies et all.

Do not take anything explained in a Maidenhead Aquatics store as gospel.

[Skyedriver]

Wow thanks for all that. the last link doesn't seem to open though
So if his b/day is end of Oct we need to start cycling at the end this month.
Probably go for tetra, neons etc thats bout all I know except guppies so my knowledge is a bit basic.

[Comacchio]

Agreed with the above. Here's an ebay seller for the API test kit. I ordered 3 days ago, arrived yesterday!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/API-Freshwater-Master-te...

[832ark]

Ideally get the biggest tank you can afford/have space for as the water chemistry will be more stable.

Here's a useful stocking site and I've filled it out with some example stock for a 64l tank but you'd need to be adding some external filtration (this is always a good idea as some of the standard fit internal filters aren't great.

http://aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php?AquTankName=&am...



And one more thing which is one of the best pieces of advise that I've heard and that is 'as a fishkeeper you don't keep fish, you keep water. Get that right and the fish'll take care of themselves' or words to that effect. Basically the key is water quality, most issues experienced by new fishkeepers are due to water quality in one way or another.

[832ark]

Skyedriver said:

Wow thanks for all that. the last link doesn't seem to open though
So if his b/day is end of Oct we need to start cycling at the end this month.
Probably go for tetra, neons etc thats bout all I know except guppies so my knowledge is a bit basic.

The ebay ad? Works ok for me - just search 64l fish tank, something like a juwel 90 would be even better coupled with an Eheim external filter or similar.

As for stocking I think most people go for some of the old favourites like Platties(all males), Guppys(all males), Neon Tetras. Something bottom feeding is a good idea also like a small shoal of Corys and something like a Bristlenose Pleco or a few Otocynclus for algae cleaning duties - be careful not to buy common Plecos as they are tank busters.

Yes I'd start cycling about 5 weeks before his b'day and then once ready to start stocking make sure to stock slowly carrying out daily water tests for the first few days and then weekly once you're happy that its stable and more regularly just after adding stock.


Have a read of Comacchio's thread as he's cycling:
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

Edited by 832ark on Friday 16th September 23:32

[Hysteria1983]

Great advice so far, so just do plenty of reading.

Are you going to make sure the 6 year old keeps up (helps you with) the weekly maintenance?

[Skyedriver]

Hysteria1983 said:

Great advice so far, so just do plenty of reading.

Are you going to make sure the 6 year old keeps up (helps you with) the weekly maintenance?

If only he'd tidy his bedroom!
It'll likely end up with me doing the work....

[Hysteria1983]

Skyedriver said:

If only he'd tidy his bedroom!
It'll likely end up with me doing the work....

Tell me about it! I have a four and five year old, the words tidy up do not compute.

Anywhoo... Keep us all updated with how you get on.

[staceyb]

Hysteria1983 said:

Skyedriver said:

If only he'd tidy his bedroom!
It'll likely end up with me doing the work....

Tell me about it! I have a four and five year old, the words tidy up do not compute.

Anywhoo... Keep us all updated with how you get on.

I don't get this, if they don't tidy up they don't get to keep it, If any of my toys were on the floor or not tidied away my Mam gave them to the charity shop.

[Hysteria1983]

staceyb said:

I don't get this, if they don't tidy up they don't get to keep it, If any of my toys were on the floor or not tidied away my Mam gave them to the charity shop.

I bet that made you upset!

My two have a very strict tidy up times. Before meals, if they want to watch TV or play on their computer or in their rooms etc.
They do not have anything new out until they put away all of what is currently out. For example, of they have the little tikes farm stuff out, but want to get their colouring things, they must put it all into the boxes. I don't do much tidying of their toys, as I have all of their things accesssable at their level, to get out as they wish.

It still does not compute! Lol!!

But, they have learned it the hard way.

There is not a chance on this earth I could afford to give away toys to a charity shop if they didn't tidy up properly. I have locked things away in the garage though. At one point my sons washing machine and washing line were on there for weeks until I felt ge deserved them back.

Edited by Hysteria1983 on Saturday 17th September 21:21