I'm thinking about getting one just for fun, but I don't want to spend the bank to start, or have everything die right away. I remember having one betta and about 3 goldfish in a bowl when I was about 5 years old. IIRC the betta bit the fins off some of the goldfish. I know you can only have one male betta in a tank because they will fight with each other if you have more, but can they live with anything else?

How complicated is it to keep a freshwater aquarium? The message boards and petsmart make it sound complicated. I would like to keep it small, but have more than one type of creature in there.

9/18/2014 12:40:17 AM

Quote :

"I'm thinking about getting one just for fun"

I find aquariums very relaxing and enjoyable. I have one at every asian restaurant I go to regularly. I've found that's about as much fun as can be had with an aquarium. If you have to maintain it though it goes from 'fun' to 'why do I have fish?'.

[Edited on September 18, 2014 at 12:53 AM. Reason : I had an aquarium dvd once. That was almost as good.]

9/18/2014 12:50:31 AM

^My parents had goldfish in a tank on the deck until two died and a hawk ate the other. It was fun to try to keep them alive and grow water plants.

9/18/2014 12:53:54 AM

I could see how the plant/fish synergy aspect could make it more interesting. Honestly man just go for it. Avoid aggressive fish and don't overcrowd or neglect it and you should be golden.

[Edited on September 18, 2014 at 12:57 AM. Reason : paging djeternal]


I think if I ever got another aquarium it would have to be like a HUGE full-wall or in the ceiling setup, and I'd pay someone to take care of it. Or maybe a bar. Aquarium bar.

[Edited on September 18, 2014 at 1:00 AM. Reason : d]

9/18/2014 12:57:10 AM

^I remember growing up with bettas and feeding them once a day at most and cleaning the water every now and then. They survived for about a year or longer and petsmart has them listed in the 1-4 year life span. I wouldn't mind having an algae eater too, but I read they become aggressive towards the other fish once they become adults and it says to add some salt if you have a guppy, but it won't hurt the other fish. I know you can get a betta separator, or make your own too. It sounds like I would need a heater too.

Quote :

"If you have to maintain it though it goes from 'fun' to 'why do I have fish?'"

Is that really any worse than walking a dog, or cleaning a litter box for a lazy house cat?

9/18/2014 1:07:55 AM

It's not worse, and at least it's contained for the most part, but you don't really get the same one-on-one interaction with fishes. fwiw I don't have plans to purposefully get a cat or dog any time soon. Not that the ones I've had were purposeful. They seem to 'get me' if you know what I mean. For the same reasons I would not actively try to get a cat or dog I would not want an aquarium, but I would chose a cat or dog over an aquarium if presented with an ultimatum.

[Edited on September 18, 2014 at 1:13 AM. Reason : d]

9/18/2014 1:12:27 AM

^Honestly, my parent's water barrel makes a pretty awesome deck decoration. My dad went to Lowes and bought one of those black barrel shaped tanks/bowls, or whatever you call it and sat it inside a whiskey barrel that he sawed in half. Then he put three fish, a water lily, a water iris, and fountain pump in there. It makes a nice deck/patio decoration.

[Edited on September 18, 2014 at 1:35 AM. Reason : .]

9/18/2014 1:32:27 AM

I have a 60 gallon freshwater that I have had for 5 years currently. I've kept salt and fresh water tanks. If you set it up correctly it is not hard to maintain fresh. I have to add water as it evaporates and change th3 filters. I have a magnetic scraper so I don't have to stick my hands in the tank to clean the glass. Get a healthy mix of top swimmers, middle swimmers, bottom feeders, and algae eaters. Chinese algae eaters get aggressive as they get larger but should be fine in a semi aggressive tank. If you want a community tank go for a pleco or some snails or both. Make sure you have good circulation. I like to go a bit overboard and have an under gravel filter as well as the one the hangs on the back of the tank. Make sure you give the fish tons of places to hide. The more hiding places they have the less they will hide because they feel more secure. If you decide that your fish need a little salt please buy aquarium salt. Don't dump table salt or ocean salt in there.

9/18/2014 7:35:41 AM

I've kept a 7 gallon aquarium for the past few years up until about 6 months ago when my Betta died. I had a nice hanging filter, heater, and live plant life that really made it a great sanctuary for the betta. I'd like to start a new one but i don't know what species of fish to get. I'd like to have multiple fish in the tank instead of just a single.

9/18/2014 9:02:13 AM

last time I kept a freshwater aquarium, I realized that I had to be OCD about the temperature inside our the fishies would easily die.

A fun thing for me, at least as a little guilty pleasure, was to load the beta tank up with brine shrimp.

9/18/2014 9:12:04 AM

Anyone telling you aquariums are hard to maintain are wrong. I have had a few large aquariums and this is the deal:

Put a water treatment in and let it sit for a day or two before you add fish. Add some kind of air-bubble screen to keep the water moving and full of oxygen. Get a small catfish first, and 2-3 other tiny fish. Once your algae starts to build up in a couple of weeks, get a very small algae eater and let him go to work - don't add algae killer.

After that, clean the tank with a little tank vacuum pump once every couple of months and add a pitcher of water once a month or so, and you're fine.

9/18/2014 9:12:04 AM

(most) fish are ridiculously easy to keep.

here's my simple rules to keeping fish:

1) don't overfeed them (don't use those stupid fucking slow release food blocks. ever.)

2) don't change all the water in the tank at once. this is an easy way to stress fish out and kill them.

3) don't buy a shit ton of fish to put in a brand new aquarium. (unless you want to make very, very frequent water changes for a good while)

basically don't do those things and YOU TOO CAN KEEP FISH ALIVE!

9/18/2014 9:50:24 AM

So to add to the easiness argument.

I moved my tank to this house 3 years ago. I haven't vacuumed it once. Just add water when it gets low. I have fish that are still alive from when I first got the tank 5 years ago. It will be 6 years in December.

9/18/2014 2:24:02 PM

what kind of fish? More specifically, some species are hardier than others, so which ones survived?

9/18/2014 2:29:23 PM

^From my past experiences bettas seem easy to keep in the house and goldfish are really easy to keep outdoors with water plants in a tank. They can survive at any temperature.

9/18/2014 3:16:03 PM

Banjoman, the only things that died were the snails and algae eaters when I moved the tank. Guess it wasn't dirty enough.

I've got blood fin tetras, rosy barbs, cories, and rainbow sharks. But I've kept lots of others in my other tank that I never vacuumed. The under gravel filter helps a lot. As do the bottom feeders and snails, and not over feeding. Make those guys skip a meal every once in a while.


At the pet store where i used to work we vacuumed out the tanks monthly, but we crammed 2 dozen or more fish in a ten gallon at a time.

[Edited on September 18, 2014 at 3:54 PM. Reason : .]

9/18/2014 3:52:17 PM

I keep a yellow lab cichlid in a 10 gallon tank

I think it's smart enough to throw its own poo into the filter intake I have never seen it do it, but the sand bottom stays clean for not having been vacuumed in months

Get a smart fish (african cichlid, oscar, parrot fish are readily available). They are aggressive so you can't really mix and match with other species.

9/18/2014 5:02:53 PM

I had parrot fish in my 55. Awesome fish. They were cute and smart and played with the laser pointer. I had to sell that tank and the store I worked for put them in their display tank. I miss them.

9/18/2014 5:04:59 PM

i had an oscar for about 4 years. he was a real jerk.

9/18/2014 5:05:27 PM

An old roommate had an Oscar that was suicidal. Kept jumping out of the tank. But she had the massive fish ( probably over a foot long) in a 10 gallon for a really long time. The day she moved him to a 55 breeder he died.

9/18/2014 5:46:37 PM

^A friend of my family did the outdoor whisky barrel setup. He put 4 goldfish in there and one jumped out of the tank. He put it back in and the next moring it was laying on the deck dead. I guess it was suicidal.

Quote :

"I've kept a 7 gallon aquarium for the past few years up until about 6 months ago when my Betta died. I had a nice hanging filter, heater, and live plant life that really made it a great sanctuary for the betta. I'd like to start a new one but i don't know what species of fish to get. I'd like to have multiple fish in the tank instead of just a single."

I went to Petsmart tonight and the guy said don't mix goldfish with other breeds of fish because it messes up the water and kills the other fish unless you really know what you are doing.

Also, you can get something called a betta separator. It keeps the betta away from the other fish, but they are still in the same tank. You can make your own too. You just have to put a screen, or something in the tank and give the betta at least a quart of water to live in. The guy at the store said just put a lot of fake plants and other things in there to block the betta from the other creatures. He said a betta can live with a snail and have no problems. That is what I am thinking about doing, if I do try to start an aquarium.

9/19/2014 12:41:43 AM

I've always been fascinated with the Black Moor goldfish, but from everything i've read it seems like they require a 20+ gallon tank. I'm not sure I want to go that big. My 7 gallon sits nicely on my kitchen bar. I guess it's another betta in my future.

9/19/2014 8:03:37 AM

Quote :

"I went to Petsmart tonight and the guy said don't mix goldfish with other breeds of fish because it messes up the water and kills the other fish unless you really know what you are doing."

goldfish are very messy/dirty fish. if you're gonna mix them, you need to do more frequent water changes. also, if they're fancy goldfish with retarded heads/eyes, they can be hard to feed if you put them with fish that are normal and can actually move quickly and eat.

most bettas do fine with something like neon tetras in the same tank. stay away from most other tetras though, because they will pretty much shred the fins of a betta (or a fancy goldfish).

Quote :

"I've always been fascinated with the Black Moor goldfish, but from everything i've read it seems like they require a 20+ gallon tank. I'm not sure I want to go that big."

goldfish get big. and live a long time. you could always go for something like cory cats and a school of tetras/danios(if you like color, get some of those genetically modified zebra danios - glofish)

9/19/2014 9:22:22 AM

I had a betta in my 55 with platies, mollies, 2 parrot fish (got them as teeny babies when the others were bigger), rainbow sharks, snails, and a massive pleco. I broke the rules. It was fine. The key is to stuff the tank full of plants and decor so everyone feels safe and has a place to hide.

[Edited on September 19, 2014 at 9:37 AM. Reason : .]

9/19/2014 9:37:22 AM

Tank with some peacocks. Africans are the easiest FW fish and very colorful. They will also eventually reproduce in the tank

9/19/2014 1:19:17 PM

Quote :

"I've kept a 7 gallon aquarium for the past few years up until about 6 months ago when my Betta died. I had a nice hanging filter, heater, and live plant life that really made it a great sanctuary for the betta. I'd like to start a new one but i don't know what species of fish to get. I'd like to have multiple fish in the tank instead of just a single."

if you go to http://www.petsmart.com you can see all of the live fish listed that they sell and it shows their tank size requirements. It says a guppy requires 5+ gallons and a betta requires 1+ quart. I read that a male betta will attack other bright colored fish, so you need to keep them away from guppies. You could always do a betta with a betta separator, multiple male guppies, and a snail.

9/20/2014 12:09:03 AM

Quote :

"It was fun to try to keep them alive"

lol

9/20/2014 10:59:51 AM

Just get one of those magnetic backed tank wall scrubbers and you'll be good to go.

9/20/2014 12:30:33 PM

You can just hire me to take care of them, it's what I do professionally

9/20/2014 3:32:14 PM

For every one male guppy you should try to have 2 females. Multiple males and no females makes for sad fishies.

9/21/2014 9:31:52 AM

^What if you don't want them to breed though?

9/21/2014 12:13:46 PM

I guess you could try. As I've said I break a lot of rules with no issues.

9/21/2014 12:44:29 PM

^So do you breed fish?

9/21/2014 2:10:43 PM

None of my fish currently are live breeders.

When I had turtles I set the tank up so I had a place for guppies to hide and I let them do their thing and they kept the turtles well fed.

9/21/2014 4:24:42 PM

^I'm thinking 10 gallons, if I do get one sometime. What breed would you recommend, if I only want males, or females to avoid breeding?

9/21/2014 10:56:56 PM

get a school of zebra danios. there are quite a few varieties of this species regularly for sale besides the normal ones (which look cool in their own right), like leopard, blue, gold and albino. and there are long-finned versions of each of those. mix and match them to have a school of colorful, very active fish.

they are very, very hardy and easy to keep. also they are cheap.

also, look at some of the tetras that don't get too big. some personal favorites of mine are flame tetras and pristella (x-ray) tetras.

but remember, most all these smaller fish are schooling fish and will do much, much better if kept in groups (i'd say at least 4-5).


and now i'm gonna set my 45 back up.

9/22/2014 10:58:32 AM

Just don't get live breeders. Guppies, platies, mollies, enders livebearers. Avoid them.

Tetras and danios are great like ^ said. Then you don't have to worry about males and females.

9/22/2014 11:38:40 AM

i fucking hate platies.

9/22/2014 11:44:12 AM

^why

9/22/2014 3:31:32 PM

Big4County. The point here is just don't get live bearers and you will be able to stop worrying about whether your fish have penises or vaginas.

9/22/2014 3:46:19 PM

People are fucking dying and this motherfucker wants to use waste water for this shit

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

[Edited on September 22, 2014 at 3:51 PM. Reason : we need to put u in a aquarium]

9/22/2014 3:50:28 PM

It's just a personal preference. Some people hate gay people, others black people. Me? I hate platies.

On another note, don't ever get two male swordtails. Ever. You will always end up with just one.

9/22/2014 4:24:37 PM

Sword tails are also live bearers. So again. Avoid that shit.

9/22/2014 4:45:43 PM

Yeah I'm just saying, in general, the males are super aggressive to each other and the dominant one will stress the rest out until they basically die.

9/22/2014 7:21:02 PM

So how big of a deal is the surface area in relation to the gallons? They have some 10 gallons tanks with a width of around 20 inches, but they also have a 15 gallon one that is 13.5" x 13.5" with a height of 24". Is it healthier for the fish to be able to swim ahead for 20", or is it ok to put the same amount in a more compact tank and make them swim in circles? I would like some bottom dwellers, middle swimmers, and top dwellers.

9/22/2014 10:29:37 PM

I've got this little 4.? gallon tank. So far I've just got a betta, a little cory, 2 live plants and some moss.

I feel like I can fit another [small] mid/tall swimmer in there. Any recommendations?



[Edited on September 29, 2014 at 3:56 PM. Reason : Do I need a heater for the betta?]

9/29/2014 3:47:00 PM

Also I used to have a moray eel in a 10-20 gallon tank. Might start up a saltwater tank just so I can have another. Anybody know how much they run up here?

9/29/2014 3:47:59 PM

Betta doesn't need a heater. Get a snail.

9/29/2014 6:39:07 PM

Your Cory is lonely

9/29/2014 7:23:15 PM

I have a crocodile in my aquarium.

9/29/2014 8:54:16 PM