Keeping Tropical Fish

[Fader]

Found a specialist shop in Sittingbourne, a bit of a drive from my place but I'm going by the assumption better to see the right people than goto some major chain pet store.

Hoping to have a courtesy car delivered tomorrow and be able to drive as long as the back pain dies down and then I can get down there and take advantage of their experience

 

[Andy808]

The little fish shop I take it?
Looks nice in the pics, good assortment of fish, clean looking plant tank and I WANT THE BIG CATFISH!

 

[Fader]

The little fish shop I take it?
Looks nice in the pics, good assortment of fish, clean looking plant tank and I WANT THE BIG CATFISH!

Thats the one, took a drive down there this morning in the awful courtesy car i've been given. Was quite impressed with the set up and the advice on offer was done with the Fishes best interest at heart and not mine as the keeper.

Am getting my tank delivered tomorrow and going to allow it to cycle through for a while then get back down to the Little fish shop and start of my hobby.

Got to say the cat fish was massively impressive walked in and there it was about an inch from my head and nearly as big as me!

 

[Lawrence22]

Thats the one, took a drive down there this morning in the awful courtesy car i've been given. Was quite impressed with the set up and the advice on offer was done with the Fishes best interest at heart and not mine as the keeper.

Am getting my tank delivered tomorrow and going to allow it to cycle through for a while then get back down to the Little fish shop and start of my hobby.

Got to say the cat fish was massively impressive walked in and there it was about an inch from my head and nearly as big as me!

The tank will not cyle on it's own, it needs a source of ammonia to start the cycle. Advice commonly given at some fish shops is very poor. Simply setting a tank up and letting it run for a week does nothing. If your going to cycle the tank with fish the only thing to wait for is the water getting up to temperature. I would strongly recommend a fishless cycle using bottled unperfumed ammonia as described on the site I gave a link to earlier. Squeezings or media from a mature filter in an established aquarium can speed up this process if you know anyone who has one.

 

[splashtryagain]

Good luck with this venture! I started a marine tank 6 months ago and it is getting to the stage of being easy to run with the rock and sand doing a lot of the filtering - there is no smell from the tank at all. The kids love it, especially the clowns and tang. I would say to do the cycle without fish as it is a tad cruel to send some suicide fish through the cycle. Oh and tropical is a shed load cheaper, unfortunately no corals, crabs or iridescent clams to be had.

 

[Andy808]

Good luck with this venture! I started a marine tank 6 months ago and it is getting to the stage of being easy to run with the rock and sand doing a lot of the filtering - there is no smell from the tank at all. The kids love it, especially the clowns and tang. I would say to do the cycle without fish as it is a tad cruel to send some suicide fish through the cycle. Oh and tropical is a shed load cheaper, unfortunately no corals, crabs or iridescent clams to be had.

If you can get some filter media of someone else (have a word with your LFS they should be able to help) then you have a cycled tank. You might get a mini cycle but nothing that is going to really bother the first few fish. Make sure you have dechlorinated the water and you keep the donated filter media wet. Seeding a filter in this way saves heaps of time and stress for you and your fish. As my filter is HUGE and runs on alphagrog I have lent out filter media for about a dozen tanks now to grear effect with about 6 hardy fish being added first for about a month then the rest of the bio load added over another month or so. Shame your so far away or I would have happily let you borrow some of mine.
There may not be some of the corals, crabs and clams but there are some stunning shrimps being found in Asia,

 

[Fish]

Freshwater inverts are OK for an experienced fish-keeper but they are not advisable for someone who may have to treat their tank in the early days as with inverts you are very restricted to what treatments you can use should you have any fish health issues. Yes, there are non-chemical treatments but they are less effective in the short-term.

Keep it simple at first and learn, but not at the expense of losing fish and emptying your pocket. Its a marathon not a sprint as they say and the more you are prepared to take your time and learn the more you will get out of it in the future. What works for one person will not necessarily work for you as there are too many variables involved.