Absolute Beginner

[Mark Thompson]

Hi all,

Although I am completely new to fish keeping I have been toying with the idea of buying a tank for sometime and today I took the plunge and ordered a 320 Litre corner tank like this...

A couple of my friends have kept tropical fish for years and so I hope to learn as much as I can from them and also this forum until I am ready to start introducing fish into my own aquarium.

At the moment I really do not know what kind of fish to start off with so expect to see lots of typical newbie posts from me appearing all over the place during the course of the next Month or so.

All the best.....

Mark (Tommo)

 

[donna123]

hi,
welcome to tff,
thats a very nice tank to start off with ,
all the best with your new hobby, donna

 

[Mark Thompson]

hi,
welcome to tff,
thats a very nice tank to start off with ,
all the best with your new hobby, donna

Tank you Donna!

This forum has a wealth of information.

Since I started researching into what is involved in keeping tropical fish I have learnt a ton of mainly from reading other peoples questions and the subsequent answers in here!

I know I'm jumping the gun since I don't even have my tank yet but I am now trying to decide on the type of fish to add at first. Ideally I need something quite hardy with my new setup so any ideas gratefuly appreciated.

Cheers
Mark

 

[xJake]

I've always known Gouramis (blue and gold especially) to be a good beginner fish as they're rather hardy and get to be a decent size and are fun to watch grow. You could also try mating (which can happen quite readily under the correct conditions) them which is another rewarding aspect of keeping fish. Also, as for a schooling fish (must be kept in groups of 5 or more in order to live a healthy life), which are always fun whether you're a beginner or an expert, I would suggest danios (zebras especially) as they're also rather hardy fish (and cheap which is good for someone just starting out). Also, consider keeping livebearers (mollies, platies, and guppies - guppies need a well established tank however as they're rather fragile these days) most are rather hardy and if you've got a male and a female they'll spawn almost every month like clockwork which is always fun. Good luck with the new tank!

 

[catxx]

thats a fantastic tank size to start off with! you have a huge array of fish to choose from to stock your tank. you could have a regular community tank, or dive in and get a more unusual species tank (oddballs, oscar, cichlids) or bio-tope specific (mbuna, malawi, amazon). all depending on what look you'd like to go for, and not as hard as it may seem!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good stuff, what a great tank to start off with!!

what are you looking for in your aquarium?

a wet pet, lots of small shoals, a mixed community, something a bit different?? There's sooo many options open to you with a tank that size.

I've a similar tank and I keep large cichlids in it. Some other options I'd go for if I had another one the same would be

Planted, think it'd look stunning if done right, then just very lightly stocked, 3/4 groups of small fish.
Discus, little bit fussy about water conditions so maybe not the best idea for a beginner but if your prepared to do a fair amount of research and maintenance then it could work.
Marine, just imagine a big reef built up into the back corner of it, lots of bright pretty fish darting in and out then 3/4 bigger showy fish lording over the tank, same as discus though, not for the faint hearted!
Angels, Ian's got a 60g angel tank and it's lovely, they're such graceful fish, you could maybe have 8 angels, a fancy plec and 2 groups of cory's.
Malawi, or other rift lake cichlids, lots of colour and movement, fair bit of agression though and they're sensitive to water conditions.
Or just a really nice community with some more different things in. 2 groups of corys, a fancy plec, some shrimp, 4/5 shoals of small fish like tetra's or rasbora's but I'd try to track down some rarer one's, then some rams, gourami's, apistogramma's, rainbows oooh the list is endless!!!

 

[Mark Thompson]

Thanks for the replies and good advice!

To be quite honest I am not entirely sure what I want out of this fish tank but I would say for me visual impact and diversity are the important points. I would like to be able to see several species of different fish than just one or two and would like brightly coloured/decorative fish rather than plain looking ones.

To cut a long story short I recently went on a business trip to China. I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter who was gutted I was going away and so to pacify her I asked her if she would like me to bring her a present back. I was expecting her to ask for a doll (she's a very girly girl) but no........she asks for a fish Nice and convenient I thought!

Well needless to say she did not get the fish but I did buy here that dolly which happens to sing in Chinese (discovered that whilst trying to shove the thing in my suitcase). She was over the moon with it but the following day she asks where her fish is......doh!

I did a bit of hunting around on the net and was intending to get her a small tank or Biorb for her room but you know how it goes. You visit the fish shop.....see something a bit better, then better still and I thought stuff it, may as well go the whole hog and ordered the big tank which the owner of the shop tells me is probably easier to look after than the Biorb anyway, yeah right

I have visited a few shops looking for inspiration (went along to Stapeley Water Gardens today) who have a aquarium centre and I must say the marine fish do look the business. I really like the living rock and corals and the diversity of fish is huge. Saying that I know I would be biting off more than I can chew with the marine setup (at least thats what my friends who keep tropical fish say).

I like the idea of the fish breeding and having the babies and I think my daughter would get a lot out of that (watching them grow up and so forth). Of the fish I have seen so far I do like the Angels and Plecs (even though they are so ugly). I also saw some Barbs (at least I think they were barbs) that were stripy and nice colours.

I should have the tank delivered next week and the chap from the shop is helping to set it up so hopefully within a Month I can introduce some fish!

Bye the way....almost all the fish I have seen so far in the shops have been very small. I know it probably differs from fish to fish but how long does it take for a very young fish to reach max size?

 

[nathan01]

welcome i am also a nwebie gettin a tank tomorrow yours loooks really nice good luck