My Son Wants Some Fish!

[D@ve4Wig@n]

Hello my name is Dave, i live in St.Helens, Merseyside. my son aged 4 wants some fish, can someone HELP me as i no absolutly nothing about fish.
i have got a book about Tropical fish and how to keep them, but yes its just a book. i thought by joining this forum that you all could help me. i need 3 fish( 1 for me 1 for mum and 1 for my son!)
so has anybody any ideas as to what size tank and what fish are easy to look after, also anyother advice would be of great help...
Thank you and i hope to hear from you all soon.. D@ve...

 

[willtang3000]

hi welcome to the forum but before we start on what you need to know what size of tank and budget do you have and if you were looking to keep tropical or coldwater

 

[catxx]

livebearers such as platys might do you well, if you don't mind a baby or two

a lot of fish are either shoaling fish (needing groups of 5+) or too aggressive to be kept in trios (two can pick on 1)

have you seen any pictures of fish you might like?

fyi: 3 goldfish would need a BIG tank! as you're a noobie the goldfish tanks are usually the first port of call, but consider that 1 goldie needs a 20 US Gallon tank, each goldie thereafter would need 10 US Gallons, so in the trio you'd need about a 50 US Gallon tank (about 180 litres).

 

[D@ve4Wig@n]

hi welcome to the forum but before we start on what you need to know what size of tank and budget do you have and if you were looking to keep tropical or coldwater

OK my budget is whatever it costs to keep my son happy. the size of tank is whatever i need for just 3 fish, i dunno which to buy Tropical or cold water, same again your advice and help i would greatly appreciate.
i am not too bothered about large fish, so if goldfish grow big then i will go for Tropical but i need 3 or more depends like you say if they need more to be happy then i will buy more. wow this topic header sure does say it all for me ty again for any advice you give me, i hope to go buy a tank asap as i have read it takes about a week to get the water right for the fish, yes my son is at me every day to go buy some fish.
again TY for any advice and help you give to me!

 

[catxx]

it will take more than a week for the tank to cycle, do a search on the forum for fishless cycling, your son will have to learn patience! hehe!

aim for a tank 10 US gallons or LARGER, if you can get 15 US Gallons + your fishy options will greatly increase, go for a long tank rather than a tall tank, fish swim back and forth not up and down, they'll love you a lot more for it!

look into platys i think, they're an excellent "starter" fish and cheap and easy to come by too. and i think they cope in trios, have a look in the "livebearer" section of this board.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=46309

 

[madmom]

Livebearers are pretty easy. The ratio is 1 male for 2-3 females so that would be about right. Try checking out the fish stores to see what you would like. Everyone has favorites. Study the ones you like and take what the salespeople say with a grain of salt. Although some bless them are quite knowledgeable others just want to make a sale.

 

[rob newland]

Just to say, you may be happy with three fish now, but soon you will want more and more when you see what they have at your lfs (local fish store FYI) and don't try and say you won't, as we have all been there, so as others have said - bigger is better as it gives you room to expand. Plus if you are not really looking to buy to a budget - bigger will always be the best option .

 

[Boxermom]

Bigger is also more stable and more forgiving of minor mistakes, which can devistate a smaller tank.

 

[donna123]

hi,
i have to say platys are a good starter fish, thats what i started off with, the ratio is 1 male to 2-3 females but there is nothing wrong with an all female tank . plus you dont need a male as most females you buy are already pregnant, unless you want lots of live fry every 4 weeks i would not have a male also females are more calm.donna .

 

[D@ve4Wig@n]

hi,
i have to say platys are a good starter fish, thats what i started off with, the ratio is 1 male to 2-3 females but there is nothing wrong with an all female tank . plus you dont need a male as most females you buy are already pregnant, unless you want lots of live fry every 4 weeks i would not have a male also females are more calm.donna .

Yes i can agree that maybe once i get started witht hem for my son i will want more. but i think maybe an all female party of 3 should do the trick for now! but you say most will be pregnant anyway!! hmm i wanna start off slow not have LOL sorry how many eggs/babies do they have? as we only want a few not too many.
still i have no idea as to what size of tank i need... OK say i have 10 platys or similar size fish what size tank do i need( please in size not how many gallons it holds) yes another newbie i know..... also what size do they grow too? HELP......

 

[rob newland]

Okay you roughly want to have 1inch of fish per gallon, so 10 platties and 1 inch (roughly) each = a ten gallon tank. But I would go for a 15 in case the inevitable happens and they breed.

 

[donna123]

hi,
platys can have live fry every 4 weeks, some times they eat them though.
some people have danios as the first fish too, ive not kept them but they dont have live young so you wont have a fry problem there. or cherry barbs they are nice fish also. donna if you have a look in the fish index there is info on each fish and a pic also. donna.
platys grow to 1.5 inch
danios grow to 1.5-2 inch
barbs grow to 2 inch
my first tank was a juwel, have a look on the web for tank sizes, once you know what size space you have you will be all set.

 

[Boxermom]

I'd recommend just getting males, rather than females. As has been stated, females can already be pregnant when you get them and can continue giving birth for about six months. Males are even more lovely than the females, are very active, aren't usually aggressive if there are no females to fight over, and bonus, can't get pregnant so no fry to deal with!

 

[three-fingers]

If i were you, i would go with 5-6 white cloud mountain minnows or any type of danio. WCMM's are EXTEREMLY hardy fish and don't really need a heater in the tank(but you can add one later for other fish if you want). Also, although they are shoaling fish, they aren't really fussy. When i first started tropical fish around 4 years ago i had one in a tank with 1 pearl danio, 1 zebra danio and one leopard danio(although i now know that that's not exactly best for the fish, he seemed happy and had no problems). One day when the water company changed the pipes and the resulting bad water killed like 20 fish, other than my synodontis catfish, the WCMM was the only one to survive. He is still living happily in my tank and is at least 5 years old, he shoals with the other 4 new WCMMS's and all my tetras.

If you wanted you could get three of them to start off with in a tank, and later get three more or three danios(if you want variety, since in my experience WCMM's will shoal with most anything similar happily, and danios are apparently closely related). You can learn more about them here.

I just think they are very hardy and very flexible fish, that once settled have very nice colours too. You can even get them in long finned and gold varieties!(below is a regular one stretching its fins as they do quite often).

 

[madmom]

Rob is right. I started with a 10gal in March and by July we outgrew it and got a 20 gal. and as soon as I can talk my old grouch into it my daughter and I plan on going even bigger. All we started with were 3 platy added swords later and the LFS owner keeps giving my daughter free fish when I bring her so my 20 is now near full too.
Most times the female livebearers are pregnant when you get them and can have several batches of live babies usually between 1-20 or more over a few months so that you will soon be loaded with babies.