New To Fish Keeping Questions.

[Bushcraft]

Hi all.

Ok, just a few Questions if you don't mind. I have always wanted to keep some fish but only in a light uncomplicated way. So I have a couple of very basic questions before I do more reserch.

1, How often do you clean them out?

2, How much roughly per month to keep them?

3, How much roughly to set myself up?

4, Anything else I should know?

I will only be keeping some basic fish in a basic tank, I have enough complicated hobbies and im a very busy person so would like some little buddies that are very simple to care for (If there is such a thing). Not sure what fish to get but I always liked those tiny little things that look like they have lights in them, Tetras? Anyway as you can see I know nothing so any help would be great before I get a book and do some proper research!

Thanks for your time

Kris

 

[OohFeeshy]

The answer to all your questions really depends on how big a tank you can/want to get. Since you look to only want a low maintenence tank, any stock depends on how big the tank is and how many fish would be in it. But roughly, maintenence is a 20% water change once a week, cost per month, not a great deal (mainly only cost of water, dechlorinator, food and meds), initial cost depends on setup size and anything else to know... Well, just do some reasearch TBH I wouldn't bother investing in a book (although looking through library ones won't go amiss). Almost all are very outdated informationwise (for instance, a book I have that was published a year or so ago has information that is outdated by over 5 years) and will lead you to do things that aren't very good ideas.

 

[Bushcraft]

The answer to all your questions really depends on how big a tank you can/want to get. Since you look to only want a low maintenence tank, any stock depends on how big the tank is and how many fish would be in it. But roughly, maintenence is a 20% water change once a week, cost per month, not a great deal (mainly only cost of water, dechlorinator, food and meds), initial cost depends on setup size and anything else to know... Well, just do some reasearch TBH I wouldn't bother investing in a book (although looking through library ones won't go amiss). Almost all are very outdated informationwise (for instance, a book I have that was published a year or so ago has information that is outdated by over 5 years) and will lead you to do things that aren't very good ideas.

Thanks for the info. Tank size im thinking only about 12 or 15 inches and fish, very few unless they need friends. Maybe 6 tiny ones?

You say a 20% water change per week. Do I just take some out, add fresh with some of the potions that you need to add each week?

Thanks

 

[OohFeeshy]

15 inches is a fairly easy to get size. For that, you'd probably be wanting a group of six or seven tetras, I would say

Playsand substrate
Fluval 2+ filter
50w heater
Whichever light you can get in the hood

And then decorate it with easy live plants like cabomba, java moss, java fern. Maintenence would be to take out 20% of the water each week and replace it with dechlorinated tap water. So on your shopping list, I would reccomend

Whichever tank you go for
Hood (usually comes with tank)
Stand (if you want one)
A small light if the tank doesn't come with one
A few kilograms of sand (or gravel if you really want)
Dechlorinator (should say on the bottle something like 'removes chlorine and chloramines')
Ammonia test kit
Nitrite test kit
Household ammonia (ingredients should just be ammonia and water)
Fluval 2+ filter
50w heater
Bucket
Any decorations you want

That should run to somewhere over £60. Have a look around, somewhere there is a thread about how to do a fishless cycle. That should make the initial setting up pretty clear.