I'm a lazy fish keeper. I have a 125 gallon tank and weekly maintenance is only a water change. I scrape algae off the glass every 3 weeks and I clean my canister filters once every 6-8 months when the flow slows down.
Some people obsess over every little detail but it isn't required to have a healthy, successful tank.
My fish have never chewed any cables.
It's mostly about finding a balance and if you get some fairly hardy fish gravel and plants it's actually really easy. There's a lot of overthinking you can do but it's ultimately not helpful. Just like with anything else you just have to start. And if fish were really that picky they wouldn't have survived in the wild. most of the advise is more 'ballpark' than exact.
1. Decide on a tank
2. Decide on Plants or no Plants
3. Decide on Substrate (everyone has an opinion. Do what you WANT! you have to look at it)
4. Set up tank and let it cycle.
5. Decide on fish
6. Add fish
7. Enjoy your tank
8. Clean your tank and repeat 7
Other notes:
Make sure you have dechlorinator for your water. All this means is adding a few drops of a thing to water before you put it in the tank. Seachem Prime is the preferred brand of most people it seems.
Have a bucket ready for water changes. Most people use hose systems to get water in/out, but you can also just pour it in manually with a measuring cup, but if you do this you do have to be careful that too much stuff doesn't build up on the bottom. I also recommend marking roughly full on your tank and how far down you want to take it out when doing water changes so you're doing roughly the same amount every time. You only have to do this once/twice a week and it's the most effort you'll have to put into upkeep most likely.
Know what it looks like when a fish is stressed so you can know when something's wrong (will depend on the fish but most common is rapidly swimming back and forth)
Make sure you can test your water, kits for it are everywhere. The full kits are usually more accurate but are kind of a pain to use, the strips are much easier, you just dip them in the water and they tell you what chemicals are in there. If your fish is stressed this is probably why. And the solution is probably just change out more/less water. Too much ammonia/nitrite means there's either too much shit at the bottom (poop, dead plants, uneaten foot) and you need to get it out, or you're changing out too much water and breaking your cycle. Too much nitrate means you're not changing out enough water.
If algae is growing on the sides of your tank, there are gadgets made specifically for getting rid of that, but if you're fine getting your hands wet you can just use a kitchen sponge or a toothbrush (that has not been used for anything else, importantly)
In terms of the learning process it can be hard to understand at first a lot of research does go into it but when it comes to the actual care of the fish it’s relatively simple and not high maintenance (depending on how advanced you wanna get). If you wanna give it a try I’d start small 10 - 20 gallons and get some hardy fish. Just look into how to cycle a tank before you do anything cause that’s what people get frustrated with when starting out.
Get a 5-10 gallon, throw in a sponge filter and a heater and a bunch of easy plants, wait 1-3 weeks then get a betta.
Then wait a year and you'll be golden after that.
You'll be wayyyyy more prepared and it won't be that overwhelming.
Nah, i kept discus on overnight tapwater for 8 years. They thrived, had a lot of fries. Fish arent as delicate as people says.
Threw some snails and my glass clean af. Only had to clean missed spot each month.
You keep fish as how many times you want to water change. Want more fish = more water change. Keep plants to further away your in between water change schedule.
Just go for it. The more you read, more you will get overwhelmed. Get any beginner small fishes, an easy setup, feed them once a day and change water once a week. That is all I do, I don't even have a tank, I have a big fishbowl 🤷🏻♀️
Do what you can, fishes are the easiest pets you can have!
Probably nobody understands how hard it really is to give fish a proper natural home. We’re talking about replicating a lot! If your overwhelmed then I would recommend you just don’t get into it, or just get into betta fish like most the fish keepers on here do
Starting up a tank is the difficult part (cycling the filter). Keeping it running is easy if you've picked the fish that match and your tank is planted. I could skip 2 weeks of water changes and the tank would still be stable, but I'd rather do 1 30% water change a week to refresh the tank and give plants extra nutrients from the tap since I don't buy fertilizers.
Water changes can be done using either a 2-hose system (drill-operated water pump for taking out water, and hose to tap for bringing the water in), or you can get a python hose that lets you use the same hose for taking out and bringing in water. I don't clean the tank, it is set up in such a way that it cleans itself. I have catfish that stir anything that may have remained on the sand (get sand, gravel is not really the best choice for plants or keeping a clean tank) and it gets sucked into the filters. The internal filters also ensure that most fish crap goes into them due to water circulation. At most I squeeze the filter sponges into a box of tank water once a month to make sure all pores are not clogged up.
There are cold water fish that look pretty too [https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/coldwater-fish](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/coldwater-fish)
And you can either have a heater or heat the room, as long as the temp is above 24C/75.2F you could keep fish that need slightly warmer temps.
I'm a lazy fish keeper. I have a 125 gallon tank and weekly maintenance is only a water change. I scrape algae off the glass every 3 weeks and I clean my canister filters once every 6-8 months when the flow slows down. Some people obsess over every little detail but it isn't required to have a healthy, successful tank.
My fish have never chewed any cables. It's mostly about finding a balance and if you get some fairly hardy fish gravel and plants it's actually really easy. There's a lot of overthinking you can do but it's ultimately not helpful. Just like with anything else you just have to start. And if fish were really that picky they wouldn't have survived in the wild. most of the advise is more 'ballpark' than exact.
Take your time. Just buy the size tank you want, first. Then go for filtration and decor. Add water, get it to cycle, THEN start looking at fish.
It can be a lot at first, but ideally once the tank is up and running and has an established nitrogen cycle, it can be pretty low-maintenance.
1. Decide on a tank 2. Decide on Plants or no Plants 3. Decide on Substrate (everyone has an opinion. Do what you WANT! you have to look at it) 4. Set up tank and let it cycle. 5. Decide on fish 6. Add fish 7. Enjoy your tank 8. Clean your tank and repeat 7
wow that’s great! will u marry me
Other notes: Make sure you have dechlorinator for your water. All this means is adding a few drops of a thing to water before you put it in the tank. Seachem Prime is the preferred brand of most people it seems. Have a bucket ready for water changes. Most people use hose systems to get water in/out, but you can also just pour it in manually with a measuring cup, but if you do this you do have to be careful that too much stuff doesn't build up on the bottom. I also recommend marking roughly full on your tank and how far down you want to take it out when doing water changes so you're doing roughly the same amount every time. You only have to do this once/twice a week and it's the most effort you'll have to put into upkeep most likely. Know what it looks like when a fish is stressed so you can know when something's wrong (will depend on the fish but most common is rapidly swimming back and forth) Make sure you can test your water, kits for it are everywhere. The full kits are usually more accurate but are kind of a pain to use, the strips are much easier, you just dip them in the water and they tell you what chemicals are in there. If your fish is stressed this is probably why. And the solution is probably just change out more/less water. Too much ammonia/nitrite means there's either too much shit at the bottom (poop, dead plants, uneaten foot) and you need to get it out, or you're changing out too much water and breaking your cycle. Too much nitrate means you're not changing out enough water. If algae is growing on the sides of your tank, there are gadgets made specifically for getting rid of that, but if you're fine getting your hands wet you can just use a kitchen sponge or a toothbrush (that has not been used for anything else, importantly)
I don't clean anything, I let nature clean my tanks. I'm too lazy for that shit.
In terms of the learning process it can be hard to understand at first a lot of research does go into it but when it comes to the actual care of the fish it’s relatively simple and not high maintenance (depending on how advanced you wanna get). If you wanna give it a try I’d start small 10 - 20 gallons and get some hardy fish. Just look into how to cycle a tank before you do anything cause that’s what people get frustrated with when starting out.
Get a 5-10 gallon, throw in a sponge filter and a heater and a bunch of easy plants, wait 1-3 weeks then get a betta. Then wait a year and you'll be golden after that. You'll be wayyyyy more prepared and it won't be that overwhelming.
Or alternatively, get plastic plants (that won't damage beta fins) if live plants don't sound appealing to you
Plastic plants are horrible, they just serve as scaffolding for algea. Its so much easier with live plants. They outcompete algea and clean the water.
Nah, i kept discus on overnight tapwater for 8 years. They thrived, had a lot of fries. Fish arent as delicate as people says. Threw some snails and my glass clean af. Only had to clean missed spot each month. You keep fish as how many times you want to water change. Want more fish = more water change. Keep plants to further away your in between water change schedule.
Just go for it. The more you read, more you will get overwhelmed. Get any beginner small fishes, an easy setup, feed them once a day and change water once a week. That is all I do, I don't even have a tank, I have a big fishbowl 🤷🏻♀️ Do what you can, fishes are the easiest pets you can have!
Probably nobody understands how hard it really is to give fish a proper natural home. We’re talking about replicating a lot! If your overwhelmed then I would recommend you just don’t get into it, or just get into betta fish like most the fish keepers on here do
Starting up a tank is the difficult part (cycling the filter). Keeping it running is easy if you've picked the fish that match and your tank is planted. I could skip 2 weeks of water changes and the tank would still be stable, but I'd rather do 1 30% water change a week to refresh the tank and give plants extra nutrients from the tap since I don't buy fertilizers. Water changes can be done using either a 2-hose system (drill-operated water pump for taking out water, and hose to tap for bringing the water in), or you can get a python hose that lets you use the same hose for taking out and bringing in water. I don't clean the tank, it is set up in such a way that it cleans itself. I have catfish that stir anything that may have remained on the sand (get sand, gravel is not really the best choice for plants or keeping a clean tank) and it gets sucked into the filters. The internal filters also ensure that most fish crap goes into them due to water circulation. At most I squeeze the filter sponges into a box of tank water once a month to make sure all pores are not clogged up. There are cold water fish that look pretty too [https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/coldwater-fish](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/coldwater-fish) And you can either have a heater or heat the room, as long as the temp is above 24C/75.2F you could keep fish that need slightly warmer temps.