How much care does a fish tank need?

c.c.cookie ↓

Thu, Mar 03 2011, 11:03 pm

My 8 yr. old son is dying for a fish tank for his birthday. I'm only willing to do it if:
a. it's not too expensive and
b. I don't get stuck with too much work

Can you tell me, for a normal fish tank, what kind of care does it need? How often does it need to be done? How much of it can an 8 yr. old do on his own? And how much, around, will all this cost me?

RachelEve14

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 2:23 am

Get him a small one with one beta in it (don't get two, they will fight!!)

Betas are low maintenance, they can even do okay witout a filter. Just *don't* try to put extra fish in. A smaller tank is harder to care for if it's crowded than a larger one (more fish need more room).

↑ c.c.cookie ↓

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 2:27 am

Thanks Racheleve! If I DO choose to get something a bit bigger with more fish (if I do this already, we might as well have a nice fish tank. We have a spot for one from where the previous owners kept theirs, with a light, and an extra outlet etc.) how much will it cost me? And how much work/what kind of work does it entail?

reed

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 5:51 am

I would go into a pet shop and tell them I am "inquiring", not "buying" anything today. I would suggest going without your child, so you can always say it's not your final choice, and they know you're not there to buy right now. If your child is there, they can help build the pressure to buy it all NOW! When I did that, I got a whole host of options that I could really think about, without the pressure of buying immediately. (It still cost more than I thought it would, but I was more prepared, as I had calculated the options.)

chanahlady

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 7:11 am

If you want a nice tank with tropical fish, it's about an hour or two of work a week. You have to siphon out about 1/3 of the water every week and replace it with new water (can't change all the water, because the water contains beneficial bacteria that the fish need -- however, you need to add new water once a week and siphon their droppings from the gravel).

It's not that hard, but it is a weekly job. It's been a while since I owned a tank, so I can't remember everything that's needed, but it can get sort of expensive.

If you just want a few goldfish in a tank, with no live plants, then it's less work but goldfish are kind of dirty and it's not as nice to just sit and stare at as a tropical tank is.

su7kids

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 7:42 am

I have a 10 gallon fish tank with 5 fish in it, plus an algae eater, bottom feeder. The tank has a "barrel" in it for the bottom feeder to hide in (they like to do that when they're "resting") and a couple of sticks of greens (plastic) which makes the tank look pretty.
At the bottom of the tank is about 3/4 of an inch of pretty rocks.
We have fish flakes which we feed the fish (they struggle on Pesach, cos we can only give them shrimp, which, while treif, is not chometz).
The algae eater, which starts out small, about an inch, does a great job of keeping the bottom clean. Also, the dirt in the tank depends n how much you feed the fish. They don't need a lot. If you give them too much, it sinks to the bottom and creates shmutz which the algae eater can't keep up with.
I barely ever siphon out the water, maybe once every few months, but at the beginning until you settle with the balance of how much food to give them so the tank doesn't get dirty, you may have to. You get a "hand" pump, which you kinda haev to suck the water (not into your mouth, just to begin the flow) until it goes.
You of course need a filter, and you need to change the actual pads in the filter regularly.
There is an initial set up and then a maintenance. The initial doesn't have to be a lot, depends where you shop.

Oh, my algae eater also ate some of the fish, if they died! So, we got "fast" fish. We haven't had a fish die on us for quite a long time now.

http://www.firsttankguide.net/steps.php

Now, we also have a turtle tank and that's a LOT of work.

red sea

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 7:55 am

My two cents - if you dont want too much work Choic #1 would be fresh water fish plus a bottom feeder to clean the tank, you can get fancy goldfish or a few other fish that arent too expensive.- unless you are setting it up in a spot where there are no windows do not get saltwater fish. If you do - plan on using copper in the water (which means you can never do anything too fancy).

The main cost is all the little filterss, skimmers, heaters etc that you need to run the tank. So you need to really find out what you need for the fish you want to go with, and research which brands to buy that are cheapest, work best, need the least human intervention etc.

good wifey

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 11:15 am

We had a 20 gallon fish tank. The initial setup (tank, filter, decoration and fish)
was around $100. I don't know how much that is in Shekels.

Over the 6 years that we had it the total cost of supplies and more fish was about $300 total.
We started with 10 goldfish plus 5 guppies. The goldfish made a lot of dirt. We changed the water twice a week.

We over fed them, every family member put some food in once a day which was too much. 2 died and the rest grew huge. Really over sized for goldfish. Until they ate the guppies!!! So the most expensive part was guppies. They cost 5 cents a piece (once a day times 11) verses a can of fish flakes for 5 dollars that lasted 2 weeks. (We kept the guppies separate in a container one the bottom shelf of the tank stand.)

We were total clueless when we started out. We were once stuck in traffic for hours. We saw a Petland shop down the road pulled into the parking lot and went for an outing. We came home with a 20 gallon fish tank n fish...
The salesman was quite helpful and gave us a detailed list of care instructions. The first few water changing's were a big mess but then got the hang of it.
I suggest you should have your mind set up before you actually buy anything. (Window shopping first is a good idea.) And for care questions you can always come back here...

life'sgreat ↓

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 11:45 am

c.c.cookie wrote:

Depending on the size you decide to go with, the initial price goes up the larger the tank obviously.

I purchased a 55 gallon tank at the beginning of the summer and love it immensely. I love caring for it, enjoy watching the fish and it's a great addition to our dining/living room.

Many people that start out small want to go bigger pretty soon into the game, as you put in almost the same amount of work (or sometimes less for a bigger tank), and don't have much to look at if it's too small. There are some great package deals in chain stores that gives you everything you need to start up a tank, or you can try craigslist for decent deals sometimes.

For my size tank, the care is really not a lot once the tank is cycled and everything's more or less settled. I clean the tank once ever 3-4 weeks with a siphon and worked out a system that makes it a pretty easy (and for me even enjoyable) job.

The only thing your 8 old will most likely be able to do on his own is feeding the fish once you teach him how, but the responsibility of everything else will be on you.

↑ life'sgreat ↓

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 11:46 am

Raisin wrote:

go into a pet shop and they will tell you what it entails.

Big big mistake to do that. They will sell any extras they can think of, and you have no idea if what they say you need is really needed. Pet shops are notorious for giving awful information (my sister was told to cycle her tank with FIFTY feeder fish), and some of them have absolutely no clue what they're talking about. The pet shop that really does give valid information is very rare.

↑ life'sgreat

Fri, Mar 04 2011, 11:47 am

chanahlady wrote:

What size tank did you have that you need to clean it once a week?