I am planning on buying a fish tank for my daughter for her 3rd birthday.
Fresh water tank.
What all do i need to buy?
I had a fish tank as a child and aware of what it takes to keep the tank clean, water testing, feeding, etc. I am a SAHM and have the time to keep it well taken care of. It is for my daughters enjoyment not her responsiblity.
I just need a list of what I need to buy if you happen to know.
I am buying a tank off of Craigslist for cheap!!
i buy one that the aquarium starter kit it has almost everything you need
also buy a air pump and a buble wand
to take care of the water i use tetra aqua safe
Tetra EasyBalance Water Conditioner with this you can change the water each 6 months but i do partial water cleaning just the 30% of water each 3 months
fish food
large fish net
algae eater and alga disc(food for the alga eater)
Try the Tetra website, they helped a lot when setting up my son's tank.
What you need depends on the size of the tank and also what type of fish. I thought that goldfish would be easier, but they are not. Mollies are good, have live babies and don't need a heater.
Good luck!!
petsmart is very helpful
google new fish tanks
Fish tanks are pretty but they do take regular upkeep.
We got ours at Petco and the staff in Allen was quite knowledgable. We've also done a lot of business with Plano Pets and recieved great advice.
We bought a 29 gallon tank kit, the ready made filters to change monthly, food, algae disc, stress coat, net, stand for the tank, plants and shelter areas. We spent about $300+ on startup.
You do have to have water changes regularly (we do it about once every couple months or when it looks like it needs it)This is when you take out about 1/3 of the water and replace. (Use the water you remove for your plants....works great as a fertilizer! My roses were beautiful!)
The tetra website site is very helpful.
We use spring water and we ended up using plastic plants because the live ones would not live in our tank.
We have 2 red tail sharks that have done well, tiger barbs are aggressive and we only have 1 of those now, neon tetra's are pretty, swordfish are pretty, guarami's (these get aggressive too). The staff at Petco or Plano Pets can tell you what fish get along best in a semi aggressive tank. The Placo (algae eater) eats at night and keeps the tank pretty clean.
Good luck with your tank!
I don't know what kind of time you have on your hands, but I found we didn't really have time for tropical fish. My son got a 10 gallon tank kit for xmas when he was three and the tropical fish died shortly thereafter. They range in price, but are around $3.00 to $7.00 apiece. I switched us over to gold fish - which seem to be more resilient and are 21 cents apiece. We had three for about a year and then they started to die one by one. The fourth one lived another 6 months and died just this week. But, we already have two younger ones in the tank that are thriving and I will go and get two more soon. My son loves them. But, the tank does require maintenance that you (the adults)in the house are going to have to do. I tried to get my son to feed the fish, but he seriously overfed them and that led to an algae problem. So now, I even feed them.
But, keep in mind the costs are high for start up. Our 10 gallon tank - with all of the accessories was around $100.00.
