buying fish tank

catoutthebag

Are lizards ok for me?

teddysmum

Gold fish, I've heard referred to as 'dirty fish' because they do produce a lot of waste 9so need the droppings cleaning out regularly)and, will eat most real plants. 'Normal' sahped goldfish will grow so need a lot of room and the fancy ones (twin tails, goggly-eyed etc) are quite delicate and prone to upsets which are fatal.


I've found that platies are easier. They are tropical, but many have now been bred to tolerate cold water, come in lots of colours and are live bearers.


I've never managed to clean out my 90cm tank, without getting my hands wet,finding that thin rubber gloves leak inwards. You would also need to handle the filter to clean the sponges or replace the media inside. (A filter is better than changing the water every few days, as doing so will only stress the fish.)


Something I don't think anyone has mentioned, and the cause of death to thousands of poor fish, according to a disillusioned fish section worker, who told me he tired of his advice being ignored by those who claimed to know better:


You must not just fill a tank from the kitchen tap. The water must be left for hours to remove dangerous (to fish) chemicals, or treated with a product such as Stress Coat or Aquasafe.

teddysmum

catoutthebag wrote: »

Are lizards ok for me?

Lizards are specialist pets and need lots of research.


Those robofish , which swim like real fish and run on batteries can be quite attractive. They could live in a natural looking tank setup, without the need to feed or clean out.


Alternatively, you can buy what looks like a picture frame aquarium, but is in fact runs a swimming fish screensaver you can get for computers.

VoucherMan

catoutthebag wrote: »

So with these no nonsense tanks I could just put them onto a secure shelf?

SplanK wrote: »

in a 240L tank

It looks like you've already been dissuaded, but also bear in mind that a tank full of water would need a very strong shelf. The 240L suggestion would be 240KG, just for the water. 22 stone in old money. That's a lot of weight for a shelf.

Shrimply

teddysmum wrote: »

Lizards are specialist pets and need lots of research.

I'm sorry I disagree with the way you've said this. Anyone keeping fish should be putting as much research in as those considering keeping reptiles or indeed any pet.

Not got any lizards myself, yet, but there are several species which have relatively simple care requirements. Most require live food which will put many off but not all.

In terms of setting up a lizard vivarium in lots of cases this will take considerably less time than an aquarium as the equipment does the majority of the job for you. It's can be almost plug in and go ( with appropriate time to ensure everything is working). With an aquarium you are relying on very complex relationships establishing between bacteria and nitrogen and this can take months before an aquarium is really ready to support fish.

squeeks

I have small fish and a small tanks (25+ litres) - don't go for the smallest possible tank, the larger your tank the less problems you will have and less maintenance. Also having less fish per volume of water will make this easier, however tempting putting more fish in will be.

I keep micro rasbora (boraras brigittae, boraras maculatus etc..) and danio (emerald sometimes called Microrasbora Erythromicron and the galaxy's) - a specialist fish shop is near to me, so these are relatively easy for me to acquire, but you are unlikely to find them in your big pet stores. You can find them on eBay

Other small fish such as white cloud minnow are also pretty.

They are all tiny fish (sub 2cm fully grown) the danio's are a bit more skittish, but become less so if you regularly give them live food (mosquito larvae , daphnia etc...) I mainly feed small flake food, so live food isn't a must - but they do like it!

The equipment I use is a reverse osmosis water thingy, I have a heater and a light. I have live plants, mainly java moss in the tank, but I don't have an air pump rightly or wrongly. the most you would want, would be a sponge filter - mechanical pump filters typically will suck up your fish at this size. The plants will make a lot of difference.

You don't have to have reverse osmosis water, but it just makes and water changes or topping up water risk free and easy. Once things are established it really does require very little effort.