Hi everyone, well I guess I'm hooked!! Way long ago I used to have an aquarium, but we lived in a trailer at the time and didn't have enough room, so gave it up!
Now that we are in a house I discovered that I missed watching fish swimming around...so.. we got a 20 gallon show tank from some friends of ours...The tank came complete with a 26 year old goldfish!! So.... because I like to watch more than one fish, and everyone said.. Don't put tropicals with goldfish, I went and got some feeder gold fish to keep him company!! Well, that was a mistake!! The poor old fish didn't live too long after being moved.. too much for him I guess, but!... now I was stuck with all these goldfish and what I wanted in the first place was freshwater tropicals!?
Well some time passed and seeing that I was busy in school I just kept the goldfish and just grumbled about it once in a while, now... you'd think the dumb goldfish would die off, they always do when you are a kid, or when your kids bring home the fish they won at the school fair!! Ha!! not hardly... they just keep growing, and growing!!
Well to make a long story short, I found a 10 gallon aquarium at a yard sale, filter hood and all, so I got that and switched the goldfish to that! Then went and got the tropicals that I wanted in the first place!
Now, this is a whole nother story!!! About how not! to start an aquarium!! I have always been a very impatient type person.. Don't want to wait for anything! So I went and got four fish!! At a real live tropical fish store! Well, that was good! But the next week I went crazy, got a buch of platys, some sailfin Mollies, some neon tetras, two dwarf gourami, and put them in with the two zebras and the two Mickey Mouse platys that I had gotten the week before!! Well when I got back the next weekend (I'm in school, and my husband feeds them while I'm gone) two platys and the male sailfin molly had died! So.. Instead of using my head I went and got some more mollies, White ones??? don't know what kind, and a rainbow shark, Oh, yes I had gotten two tiger barbs the second week too!! and a lyretail molly!! Well, of course the shark died!! I think it was sick when I got it!! I also got most of the fish at a discount store!! BIG mistake!! I have found that they are not as healthy!! Although I have had no trouble with the gourami at all! :) This makes me happy because I think I like them the best of all!
After all this I decided to go and check out some fish sites on the web, which is what I should have done first!! There are some great sites out there that tell you what fish do best for beginners and which should only be attempted by experts!! But, as they say, you learn by your mistakes! Anyway I think I will leave my tank as it is for a while, and see what happens, I have found that you are really not supposed to put tiger barbs in with gourami, but I don't seem to be having any trouble at the moment, however, the barbs are very small, about a 1/2 inch long!! So we will see! I know which I am keeping though!! In fact I think I would like a whole tank of gourami!
At this point (4-26-98), there are; four platys, four mollies, two zebras, two tiger barbs, six neons, and two dwarf gourami in a 20 gallon tank. The tank has a power filter and some bubble curtian things against the back wall, gravel and rocks and plastic plants. I think I need to get some real live plants for the fish as I have heard that they help the water and help keep the fish healthy!
Anyway I'd like to pass on some of the Problems I've had and mostly give a link to some of the best sites that I have found for beginning a tropical fish aquarium. Or maintaining one for that matter!
I still haven't quite got the hang of how many fish to have in one aquarium, but have found that it's not a good idea to crowd them, and it's important to give regular partial water changes to keep the water healthy... I'm afraid that I'm not really patient enough to go through with all the testing! Which probably means that I should really watch the number of fish in my tank!? I think!? I have also learned to watch where I get my fish, if I get them at a discount store I ought to spend some real time checking them out and then make double sure that the clerk puts the right fish in the bag! Plus, maybe it wouldn't hurt to put some kind of meds in the water just in case???? If anyone has any feedback on the please e mail me!
There are not many here yet, but keep checking back as I will add on the good ones as I find them!
Badmans Tropical Fish(A geocities feature page with lots of info!)
Laura's Aquarium Page(Good advise for beginners and Tons of links)
Aqua Zone(Good articles and more links)
Cathy's Homepage of Tropical Fishkeeping(Also a geocities feature page with tons of info... Beginner to more advanced!)
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HI,
