Fish tanks

Koi are pond fish mate .
They need a large pond as they get big and are quite messy fish .
For starters get down to a Maidenhead aquatics and have a look at tropical freshwater . They will advise you on a tank and suitable inhabitants .
Marines - heated sal****er - are amazing but are a whole next level of difficulty and I wouldn’t reccomwnd them to start with.

Perch are okay if there's a bar, they'll sit there all day
Never put more than two Siamese fighting fish together; they'll work out how to drive it in no time
IGMC 🙂

The hobby has tanked.
Betta left alone to the struggling shops.

(White cloud mountain minnows are what you want. Tough, no heater and a dash of colour. Hard to go wrong and it will.

To keep things simple, get fish that have water hardness requirements that match your tap water. On south coast tap water is quite hard, so buying something like Neon Tetras would be a bad idea.

Look at fish options based on their adult size for the size of the tank you buy. A decent minimum size ballpark for a typical active species would be tank that is 6x2x2 times the body length of the adult size.

Know the requirements of the species you are buying and how they are likely to interact with fish already in your tank.

Some species are very social and should be kept in groups of at least 6+, but they will do far better if you have the stocking space to get 12+.

Some species like cichlids are very territorial, not just with their own kind, but other tank mates too... If a pair breed, as parents they can literally go on a killing spree if tank mates can't get out of the fry protection zone!

"Fishless cycle" your tank/filter.

Further to the above - there are (essentially) three types of fish tank set-ups without going into micro-detail

Cold water - this just needs water, filter and lighting
Ideal for goldfish, platies and things like that.

Tropical - this needs water, filter, heater and lighting
Ideal for neon tetras, clown loaches (very pretty things), silver sharks etc.

Marine - this needs water, complex filtering, complex lighting and heating
Ideal for 'Finding Nemo' clown fish and all sorts of amazingly coloured fish of all shapes and sizes.

I assume you just want a simple little tank with a few fish in it so, as a beginner you should go for a coldwater or tropical set-up - if you get hardy tropical fish like tetras, danios etc then they are pretty easy to maintain (no harder than a coldwater tank). I kept tropical fish for many years but there was no way I would ever have gone for marine as they are very, very difficult to keep successfully and a slight imbalance of the water quality can quickly lead to a total wipeout of your very expensive stock.

Definitely don't keep koi in an indoor aquarium unless it's huge! Just sold all of mine as converted the pond... but many were nudging 10kg (to give an indication of how big they can get in the right environment).

I'd probably go for the beginners tropical set up, as many have mentioned above. Just research the fish, avoid the bullies and fin nippers - and look for ones that breed reasonably easily... that adds another layer of fun for kids.

Simples is what I need - Thanks all. I’m thinking cold water is probably the preferred option being less to go wrong but are there any shiny cold water fish that are small enough to be in a tank and happy with southern hard water.

Koi need tens of thousands of litres, and the filters to cope also cost thousands. Don't think about it (FYI, I do have koi). Cheap koi do NOT = cheap pets.

I also live on the south coast. most 'community' tropical fish will be fine in our water, and any decent fish shop will warn you about any difficult to keep/aggressive species. All fish require weekly  maintenance and water changes - are you prepared for lugging buckets of water around the house?

If you are; Guppies. Look at guppies. Small, colourful, hardy and they breed like you wouldn't believe. They will need a heater and a proper filter

Some basic rules;

Don't ever get a Pleco. They reach a foot long. (Ancistrus are great though!)

Most Cichlids are demanding in some way.

A lot of fish are happier as a shoal.

Any tank needs to be set up for a minimum of a few weeks before introducing fish

Bigger tanks are easier to look after - avoid anything under 60-70 litres.

Got a small 25l tank for my youngest recently. 3 minnows, 2 platies, 2 shrimp, but we're onto our third snail. Problem seems to be they need 18-25 degrees otherwise they go to sleep/die. We're at 14 (cold house). Might need a heater even though it's not a tropical set up.

You can keep goldfish in a tank, but not too many as they are messy little things. Get a decent filter too.

If you buy your fish locally they should be acclimatised to the local water.

muddyjames
Free Member

Simples is what I need – Thanks all. I’m thinking cold water is probably the preferred option being less to go wrong but are there any shiny cold water fish that are small enough to be in a tank and happy with southern hard water.

TBH I see a lot of people saying this but just get a good quality Eheim Thermocontrol heater and it's a non-issue. That way you have a lot of colourful and easy tropical fish. Most goldfish need large tanks and are messy.

You need the following things to start :

-A quality filter appropriately sized for the tank. Don't get one where you have to chuck away cartridges every month, that's a stupid idea. It just needs to contain sponge, some ceramic rings (for bacteria), and optionally charcoal (for water clarity).

-A quality heater, e.g. Eheim Thermocontrol. DO NOT CHEAP OUT, cooked or frozen fish will be the result.

-A quality water dechlorinator, I use Seachem Prime as it is by far the most economical that's commonly available but any will be fine.

-A quality syphon. E.g. Fluval GravelVAC . You will use this once a week or fortnightly to remove approx 10% of the water. Use a quality one with a flow control to allow you to suck waste out of the sand/gravel without also removing the sand/gravel. At the same time, squeeze the sponges from the filter in the old tank water.

-A quality bacteria starter. You need bacteria growing in the ceramic rings in the filter to convert ammonia (toxic) to nitrite (less toxic) to nitrate (minimally toxic). The bacteria starter kicks this bacterial colony off. Good ones are Tetra SafeStart, ATM Colony.

-A test kit. E.g. API freshwater master kit. Test strips are generally not good and don't include ammonia for some reason. If you must use strips, then King British make a set which are usable and include ammonia.

Ideally you would set up the tank several weeks in advance but assuming you're not going to do that, start it with the bacteria starter and a small amount of small fish. Otherwise ammonia can build up quicker than the bacteria can grow to deal with it.

PS In this hobby, it's buy cheap, kill your fish & buy twice. Don't cheap out, it will result in heartbreak down the line.

Don’t ever get a Pleco. They reach a foot long.

I don't really agree with that - generally, they grow to the available space. In my time of keeping fish I only experienced one that became too big for the tank and it was given back to our local supplier.

Some very helpful advice there. Not least the “vacuum cleaner needed to clean the cr*p from the bottom”!

Fish grow to the size of their breed generally, NOT the size of the tank or pond.  That's a common myth 🙂

They need more space (water) the messier they are, so look for a small/low sh*t variant.  I have a 4000 litre pond with only 5 fish in it!

Fish grow to the size of their breed generally, NOT the size of the tank or pond. That’s a common myth

Myth or not, that has been my experience of keeping tropical fish for probably some 15 years, and at the time both my brother and mum had tanks and between us we had only one experience of a pleco growing overly big (the one in my brother's tank). Perhaps we just got the correct breeds - there are several of them and different breeds grow to different sizes.

woody2000
Full Member

Fish grow to the size of their breed generally, NOT the size of the tank or pond. That’s a common myth 🙂

I go back and forth on this but I think at the least they get stunted which is perhaps not ideal for their health.

PS. Two good peaceful alternatives to 'plecos' which stay a reasonable size are ottocinclus and red lizard whiptail catfish.

Plecos should get rather bigger than a foot.. which is why Ancistrus species are better - very effective , and stay small.

Make a decision early if you want a few large fish or a lot of small fish.

I think I’ve established that I’m steering clear of Plecos albeit I’ve no idea what one looks like 🙂

I've been keeping fish for years...only this year I closed down my Reef tank I had been running since 2007 as my heart just wasn't init no more, so I switch back to freshwater tropical...so much easier, if anything its too easy especially after keeping marines for so long.
My point is work what your prepared to do each week in terms of maintenance and how much your prepared to spend....as your fish will need stuff...like food.
Always find out the fully grown size of the fish or fishes you are interested in and its ideal water parameters.
If you want a easy starter fish then get a betta fighting fish...these are labyrinth fish, they breathe air and in the wild there live in puddles...if you know your stuff, then you can keep them in pint glasses...I myself kept one on my coffee table in a shallow vase with a oxygen plant...no heater or filter..the fish lived for 3 years which is pretty much its life span.

Incidentally...if you want a free aquarium I have a Hagen tropicaqrium 88 sitting in my alley...collection from Surrey

@Cheekyget that is a kind offer, I’ll pm you.

I’m with multi21. I tropical fresh water is the easiest.

Free fish tank still here if anyone wants it...collection from Surrey SM2 area
Tropicaqrium 88 about 130litres 80ish cm x 40ish x 40ish cm