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Picking out a pet fish

The Penguin

The Penguin

Chilly Willy The Penguin
I'm thinking of buying a pet fish this weekend and wanted to know if anyone have any advice for me? I don't know anything on how to take care of a fish and all the work I required to do.
 
If you just want one, go for a betta fish. They are beautiful creatures, and pretty easy to take care of. I've had a few myself. You can find plenty of information on them on the 'Net.

Goldfish, contrary to popular belief, are pretty hard to maintain, so I recommend staying away from them unless you really know what you're doing.
 
One important tip: the bigger the tank, the easier it is to get a stable setup, thus the less frequently it needs cleaning. Small bowls need weekly partial water changes.
Keep it away from direct sunlight, otherwise it will turn green and may get too hot.
If you want a particularly easy fish, try guppies. They are pretty hardy and breed like rabbits. Hmmm, maybe worse than rabbits.
The one good thing about goldfish is they don't need a heater if you are in a cooler climate. Most other fish do.
If you have chlorinated water, let it sit overnight before putting it in with the fish.
Don't use fly spray if the tank is uncovered or has an air pump turned on!
 
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Just keep in mind, if you're getting a Betta fish, I believe they need to live in small spaces; which is why they are kept in those tiny fish tanks at the pet shop. A friend of mine bought one, and felt sorry for it, and how small the tank was, and so bought a large one. It ended up dying from excessive water/ space.

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Vanilla said:
Just keep in mind, if you're getting a Betta fish, I believe they need to live in small spaces; which is why they are kept in those tiny fish tanks at the pet shop. A friend of mine bought one, and felt sorry for it, and how small the tank was, and so bought a large one. It ended up dying from excessive water/ space.

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Thank you as I almost was thinking getting a big one.
 
Vanilla said:
Just keep in mind, if you're getting a Betta fish, I believe they need to live in small spaces; which is why they are kept in those tiny fish tanks at the pet shop. A friend of mine bought one, and felt sorry for it, and how small the tank was, and so bought a large one. It ended up dying from excessive water/ space.
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Hmmm, those tiny things are hardly a natural environment. I think they are kept like that because you can, not because you should. And the petshops can't put them all together in a big tank like other fish. Maintaining it would be a nightmare IMHO. Having said that, they can actually breath air as their natural environment is fairly harsh so you have a little more freedom than more sensitive fish. I suspect cause of death was something else. Mine survived fine in a large community tank.
Betta aka Siamese Fighting Fish in Community Tanks | AquaticBlog - FishKeeping Resoursce Blog
 
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zurb said:
Hmmm, those tiny things are hardly a natural environment. I think they are kept like that because you can, not because you should. And the petshops can't put them all together in a big tank like other fish. Maintaining it would be a nightmare IMHO. I suspect cause of death was something else. Mine survived fine in a large community tank.
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I'm not too sure, as I'm not an expert on fish. It's simply what the pet shop owner told my friend, when he asked about his fish. If unsure, best to do some research I suppose
 
For a while when i was little we had beta fish. They were pretty easy to take care of. So far as maintenance goes, the most I remember us doing was cleaning out the tank often. We had small tanks though so i'm not sure about what to do if you got a big tank. Also, i know at least with the betas we had you can't put two males in a tank. I think two females would be okay? I'm not sure, my memory is fuzzy on this one. If you get your fish somewhere like Petsmart or some other animal specialty store, the employees should be pretty knowledgeable about what their different fish need.
 
From my experience with fish tanks, you might want to let the tank itself run without fish for a few weeks and do some PH kind of testing. Also gives you time to set up the thermometers and stuff correctly. Then maybe start out with a goldfish since they're pretty hardy. There's some kind of dainty chemical balance with fish that needs set before you can get the little lovelies like tetras and barbs.

What we did with chlorinated tap water was boil it first so the chlorine would crystallize and flake to the bottom. Or some icky stuff in the tap water would turn into flakes. Our fish were much healthier after we started doing that, so we figure whatever crap was being put in the water was killing them so fast. If I ever get fish again, I want to get a rope fish. They're nifty looking!

And avoid ghost shrimp. Little buggers barely last a week. No wonder they were $0.25!
 
AsheSkyler said:
From my experience with fish tanks, you might want to let the tank itself run without fish for a few weeks and do some PH kind of testing. Also gives you time to set up the thermometers and stuff correctly. Then maybe start out with a goldfish since they're pretty hardy. There's some kind of dainty chemical balance with fish that needs set before you can get the little lovelies like tetras and barbs.

What we did with chlorinated tap water was boil it first so the chlorine would crystallize and flake to the bottom. Or some icky stuff in the tap water would turn into flakes. Our fish were much healthier after we started doing that, so we figure whatever crap was being put in the water was killing them so fast. If I ever get fish again, I want to get a rope fish. They're nifty looking!

And avoid ghost shrimp. Little buggers barely last a week. No wonder they were $0.25!
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Thank you for sharing this. You and others have been sharing great information.
 
Cupboardy said:
What will happen if you put two in one tank? Just curious.
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Well, they are called "Siamese fighting fish" for a reason...put two males together, and they will duke it out to the death. Two females is fine, but they are much less pretty than the males.

Actually, a super-small space isn't really ideal for bettas. I'd say a gallon should do the trick, but not much more than that.
 
Cupboardy said:
What will happen if you put two in one tank? Just curious.
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If you put two males in one tank, they'll fight one another. The males are more popular, as they're the pretty ones (like male peacocks). I don't know about other countries, but here, they only sell the males in pet shops.
 
Cupboardy said:
What will happen if you put two in one tank? Just curious.
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Two bettas in one tank is never a good idea. The female are equally as aggressive as males. Even people who work in pet shops wouldn't recommend keeping a male and female together unless you are very experienced. They may still fight and kill each other instead of mating.
 
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