Seriously. Kids have been banging on about it for a while and I am close to conceding.

After a recent visit to a pet shop I can see how you can get into it with all sorts of exotic looking things and I figure if your going to do it might as well get a decent size tank that looks ok. So what is a step up from a gold fish, looks a bit interesting but won’t die within a week. + what comedy themed tank paraphernalia – standard sunken pirate ship ?

you can get plenty of freaky looking fish that live in the same environment as a goldfish.. (ie aerated freshwater tank, no heating)the key to keeping these guys alive, is ensuring that everything is sterile and disease free

Pearlscale

Black Moor

Orandas

Lionheads

the list goes on…

Get the biggest tank you can, go tropical (greater variety of fish), stick some plants in, and DON’T GET TOO MANY FISH.

How are they going to reach the pedals?

Try fish forums.net loads of good advice over there. Normally pet/fish shops will try to sell you whatever they can with no real regard for fish welfare.

There a Sponge Bob one
But I’ve always been of the nice naturalish looking tanks.
Try tropical instead of cold water.
Gold fish only stop growing because of tank size but the internal organs don’t they keep growing till the fish dies.

Don’t get fish cos you just like the look of them.. I had some lovely Neon Tetras. Then bought these things cos they looked cool – like the ship from Stingray! They ate the tetras.

(my son’s first word was “Fish” cos we used to sit in front of the tank watching the clown loach swim about)(Clown loaches are good cos they’re easy to kkep and live for a long time, btw)

Forget fish but get freshwater shrimps instead because they are very nice if you have not seen them before. Get the lighting etc right and you should see the shrimps colour amplified etc. If you haven’t seen them before try …

They are lovely like these here …

Indonesian colourful freshwater shrimp

Then if you get bored with them

😉

DezB – Member

Then if you get bored with them

Not that big like prawn because they are shrimps 😆 .

I think a small school of smaller fish looks better than a few bigger fish. I had a couple of dozen neon tetras in an 80 litre tank along with a pair of clown loaches. They lasted for ages until we returned from a 2 week holiday and found that someone had switched off the wrong power socket before we left…the hair dryer was still switched on though. 😡

boxfish – Member

I think a small school of smaller fish looks better than a few bigger fish.

This one.

Most South America tetras are good (Neons/Cardinals/Lemon/Black neons) but they look best when the water is tanin stained (you filter it through peat). For nice easy fish that are active and pretty I’d suggest Praecox rainbowfish. They are also easy to breed so you don’t have to worry about ‘sustainability’.

Or Poecilia reticulata (Guppy).

Goldfish poo a lot so you’ll need to be strict about cleaning the tank to avoid cloudy water and ill health. I feel a bit sorry for those highly bred mutant ones to be honest.

A little tropical setup shouldn’t need much more care than coldwater and is more exciting. Goldfish might be more tolerant to ‘experiments’ that kids might put the fish through though.

Those shrimps are lovely!

First the boring bit, you need to focus on the water quality before any fish are added.

Understand the waste cycle and if you go tropical, maintain the filter.

The filter works using a natural good bacteria. NEVER rinse the filter in tap water it kills the bacteria.

Get the biggest tank you can in the first instance as more water is easier to keep than less.

A Good place to start.
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=f7fd4b8b8bf0a1965964e510cd8abe1f

We’ve got a marine (saltwater) tank at the moment which really is a thing of beauty. We recently got a puppy though and well its too much work to maintain it along with the 2 cats.

like anything it can start getting a bit expensive. As SM says the water quality is key with any tank.

The shrimps are very interesting to watch in the fish tank.

can you have shrimps and fish? or will there soon only be fish… I have some tetras, danios, corys and raspboras…

don’t shrimp eat algae and stuff so help keep the tank clean?

bigjim – Member

can you have shrimps and fish? or will there soon only be fish… I have some tetras, danios, corys and raspboras…

Ideally no because the fish might eat the shrimp eggs or worst case scenario with fish bigger than the shrimps, the shrimps get devour .

Those shrimps are small at around 2cm to max 3cm.

Get the shrimps with red colour because they are very beautiful to look at with proper lighting and the set up.

Platys are great ‘kids’ fish in as much as you can get some individuals (tetras all look the same) so you can name them. Each Platy seems to have a character of their own. They breed as well so expect some babies.

My kids really loved having fish until we bought some bogwood/plants from a local garden centre and got inundated with snails and weeds. Be careful what stuff you buy to put in the tank!

or

ask around for a recomended local shop. and when you buy fish make sure not one in the shops tanks even look the slightest bit dodgy. we did’nt, within two weeks all fish were dead and one hugely upset 9 year old. we’ve since found out that of the 3 local shops, one is really dodgy, one best avoided and the other is good.

Or If you have deep pockets.

Don’t forget, it’s about more than the fish! Check out nature style aquariums – no finer proponent than Amano Takashi.

Don’t forget, it’s about more than the fish! check out nature style aquariums

+1….the more natural looking the better. No deep sea divers blowing bubbles, shipwrecks or mermaids.

Nice examples there Markie.
Shoals of small fish do look lovely. Try some Danios , Tetras ( neon or cardinal ) and a Pleco to keep the tank clean.

Sorted.

Angel fish, Kissing gouramis, Neon Tetra, Plecostomus, clown loach
sorted 🙂
I cannot explain my hatered for goldfish :X how do you think the fish feels with a belly that big or a retarded skull?

For those interested in recreating the second of the tanks I posted above, here’s a PDF of the man himself showing how to do it.