New Tank Startup

5:01 PM philosophyeverything 0 Comments

So now you've finally decided to take the first step into fish keeping. Great! I am always happy to know someone having an interest in this hobby. And i assure you once you get over the initial phase of starting up a fish tank, all you would enjoy later are just joy (thou it might lead to unstoppable fish bagging behavior).

So what do i need? Would it be expensive? How about the maintenance later on? Will my pet fish live happily ever after? These are all questions first timer starters usually think about. Let me get to them in details one by one from here.

What do i need?

First, you have to really decide what type of fish you are planning to keep. There are generally 3 category of fishkeeping. I will later on divide each the explanation of setting up individual type of tanks into other pages as they are detailed i feel they deserve a page by themselves.

- Fresh Water Monster Tanks

- Fresh Water Ornamental Tanks

- Salt Water/Marine Tanks

Fresh Water Monster Tanks are setups for species that comes from the wild (thou many are now farm bred). They origin from fresh water rivers, streams or lakes all around the world. These fishes generally grow big and furious. This is why they are called Monsters. These are usually what i'll categorize as fishes for the intermediate to advance fishkeepers. The amount of wastes that these fishes produce or how the food they take could dirty the water so fast are not easy task for beginning fish keepers to bear. These fishes usually do not take pellet food. Live feeder animals or prepared Shrimps/Market Prawns are needed to feed them. So one can imagine how quickly this can foul the water when you fish bites down on that piece of food. A well working filtration is needed to prevent your water from stinky up your house.

Examples of Monster Fish,

Arowana
Armatu
Channa
Clown Loach

Datnoide
Dorado
GATF
Lung Fish

Mahseer

Peacock Bass

Sting Ray

VATF

If you have decided to keep these fishes, congrats! These monsters pack a punch both in their style and characters.

Click Here for detailed explanation on setting up a Freshwater Monster Fish Tank.

Fresh Water Ornamental Tanks are setups for species that are usually heavily domesticated from their wild ancestors, man made (Click: man made?!) or for fishes that doesn't grow beyond two inches. They do not pack the same aggressiveness as monster fishes and are generally seen as gentle and add on for the ascetic purposes of the environment the tank is in.

Examples of Ornamental Fishes,

Betta
Goldfish
Parrot Fish
Tetras

and simply, every other thing else.

Click Here for detailed explanation on setting up a Freshwater Ornamental Fish Tank.

Saltwater Marine Tanks are setups for fishes that requires water high in salinity. These fishes/live rocks/corals come from oceans rather than rivers or lakes which are freshwater. It is noted it usually costs you more money setting up a saltwater tank than freshwater. You will need to purchase sea water or salt to turn your household tap water into high salinity. Even the tank you use for saltwater setups have to be thicker in material so as to withstand the weight of higher salinity water (trust me, no one wants a tank to burst).

I will leave this part on saltwater setups empty as i have no experience in saltwater tanks. Email me at philosophyeverything@gmail.com if you wish to contribute/share your experience in saltwater tank setup.