(no subject)
So, today I got a small aquarium. Not as small as I wanted, but the pet store only had 1 type of 5gal tank which was 79$ but the light was not included and that cost 40$. The 10gal tank on the other hand was 49$ with the light included and a bunch of other cool fish stuff so... no brainer there! I went with with 10gal. I do not have everything up and running yet, but I hope to have it up by tomorrow, get the nitrogen cycle going and have my first set of fish in it by next week. With all the fish stuff I needed (minus the fish and plants) the set up was less than 100$... which is pretty freaking good.
Now I am no stranger to raising fish. We have always had a 40 gal tank at home with one or two 5-10gal tanks going too. Usually they were 'family' projects. The first time I got my own fish tank was when I won a colouring contest put on my PJ's Pets in the Yorkdale Mall in Toronoto. They used to have a really huge tank outside their store with a shark and this big, fugly carp thing... seriously, the carp was bigger than the shark and just the ugliest thing in the world. Anyway, I think every Wednesday at 1pm was shark feeding time. Out of all four years we lived in Toronto and frequented that mall, I never got to see the shark feeding.
So they put on a colouring contest when I was like 8. The first place prize was a hamster and a cage and all the jazz you need to care for a hamster (that is what I wanted, because hamsters are furry and I loved furry things), second prize was a goldfish, a tank and all the jazz you need to care for a goldfish, and third prize was a plushie or something. I won second place, and by won I mean they probably just drew my name out of the hat second. So, we got the phone call and that weekend my mom took myself and my brother to the pet store to pick up the fish. Now I was on cloud 9. I really did want that hamster but I was so stoked that I won at all, and at the time I was CONVINCED it was due to my amazing colouring skills, I didn't care that I only got second place. I was going to get my own fish! For free! I was freaking out.
Although they did not reveal this to me at the time as I am sure they was overjoyed to see me as happy as I was, when I first entered the colouring contest (and begged my mom and dad to drive me all the way to the mall to enter my super-amazing colouring) my parents thought it was going to be a bullshit scam or something, as normally in life there's nothing for free. They were waiting for the 'catch'. So when I was actually told that I won something, they were both surprised and hesitant. My parents both expected the prize to be one of those stupid 'classic' fish bowls, a plastic plant and a feeder gold fish which would promptly die in a week.
Imagine my surprise when this really bubbly (my 8 year old translation=super nice) girl comes out to meet us and seemed almost as thrilled to give me my fish as I was to receive it. The 'fish bowl' was actually a kit which included a little tank on a little pink stand with a pink lid, pink gravel, a fake plant (of course), a filter, air pump system, fish food and a fish net. It was actually a really nice little kit. Admittedly it was made for kids and the tank was plastic, but still really nice for a kid.
Now for the fish themselves... yes THEMselves... while the contest stated that the prize was one goldfish, after all the hardware was taken care of it came time to pick my new buddy, the girl said it would be 'mean' for the fish to be all alone, so I got to pick two. I was taken to the gold fish aisle (this was Toronto, they had that many fish that the gold fish species had an aisle). I was shown a set of tanks with various types of gold fish, not the feeders but the fancy ones with googly eyes and flowy tails, and allowed to pick any two. I picked two black ones with googly eyes... I don't think I name them because I couldn't really tell them apart very well, but they lived a good long while. I took good care of them and it was easy to do tank maintenance and we would clean the big fish tank and then just do mine afterwards. I was a pretty odd kid and really cared about my critters so it wasn't hard for me to keep up with maintenance and feeding my fish. I never had to be told to do so. So that was my stupid fish adveture.
Later I got fidler crabs. Those were cool. After I went off my school my parents carried that one on, until they got onto a chychlid kick.
Admittedly I've never done a full initial set up with water conditioning and everything. At home we always had the big tank so we would just take water from that which was balenced, didn't have chlorine, and had the good microbes. I'm sort of intimidated by this initial set up. I'll post how things go.
Anyone else have fish experience? Advice? Recommendations? How about with aquatic plants? That is one area that we never had luck with but I've been doing some reading and I think I can do it. I am sure my tank can house 2 small plants along in 2-3 tetras and 2 small cory catfish to control algae.
I will be home for quite sometime so I will have time to get everything set up and enjoy my fish. I have also looked into have to maintain this environment when I am not at home. I have found an automatic feeder and a lamp timer. The lamp timer will turn the light on and off at a specified time each day. So it will be taken care with the only maintenance needed when I am not at home is a once a week check up to make sure no body's croaked. I know my landlady give my place a quick check when I am gone and I am not sure whether I want to ask her to check when she does her check or leave a case of beer in my fridge, and give a friend a house key and ask him/her to come over once in a while, grab a beer and check up on things. I'll deal with that when I get there I suppose.
Now I am no stranger to raising fish. We have always had a 40 gal tank at home with one or two 5-10gal tanks going too. Usually they were 'family' projects. The first time I got my own fish tank was when I won a colouring contest put on my PJ's Pets in the Yorkdale Mall in Toronoto. They used to have a really huge tank outside their store with a shark and this big, fugly carp thing... seriously, the carp was bigger than the shark and just the ugliest thing in the world. Anyway, I think every Wednesday at 1pm was shark feeding time. Out of all four years we lived in Toronto and frequented that mall, I never got to see the shark feeding.
So they put on a colouring contest when I was like 8. The first place prize was a hamster and a cage and all the jazz you need to care for a hamster (that is what I wanted, because hamsters are furry and I loved furry things), second prize was a goldfish, a tank and all the jazz you need to care for a goldfish, and third prize was a plushie or something. I won second place, and by won I mean they probably just drew my name out of the hat second. So, we got the phone call and that weekend my mom took myself and my brother to the pet store to pick up the fish. Now I was on cloud 9. I really did want that hamster but I was so stoked that I won at all, and at the time I was CONVINCED it was due to my amazing colouring skills, I didn't care that I only got second place. I was going to get my own fish! For free! I was freaking out.
Although they did not reveal this to me at the time as I am sure they was overjoyed to see me as happy as I was, when I first entered the colouring contest (and begged my mom and dad to drive me all the way to the mall to enter my super-amazing colouring) my parents thought it was going to be a bullshit scam or something, as normally in life there's nothing for free. They were waiting for the 'catch'. So when I was actually told that I won something, they were both surprised and hesitant. My parents both expected the prize to be one of those stupid 'classic' fish bowls, a plastic plant and a feeder gold fish which would promptly die in a week.
Imagine my surprise when this really bubbly (my 8 year old translation=super nice) girl comes out to meet us and seemed almost as thrilled to give me my fish as I was to receive it. The 'fish bowl' was actually a kit which included a little tank on a little pink stand with a pink lid, pink gravel, a fake plant (of course), a filter, air pump system, fish food and a fish net. It was actually a really nice little kit. Admittedly it was made for kids and the tank was plastic, but still really nice for a kid.
Now for the fish themselves... yes THEMselves... while the contest stated that the prize was one goldfish, after all the hardware was taken care of it came time to pick my new buddy, the girl said it would be 'mean' for the fish to be all alone, so I got to pick two. I was taken to the gold fish aisle (this was Toronto, they had that many fish that the gold fish species had an aisle). I was shown a set of tanks with various types of gold fish, not the feeders but the fancy ones with googly eyes and flowy tails, and allowed to pick any two. I picked two black ones with googly eyes... I don't think I name them because I couldn't really tell them apart very well, but they lived a good long while. I took good care of them and it was easy to do tank maintenance and we would clean the big fish tank and then just do mine afterwards. I was a pretty odd kid and really cared about my critters so it wasn't hard for me to keep up with maintenance and feeding my fish. I never had to be told to do so. So that was my stupid fish adveture.
Later I got fidler crabs. Those were cool. After I went off my school my parents carried that one on, until they got onto a chychlid kick.
Admittedly I've never done a full initial set up with water conditioning and everything. At home we always had the big tank so we would just take water from that which was balenced, didn't have chlorine, and had the good microbes. I'm sort of intimidated by this initial set up. I'll post how things go.
Anyone else have fish experience? Advice? Recommendations? How about with aquatic plants? That is one area that we never had luck with but I've been doing some reading and I think I can do it. I am sure my tank can house 2 small plants along in 2-3 tetras and 2 small cory catfish to control algae.
I will be home for quite sometime so I will have time to get everything set up and enjoy my fish. I have also looked into have to maintain this environment when I am not at home. I have found an automatic feeder and a lamp timer. The lamp timer will turn the light on and off at a specified time each day. So it will be taken care with the only maintenance needed when I am not at home is a once a week check up to make sure no body's croaked. I know my landlady give my place a quick check when I am gone and I am not sure whether I want to ask her to check when she does her check or leave a case of beer in my fridge, and give a friend a house key and ask him/her to come over once in a while, grab a beer and check up on things. I'll deal with that when I get there I suppose.