Kids and fishtanks

[RubisMoon]

I thought i'd start a thread on ideas for kids fishtanks My 5 year old is really digging the 32 gal my mom bought for him. when a kid stops his video game just to stare at his aquarium, it's a good sign I think I thought of putting a smaller one with moonlight in his room. My first thought was to put an Axolotl but then learned that all lizards and amphibians are salmonella carrier and with the home day care i just don't wanna get into that yet (more disinfection then I already need to do so now i'm looking to get a 10 gallons with a big beautiful fish like a vailtail goldfish but just read that even if the vailtail is smaller then the regular goldfish they need a lot of space. I just also saw that there are freshwater crabs. (Cool!)
So, are there any of u who have put a fishtank, bowl, or whatever, in your kids bedroom?
Do any of u have any ideas for a 10g for a kid fish wise?
Do you have experiences or moments (good or bad) with kids and fish you want to share?
Or pictures...

 

[RubisMoon]

I'll start with this pic

 

[Fishguy1111]

Yes, my 11 year old takes great care of his 10 gallon. He pays for everything, does all the water changes, tests the chemicals, and everything else needed. Most people think that kids with fish tanks is a terrible idea, but a lot of them are mature enough.

 

[NYgiantsRP]

Crabs are tough. They can crawl out of the tank if they have the chance, BUT they need somewhere that a decoration comes out of the water for air. They also have a tendency to kill and eat anything they can snatch with their one big claw. SNAP!

You could get some cherry shrimp! They never stop moving and cleaning! They are fun for kids because they have to find them, they are good hiders. Also any small fish can co-exists will the shrimp. 5 cherry shrimp, 5 harlequin rasbora, and 1 guppy.

I, personally, would stay away from golfish, genetically altered fish just bother me. And children shouldn't think that it's ok.

 

[Fishguy1111]

I would definitely stay with small fish too. The kids are amazed by the constant moving fish, and if they are slow moving, the kid may get bored of it. Shrimp sounds like a good idea. Also tetras, rasboras,danios, but I recommend staying away from barbs.

 

[Jantaris]

I thought i'd start a thread on ideas for kids fishtanks My 5 year old is really digging the 32 gal my mom bought for him. when a kid stops his video game just to stare at his aquarium, it's a good sign I think I thought of putting a smaller one with moonlight in his room. My first thought was to put an Axolotl but then learned that all lizards and amphibians are salmonella carrier and with the home day care i just don't wanna get into that yet (more disinfection then I already need to do so now i'm looking to get a 10 gallons with a big beautiful fish like a vailtail goldfish but just read that even if the vailtail is smaller then the regular goldfish they need a lot of space. I just also saw that there are freshwater crabs. (Cool!)
So, are there any of u who have put a fishtank, bowl, or whatever, in your kids bedroom?
Do any of u have any ideas for a 10g for a kid fish wise?
Do you have experiences or moments (good or bad) with kids and fish you want to share?
Or pictures...

Our girl has a 15 gallon with night lighting. She wanted fancy goldfish so she has 3 of them, which is fine right now as they are quite small, but we'll need to upgrade sooner as opposed to later. She loves her tank and is learning lots about fish. Have any of you come across any interesting educational sites for kids on aquariums/fish?

 

[RubisMoon]

I haven't Jantaris but I would be interested in that too. I wonder if the discovery channel might have something like that online.

 

[RubisMoon]

Fishguy1111 that's partly why we wanna start with the fish in his room because I want him to learn to take care of them and right now it's hard just to put food in the big one, forget cleaning it with us and stuff like that. And If I want him to understand that some bacteria can make us sick (like salmo) And that with my daycare it is extra specially important, I want to show him what he has to do about that. And with the fish it'll be a bit safer for practice.

 

[Pongeer247]

My 4 yr old has a 10 gal in her room. We have 2 guppies ( gave birth to 5 fry!) 4 card tets and 2 African dwarf frogs. She loves the frogs( but since your worried about the salmo, I'd stay away from them). She helps feed and helps with some of the cleaning.

 

[Fishguy1111]

That's what I meant

 

[thomasina]

When my kid was still teething and going through the ear infections, I started with a ten g. As she got older, the tank got bigger. It was a great learning experience, she learned to take care of the big tank by the time she was in middle school. From cleaning to seeing Green terrors mouth breed. Her favorite was the Oscar which got to be near 8 inch. I think having any kind of pet that gives the kids responsibility is great. Especially fish since if the forget to feed them for a day, they are so forgiving. By the way, my kid was also SLD and Dis-graphic. The peace the tank gave her was priceless.
Oh! And reading to him about fish care infront of the tank is rewarding too!

 

[Mebbid]

Ive been looking at getting a fiddler crab for a while now and found an underwater crabitat that could work very well if you wanted to go that route.

Crabs Habitat by Atlantis Underwater Islands - Red Claw Crabs

 

[Corydoras92299]

I myself am only 12 and I hav a 10 gallon in my room with 2 assassin snails 2 glofish 2 Cory cats and it's doing good I no how to do all of the stuff correctly so thts good and good fish for a kid starting out are

Neon tetras
Cory cats
Silver hatchetfish

 

[marsh]

I had guppies in a ten gallon as a kid(3rd grade on) that was a gift from our science teacher Michael!

He gave all the students a male and a female and we counted how big our school became and even traded fry to keep the genetic pool varied. He also told us to catch wild Mosquito larvae and watch the guppies eat them up (my favorite part).

I remember having neon tetras also, an when I got into fish again recently in my twenties I was nostalgic for bright flashy neons, so I got 6.

My mom admits she took over algae scraping, but these days I have a pretty cool tank and I also thanked my mom for all the work.

 

[jessicafish]

I'm 13 and I have 2 5g male betta tanks!! I'm picking up a 3g tomorrow for a girl betta!! then after I save a little money I'm gonna get a 20-30 betta sorority!! after I get a sorority I'm gonna be saving up for either a 75g oscar tank or 50g tank with a hillstream loach and some white cloud minnows... I do all the maintance on my tanks my mom doesn't have to lift a finger!!

 

[freshwaterashley]

I have a ten gallon in my little girls room. She loves bright colors so i filled it with mollies guppies and platys .. only "peoblem" is that they are heavy breeders. But i also have a separate 1 gallon for fry.. makes a lil extra cash for myself when they mature...

 

[Buu]

I had fish when I was little. I was always obsessed and wanted to be a marine biologist (lol and I'm in nursing school now. Funny). I swore off fish because I seemed to have terrible luck. My very first tank was a nice community tank with all my favorites. I was obsessed with catfish, bleeding hearts and hatchets. I made tons of mistakes with that tank looking back (lol like taking everything out and cleaning it often!!!). Yet my fish lived happily. I had that tank for a couple years when my sister decided that fish needed to e cleaned with soap. I swore off fish but my dad brought home a pair of adorable cute baby oscars. Those guys lived looong. They got as big as footballs and I fed them anything and everything (they loved crickets from our lizard). I loved the oscars, they were funny, definitely had their own personalities and would sleep in specific areas in the driftwood. That tank also had a really pretty pleco. Well one night, super cold night, my heater decided it didn't want to work. I woke up to frozen oscars. They were iced! I was so sad. I tried to thaw them out but it was too late! So I swore off fish entirely.

I got back into fish thanks to my daughter (16 months). When I first taught her sign, one of her favorite words/animal was "fish". It was so adorable, every picture, billboard (lol I live in Florida so there are a lot!), book ect that has a fish on it, she screams and signs "fish!". I use to always pass the fish area in petsmart, go straight to the kitty stuff. Well I thought it would be a good idea to take my fish crazy daughter to the see the fish. That was a hugeeee mistake. Now here we are both fish crazy. I bought a small 20g kit and decided to give it a try again. It's so worth it. She get so excited about the fish. I love it when she drops her toys and runs over to the tank and just watches the Khulis for a few minutes entranced. She even points out the "sale" (snail). My husband is probably going crazy with all this fish talk (I'm am always talking about ways to decorate, plant or stock the tank). And if its not me, our daughter is pulling him over there to sit with her and watch them or making him read her fish book to her lol. Wow I wrote so much! Hope I didn't bore you all to death.

Also I love a trio of sparkling gourami for a 10 gallon, if there are live plants. They have so much personality and colour yet small.

 

[azmodan]

Haha that was an awesome read, Buu! I'm glad you got back into the hobby and can now share it with your daughter!

 

[RubisMoon]

I'm so glad to hear so many good opinions and stories about kids and fish! My grand-mother had this huge tank and we loved going over there to take care of them. We were real sad my sis and I when she decided to give it all up. My grand-pa was the one who decided to wash the tank with soap and when they all died she just didn't wanna start again. when i got to be a teen i asked a tank but my mom thinking i was a slacker, that i would let the fish die or something. Parents do their best but now she knows she won't be the one stuck taking care of the tank so she bought the big one for her grand-son and he and I chose the decorations and the fish. even my boyfriend who thought this would end-up badly (I wasn't so good with cat litter) would turn on the lights of the tank the first week at 5:30 when he would get up (even if there were no fish) because it was just so nice!
Everyone says " what are you getting yourself into? It'll be too much and you'll give it up!" And hey maybe in 5 years i'll be fed up with it but if my kids has learned to take care of it and wants to take over then I will have given him a passion for something nice and responsibilities.
I liked your unluck stories Buu cause we do have one too. At first when people hear they think "oh my god psychopaths!" But see, my boyfriend and his family like sport fishing, and my niece is already at 3 used to see her father cutting fish and removing the head and all that... So one day my sister in law hears her son crying "she's killing all my fish!" She's seen her daughter putting her fingers in the tank and not being aggressive and all was always fine. So she never even thought it possible that her 2 year old was cutting the heads of the fish in the tank with a spoon "making food!" ö so this is a family who won't be having fish in their tank for a while u can be sure she's not coming near my fish lol.

 

[ddodad]

Well I figure I should chime in. I have a very ill daughter she will be four this summer. At the hospital where she gets her treatments they have a small aquarium, she always did better and was much calmer during. The treatments when in the bed next to the aquarium.
We decided for her third birthday to dust off an old one we had on the basement( has been 5-10 yrs since I had fish). She chose all the decorations and helped as much as she could setting it up. For the next 10 months after every treatment if she was brave (or not) we would get a fish. Now it is fully stocked or maybe a little over stocked. It is the first thing she looks at every morning and the last thing before bed.
Even at her young age every morning she feeds the fish and helps on the weekly pwc. She can spend hours looking at it
The doctors are amazed at her progress and how calm she became we credit a lot to the aquarium sure she can't maintain it on her own but it's my pleasure to help.
It was that tank that got me started again in the hobby