first tank for a kid

[lee1983]

any advice for a first tank my 7 year old has taken an interest in fish and wants a small tank for his room with a saimese fighter in it i thought it would be easy to maintain and he gets an interesting fish too any ideas on a first tropical fish for a 10 to 15 liter tank that's fairly hardy

 

[Scouser]

any advice for a first tank my 7 year old has taken an interest in fish and wants a small tank for his room with a saimese fighter in it i thought it would be easy to maintain and he gets an interesting fish too any ideas on a first tropical fish for a 10 to 15 liter tank that's fairly hardy

Small ranks are actually harder to maintain for beginners as there is less water volume to dilute ammo, nitrite and nitrate build ups.

A 15 litre tank is 3.9 US gallons I believe, this would be a nice size tank for a single male.

I would recommend fish less cycling the tank first then adding the fish, this way you can avoid any stress an possible loss of a fish (wouldn't be a good start for a kid)

There are a few threads relating to fish less cycling and I'm sure a quick search would yield great results.

If you have any Qs don't hesitate to ask away

 

[NYgiantsRP]

Just be prepared to buy a bigger tank and more fish. haha. He will get bored with one and want more. Maybe just start with a 10 gallon, and some more variety. You know how kids can be, could get bored with just one fish.

 

[torres]

I think a 5 Gallon would be good, you would have space to put some decorations and the betta would be happy on it.
Most LPS (local pet store) do have My first fish tank that is around 5 gallon or more, and came with all the stuff you need, Filter, Heater and some decoration.
Then you just need to buy a good water conditioner, fish food and a water test.
After that you just need to start your cycle, fish-less or you can do a fish in cycle but, fish in cycle will require you to do daily partial water changes until your water parameters be fine.

Im not expert on this but i hope this answered you!

 

[lee1983]

already got a 90 liter tank thats been running over 2 years was thinking of adding half mature water half new water and giving it a day or so then helping him pick a healthy one

 

[Scouser]

already got a 90 liter tank thats been running over 2 years was thinking of adding half mature water half new water and giving it a day or so then helping him pick a healthy one

Water transfers won't do anything tbh!

You can add some of the media from your established tank to the filter in the small one and add some substrate from the larger to the smaller one.

That will help seed the tank, if you want to fish-in cycle then I urge you to research it first!

Do you have a test kit?

 

[NYgiantsRP]

OH you have a tank already. Well using the water wont help the benificial bacteria. You need to use the filter media that has all the good yucky stuff in it. Heres what you can do...Take the media out of your current filter, and squeeze it in the new tank. It will get the good BB going in the new tank. Just the water wont help.

 

[lee1983]

cheers all for your advice, making sure hes a future responsable fish owner seen too many lfs let people make irrisponsable choices i saddens me education is the way forward

 

[Scouser]

cheers all for your advice, making sure hes a future responsable fish owner seen too many lfs let people make irrisponsable choices i saddens me education is the way forward

Most stores will only give the info that leads to sales, if they told you the full info then most people wouldn't buy the expensive fish to start with (not good for income)

Family owned stores tend to give much better info as they value the repeat custom that a happy customer brings