coolchinchilla
Aquarium Advice FINatic
<sigh> Why is there such diverse and opposing guidelines and experiences in fish keeping? I'm doing a fishless cycle on my FW tank. I've come up with 3 or 4 different stocking schemes only to find that for some reason each one won't work.
1. my water is too alkaline for this fish
2. those fish will fight amongst themselves to the death
3. that fish will nip another's fins
4. this particular fish needs a tank twice the size I have.
5. one of those fish costs $100 so I can't afford it -- (ok it wasn't that expensive but it might just as well be $100)
6. another fish will jump out of the aquarium
7. some other fish will eat aquarium plants
8. this fish likes warmer temperatures than that fish.
9. this fish will eat that fish
10. those fish really need to be in a school of six
Then there are the experts and experienced fish keepers who give totally opposite guidelines.
1. one expert claims that fish can thrive in any type of water while another swears by RO/DI only
2. one expert says this fish is very docile, another says it is very aggressive.
3. one article says you need a 200 gallon tank for this fish while another article says that it will thrive in a 20 gallon tank (ok, exaggerating here a bit)
4. someone has a fish who eats all the plants yet the same fish in a different tank will leave all plant life alone.
On and on and on it goes. <sigh> Of course any one fish in a species has a distinct personality which may account for some of the diversity we see but not all. Other pets don't have near the amount of variation in care, housing and feeding. Like for a regular spayed female cat adopted from the shelter, how much variation is there to her care? Where she sleeps, litter box, food. Sure there are lots of kinds of litter to choose, not to mention the different kinds of cat food. But for the basic functioning of an indoor cat, the choices are pretty clear...
The choices for fish keeping are not nearly so clear. I'm advised to research and research the fish before I even consider buying any. That's cool, but my research has brought to jillions of forks in the road and forks within forks until they all begin to form a huge labyrinth. And as I travel the labyrinth I hit wall after wall after wall. I'm becoming overwhelmed by the choices and constraints on aquarium keeping.
What do people do when you stock your tank? Do you just plunge in and hope you did enough homework? Thanks in Advance!
1. my water is too alkaline for this fish
2. those fish will fight amongst themselves to the death
3. that fish will nip another's fins
4. this particular fish needs a tank twice the size I have.
5. one of those fish costs $100 so I can't afford it -- (ok it wasn't that expensive but it might just as well be $100)
6. another fish will jump out of the aquarium
7. some other fish will eat aquarium plants
8. this fish likes warmer temperatures than that fish.
9. this fish will eat that fish
10. those fish really need to be in a school of six
Then there are the experts and experienced fish keepers who give totally opposite guidelines.
1. one expert claims that fish can thrive in any type of water while another swears by RO/DI only
2. one expert says this fish is very docile, another says it is very aggressive.
3. one article says you need a 200 gallon tank for this fish while another article says that it will thrive in a 20 gallon tank (ok, exaggerating here a bit)
4. someone has a fish who eats all the plants yet the same fish in a different tank will leave all plant life alone.
On and on and on it goes. <sigh> Of course any one fish in a species has a distinct personality which may account for some of the diversity we see but not all. Other pets don't have near the amount of variation in care, housing and feeding. Like for a regular spayed female cat adopted from the shelter, how much variation is there to her care? Where she sleeps, litter box, food. Sure there are lots of kinds of litter to choose, not to mention the different kinds of cat food. But for the basic functioning of an indoor cat, the choices are pretty clear...
The choices for fish keeping are not nearly so clear. I'm advised to research and research the fish before I even consider buying any. That's cool, but my research has brought to jillions of forks in the road and forks within forks until they all begin to form a huge labyrinth. And as I travel the labyrinth I hit wall after wall after wall. I'm becoming overwhelmed by the choices and constraints on aquarium keeping.
What do people do when you stock your tank? Do you just plunge in and hope you did enough homework? Thanks in Advance!