Brun

Me and the Wifey fancy a fish tank. We want one which looks quite nice (as opposed to a square glass box) to stick in the corner of our living room.
We talked to the chap down Pets at Home and he basically told us that Gold fish make the most mess, Marine are most difficult to keep and Tropical are the easiest / cleanest. So if this is tru then we'er in the market for Tropical.
The tank we are looking at is this one. Anyone have any thoughts other than £270 is a shed load of cash for a plastic box
Other than the single gold fish i had when i was 12, i've never had any experience of fish other than Harry Ramsdens variety. When you go away for a week for instance, can you drop one of those block feeder thigs in for this type of fish or is there moreto it at this level?
Any thoughts appreciated

shane_evans

iTrader: (1)

I got tropical fish, they are pretty easy to look after. I have found the bigger the tank the easier they are to look after. I got a 200ltr tank at the moment. The small tanks are ok but can only have small fish in them and only a few, as the filter wont be as effective. plus you will have to leave it with no stock in the water for a couple of weeks to filter sort itself out then add small hardy fish a couple at time. Plus that is alot wedge for that size of tank, think i paid that for mine. i have a had some great/wierd fish. but i aint no expert.lol

Here is a vid of my dragon goby:-

stugt4

iTrader: (1)

depends on the fish, big fish would be a no no

David Lock

There are plenty of tropical gurus on SN to advise you

My own experience says: -

1) Forget marine as you have to be an expert with plenty of time and it is expensive

2) Look at Juwel tanks on net which are expensive but you can get a decent second hand one if you look around for less than half price. Juwel's look great with a curved front. The bigger the better really if you plan to take it half seriously

3) Read up about it all and BE PATIENT. You can't just buy a tank and stuff it with fish the same day.

4) See if you have a decent shop near you with a good selection of fish and someone who knows what they are talking about. If you find a fish geek then they can be very helpful.

Great fun so enjoy

dl

scooby-tc

iTrader: (2)

do a search for Juwel Trigon tanks.They are designed to sit in a corner and look superb.I fancied one of them but i havent got a spare corner in my lounge so went for the bow fronted Juwel vision

JDM_Stig

iTrader: (3)

I agree with all of the above about size/time etc, try think fish.com, that will explain the fish less cycle you need to go thru to set up your filter etc.

Brun

Those Juwel Trigon tanks look good. Never really thought about it but would the best part of 400kg be safe to put on the first floor of a house? I can just picture it going straight through the floor and ending up in my hall way

Brun

.........and i've just realised how much they cost
TBH, i think the £270 for the one i linked is a lot but it looks poncey enough to sit in my living room.
Poncey is the name of the game

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Personally I think a fish that size, kept in a small tank is cruel ..

shane_evans

iTrader: (1)

Hi pimmo,

Perhaps you should of asked what i did and tried to do with the fish once it got that size and before it got to that size??
I had trouble re-homing it as they have been known to be agreesive, even tho it wasnt! but i did find a home for it, in a tank at least twice the size of mine.

I bought the fish as a dwarf dragon goby so was giving the wrong info. It end growing to about 16" long

Cheers shane

Proby521

iTrader: (1)

Been there and done it with the nice looking bi-orb, but tread carefully. They are not the ideal type of tank to keep fish in, a few plants and shrimp maybe! The surface area in those tanks is small due to the odd shape. I can't recommend Juwel tanks enough, in fact I know have a 350 litre juwel in the living room, a 35 litre for breeding in the kitchen and a 15 litre housed under the big juwel cabinet as a hospital/quarantine tank.
Important decisions have to be made whether you want to keep fish or you want a fancy looking tank. Do your reading and research as much as possible, the bigger the tank the better!

imprezajon

iTrader: (2)

dont use pets at home.
look for a local independant as they give proper advice. i have had an aqua one 850 for about 4 years and once it is set up properly it is very low maintenance.
bigger is better,the bio orbs dont have very good filtration so are really not much use for anything other than goldfish.
the first 4/8 weeks of setting up your tank is the most important. its not just a case of putting in the water and then your fish.
i have a book you can have if you want, just pay £3 for postage as i dont need it anymore.

53

iTrader: (41)

I would have homed it I have two c.2000 litre tanks

Hysteria1983

Don't slate pets at home because the one you use is no good!

It's usually a given that any LPS will use the staff from any section, and they are not trained in fishkeeping, but at the end of the day, YOU are the one who should know your fish. THEY are just simply there to sell them.

I only ever used to by from my local aquatic centre, but over the years I have found pets at home to have better stock, and healthier fish.
The aquatic centre may have staff who pretend they know what they are talking about, and it may make us feel better that we have bought fish from somewhere that seems more superior.


Does that mean you have a better fish?

No.

Proby521

iTrader: (1)

Whatever you do, don't put goldfish in a bi-orb, they are 10x messier than 99% of tropical, the filter will def not cope, and they will swimming around in ammonia city.

Hysteria1983

When buying a tank, bigger will always be better!

Why limit yourself on what you can keep?

The bigger the tank, the more margin for error you have (with regards to water parameters) so you can maintain a healthy tank that little bit easier.

Learn to be patient, getting your tank how you want it, and with the fish you want will take time (think years).

A large tank (300L+) can take 12+ months to get to a point where amonia/nitrates won't be a problem, but adding too many fish too close together can still **** things up.

Decide how you want to decorate your tank. Think plastic or live plants (not sunken battle ship!).
Then decide what sort of substrate (if you want one) you will use. As it will be a lot of work to put one in after!

Then you can think of how you want to cycle your tank.
Mine was cycled without fish, which is hard work, but can save lots of fatalities.

I am sure you already know which fish you want? I did!!
So decide what you want to add first, but try not to add anything too large/terratorial to start, or anything you add after will be preyed upon.

If you want a community tank, get a list of fish that will all be happy together and see what you know you want, but will live happily together.
Keep in mind the behaviour of the fish with regards to the size of the tank. Some schooling fish like a large tank to hide away and play, danios are fast and like lots of length to dart, but in all honesty, to keep any fish in a community I would suggest at least 250L and lots of plants and rocks.

Here I am rambling!!!

The best thing to do is research!

Brun

Oooooo lots to think about - thanks for the input.
The chap i spoke to in P @ H was very clued up. It was in one of their Aquatic centres which are very thin on the ground.
Haven't got a clue what type of fish we want - the more colourful and/or daft looking = the better. I have no desire to buy something however which is difficult to keep.
We don't really have a budget but at the same time, we don't want £££££'s in it. The Biorb is £270 so i guess by the time everything was up and running there may be £350 in it. For me i guess £300 is a nice round number - do your best

Brun

This caught the Wife's eye...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fish-tank-Aqua...item27b9df1cbb

ScoobySteve69

iTrader: (13)

If you want a 'colourful' and interesting tank go for Malawis ;-) I've had a 5 foot tank housing Oscars and various others for over 15 years and recently added another tank to house Malawis and I'm well happy with it :-)

Hysteria1983

It's got all it needs to get up and running, but the dimensions don't seem to reflect the shape of the tank.

scooby-tc

iTrader: (2)

I currently run a Malawi tank and the fish are fantastic things but they are very aggressive so be careful with what you put in there (should you go this route) as some will be more aggressive than others so make sure you get at least 3 females to 1 male of any particular species

Brun

As Juwel's have been mentioned a couple of times - in my price bracket
Click

97TURBO

Don't touch any of the BiOrb tanks, they are more for show rather than for keeping a good selection of Fish. I promise within a couple of months, when you get right into it(which you will), you will wish you had gone with a juwel. They do great corner tanks.
The big tanks are great, you then have the option of bucket loads of small tetras, or just a couple of larger fish, discus and the like.

scooby-tc

iTrader: (2)

keep an eye on ebay.I picked up a juwel vision 180 + cabinet for £150 almost 4 years ago.There are bargains to be had if you are prepared to collect it

bugeyejohn

iTrader: (11)

Same tank as me juwel tanks and stands are quality,the light units and heaters not so good in my experience light units fail for a pastime.Just took the filter out of mine and have got 2 external ones now.Nearly £450 worth of L numbers in mine and never see them

Proby521

iTrader: (1)

Agree with the lighting units, rather than buy a new unit I carefully disected mine and fitted a new electronic ballast unit, I'm on my second heater! I've still got the jumbo internal, but also running an Eheim 2327 thermo wet/dry external. I also have another Eheim 2216 external which I plan on using to replace the internal when I get around to it, will give me a bit more room in the tank.

ScoobySteve69

iTrader: (13)

Overstocking reduces aggressiveness ;-) and I've never bothered about the male to female ratio. Maybe I've been lucky, I dunno, but some of mine have bred too :-D

bugeyejohn

iTrader: (11)

Yeh that's what i did to my last light unit,i had already bought a new front and back at about £130 one lasted 18 months.I took the internal filter out in about 2 minutes using a long kitchen knife to cut the silicon i think it was only hanging on anyway

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Good to hear

David Lock

e.g.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/juwel-180-visi...item45f9ac5233

dl