This thread is on how to set up a fish room for anybody who is new, so let's begin.
1: The tanks
for the tanks you can use several types and sizes, 10 and 20 gallons are the ones I personally recommend. The reason I recommend them is because they are cheap, take up little space, and a lot of fish can be in them. You can use them as a quarantine or hospital tank, and you can keep several types of fish in them and because of the small size and weight of them, you can make a rack to hold them, here is a link to a video on how to make one
In a 20 gallon you can keep some schools of tetras, axolotls, cory cats, shrimp, small gouramis, barbs, killifish, hatchet fish, danios, gobies, small cichlids (multies, apistos, etc.), guppies, platies, mollies, the list goes on, same with a 10 gallon. Then I would recommend a 40 breeder, they have a larger foot print than a 55 gallon so they are better for most cases, in them you can keep some larger fish, bichirs, medium cichlids (6-10 inches), or just more of the other fish I listed for the 20 gallons. Next up I'd recommend the 90 gallon, this may be a bit big for some people, if it is then just stick with the other tanks. A 90 gallon is of a very good size and ideal for larger fish like oscars, goldfish, green terror, pike cichlids, discus, some types of larger catfish, and various other fish. Anything larger than 90 gallons is up to you to get, but if you get larger than 90 gallons you can begin to get some really cool fish.
2. The Filtration
For filtration you have 3 main options
A. Canister filters
3. Food
As far as food goes, there are 3 main types
A. Live foods
Fish are animals, they will get sick at some point or another. API has several medications that I strongly recommend, they have ICH-X (for ich), general cure (for a lot of different stuff), E.M Erythromycin for bacterial infections, and Pimafix for fungal infections. Aquarium salt, epsom salt, almond leaves, and aloe are also commonly used to help with fish disease.
5. Decoration
Decorations are provided in a tank for 2 main reasons, to give the fish hiding spots and to make the tank look more appealing to the owner. Decorations can be natural like rock, shells, and driftwood or it can be artificial like fake plants, clay/plastic decorations (made to look like planes, houses, cartoon or movie characters, etc.), or rubber fish made to look like real fish that are suction cupped in place.
6. Substrate There are 3 main types of substrate, bare bottom, sand, or gravel. Let's talk about bare bottom first, a bare bottom aquarium is very easy to maintain and clean, the downside is most people think it looks hideous. The next substrate is sand, sand is not very easy to clean, but looks very good and lets fish like loaches, earth eaters, and elephant nose fish sift and burrow in the sand. The last substrate is gravel, the upside of gravel is it's fairly easy to clean, looks better than bare bottom, and let's the fish sift and burrow in it to some extent, the downsides are that some fish (mainly axolotls) can eat the gravel and get a blockage which is often fatal.
This is just stuff I could think of and list down for newcomers to the hobby, anybody with any input is welcome to post below
1: The tanks
for the tanks you can use several types and sizes, 10 and 20 gallons are the ones I personally recommend. The reason I recommend them is because they are cheap, take up little space, and a lot of fish can be in them. You can use them as a quarantine or hospital tank, and you can keep several types of fish in them and because of the small size and weight of them, you can make a rack to hold them, here is a link to a video on how to make one
(
).
In a 20 gallon you can keep some schools of tetras, axolotls, cory cats, shrimp, small gouramis, barbs, killifish, hatchet fish, danios, gobies, small cichlids (multies, apistos, etc.), guppies, platies, mollies, the list goes on, same with a 10 gallon. Then I would recommend a 40 breeder, they have a larger foot print than a 55 gallon so they are better for most cases, in them you can keep some larger fish, bichirs, medium cichlids (6-10 inches), or just more of the other fish I listed for the 20 gallons. Next up I'd recommend the 90 gallon, this may be a bit big for some people, if it is then just stick with the other tanks. A 90 gallon is of a very good size and ideal for larger fish like oscars, goldfish, green terror, pike cichlids, discus, some types of larger catfish, and various other fish. Anything larger than 90 gallons is up to you to get, but if you get larger than 90 gallons you can begin to get some really cool fish.
2. The Filtration
For filtration you have 3 main options
A. Canister filters
Canister filters are usually pretty big and can filter quite a bit of water, sometimes upwards of 400 gallons, the downfall is they are often expensive and bulky and they produce quite a bit of flow (if that's an issue with your fish)
B. Hang on the back (HOB) filtersThis is most popular for the smaller tanks. A HOB well, hangs of the back of your tank. It sucks water in and filters it through a sponge and filter cartridge. HOB filters are quiet, produce little flow, customizable, readily available, and cheap. The drawbacks of a HOB filter is that they don't filter very much water and they take up a lot of space on the back of the tank.
C. Sponge filtersThese are my personal favorites and I believe every tank should have one. The pros of sponge filters are they are safe for fish fry (won't suck them in and kill them), they are cheap, oxygenate the tank, trap uneaten food so the tank inhabitants can still eat, and are easy to clean. The drawbacks are they don't have chemical filtration, they take up a decent amount of space in a tank, and they can get moved around by larger fish.
3. Food
As far as food goes, there are 3 main types
A. Live foods
Live foods are an amazing option and in my opinion the best way to feed your fish IF you can provide it properly and readily. The reason I believe this is because it simulates the actual diet of the fish very well, live foods can include things like shrimp, crayfish, guppies, worms, crickets, brine shrimp, black worms, daphnia, and mice. The problem with live food is it's very hard to do it properly, first, you need to ensure the food is not diseased (only an issue with guppies and other fish, though anything can have a disease), secondly, you need to gutload the food by feeding it healthy (often vitamin enriched) food before feeding it to your fish. If you can do all this frequently and are willing to do it, then live food is the way to go, but very few people can (or are willing) to go through all this work and usually just buy feeders from a store which often are diseased and malnourished which harm your fish more than it benefits them.
B. Frozen foods Frozen foods are the next best option (in my opinion), it is convenient and as close as you can get to live foods. Frozen foods are simply thawed out in tank water and fed to your fish, frozen food can be daphnia, mysis, brine shrimp, blood worms, river shrimp, clam on a half shell, cyclops, and other items that fish eat. The only downside for frozen food is you need to freeze it.
C. Dry foods Dry foods are the next option and by far the most popular. Dry food usually come in one of 3 forms, either pellet, flake, or freeze dried. Pellet and flake food are usually made up of fish meal, wheat meal, corn meal, yeast, algae meal, shrimp meal, and other processed items that don't simulate the fish's natural diet, I have found that Omega One and New Life Spectrum have the best pellet food as they use whole ingredients, Hikari, Tetra, and Marine Land have a lot of the foods I mentioned and are not a good idea in my opinion. Freeze dried food however, is a totally different story. Freeze dried food is the freeze dried version of a live food, so they are incredibly nutritious and just as convenient as pellet food.
4. Medication
Fish are animals, they will get sick at some point or another. API has several medications that I strongly recommend, they have ICH-X (for ich), general cure (for a lot of different stuff), E.M Erythromycin for bacterial infections, and Pimafix for fungal infections. Aquarium salt, epsom salt, almond leaves, and aloe are also commonly used to help with fish disease.
5. Decoration
Decorations are provided in a tank for 2 main reasons, to give the fish hiding spots and to make the tank look more appealing to the owner. Decorations can be natural like rock, shells, and driftwood or it can be artificial like fake plants, clay/plastic decorations (made to look like planes, houses, cartoon or movie characters, etc.), or rubber fish made to look like real fish that are suction cupped in place.
6. Substrate There are 3 main types of substrate, bare bottom, sand, or gravel. Let's talk about bare bottom first, a bare bottom aquarium is very easy to maintain and clean, the downside is most people think it looks hideous. The next substrate is sand, sand is not very easy to clean, but looks very good and lets fish like loaches, earth eaters, and elephant nose fish sift and burrow in the sand. The last substrate is gravel, the upside of gravel is it's fairly easy to clean, looks better than bare bottom, and let's the fish sift and burrow in it to some extent, the downsides are that some fish (mainly axolotls) can eat the gravel and get a blockage which is often fatal.
This is just stuff I could think of and list down for newcomers to the hobby, anybody with any input is welcome to post below
Last edited by a moderator:
