Anyone have knowledge of fish tanks?

Gmontag

Four Pointer
My four year old loved our old fish tank, and I think I'm going to revive it for Christmas.

I'd like suggestions on fish/inverts that would be fun for a 4 year old boy, and yet easy enough to care for that I won't spend half my time on it.

I don't mind having one or two "expensive" fish, but not looking to spend $100 on a fish either.

The tank we have is 20 gallons, and I'll be upgrading the lighting, filters, and heater.

Some cool things that I found in my research were:

Inverts
Fresh water clams
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=1075+1642&pcatid=1642

Red Lobsters
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=1075+1872&pcatid=1872

Red Crystal Shrimp
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=1075+1898&pcatid=1898

African Butterflyfish
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+836+1593&pcatid=1593

Crocodile Fish
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+836+2778&pcatid=2778

Pipefish
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+836+3108&pcatid=3108


Are there other fish I can/should look into?
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
Tatras are easy, get along good and are entertaining for small kids to watch. Some South American cichlids are ok. African cichlids can be cool but are territorial and kind of expensive. I have a 20 high tank that had all South and Central American tetras and a few convicts in it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
dc bigdaddy

dc bigdaddy

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
used to be a boy on here by UncleFester. He has several or had several. Don't know if you can get him to answer a pm or not.
 
dpc

dpc

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
General rule of thumb is an inch of fish per gallon and pound of rock sand per gallon of tank. I would put in a cheap goldfish to get the beneficial bacteria going before going with the fish you want.

I would suggest cichlids as well. They tend to have the most color like salt water. I would filter the tank for 30 to 40 gallons. You cant over filter and will save you headaches down the road. Look into lace rock, you can make some neat features in the tank. If you go with cichlids I would use cichlid sand, it will naturally get the PH you need for the tank.

There is a great aquarium store in I think Huntersville, I cant think of the name.

Here is the store:
http://upscaleaquatics.weebly.com/
 
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Gmontag

Four Pointer
Thanks for the responses.

And thanks for the link to that store. I'm in Huntersville, so I've found my source for fish!
 
dpc

dpc

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I wish you posted this a month ago. I just tore down a 55 gallon tank and you could of had pretty much everything to get you started.

I will suggest when you look into filtration look at canister filters that you can make your own carbon bags. it's much cheaper to make your own and you can get more carbon contact time when filtering water.
 

Gmontag

Four Pointer
So I've been doing a ton of research, and I've come to the conclusion that 20 gallons is just too small for what I'm looking to do.

I think we're going to upgrade to a 40 gallon tank, and use fine sand on the bottom.

I want to get a small community of Kuhlii loaches for the bottom.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+885+1072&pcatid=1072

But I do need some suggestions for fish to populate the upper portion of the tank.

Preferably something that a 4 year old would love. Any suggestions?
 
Pirate96

Pirate96

Twelve Pointer
Gmontag said:
So I've been doing a ton of research, and I've come to the conclusion that 20 gallons is just too small for what I'm looking to do.

I think we're going to upgrade to a 40 gallon tank, and use fine sand on the bottom.

I want to get a small community of Kuhlii loaches for the bottom.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+885+1072&pcatid=1072

But I do need some suggestions for fish to populate the upper portion of the tank.

Preferably something that a 4 year old would love. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...


All depends on what kind of tank. Hard to beat cichlids in that size tank. For a 40 gallon "community" Tiger barbs would be good. I know in our 20 gallon community the kids love the Harlequin Rasbora's.
 
dpc

dpc

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Good call with the 40. It's actually easier to manage the parameters of the water in a bigger tank. Depending if your going to do a semi aggressive tank, I have had good luck with sharks in the past. If not, I would consider Angelfish or several varieties of nice looking Gourami's.

Tiger Barbs are nice too. They are pretty hardy and you can have a school of them in your tank.
 
curdog

curdog

Ten Pointer
Contributor
I'm not an expert,but I had an aquarium for a while. Tetras, tiger barbs, cherry barbs all went well. But my favorite were some red belly dace I caught out of the creek behind my house. They were real hardy,schooled together and the colors were just as pretty as store bought fish.
 
dpc

dpc

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Here is a Cichlid tank I did at work. I painted the back of tank and matches well with the lace rock I used for the décor.

View attachment 52969
 

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