Fish Topia

I’m currently writing a series of fish tank setups, this is article number one, and I’m going to be writing about a full fish tank setup that costs under 100 USD. This is aimed at a goldfish or freshwater fish, no tropical.

All of these items will be available online and instore from PetCo.

PETCO Bookshelf Freshwater Fish Aquarium - $41.64 [link]
As the name suggests, this is a perfect tank for perching on a desk or a bookshelf, and is reasonable size. It has a light and hang-on filter built in, so that knocks out some separate costs just there. 

PETCO Pebble Beach Mix Aquarium Gravel - $3.19 [link]
Beach-looking pebbles that are ideal for freshwater and safe. Does not affect the water’s chemistry, nor harm fish. 

Tetra Whisper Air Pumps - $10.99 [link]
As the name suggests, this is as quiet as a whisper. Perfect for adding air bubbles and decor.

biOrb One Way Valve - $4.89 [link]
One way tube to connect your air pump to an accessory.

PETCO Bubbling Airstone - $1.19 [link]
Adds crucial oxygenation to the water. Connected to your Tetra Whisper Air Pump with the biOrb One Way Valve. 

PETCO Brook Evergreen Betta Plant - $2.63 [link]
A cute little plant for decoration purpose. You can switch this with any other variety of $2.63 plants that you like.

Aqueon Color Enhancing Goldfish Granules - $3.79 [link]
A nice pack of Goldfish granules, suitable for Goldfish and most freshwaters. 

API Stress Coat Aquarium Water Conditioner - $4.17 [link]
Adds slime coat to protect fish. Removes harmful chemicals from tap water. Use when setting up your aquarium and every water change. 

Total setup cost: $72.49
After purchase of small freshwater fish.
Estimated cost: $85.00

This was my first time doing something like this.
Please send me feedback on how I went. 

This process does not cover selection of fish, but mainly the process once you have found a breed you love.

1. Buy the fish from the fish clerk, you should generally have the option to select your own fish out of the couple of dozen they have of that breed, choose one that is active, placid and full of color. 
2. You will receive your fish in a little baggie.
3. DO NOT SHAKE THE BAG. They might WILL die.
4. Put the bag in, un-opened to your fish tank for about 5 minutes. This will allow your fish to slowly adjust to the temperature of the new tank.
5. Open the bag and let some of the fish tank water enter the bag, allowing for a more dramatic adjustment of temperature.
6. Submerge the bag open, and let the fish come out on its own.

After this, your fish is in the fish tank. I recommend giving a slight feed as it might have not been fed previously that day, I’d ask the clerk.

Monitor the fish and if any violence occurs towards or from your new fish, remove it from the tank. Leaving it in will create a stressful environment for all fish in your aquarium.

Helpful Tips:

• Try to buy a fish from a local fish store, somewhere close. For example I purchased mine five minutes down the road, so the only travelling my fish had to do was five minutes.
• If available, ask your fish clerk for soothing extract, for example Aloe Vera, to be squirted into your bag. They offer it at selected stores, this gives your fish a drowsy, calm effect in the bag.
• IF YOU CURRENTLY HAVE FISH, DO NOT BUY FIGHTING FISH. The name is fairly self explanatory, Fighting Fish MUST BE ALONE as they pretty much kill everything in the tank. 
• Do not mix tropical and non-tropical breeds, as they are suited to different temperatures.

If you read our last post, Summer Update, you’ll have heard that I found a fish tank in my garage. Now as a guide I’m taking photo’s of the process along the way and post it up as a ‘setup series’ - This is going to take some time as I most likely won’t have the fish themselves until around Christmas, but it’ll be something on the side of our weekly articles. So expect this around Christmas, perhaps even earlier.

-Jess.

Hi Guys.

Its me, Jess. I’m finished my studies at school for this year and I’m now on summer vacation, so the bulk of the articles coming up are going to be from me. 

BUT JESS, ITS WINTER. - Not in Australia.

Firstly, I’d like to update you on what’s happening with my fish. One of my Black Widow Tetra’s has died, It’s been almost 7 months with them and I suspect ammonia poisoning, exams made monitoring the pH levels a chore. So hopefully sometime around Christmas, I’ll be buying another fish for my rooms tank, am thinking a Paradise Fish, or another Black Widow Tetra.

Upon cleaning the garage, I found an old fish tank. About 50L capacity, definately larger than my current one. So I ofcourse spent all afternoon cleaning it and will be buying a filter around Christmas time and I’m thinking of stocking it with a Black Moor and a Fantail. Planning on putting this tank out in the family room, not sure my desk can support 120 odd pounds on top of my fish tank, printer and computer.

ALSO, My family are planning to renovate our backyard, and I suggested to my mother about having a fish pond, and she liked the idea. If that was to go ahead, I’ll be purchasing a Ryukin or two for there, or even perhaps a Koi. What do you guys think? 

& Sorry for being so inactive, I’m going to be posting alot here. Thanks for sticking by us. Don’t forget to vote.

Love Jess.
& Steph says Hi. 

Hey guys! Firstly I wanna apologize for slacking a little bit on the videos, school has been a little bit hectic lately and just haven’t got around to it.

Anywho, on to Product of the Week, a weekly link up to a product with a short but intense review. Just to be clear, product of the week are products we’ve used or heard about, but we haven’t actually been given these products from the manufacturers to review. Why is this better? Generally, when people are given free products to review, they’ll give a better review because they got it for free. Thats not the case here, we’ll tell you what we like, what we dont like, and give it a rating.

Tetra Whisper Air Pump.
Available at Petco from just $10.97. [10Gallon or less model]. 

The product of the week I’d like to focus on is the Tetra Whisper Air Pump. This pump is a small but quiet air pump with two air outlets!

Basically, this air pump is what the name points out, whisper quiet. It is able to achieve such quietness because of the particular design of the pump.

Other than that, not much more to say, it blows powerful bubbles, is extremely cheap, and as quiet as a whisper. 

8/10.

-Jess.

____________________________

Hey guys.
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Thankyou so much for all the support! 

Fish are a beautiful animal, and with thousands of breeds, the choice can be a little overwhelming. 

The number and type of fish you can keep depends on the size of your fish, and the size of your tank, to work out the maximum number or size of fish, use the following formula:

length of tank x width of tank = surface area.
then divide the surface area by 60.

If your answer is 10, you can keep 10cm [or 4 inches] worth of fish.

So now that you have the total size of fish you can keep, you have a rough idea of the size/number of fish you can keep. For example, if the formula left you with 4 inches, you can have any amount of fish that add up to a maximum of four inches in size.

Now for the big question, Tropical or Coldwater?

The choice is yours, generally though, if you have a smaller tank, having tropical fish is not a good idea, as you need an internal heater, which takes up a large amount of room. Having a filter unlocks more breed opportunities, and a vast variety of colours and sizes. 

If you choose coldwater, you’d be looking at some Comets, Fantails, Black Widow Tetra’s or other fish depending at what you’re local fish shop stocks. If you choose tropical, maybe a Clown Fish or a Betta fish, also depending on the size and what your fish shop stocks.

The problem with telling you all the fish that are available to you is that, first of all, there are thousands of breeds, and second of all, the breeds are different from every country. For example I (Jess) live in Australia, so my fish shop stocks fish from Australia, Mayalsia and other countries, but in America they may stock elsewhere.

Tip, seriously, bigass tip:
DO NOT buy fish from places like Petco, buy them from small aquariums. I never buy fish from pet stores, I buy them from JUST fish stores. They are well raised and looked after and tend to last longer, whereas from Petco and other places, their fish often are diseased before you even put them into your tank. 

Thats it for now. Please do not buy your fish until you have a tank setup, a detailed article will be showing up in the next week or so.
If you guys have any queries, hit the Ask Us Anything! button!

- Jess. 

Just a quick little update.

It’s Steph; I’m the one changing the pictures constantly (;

As you can see, we currently have it as Product of the Day; but we’ve hardly been updating with it! So we’re changing it to Product of the Week.

Whether it be fish flakes, air pump, or whatever, we’ll update each Saturday or Sunday.
We’re going to take turns, so I’m doing this week and Jess will do the next week.

So, as you can see I put two images. That’s because the first shows more of it; and the second is bigger.
This is the filter I use. A Magnum 350 canister filter. This is my review on it.
It’s compact, and it’s lightweight, and last I remember it’s easy to set up. It’s perfect for not only mechanical filtering, it’s also fantastic for chemical.
It’s not good for only one thing, but multiple things, which is what makes it so wonderful. You’re able to connect it to the ouput of something like a BIO Wheel Pro for wet and dry filtration if needed.

Pros & Cons
Pros:

• Easy to clean, reusable micron pleat cartridge collects small(seriously, really small. you cant see these) particles.
• Gravel siphon Power Kleen Gravel Washer slips right onto the filter’s water intake tube; you’re even able to do it while the canister’s running. You just have to make sure all the air is out of the hose line. Only junk in the gravel(debris, etc) and dirty water is brought into the tube, and cleaned through the micron pleat cartridge. Then it’s pumped back into the aquarium. This gets rid of a super messy task, and avoids you needing to constantly replace the aquarium water.
• Maintenance for the canister is much easier, much faster, and much drier task. Double quick-disconnect valves can be purchased separately, and sometimes even with the Deluxe package.
• A lot of pet stores sell every single piece magnums are made of, so replacement of parts for repairs is easy. (Marineland, Aquaria, etc.)

Cons

• Cartridge gets dirty very fast, which diminishes the canister’s water flow rate by a lot. The cartridge needs to be changed frequently. I change mine usually every 4-7 days.
• Micron cartridge can get awfully dirty during tank cleanings, which causes water siphon flow to slow down before the cleaning task. If this happens, turn off the canister, change the cartridge (have extras on hands), and do it again. Just keep doing it until the cleaning’s complete; then do your water change.
• The lid has problems aligning exactly right to seal. This allows outside air to get sucked in which causes the water level in the canister to decrease by.. a lot. Truly a lot. Noise results from the air pocket that forms inside, which can be very annoying. Just shut off the canister, refill with the tank water by gravity, and then open and put the lid back on.
• Gravel or sand particles, if they get in the bottom of the canister, it damages the impeller magnet, which ends up in the unit to make this dreadful sound. You need to buy a replacement impeller for this.

Bottom line
Other then the terrible lid alignment problem with the canister, I’m VERY happy with this filter. I feel like my money spent on it was worth it.

~Steph

Hello!

I’m Stephanie! Everyone calls me Steph, though.
Expect my posts to have formulas regarding fish, or just in general things that are totally geeky.

Well, lets start the basics. What should your tank be?
There are tons of fish. Some live in fresh water, or salt water.

So before buying a fish tank, figure out whether your fish needs fresh water, or salt water.

Figure out how many fish you want to buy. Your fish will need space to move, so you may just want to get a full fledged tank, which can be a pain to look after(I’ll tell you that firsthand! I have one!). Then, you should look up how BIG these fish can get. I had a baby black moor and expected it just to need a simple fishbowl - but oh no, that sucker grew 8 inches.
I had about 8 fish, and a somewhat small tank. You ought to believe they didn’t fit, so I put some out in the pond in the back.

So, you want to look that up or ask the fish clerk, because we don’t know what fish you are getting.
If you’re just getting one or two fishes that are fairly small(1-4 inches), get a simple fish bowl like you see pictures of a cat reaching into.

Then, you need some rocks whether fake or real.
Why? For covering the bottom of the tank, of course!

Of course you’re gonna want to get something for your fish to hide in or at least something pretty.
So get some plants, or some rocks, or some tacky toy in there. I have about 2-4 plants in my fish tank that are fairly big, and a crocodile who has bubbles coming out of it’s mouth; but in the center is a gigantic castle that needs to be cleaned daily(ugh!).
You’re gonna want to keep this clean if it’s something like a castle, or else your fish can get unhealthy due to all the algae. Live plants have advantages, such as giving your fish healthy snacks when they’re hungry, as well as providing a small amount of oxygen into the tank, however, live plants WILL get your tank dirty, substantially more dirty than using an artificial plant.

So then, if you got a tank, you want a filter or an air pump.
Filters are fairly important. They are needed for salt water fish or salt.
Why is it so important, though?
Aquariam filters remove physical /and/ solube chemical waste products from aquaria, making maintenance easier for you. Air pumps do just as much, but are just a bit more noisy. Air pumps also oxygenate the water, which is crucial for fish.
Which is better? Air pumps or filters or both?
I use both due to the fact that my fish tank is fairly large.
Filters are more for large tanks, small tanks can just be hand-cleaned every fortnight or so.
You may just need an air pump, or a filter. Up to you.
If you got a simple fish bowl, get an air pump. More noisy, but less of a hassle and filters are big.
Filters are more so for tanks.

Otherwise, the only other thing you may want, is something to clean the sides of the tank, i.e. the algae that gets on the sides. I have one and it’s made my life about 10x easier. I don’t know where it’s called or what it is, but it has Whisper written on the back.

You’ve most likely seen aquariums with bubbles coming out, this is because fish breathe oxygen through their gills. Therefore, the water needs to be oxygenated. An Air Pump strikes that problem. If you chose for the more powerful cleaner, the filter not the air pump, you can always add a Bubble Bar into the tank, this blows bubbles, I mean LOTS of bubbles.

So, this is it forenow.

As usual, Steph & Jess.
But mostly Steph this post.

Aloha.

Sorry for the lack of updates this past week, we’ve both been really busy with school and outside of school stuff, but here’s something.

When buying a fish tank, you need to purchase either a Filter or an Air Pump, I’ll go through which you should purchase and the advantages/disadvantages of each.

Filters:

Advantages of a filter:

• Huge cleaning efficiency, will have your water cleanliness at top notch.
• Will remove uneaten food / fish excrement.
• Fairly quiet to run.

Disadvantages of a filter:

• Does NOT provide oxygenation into the water. 
• Often are expensive and require extra power to be run.
• Filters are large.
• WILL require a Bubble Bar or oxygenation of some sort.

Air Pumps:

Advantages of an Air Pump:

• Oxygenates water.
• Small and compact, can easily fit in any size tank.
• Provides a small level of filtration.
• Much Cheaper.

Disadvantages of an Air Pump:

• Air Pumps are LOUD.
• Air Pumps will require extra cleaning to make up for the fact that they don’t pick up most waste.
• Generally don’t last very long.

So, the choice is really yours. Personally, I’d only go with the Filter system if I had a giant tank with lots of fish, if you have a small tank, an Air Pump may just suit, providing your fish don’t provide mountains of waste. However, it is important to stress the fact that fish need oxygen to breathe,  so you WILL need to get a Bubble Bar or something that makes bubbles in your fish tank if you don’t use an air pump.

Hope this short post filled you in, good luck if you are looking at buying Fish, and if you have ANY queries, feel free to ask, just hit the Ask us Anything! button.

itsakarly asked: I'm getting a 55 gallon tank in two weeks. I already have two rather large (about 5 inches long) Oranda goldfish. I really want to get a Ranchu and recently found them at a local pet store. These guys are just babies though (wen undeveloped and about 1.5 inches).
I have two questions-
Firstly, what's a better number? Three or four goldfish in the 55 gallon tank?
Secondly, since the Ranchus are just babies... Should I keep them in my smaller old tank until they get a little bigger? ie, will my Orandas eat them?

Hi itsakarly.

Congratulations on picking up a big 55 gallon tank.

Three OR four would be fine, to be honest, its a personal preference based on how much money you want to spend on food and whatnot.

Although, I would PERSONALLY buy two Ranchu’s. I always have at least two of each breed, imagine if you were put from your home with your family into a new tank, with giant fish and nobody you knew. Buying two would mean they would look after each other in a sense. 

Its really up to you if you want to have them in your old tank or your new one, providing your Orandas aren’t agressive, but they can vary. I would put the Ranchu’s in the new tank with the Oranda’s, and monitor it for about thirty minutes, if the Orandas seem to be agressive or violent, remove the Ranchu’s and put them into the smaller tank until they grow up.

Asking your local fish clerk may also help.

Hope you got some sort of indication as of which way you’d like to go.
Thanks for reading. 

- Jess.

Many times we’ve been asked the question, “Why do you have fish? Why not have a dog or something like that?” So heres the answer:

• Fish are peaceful animals. You will often see them gliding in the water, and it is calming for you to watch.
• Fish do not take up much space. Based on the size of the aquarium you purchased, fish can take up no more than a corner of a table. Fish are the ideal pets for places like apartments where there isn’t much space or a garden.
• Fish are low maintenance, you only have to clean their tanks/water once every fortnight.
• Fish are extremely cheap. Apart from the aquarium itself, fish can cost as little as 3 or 4 dollars. Fish food is only about 5 dollars and will last you for months.
• Fish are good pets for children. Providing your children are responsible and can maintain the fish tank/food, they will find it a breeze owning a fish.
• Fish come in LOTS of variety. Fish come in all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes. You can always find one that matches your personality and style.
• Fish aren’t demanding. Fish don’t require your attention to be happy as a dog or a cat would, especially if you purchase more than one.

Thats just a small scraping of the advantages of a fish.

If you are considering a fish, but still aren’t quite sure, ask us a question, or email us.