Options Abound - Proceed With Caution
There are so many superbly awesome fish out there. The options for an aquarium hobbyist are endless. My focus is primarily on freshwater fish which makes the decisions a little easier to pick your favorite fishy friends. All those cool salt water fish are taken off the radar. Freshwater tropical fish still have so much to offer. Anything that could get you excited about a fish is available for your freshwater aquarium; big fish, brightly colored fish, schooling fish, solitary fish and any other kind of fish you could imagine. It can be difficult when starting out, to compile a bunch of cool fish with enough foresight to know if those fish will be able to grow and live in harmony for a very long time. My issues early on were rebellious in nature. I had been on the aquarium keeper websites and knew about fish compatibility. I thought that through experimentation and practice I could come up with some pretty exotic arrangements of impressive fish. The problem as I shortly learned was that when you are dealing with less than 120 gallons of water, the term aggressive or even semi-aggressive in a community of fish will inevitably lead to disaster.
Two Strikes
My original attempt at owning an aquarium ended in disaster. I tripped up on an over addition of way too toxic a mixture of chemicals intended to improve my water quality. After a day or two all 20 of my fishy friends were no more. Lesson learned: like anything else, chemicals are usually a bad thing. My second attempt was slightly less disastrous yet equally as disappointing. I had clean water but chose a bunch of little fish that I knew got bigger, but fish size was the least of my worries. Equipped with fins and in some cases fangs, fish can get mean with each other, with your aquarium decor, and even with your hands and fingers. After about the 3 month mark my tank with several large South American fish, still babies by most standards I started to see issues. Territory lines were being drawn and the violence ensued. Scared fish, scarred and in some cases missing fins and even floating skeletons of what used to be my aquatic buddy began to be a daily occurrence. It became apparent that I needed to start getting bigger tanks or more tanks. The problem was I lived in an apartment and my wife wasn't all that appreciative of all of our real estate being occupied by fish tanks.
A Helping Hand
I could have avoided so many problems, saved cash and spared the lives of many innocent fish. If I would have been taught about the possible perils that were ahead. My motivation in writing for the public is to allow people to prevail with their ultimate aquarium goals. Owning aquariums is enjoyable and rewarding, but without a bit of shared knowledge it can be a potentially costly endeavor or worse.
Written by Vince Pettit
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