Marine tanks? are they really as simple as the man in the shop led me to believe?

[ripsishere]

We will be moving home soon. Again.
When we came to England, I got DD some kittens, sadly LLs seem reluctant to accept children, let alone cats so they are being rehomed.
We happend to be in pets are us (or similar) and DD was enchanted by some marine tanks in the shop.
The last time I investigated these was about 20 years ago. Much work was needed and I settled on tropicals which I kept healthily until we left the country.
I'd like to get DD some other pets and the man in charge said much less was needed nowdays.
Advise me.
I obviously won't rush into it, we need to find a house first.

The systems are better and easier, but you will still need to cycle the tank properly, and not take short cuts, plus get the salts etc right. If you move again, you will probably have to leave it behind, especially if you have got corals established. Bigger the better as you can't populate marines to a high density. Lovely fish though.

Well, I wouldn't call them simple, I've been keeping tropical fish for years and quite frankly I can't be arsed with marines- too fiddly and too expensive! They are easier these days because the equipment is better but they are still a lot more work than freshwater fish.

How old is your DD? Fish make pretty crap pets for children unless they are old enough to get involved (probably 8+).

There are loads of really colourful freshwater fish if it's the colours of the marine fish that your DD liked.

But I wouldn't advise marine fish for children, they are pretty fussy and expensive. If it's her first tank then something simple like guppies would be a good choice- they are colourful, cheap and don't live for decades.

When I say 'they' are fussy and expensive, I mean marine fish, not children. Although....

If you live in a hard water area, African rift valley cichlids are fantastic colours and easy keepers.

No I understand, she is 11. I think she was taken by the vicious bastard the man fed for her. I can't remember the name of it, but my DH scuba dives and reports them biting his flippers. She was thrilled to bits.
There were four vicious bastards one was a false something, another a type of clown fish and one more.
I think, if we do get fish, they will be trops rather than marine. She has romantic ideas of her Dad going off and bringing her a couple home.

Felt I had to intervene here as marines are not fussy, nor fiddly. I'll let you have expensive though. I've kept fish both tropical and marine for about 12 years and have always had a preference for marine. Yes the aquarium, equipment and fish cost more but the colours and personalities plus the added benefit of all the other creatures you can keep and observe more than make up for it. Provided you get the right equipment to begin with and plan a little, routine maintenance needn't take any longer than it does for tropical. You actually tend to develop a aquarium tinkering habit when you keep marines.

At the end of the day most fish keepers end up with a preference for a particular type of fish and generally what determines this is experience. If you've got experience and had success with tropicals, then the next step for many people is to try marines. Some people just prefer tropicals and move on to more challenging ones such as Discus. Some never want to move away from guppies.