What is easier to keep - Tropical or coldwater fish??

[somersetsoul]

I have a tank with a heater and filter but am still unsure what type of fish to keep. I do love tropical fish and know that smaller fish would be better as my tank is 60l. What are the differences other then water temperature??

Thanks.

[MurderOfHusbands]

Absolutely no difference other than temperature.

60L is a good size to begin with, you have quite a few options for tropicals. Do you know about fishless cycling, before you get any fish?

[EauRouge]

Yep, no difference. The only tricky part might be choosing the fish; there's a lot more choice of tropical fish and some of them are easier to look after than others. Yes yes yes to a fishless cycle.

Do you know if your water is hard or soft? You'll need to know that and the pH, that will narrow your choices down a bit.

[somersetsoul]

Thanks both. I think I will go for tropical because of the choice. Yep, I have been googling fishless cycles and have treatments and test strips ready!

My water is hard. There is a fab fish shop in our town, the owner really knows her fish so once I have the final PH reading I will go and find out what is best for my tank.

Any tips for the fishless cycle? How long would you recommend doing it for tropical fish?

[EauRouge]

You can cycle using fish food but if you use household ammonia then you have more control over the amount of ammonia going in. You can find calculators online to figure it out, you'll probably need one of those medicine syringes because I think it's only about 4ml for a 60 litre tank.

A cycle takes around 4-6 weeks. There are various snake oils you can buy that are meant to speed things up but I've tried a few and none of them made any difference.