Daughter v keen on tropical fish -- what pitfalls should we avoid?

[Lancelottie]

Title says it all, really! My eight-yr-old DD is very keen on the idea of keeping small tropical fish. I am a complete fish novice apart from the obligatory childhood goldfish. I've had a look on the ThinkFIsh website and am now somewhat daunted, but she's still enthusiastic.

Should I be steering her away from tetchy delicate tropical fish towards something more robust? If not, what's a good starter tank? (We don't have endless space -- or money, inevitably.)

Maybe - I'm not sure how it works with loaches, but I know that goldfish kept in too small aquaria stop growing on the outside and become stunted. Premature death occurs because their insides still keep growing

As I say, I've been warned off clown loaches by an LFS keeper before now because he said they weren't suitable for anything other than the really big fish tanks so I'd be a bit wary. Fair play to you though, if you've kept them successfully.

Clown Loach

"Clown loaches can be kept in aquariums of 100 L / 20 G or more. Keep in mind that even though clown loaches grow very slowly they will get big eventually and need an aquarium of at least 540 L/ 125 G, and that should be considered a minimum."

Wow. 540L. I'm looking at getting a 180L as my next tank and was thinking that was fairly big

You are right about the stunting, it can happen to any species. Also, clown loaches are shoaling fish and should really be kept in groups of 6 or more. There are loads of smaller loaches that are better suited to smaller tanks like chain loaches. Fully grown clowns are massive.

540 litres, imagine the water changes! How long do you think it would take to gravel vac?

Hmm... the weekly water change would be more water than is in my current tank

You might need a diving suit to go with the vac

I would definitely avoid Clowns, I have a group of 8 but I have a 5ft tank (400l) I think they may be stunted too They were passed on to me, 6 from a 180l tank and 2 from a 120l tank. They are lovely though.

You also have to be careful if you decide to go for something like a plec (sucky fish to help clean the tank). Common plecs grow huge. A bristle nose plec/ancistrus is best as they don't grow so large, my full grown male is only about 5 inches. They are ugly but I love them.

In a small tank I would only get male guppies, not female. They are also known as 'millions fish' as they drop babies constantly. The males are the really pretty ones.

Kuhli loaches are brilliant, like worms.

I know what you mean about common plecs, I don't think shops ought to sell them at all The fish forum I go on is always getting newbies that have no idea their little plec is going to reach 2ft in length. OP, make sure you check the scientific names of every fish you get and find out how big it grows!!

So purpleflower, how long do your water changes take?

I have a rather soft spot for Ottos - but haven't been able to have any in my tank because the media is too rough for them (yet another reason I'm looking forward to my more standard tank!) - however they're apparently extremely delicate and many die very soon after purchase from the shock of transportation

OOO those Ottos are nice.

I don't change the water every week, I keep an eye on the quality and do a change by that. The syphon is connected to a hose that goes straight out of the back door and to fill it up we fill a big bucket and put it higher than the tank and use a small hose, we have 2 big buckets and DP comes over to help. When he is filling the tank with 1 bucket I'm in the kitchen filling up the next. It works quite well. Never timed it though lol.

Oh that sounds like a great set up