There are a few basics to get down before you purchase the fish whose life will be completely protected by you. The first thing you have to do is pick an aquarium for your fish. Aquariums come in many different shapes and sizes, ranging from a half gallon fish bowl to hexagonal 29 gallon towers, and each one suits different needs of each fish owner, but what do you need? When picking an aquarium you need to keep a few things in mind: where are you going to keep it, what are the needs of your fish, will your roommate mind the tank in the room and what equipment are needed for the upkeep of the tank. Let’s start with the basic functions of each tank and what they can handle.

A common purchase is a one gallon fish bowl. These bowls run about a dollar for one, but the only fish I would suggest keeping in a small bowl like this is a single Betta. The reason you can keep Betta in a bowl of this size is that they are adapted to living in small places will do fine by themselves. Betta also have the unique ability to breathe air directly from the surface of the water because they have what is commonly called a labyrinth organ, where as most fish need an air pump to fullfil their needs. They are very easy for upkeep and the only thing you will need to purchase, besides the fish, the bowl and some food, is some marbles for the bottom so waste does not circulate and harm the fish. REMEMBER to change the water once a week, or more often if you feel it is needed. Feces is 2/3 bacteria, and that can kill the fish if it is allowed to settle.

Moving up in size, you can get a 5 gallon aquarium, these also limit what kind of fish you can keep, but save a great deal of space as they are rather small. They come in a hexagonal and rectangular shape. Some fish that you could keep in a 5 gallon tank are: a few gold fish, a couple of tetra, mollies, barbs, some smaller danio, and a betta (note that betta are territorial with other betta so DO NOT put two male betta in the same tank). Any fish you put in the 5-gallon tank need to be small. A good rule of thumb is to have a gallon of water for every inch of fish.

Now to set-up the 5-galon tank you are going to need 5 pounds of gravel, if you aren’t getting a Betta you will need an air pump and a bubble stone or wall, I also recommend a filter for any tank just for safety to cut down on toxin build up. Feel free to put decorations in the tank, such as plastic plants and fake logs. Be creative, but leave enough room for the fish to swim around.

A very common tank size is the 10-gallon tank, and this opens up a few more possibilities, as well as it keeps your wallet from taking too much of a hit. Just like with the 5-gallon, you need a pound of gravel for every gallon, an appropriate filter for the rank size, and an appropriate filter for the tank size. In a 10-gallon tank you can start a fish community by mixing different species of fish, but remember to stick to the 1 inch/1-gallon rule (this will ensure, most of the time, that your fish have room to grow and stay healthy). Almost all of the fish you can find at a local store like Wal-Mart are acceptable for this size of a tank, but be cautious and inform the fish-keeper where you are getting your fish what size of a tank you have. If you don’t know what to put in this tank here are a few of my suggestions. Try some mollies or neon tetra, they are small, colorful and they school up and travel in a group. You can mix their colors and create your own piece of artwork through them. Try some barbs, they are energetic and you can have 4 or five of them in their, they are rather playful and provide good entertainment.

On to the 20-gallon, this is where stuff gets interesting. Again remember the filter, air pump, and gravel. Here you can have my favorite fish, Cichlid, while they aren’t good for community fish as they are very aggressive, they are nice looking fish that are hearty and often recover from diseases. Only have a few cichlids in the twenty gallon, or they will kill some off to make space. Common cichlids are Convicts, named so for their stripes resembling old prison uniforms, Auratus, and Angle fish.

I will leave the 29-gallon up to you. The possibilities for this tank are almost endless. You can put a lot of small fish, or have a few larger fish. Also remember the gravel, filter, air pump, and decorations.

Here are a few tank essentials that any tank you purchase will need: water conditioner which negates the harmful chlorine in the tank and makes the water quality better, some type of anti-bacterial medicine in case an infection occurs, unless you have a simple fish bowl a tank thermometer and a heater (fish like warm water too), and a hand net because it isn’t recommended to handle the fish with your hand.

This should help keep you and your fish happy. Next week we will discuss diseases in fish and how to treat them.

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