FerretMonarch wrote:Oh i didnt realize that alge was good for them.
not necessarily. it doesn't provide any benefits to them unless they eat algae, but too much of it can definitely cause issues. in large quantities it can disrupt the balance, compete with plants for nutrients, and smother plants. anything other than green algae (beard, blue-green, etc.) usually means there's something wrong.
On a hiatus for now wrote:to properly take care of a fish you have to buy a bunch of expensive stuff (heater, filter, gravel vacuum, etc.), probably not a great choice if you are looking for something cheaper and easier to care of.
this is true for any pet -- no pet is cheap. especially not without risking their health and safety. i think the major reason fish seem so expensive in comparison to other pets is because you need everything upfront, and it's not spread out over time like other pets (vet appointments, food, litter/substrate changes, etc.). i would probably say fish are cheap compared to other pets if you take into account whatever youre spending over the years. the substrate does not need to be changed out like with rodents or reptiles, and the filter rarely needs to be changed. my food, water conditioner, and supplemental bacteria lasts years compared to the food i have to buy every 2-3 months for my dogs. nor do i have expensive vet appointments with a fish </3
whispering.smaug wrote:Hi! I say this with the best intentions and with consideration to the other pets in your household, but I do not feel like you guys are ready for another pet.
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i haven't read this thread fully as i really. cant be bothered to put that much energy into cs. but yes, there's definitely no universal low-maintenance pet. it entirely depends on your own energy and what youre comparing them to. every pet will need to be fed, usually daily or multiple times a day, checked on, have
something changed out or cleaned up, etc. in comparison to a dog, fish are quite low-maintenance generally. but if you don't have the energy to feed a dog or cat you definitely won't have it to feed a fish. you can't just throw the food in there for them, you have to make sure they
know its there or itll just rot at the bottom of the tank. there's really no cues for them unlike a dog that can hear the kibble being put into a bowl. at best, you can try wiggling your finger or smth at the top and
hope they notice. some days i've spent upwards of 10-20 minutes trying to get their attention. and then you have to make sure they actually eat it, because sometimes they like to just spit it out. or they drop it. and most fish have trouble picking food out of the substrate, especially if it blends in. in my experience most fish just completely lose interest once its hit the bottom of the tank. and you have to start all over.
that is just feeding them; fish are much more prone to sickness than other pets. their environment means you also have to clean out the water/tank much more or even entirely because just about everything is water-borne.
for everything else said by whispering.smaug, i completely agree (i do also agree with the 'no low maintenance pets' but there's less for me to say on everything else without just restating it). the aspca has a
pretty complete list of plants that lets you sort by (non-)toxicity and animal if you'd like to search for something specific if you decide to get new plants.
i don't know of any sites for other animals, but the fishlore site i linked earlier is pretty helpful and full of knowledgeable people if you ever wanted to ask them some questions about fish.
Angelus Gaston wrote:People say fish keeping is easy but it isn't at all.
it isn't, and definitely not when youre just starting, but once you have everything set up properly and have a basic understanding of how everything works i would personally place them somewhere around "low" maintenance.
if you (general 'you') can handle the loss of animal life and the work that has to be put in at the beginning, it can be a nice little thing you put in a bit of extra effort into at the end of the week or every other week. the beginning is not something i had put thought into when i first wrote my response, which is my mistake. i got lucky and got most things right my first time, so i didn't spend a ton of money or energy re-cycling it, replacing fish, etc.
losing fish is the unfortunate process everyone has to go through to learn the ropes, and even experienced aquarists make mistakes. i dont personally form any emotional connections with my fish, so it doesnt hit me hard when it inevitably happens. but i know some people can form those quickly or upset over any animal life, in which case fishkeeping is definitely not the hobby for them.
i would definitely recommend asking the aforementioned communities about what they consider the hardest part, or what they wish they knew before they got the animal(s), or for information a lot of people don't realize or know. i know the aquarium hobby community is generally pretty upfront and truthful about that kind of stuff since the business end tends to be full of money-making lies. i think there are even specific threads on cs for specific animals. forums like fishlore would be a better option, but if you just wanted to browse around or maybe ask if anyone knows of sites similar to fishlore for other animals, i don't think it'd hurt.
Aquariums can get pretty expensive starting out but once it's set up it's not so bad. And my snails and siamese alge eaters handle most of the excess algea. (Don't get chinese algea eaters, they're bad.) I have a 55gal planted tank and for the most part when you involve live plants and large spaces everything keeps pretty well-balanced on its own which means you can spend less time maintaining and more time simply enjoying your fish. I use a sicce whale canister filter that is super quiet and works well, and I do a 25%-50% water change maybe every two or three weeks.
