Bought an aquarium

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Happy to hear you saved a Betta OP. It is a myth that they are happy in those small cups. In the wild they would have huge amounts of water. They can survive in puddles in droughts but it's not meant to be a long term thing. They can also live together if you give each one enough territory. Of course in the store when they are so close to each other they are always mad. It's just animal cruelty and I hate it.

I have kept tropical fish before and the power would have to be out for so long that water temperature dropped a lot. I had a few power outages and they were fine. The thing to worry about is when there is no power there is no filtration in the tank. But even then it would several hours or several days to kill fish depending on what type you had and how many you had.

The fish I was into are cichlids. They are a family of predatory fish from The Americas and Africa. Depending on which one you want they can be a 18 inch thing that rams the glass when you walk by and could give you stitches if it catches your hand or more of a community fish. I liked keeping the ones who were only a little mean and smaller. With some cichlids you pretty much need several hundred gallons of water to keep just one or a few because they are so big and mean.

But my fish would still eat feeder goldfish. I only did that one time when I was new to the hobby though. Gold fish are not healthy for them and I felt bad doing it. I know it's nature but I am an animal lover.

I LOVE Plecos and never had any issue keeping them in clean heated water with the cichlids. The main issue was making sure my pleco has a place to hide when he was small. But usually they end up running the tank. Not much is going to bite through that shell and they know it. Also since a pleco is a bottom feeder a lot of fish ignore it since they do not fight for the same territory.

It makes me sad that the Pleco you find at the average Petsmart is the kind that get 2 feet long. There are many of them that are around 4-8 inches and are much better for the small aquariums many people have. You can also pick a much more interestingly colored fish that way. Blue, zebra pattern, all of that stuff but you will pay for them. Anywhere from $50 to thousands of dollars. They do not just eat algae they are bottom feeding catfish and need meat in their diet. I wonder if some people kill theirs because they don't know that. Some eat more algae than others though.

I keep Guppies, Least Killifish and a Betta. My Betta is three and my biggest secret is good food and 80 degree water. I use ripariums, they are great for fish. Ripariums are semi aquatic plants growing with only roots in water.

I miss my 35 gallon tank from high school. I kept two pacus in it for the majority of the tanks life of 4-5 years. Had a silver dollar survive in there as well for maybe half the tanks life as well. The smaller pacu and the silver dollar both unfortunately met their end at the teeth of the larger pacu. Probably a close proximity over a long period of time anger issue considering he didn't need them for food. Maximus was his name, I had a roman circle of pillars in the tank. He was about the size of my hand. He died of disease from improper tank maintenance by my dad while I was gone for my first year of college. Wish I had pictures, that was before I had a camera.

You ever thought about trying a salt water tank Jacoby? I know I never will. A smaller tank with non aggressive fish sounds nice.

This isn't him, but he looked exactly like this:

If I had an aquarium I might go with mostly bottom feeders, those ones are cool I can't remember any specific types though.

Yeah, it's pretty shocking and upsetting that some of the most commonly sold aquarium fish are the least properly cared for. Unfortunately this is pretty common in the pet trade in general, I know reptiles have it just as bad or worse, you can buy a baby iguana for like $20 but most people have no idea the level of care these things take and just assume that they always stay small. The common pleco you get are tiny when they're sold most often but get bigger than a lot of tanks can handle and can't just be thrown into a tank with no special care to their needs. There are a number of common aquarium fish that get bigger than commonly sized tanks can handle or need brackish water.

A saltwater tank would be really cool, I don't know if I'll ever have the time or money to do one and the learning curve I feel like is a bit intimidating since I believe the tanks are way more sensitive to water conditions but if I had all the materials then I think I probably could do it. I've never known anybody that had a saltwater tank so I never had anybody to draw any knowledge about them from tho, my experience has only been with tropical freshwater fish. It would be really neat to have living coral and there are some really beautiful unique fish that I've seen at the store, maybe someday. I always thought it would be cool to keep freshwater fish native to North America too like blue gill or bass and I've known of people who have tried but everything I've read says its a bad idea, wild caught pets in general of any sort do not do as well.

Really want to get started on my new tank soon, maybe once things settle down with school.

My favorite bottom feeders are Pygmy corydoras.

I've always found Platys and other livebearers to be interesting and a good starting point for beginners. As terrible as it may be though, I've stuck with the more brightly-colored ones as those have been rendered sterile apparently, eliminating crowding issues from the excessive breeding that they're known for. Their preference to harder water makes them good candidates as tap water tends to be hard (at least down here it is), though you'd have to be mindful that if you're in an area that gets cold, you would have to keep them warm as dipping below the 70s ain't good for them. That's one thing Goldfish have over tropical species -- they handle much colder conditions, with their drawback being that they're messier so they require more space.

There's a TON of information out there on the internet (probably even moreso now than there was 15 years ago when I started reading up on this). aquaticcommunity.com may be a place to check out for a bit of reading.

Oh darn, I forgot to hit quote. Oh well, y'all can figure out who I was trying to direct this to.

I found Least Killifish don't breed to fast and can live in a smaller tank. I found plants are great for aquariums.

I hate that too. I also hate coral or fish that's are impossible to keep being sold. I am talking about specialized feeders.

Wild caught fish are pretty important. Many aquarium fish can only be captured, but can live a healthy life in aquariums aquariums. Sustainable wild caught can be great for the environment too. They provide local people with a reason to care for the environment and with a revenue stream.

Finally got this thing started, all natural no plastic plants. I just have 6 mollies in there right now, I kinda messed up since mollies probably would be better in a little bigger tank and they are already breeding in this one but it's better than what they were kept in at the store at least. They are very energetic I am going to start aquaponics on this tank soon too, order a Peace Lilly which is what was recommended. I will upgrade to a bigger tank eventually, my parents have a huge one they found apparently so I could probably get that one so that will be an eventual home to at least some of the mollies. I will do another 10 gallon tank soon too as I bought one for $10 the other day, it was cheap so I thought why not. I've been kind of kicking myself lately for not jumping on this 40 gallon tank with a stand I saw that was $40 but I didn't want to get too obsessed with the stuff.

here's a pic

You should look into Pothos. Their roots work great in water. You might want to check out ripariums.

upgraded

I see you are a fan of SpongeBob. I approve. Now you need a Krusty Krab!

That is one big tank. It all must take a lot of looking after.