Tank for a young child

[maria]

I need a super low maintence tank for a child. It needs to be HER tank, pink rocks, princess castle, diver opening up the sea chest with bubbles, etc... with me of course taking care of it for her.

I was thinking of just checking on craigslist for an eclipse tank, the seem to be popular. Is this a good choice?

Thanks!
Maria

[JMLenke]

Eclipse tanks arent bad, they are all in one setups usually so there isnt a bunch of extra bits laying around.

Depending on the inhabitants they can be a great or "oh god WHY" ordeal.

[maria]

She is on the last sticker of the fish chart... better get that aquarium. My husband had fish as a child, I know he likes the fancy guppy's and neon tetra's and fishes like that. Do you think they would be eclipse friendly?

I want to get something low maintenance, because I will be putting all the money and time in my new "money pit" planted tank.

Where is a good place to buy healthy hobby fish, we are in chevy chase so going to VA is not a big deal.

[ingg]

Scales in Silver Spring, Aquarium Depot in Randallstown, Wally's in Alexandria are all club sponsors, 10% off for showing your GWAPA card.

Club members also breed out some fish you may like for it - Endlers Livebearers are a great alternative to guppies for instance, and lots of us keep them.

[maria]

Thanks for the recommendations, Silver Spring and Alexandria are really close.

Thanks for the Endlers Livebearers tip, those are beautiful fish. I'll post over in the other sale forum to see if anyone has any to sell.

I would like to get some kill-proof fish for my daughter.

[krisw]

If you're looking for Endlers, SCALES (at Cloverly and New Hampshire Ave) has a fantastic set of "Tiger Endlers" which look even more amazing than the standard type. They might be a little pricey for a pair, but if you only get one pair now, in a couple months, you could have a hundred in there. Otherwise, I know you'll be able to find the standard Endlers from someone in the club.

Kevin (Spine) took a picture of the Tiger Endlers here:
http://gwapa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t= ... er+endlers

[maria]

Oooooow! Those are really nice looking fish. It would be great if they did spawn, nice thing for a young child to see and experience.

Okay... must calm down... must get tank set up FIRST before dashing over to Scales to get those Tiger endlers!

If I time it right, maybe I can use the kid's tank for breeding fish for MY tank.

Why do I see this as being the beginning of a dangerously expensive and frustrating hobby?

[krisw]

That's the beauty of this hobby. There are paths you can take that are dangerously expensive and frustrating, and there are ways to do things that are a bit cheaper. OK, you're bound to be frustrated at some point, but usually the highs are better than the lows. That's any good hobby, right?

[maria]

What good is a hobby without a little frustation. You old schoolers are probably no longer frustrated, and your plants and livestock flourish, tanks never leak, bulbs never burn out... you are at aquascape nirvana... then you wake up.

[JMLenke]

Algae is the only thing that "flourishes in my tank.

My livestock are all trying to eat each other or their children. My "lobster?" has taken up chasing the lone endler in the 20g. It is almost comical to watch the lobster stumbling around with its claws up trying to catch a fish that is 3" above its reach while the cherries all try to avoid getting stepped on.

I really need to get off my butt and build the multi tank stand so I can get the tanks setup and going to keep the fish I want to keep.