Aquarium Fish

When you go to buy your first aquarium fish, it can be a mistake to have too firm an idea of what you want. You see, keeping a fish aquarium can be a lot more work than you might expect. I was a little too bullheaded when I bought my first pet fish. I wanted tropical fish, and I would not take no for an answer. I went into the little neighborhood pet shop to get an aquarium set up, and talked to the owner. He was a very honest man, and he flat out told me that setting up a tropical aquarium was a mistake for someone just starting out. Tropical aquarium fish are very temperamental creatures, he explained, and they are hard to care for properly.

Unfortunately, I did not listen to him. I bought all of the aquarium supplies that I needed to get started. Altogether, with the aquarium filter, the lights, the plants, the actual fish tank, the pebbles, and the aerator, it ran me well over $200 dollars – and that was before I even bought the aquarium fish. Nonetheless, I was happy to fork over the money. I had wanted to have my own tropical fish tank for a long time, and I could not wait to get started.

From the beginning, however, I had one disaster after another with those aquarium fish. Several of them died in the first few days that I had the tank, although I never knew why. The guy at the fish store told me that I must not have adjusted the water right, but I tried to follow his advice. Whatever the reason, it only got worse from there. Somehow, one of them caught a tropical fish disease and spread it to the others. By the time I figured out that anything was wrong, most of my fish were very sick! I poured more and more money into the project and more and more fish died. Finally, I had had enough.

I took the aquarium fish tank back into the store and tried to give him back all the fish. He could not accept all of them, as many were sick, but he took back the ones which seemed alright. Fortunately, I could use the supplies that he had sold me to keep freshwater fish. They were much more hearty and, within a few months, I knew a lot more about how to raise them. Now I know to listen!