3 Aquarium Planning Questions You Must Ask Yourself

Every great aquarium starts with a great plan.  Many people don’t realize how important it is to think things through a bit before you get started.  Without doing this, you could be wasting valuable time & money.  Poor planning may times leads to a poor fish tank keeping experience.  To get the low down on choosing equipment, make sure you visit the aquarium equipment category. Below are a couple of other considerations that really need to be thought out before getting started.

How Many Fish?

A great deal of fish tanks quickly get overcrowded because of poor planning.  You should have an idea up front about how many fish want to keep and what size they will grow to as adults.  Because, small fish are cheaper than bigger fish, that is what people buy.  It doesn’t take long for that 2 in fish to grow into an adult.  Knowing the adult size of every fish species that you purchase young lets you plan for a fully grown tank.

What Type Of Fish Do You Want To Keep?

It is necessary to know the behavioral characteristics of the fish going in your tank.  Just choosing a fish because they look neat, doesn’t always turn out great.  Some fish are so aggressive they can’t handle other fish in the tank with them.  Others fish do not coexist well with other male or female fish of the same species. The key here is to only put fish in the same tank that are compatible with one another.

How Many Aquarium Plants?

Aquarium plants are a beautiful part of an aquarium.  There are many hobbyist that keep plant only aquariums.  Others don’t care much about the plants, and only keep fish.  I will say that having some of both lets you create a realistic underwater setting that is truly stunning.  Whatever your liking, just make sure you leave enough room for them.  It’s easy to rush out and load up on a bunch of fish, only to wish later you had the room for plants and vise verse.

What’s Your Total Aquarium Budget?

Deciding on your total budget including aquarium equipment, aquarium decorations, and aquarium fish before you buy your fish thing is a good idea.  The last thing you want to do is blow everything you have on the top of the line aquarium filter for instance and not have enough left to buy anything more than feeder goldfish for your first fish.  Just keep in mind that you can always upgrade things later.  This hobby can quickly have you spending a lot of cash if you do not take a minute to think about your total budget and plan your purchases from start to finish.

What other planning issues have you come across?

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2 Responses to 3 Aquarium Planning Questions You Must Ask Yourself

  1. Steven Sanford March 11, 2009 at 9:33 pm #

    I am new to this forum and don’t know where else to post this. I just bought two freshwater fish at my LFS that they called small parrot fish. They are named this apparently because of the shape of their head and mouth. I can’t find any info on them in my books or on the net. Does anyone have an idea as to what another name may be?
    Thanks

  2. Eric March 14, 2009 at 7:47 am #

    Hey Steven,
    Sounds like a Rainbowfish to me. The head usually gives them away. Take a look here http://www.rainbowfish.info/. If that’s not it, maybe if you could describe it a little more I’ll figure it out for you.