wrote:
Hi guys,

I own a tank for more than a month now and right now I have mixed
feelings about it.

It is not what I expected it to be and I am starting to think of
getting rid of it.

It's just I like animals and it stresses me to see fish die and I am
the one to blame for it due to my inexperience and for putting fish
into a tank and play with their lifes...

I had fish that died because they got sucked into the filter,
because the water didnt have the proper qualities and now because of
disease...
It's a constant battle for me to take care of the fish and I am losing
it.

I think one of the best pieces of advice that *anyone* starting off in
the hobby is simply: "Start slow and taper off from there."

I've just been reading "Nature Aquarium World" by Takashi Amano, and he
has a short story about a tank he had to set up for a resturant -
hundreds of gallons, the ceterpiece of the resturant, and he only had 18
hours to do it and get it to presentation quality for the grand opening.
He was able to pull it off, but not without a lot of effort. Going into
it he knew it wasn't a good idea, an afterwards he swore he'd never do
it again.

The thing he remarked upon, however, was listening to the people talk
about the tank, commenting on how it was set up in such a short time,
and remarking on how "easy" it was to keep tropical fish. "You can put
them in right after you set up the tank."

The reason it worked out was that Amano is a master and has a lot of
experience. For the rest of us, it's slow going and *a lot* of research
before doing anything.

Another comment that Amano made in the book was that the reason he got
where he is today was by making mistakes. Do the best you can to avoid
mistakes, but you're going to make mistakes at some point - sometimes
tragically (he notes one time where he killed all the fish in a tank
with a faulty CO2 setup). The key is to learn from the mistakes and not
get discouraged.

Start slow, start small (but not in regards to tank size or live plant
amount), and research, research, research. And don't be afraid to ask
questions, even stupid ones. We've all been there (some of us are still
there).