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 has nothing to do of taking care of the fish, the money spent on
hardware.

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.

Sorry for my venting but I am frustrated.
Thanks

Hang in there! I'm sorry you feel frustrated, but I sure understand it
because I lost fish at the start too. The first three months of your
first tank are the absolute hardest. New aquariums are HARD to run and
trying to cycle with too many or fragile fish is almost impossible to
manage. Unfortunately, the person with a new aquarium doesn't know this
and it's SO hard to tell them everything.

Daniel gave you some great advice on keeping the tank lightly stocked at
first. My favorite sturdy fish are gouramis, danios, corydoras catfish,
harlequin rasboras, gold and cherry barbs, and I've had good luck with
the deeper bodied tetras like black skirts, bleeding hearts, head and
taillights, and pristellas when I buy good sized fish. Tiny tetras are
harder. Beware serpaes because they're nippy.

As for plants, I love java moss, which grows well and absorbs nitrates
even under low light. Anubias grows slowly but is virtually unkillable,
and java fern is attractive and also low light. Cryptocoryne spp. are
also very tolerant of low light. I've found that it's hard to find the
warm water version of anacharis. Hornwort is good if you have the light
for it, as is Rotala indica or Hygrophila polysperma. It can't be
emphasized enough how much lots of plants do for the water quality in
fishtanks.

I actually managed to cycle my first 29 gallon tank with 5 black skirt
tetras intact. All heck didn't break loose until I started adding more
fish too fast. The bacteria didn't keep up, ich started, I got bad
advice to treat with only copper, and I lost a bunch of fish to ich.
The stress from ich and copper started the angel fish finrotting and my
water was too soft for mollies and so forth...

Anyway, it WILL get better since you're taking the time to learn. Think
of your tank as a new house that's only just gotten water and electric,
and you're still waiting on the phone and furniture to arrive. It will
become a good home for fish soon.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com