Aquariums can be a great way to divert your children’s attention from their usual gadget or TV routines. It’s also a good opportunity for you to teach them to have a sense of responsibility and to be more caring toward animals. If you’re thinking of setting up an aquarium with your kids, there are several things you need to consider, especially if it’s your first time to take on this endeavor.
How To Set Up An Aquarium At Home
Setting up an aquarium isn’t an easy task you can just accomplish in a snap. It requires extensive research on your part, particularly if you plan on putting it inside your child’s room. You have to make sure that it’s kid-friendly and has the features necessary for any aquarium.
If it’s your kid who asked to have the aquarium, they’ll most likely expect that they’ll be involved in setting it up. To make the experience enjoyable and productive for you both, you need to take several factors into account first.
Deciding On What Type Of Fish To Buy
Before you start shopping for a fish tank and other accessories for your aquarium, you need to decide on what kind of fish you’ll be raising. It’s important to know which fish can go into your newly built tank and, more importantly, how to take care of them properly. You can look at pet shops or online at uwphotoring.com for some inspiration and to see what type of fish you might like.
To be on the safe side, you may want to consider choosing freshwater fish that are easy to care for and maintain. Once you’ve mastered the craft of maintaining an aquarium, you and your kids can look for more fish types you can add to your tank.
Most local pet stores can easily recommend several fish types you can start with for your aquarium. However, if there’s no physical pet shop in your area, you should know how to pick the best place to buy fish online. It’s crucial that you choose an online pet store that’s knowledgeable enough when it comes to setting up an aquarium for the first time so they can provide you with some helpful insights.
For starters, here are some of the most popular and easy-to-raise freshwater fish you can consider for your aquarium:
- Guppies
- Neon tetra
- Molly
- Zebra danios
- Dwarf gouramis
- Swordtails
- Goldfish
- Angelfish
- Rainbowfish
Freshwater fish are usually sturdy and tough, but it’s best to get to know their personalities well so you’ll be able to take better care of them. You can give your children some online resources so they can read about different fish species and their traits. Before buying or ordering any type of fish, make sure to ask the store how to feed them, along with other things you need to know in order to raise them healthily.
Determining The Size And Shape Of Your Aquarium
Most people who don’t have experience in setting up an aquarium think that a small fish tank will be easier to maintain and less expensive. Additionally, they believe that smaller tanks can be placed anywhere, so they won’t have to make any adjustments in their kid’s room. However, those who’ve already set up their own aquariums know better—a larger aquarium is actually safer and more forgiving when it comes to beginners’ mistakes.
If you want to get started on a few fish types, it’s recommended to have a larger tank instead of going for a tiny tabletop aquarium. Ask your kid how many fish they want to start raising and decide from there. They’ll probably go for at least two or three colorful types, which is to be expected especially if they’ve done their research about those. Ideally, a 10 to 20-gallon tank should suffice if your kid plans on putting small to medium-sized fish like the fantail goldfish and several guppies of different colors.
As for the shape, you might want to consider getting a long and wide aquarium so it can hold more fish and allows for better gas exchange. Just make sure that the size you pick will be ideal for the available space you have and, of course, your budget as well.
Conclusion
It may not be that difficult to set up an aquarium with your children, but it’s not an easy task to accomplish, either. You need to both decide on several things such as what kind of fish to raise, the size and shape of the aquarium, and how to take care of them properly. Moreover, you need to be aware of the maintenance tasks involved, such as changing the water and cleaning the tank.
The goal is to give your children a hobby that can divert their attention but not to an extent that they’ll be stressed or traumatized when something goes wrong with the aquarium. So to ensure that this doesn’t happen, you need to be fully informed on how to go through the process successfully.
Leave A Comment