I have been wondering about this on and off. Several years ago I was close to buying some fish but kept being called to hospital for a Co condition for quite long periods. Once I was called on the way to the fish shop to take some home and I had to stop it.
I would like to know as a neurodiverse adult how do you manage the routine of looking after fish. I love sea life always have. I had goldfish as a child but it was nothing than just giving them gold fish food and I grew attached to seeing them.
I have a fish shop in my area. If I go for it I would get some before Christmas. I think for me it would be a step up gradually in tank size.
It's been so long. I worry a bit about waking up and not seeing them and the fish from the fair didn't have longevity.
It does have benefits for me sure. Is there anything I should know.
Thank you
I started out with a 30-gallon tank, that turned into a 40 and a 55 gallon, that turned into a 300-gallon wall aquarium. Yeah, go big or go home! I had some huge South American catfish and cichlids, but it was quite expensive in terms of running the huge circulation pumps and then all the maintenance on the huge filtration system. It was cool to have those big fish, they would greet you all excited like a puppy wagging their tails, you could feed them by hand, but they ate like Killer Whales! Food was not cheap. I then sold those fish and flipped into an all-natural ecosystem with loads of plants and Asian labyrinth fish like Gouramis. No filter, just kept the fish stock low and the plant stock high and I had plants outside the aquarium with flowers. I was quite proud of all that. We ended up selling the house, the aquarium, etc. and that was history. No room in the new house.
Well, once I retire and build my new house, there will be room for another large setup. Going all-natural ecosystem on that one. Lots of plants.
Tip: I know it is common to start out with something small, but in terms of fishkeeping, the larger the system the more stable it is in terms of water chemistry, temperature, and so on. There can be less maintenance on a larger system if it is stable, like in my example of my planted tank. Once a month or so, I would prune plants, literally large garbage bags of plant material! The chemistry was so stable and the nitrogen levels so low, the water was almost pure with the plants recycling all the fish debris. I don't think this would be possible with a 30, 40, 55 gallon set up.
Tip 2: If you have a small tank, then choose small fish. Think proportions in nature. It's important to know how big a certain fish could get. If you can imagine yourself locked into a 12 x 12 glass box for your entire life, that would be quite distressing, but if you were the 1/10 the size you are now in that same glass box, and had an environment that was stimulating and also with places to hide, it might be tolerable. Most people tend to over stock their tanks which only leads to stress, diseases, bad water chemistry, and lots of maintenance. Be conservative. It might be one fish in a 20 gallon tank with a lot of plants. If my fish had room to really swim and make a long run across the tank before turning, this is good. If they are swimming in circles all day, this is bad.
