PhilCook

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys,

Just been sat here, deleting some photos and I came across some pics of my old tropical tank. It was 3ft x 1ft x 1ft. God knows how many litres it held tho, lol

I had all sorts in that. Mini-sharks, tiger barbs, neons, mollys (i think) and a fat plec. When I moved house it got cracked and I gave all my fish to my mate to look after. Never got round to getting another, but I am thinking of starting up again, now that am settled.

Question is, which do I go for? Tropical again, or Marine??

I wanted clown fish in my last one, but didnt know they were marine. Then I wanted some coloured cichalids, but got told they were not very well behaved in community tanks.

Basically, I want something nice and colourful, with lots of happy fish, not a tank full of miserable pihrana, waiting to be fed.

Also, does anyone know if marine are harder/more expensive to keep?


Upload your pics if you can guys

Markb_s1

depends on who you talk to imo.

i have a decent size tropical tank with some lovely looking fish and my mate assures me that marine are no harder to keep.... although he does have a degreee in marine biology so not too sure how seriourly to take his advice

Red16

A 3ft x 1ft x 1ft aquarium holds around 90 litres.

The bigger the tank the easier it is to look after too, as the water parameters are a lot more stable and water changes are usually required less frequently when compared to smaller tanks, providing theyre not overstocked.

I've heard lots of opinions about how hard marine fish are to keep compared to tropical fish, if you are prepared to put the effort in and do lots of reading/research before buying anything, and then spend the time maintaining it, you shouldn't have a problem whichever way you choose to go.

One thing for sure marine is a lot more expensive to setup, considering the price of coral and live rock, fish, RO water, salt, t5 lighting, and the sheer number of powerheads required to get the water flow required to keep a reef tank happy.

Cichlids arent great community fish as theyre very territorial, and require different water parameters to most community type fish due to originating from a different location around the world. Tiger barbs arent great community fish either as they tend to fin nip, you can minimise this by keeping them in a large group, they tend to fight amongst themselves then and leave other fish alone.