My Aquarium...
Yes, I started a freshwater aquarium... First of all, I need to thank PETCO for the great service and all the patience their aquatics people have had with me and my husband. As I look around and do online searches, all I see are people saying that they spent a lot of money on useless equipment recommended by stores and that they had a lot of fish loss before they actually reached the necessary knowledge to keep their tanks. Well, we went to PETCO, bought a tank, decided it wasn't exactly what we wanted and took it back to get another one. From then on, I think the only thing we didn't take back were the fishes themselves. We also call them all the time with questions, and they are always great!
Well, now that I got that out of the way, let me tell you little things I am learning and show you some pictures of my little guys. I started with a 10 gallon tank, and it seems like it is a good size for beginners. We started working on the tank two days before we brought the first little guys in. The first step was to buy the tank with the lid that has a light in it, then we bought some gravel, a filter, a thermometer, plastic plants, an air bubble wand, stone, and pump, and of course some little places the fish could go inside to hide (a little cave and a Japanese looking house). We also bought some tap water conditioner (NovAqua© Tapwater Conditioner) to get the water ready. When we got home, we boiled the gravel (just because we thought it didn't smell right) and spread it on the bottom of the tank. Then we arranged the air bubble wand and stone. It is important to get a little valve if you are going to use an air pump so in case of a power failure the water doesn't leak through the hose. This done, we filled it up with water, added the conditioner following the manufacturer's instructions, placed the thermometer in a corner, and waited anxiously for the day we were going to get the fish.
This is what the tank looks like...
Two days later we went to the store and they told us we should start slowly instead of getting a lot of fish at once because of water balance. We wanted to get some Danio Zebras and some Silver Mollies, as well as some Black Mollies. The people at the store told us the Zebras were best for breaking in the tank, so we got four of them. I believe we have two long-finned Zebras and two regular ones. We also got some liquid bacteria (Cycle©) to add to the water in order to jump-start the tank for them. By the way, this product has to be refrigerated after opening, which we only realized about two days after we opened it, but we called PETCO and they told us it was ok. (Oooops!) We also got a Power Whisper© filter for the tank and Accu-Clear© to clear cloudy water, which actually does wonders for cloudy water.
The Danio Zebra Guys...
These little guys surprised us quite a bit. They are fun to watch and have a lot of personality. The two larger ones (the long-finned ones) seemed a little traumatized by the shipping when they got here. They were swimming in a strange way shaking their heads and one of them wouldn't eat for four days and stayed away from the others. We named this one Spazz and I thought we were going to lose him. But after four days, he started eating and playing with the others, swimming around and looking healthy.
Spazz... 
The two little guys were a completely different story, from day one these two guys were running all over the tank, chasing each other and terrorizing the bigger guys. They would jump at any food we threw in the tank and were full of energy! These guys are very difficult to take pictures of because they move very fast and all the time. By the way, as far as food goes, I read they like live/frozen food, but here at my place they ate Betta Fish for the first few days (the one that is little pellots), then we got them some tropical fish flake food, and they seem to love it, But I break it in little pieces because the large pieces seem to sink to the bottom of the tank once they take a bite of them.
One of the little guys...
A week after we got the Zebras, we went back to the store with a sample of our tank water to be tested by them, another great FREE service PETCO offers. We were told the water was fine and then we asked if it was ok to add some more fish based on the water conditions, and he said it was ok. Well, our original plan was to get a few Silver and a few Black Mollies and some Zebras, but we didn't want to get a lot of Mollies at once because they are bigger and produce more ammonia. My husband decided he would like to get some different fish so we ended up getting two Silver Mollies and two Tetra Black Skirts.
The Silver Mollies...
The Tetra Black Skirts... 
On this trip to the store, we also bought a little heater for our tank. All these guys like the same temperature: 78 to 82 degrees F, and this is something you should always make sure before you start mixing a lot of different guys in the same tank. The tank had been constantly at about 78 degrees but we thought it would be wise to start using the heater. For the first two or three days we had to keep an eye on the water temperature so we could get the heater in the right temperature that wouldn't allow the tank to be too cold or too hot. So, we get home with our new roommates and we are really happy! Little did we know all hell would break loose! Once we got home, we took some of the water out of the tank and sat the plastic bag with the new guys in it so the temperature would adjust. After about 30 minutes, we made our big mistake: we opened the bag and let the fish, with the water in the bag, go into the tank. The same day at night Spazz started showing some little white dots on his fins. Hubby and I ran online and did some research, only to find out that my favorite little guy had a fungus named "Ich"!
The game is "Find the Black Skirt in the house"...
By then, it was the middle of the night and there was nothing we could do but wait for the morning so we could call the store. The next day I called the store and went there to pick up some medicine. The lady at the store told me to get Melafix and follow the instructions on the box. She said after a few days it should be better and we might not lose Spazz. She also said the ideal filter for us would be a Penguin Bio-Wheel. Guess what?? We came home, medicated the tank and ran back to the store to get a new filter. We returned the one we had and got the Penguin one. We also got a net so next time we buy new fish we will just get them on the net and put them in the tank after sitting their bag in the tank for 30 minutes, and an ammonia test kit. I found out later over the phone that the lady I talked to was not a PETCO employee, but a representative for a vendor, and that I could have bought a cheaper medicine, but it is ok. Melafix seems to be working just fine and, after four days of treatment, Spazz's spots are almost completely gone and he seems happy once again!
Everybody loves the house...
Well, that was in the morning, but in the afternoon we started noticing white spots on the Black Skirt guys. Once again I called the store and talked to the person there who is already my buddy by now and probably even recognizes my voice over the phone. He was actually the person who told me I could have bought a different and cheaper ich medicine, but he said that if Melafix was working for us, then we should just continue with the treatment. He said sometimes some fish will take longer to react to the treatment, as well as to develop visual signs of the illness. According to him, we would start noticing the Black Skirts were getting better within some days. He also gave us some tips on how to use the medication and on when and how to do the next water change of 25%. And he was right, by the late evening the Black Skirts started looking better. Another tip for new aquariums is not to leave the light on the tank on a lot because it may keep the production of ammonia high. Well, that was today so I will keep updating this page as time goes by and new things happen over here.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like to use any of my fish pictures or if I can be of any help with your tank. You can send me a message through Yahoo Messenger using the link below.
Thanks for the visit and come back again some time soon!
Clara
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