Three years ago I began working at a pet store and was trained in the the care and maintenance of all kinds of animals including dogs, cats, reptiles, small furries, and fish (mainly freshwater). I had never previously considered owning an aquarium and even though I have now worked around them for several years now I have not yet set one up myself. I started to find that any time I would visit someone or some place that had an aquarium I would "HAVE" to spend several minutes viewing and admireing each tank for what it had. I found that every tank was very different from the decorations, to the pumps, to the cleanliness, to the fish and so on and I found what I liked and what I didn't. Because of my work experience in the aquatics department I have learned all the basics of what it takes to start and maintain aquariums as well as give advice and solutions to customers with questions and I would consider myself an intermediate aquariest from maintaining work tanks, though I have never had my own.
My interest in the hobby has compounded in the last 2 years to the point where I have decided to get one going and begin my own fish tank adventure! Now to decide what kind of tank I want. Though I have worked mainly with fresh water, I do have several close friends with salt water aquariums. I found that I liked the color, personalities, and variety of salt water fish much more than the tiny twitchy tetra's found in most fresh water tanks these days as well as I liked the idea of small corals and the mini ecosystem that you create in a salt tank. After doing a fair amount of research I knew that I could do it and be successful, but I also learned that my with my current budget and the extra time it would take to maintain (plus my lack of experience in the field) I was only dreaming!!!
But that didn't completely stop me. I was slightly turned off to fresh water tanks for a while because I didn't think they could ever be as "COOL" as a salt water tank (though many will argue this topic). The fish just weren't as personable, the decorations not as cool, etc. But what I needed was to find the right fish and the right decorations in the right way to make a tank that I would not only love designing and creating but one that I would continue to grow in knowledge, experience, and deeper into the hobby. There are way more interesting freshwater fish than what you will find in a larger corporate chain pet store and much more than "pea" gravel, ugly plastic plants, and pirate sculls to decorate a tank with.
In addition to friends with salt tanks, I also have friends with live planted fresh water tanks. It was sort of an accident but also semi directed when I started looking online at planted tanks. I found that "Aquascaping" is a growing hobby amoung aquariests and I found the artistic inspiration I needed for my own fresh water tank! I wanted to have an entire living ecosystem and not just fish swimming around objects. This was the perfect solution to my dilemma and I felt that my budget would be "more" allowing towards this direction though it would still be more challenging and expensive than simply keeping fish.
I felt that this blog would be a perfect way for me dive deeper into the hobby as I learn and share my successes and failiers (hopfully more successes ;-) ) but mostly as a journal to keep record of the entire process as I expect to take my time on each step so that I do it right!
Always open to comments and advice!
No comments:
Post a Comment