cost of aquarium ?

Re: cost of acquarium ?

maintenance apart from changing water , cleaning the gravel, theres nothing much in cost wise , the buying cost will depend on the size of the tank , filters you want to use , and the types of fish you like to see, :D
 
Re: cost of acquarium ?

kippu said:
maintenance apart from changing water , cleaning the gravel, theres nothing much in cost wise , the buying cost will depend on the size of the tank , filters you want to use , and the types of fish you like to see, :D
Agree with kippu

but most important part is you need to take time for maintenance.
 
Re: cost of acquarium ?

Aman27deep said:
dogs wont die when the temp changes, fishes will.
+ 1 I have had dogs (multiple) in my home ever since I was a year old (I don't remember exactly but that's what my mum says!).

And I have had a fish (Betta) for one year. Believe me, Dogs are much easier to maintain. I clothe my dogs in Winter, u cannot do the same to fishes.

But then, it's not that sad to watch a fish die as it is for a dog... :(
 
Re: cost of acquarium ?

Have a Dog, a german shepherd for that matter, and had fishes until 10 days ago until when I decided to shut down the aquarium for good

Believe me you dont want an aquarium, too much of a hassle.

Have had dogs from the day I was born and the aquarium for 5 years, and finally decided to let it go.

Have had no problems with dogs, minimal maintenance. Whereas with the aquarium maintenance is a b**ch.
 
Aquariums don't need much maintenance as long as you don't overstock/overfeed and have decent filtration going. If you still have trouble then go for low maintenance fish like Bettas/Gouramis/Angels. Also, fish are more eyecandy than pets like a dog or cat imo.
 
Never had a dog, only seen alsation dog at my uncle's place and boy does it need maintenance, considering that maintenance of fishes is nothing. There are heater available for aquarium and is pretty cheap. So thats not a big concern. Just make sure that your aquarium is not filled with fishes. In a 3 feet aquarium, I would say only 5-8 fishes at max should be there. Feed them only once a day but make sure that its of good quality. Though even with all these precautions there will be 3-4 fishes which will die in a year but as others said, its not painful seeing a fish die. A decent quality 3 feet aquarium will come for around 5K(can be had for much cheaper as well). Fishes depends on your own liking. If you have a aquarium shop closeby then they would have a boy who will/can come out to your place every month or so to clean the aquarium and the water. Which costs around 100-200 rs. only.
 
My dad kept an aquarium in the house during my late teens. Like everyone else mentions here, maintenance is a very time consuming effort.

You'll have to change the water every month. The fish cannot take normal tap water since the water is usually treated with chlorine. So you have to clean the water with some de-chlorinator.

If you have gravel (It keeps the crap from floating around), then you have to clean that too from time to time. The air pump usually wears out in a quarter, so it too needs to be replaced.

You have to make sure the water doesn't get too cold or too warm. You should be careful not to overfeed them.

All this, apart from the fishes themselves. They will fight each other. On ocassions, they will get suicidal and try to jump out. I noticed this was common behaviour with the smaller fish. Lager fish like goldfish were more wiser. Or perhaps they were too bulky to jump out :p

All in all, much easier having a dog :-D
 
I have 3 dogs and 2 puppies as of now.

The big dogs need 2 strolls a day. One in the morning and one in the evening. My eldest boobah (I don't like calling them dogs :( )is a bully to the other dogs (on the roads) and he needs a leash, the others just follow me without a leash. What's more, they are always free in the compound and they are all by themselves. They need a bath once every 5 days and a brushing after each bath. Also, a vaccination every year is a must and registration with the authorities (yes, u need license to keep dogs!).

The puppies don't go out as yet... Only play around in the compound.

They are fed twice a day. And they don't fuss about food ever (my betta fish fussed a lot!).

I personally think dogs are maintenance free. But maybe that is coz I have a house and compound to myself. It is a bit difficult for my friends who live in flats and don't have access to compounds.
 
aquarium is a time consuming hobby. it requires your time, attention, care and patience almost every day. the matter is, for people living in flats, etc. its the only possible hobby considering they can't rear cats /dogs easily.

aquariums takes less space and are calming to watch if maintained well.

betta fish is the best if you have only a small tank and like only one fish :) minimum fuss considering frequent water change is not a must of betta as they have lungs like organs... they look beautiful too...
 
wow... so many guys against aquariums?
Maintaining a aquarium is quite simple actually if you have a filter and a reverse suction pipe.

You just need to drain out the water and refill + clean the filter. Most of the dirt gets sucked into the filter.
Watching the fishes in an aquarium relieves stress.

On the other hand, isnt clearing dog poop a big problem for people staying in apartments?
 
The cost of fish tanks would vary depending on the size of the tank your building and subsequently the filtration your going to use in that tank. Add to this the cost of substrate and rocks inside the tank as those will vary with the kind of fish you keep. The larger the tank the more the filtration required. I have 5 tanks at the moment of different sizes, the largest being a 120 gallon 4 foot monster tank with SA Oscars. For tanks that large you require canister filters for proper filtration and water circulation.

If you can tell me what size fish tank you want to build and which kind of fishes you want to keep then I can maybe tell you what kind of filtration, substrate you will need. :)

For basic tanks till about 55 gallons you will basically be spending on the following components besides the tank: fully submersible thermostat, substrate, internal power filter @ 1200 L/H, an aquarium hood with a light, an air pump for water surface movement.

For larger tanks above 55 gallons: Canister Filter (these are expensive) + fully submersible thermostat's + substrate + power-heads for adequate water movement and surface agitation of the tank water.

With these components you should cycle your tank first and then add fish slowly so that your filters can handle the bio-load of the fishes. PLEASE DO NOT ADD MANY FISH AT ONE TIME!! This will dis-balance the water chemistry and you will get ammonia spike in your tank killing your fish. As I said, if you can tell me what kind of fish you want to keep I can guide you better.
 
Tron05 said:
wow... so many guys against aquariums?

On the other hand, isnt clearing dog poop a big problem for people staying in apartments?
No... I don't think we are 'against' aquariums... In fact, I would love to have a well setup huge aquarium, just that it is not really easy to upkeep for us...

As for cleaning the doggy poop, once the doggies are big enough, they learn to control their pooping habits and poop only once they are out on the streets for a stroll.

BTW, I make it a point to carry newspapers when taking my dogs for strolls and pick up the poop with the newspapers to dispose off the same in the dustbins... So any which way, I have to clean the doggy poop!!! :p
 
If you are smart about it the setting up of an aquarium then it won't require any more than an hour of work every week, even less once it settles down. I don't think anything even close to that is possible with dogs; walks, cleaning up poop, preparing and feeding etc have to be done daily. I guess the whole argument is a bit silly though as they are in no way comparable as pets. Besides a big part of keeping pets is so that you get to invest time taking care of them.
 
even i bought more than 100 fish long back that i use many type of fish dont remember the breed name :p

so i have to clean the tank every 2-3 week and it might suffer too much pain and pathetic feed food time even i own the dog too much never face any problem very less maintainer and it always guard my house since past 2003 to 2006 :p and less maintainenece but my dog can automatic pee outside and he can come back inside without any issue that i teach him more than 1 year :)
 
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