by Judith Willson

Created on: November 09, 2010

Fish keeping can be an inexpensive hobby, or can eat every spare dollar you have, then require a bank loan and a second mortgage.  You can save a good bit on start up costs, maintenance and food by looking around and doing your homework. 

The fish

Choose carefully.  Some fish are far easier, and less expensive, to keep than others.  Freshwater fish require a less specialised environment than marine and coldwater fish do not require the heating that tropical varieties do.  The cost of the fish themselves is nearly irrelevant.  It doesn’t matter if your fish only cost two dollars if it costs 40 dollars a month to care for it. 

Betta fish, guppies, minnows, and mollies are all easy to care for, easy to breed, and crucially, stay small.  Goldfish are easy too, but require an enormous amount of space.  Unless you plan to keep on buying bigger and bigger tanks don’t get fish that reach an adult size of more than a few inches. 

The set-up 

The big expense will be the aquarium.  You might be able to save some money here by getting one second-hand, but make sure it has no leaks first.  Heating, lighting, and the air pump might be sold with the tank but again make sure these work properly before buying second-hand.  It is important to wash all used aquarium equipment thoroughly before use to remove any pathogens. 

Decorations 

You certainly do not need to spend a small fortune on shells, gravel and rocks for your tank.  You can find all of these yourself.  However you must boil these shells and stones first to prevent passing on parasites and diseases to your fish. 

Plants

Don’t however pull up some pondweed from the nearest lake.  You won’t be able to boil it and it will inevitable be full of snails, parasites and bacteria.  Any money saved will be lost once you have a tank full of sick fish to treat.  Instead buy plants but choose varieties that grow fast and reproduce easily so they will keep replenishing themselves.

Food

Dried fish food isn’t a big cost.  Live food is though.  While catching tiny water beasties for your fish is inadvisable, for the same reason you shouldn’t add wild plants to the tanks, it is easy enough to breed live food for your fish.  You just need a smaller, separate tank for your daphnia or shrimps and scoop out as required. 

Before you rush out and buy an aquarium it is sensible to make a budget of how much you are prepared to spend each month and ask the professionals for advice on which fish you can afford, after you cut the costs.  Remember to include emergency costs as well, such as medications for sick fish.

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