Fish Tank
Bring life to your home and a lesson in responsibility for the kiddos. Fish are a great first pet!
My 5 year old son is obsessed with the ocean, streams, fish, reptiles, insects, and all little living things. He’s been wanting a pet Hercules beetle, tarantula, puffer fish, or something from one of his poisonous animal books, but we settled on fresh water guppies….and he was super happy about it! (Me too!) :p
Fish were my first pet as a kid and I figured it would be a good opportunity for them to take responsibility they are since they agreed to help feed and clean and are hoping for a bunny or dog one day too. This is a great starting commitment since these fish have a life span of about 2 years. They were on sale for $3.95 each and we started with 8 from Petland Kahala.
A special thank you to this very knowledgeable and kind guy at Petland named Kevin, who helped my son catch the specific guppies he pointed out he wanted in a tank full of colors! He patiently caught them all and said it was his honor to help our family get what we wanted.
What’s fun about these fish (I think they are guppies?), is they all have different bright colors and patterns on their tails and bodies so the kids could individually name them and tell them apart. Kevin also helped us get the 10 gallon fish tank we inherited set up.
Fish -Choose your fish and learn about the species. Can you mix them? How long do they live? Are they slow moving and soothing to watch or like the ones Conner wanted, active and follow his finger on the glass.
Tank - Pick your tank. We received a 10 gallon tank from my sister-in-law. Conner told one of the workers at the pet store,” I have a 10 gallon fish tank. Which fish can I have?”
Light - This is the coolest thing about fish tanks now-a-days, (or at least what I noticed has changed since I was a kid), is you can now get LED lights to make the tank glow and change colors from a nice clear and bright white to a fun and soothing black light-ish blue! Perfect to change the mood in your home.
Necessities - These are the must. A pump, fish food (we went with good old flakes) and a small green net.
Rocks - Pick your rocks. We went with solid black so the bright colors of the fish would be the main focal point in the tank. Make sure you get enough to cover the bottom of your size tank.
Plants - Pick your plants. We went with all natural though they had some nice selection of fake plants that are easy to take care of.
Decoration - Pick your decoration. This was probably the hardest for the kids to agree on. There were logs, ship wrecks, and even all natural wood pieces I preferred (which you have to boil in water for 1 hour first). We finally landed on the pagoda which they called “the tabernacle” ;P
We set this up at home and it took maybe 1 hour for the entire process and cost about $200.
And the kids LOVE it! And even better, my husband and I love it because it adds some life and movement to our living room, and the lights in the tank and the sound of the pump in the water is relaxing!
erin’s tip:
Guppies are affordable, bright and active, and supposedly not as messy as some other fish. They were a great option for our first fish tank and pets at home!
