What age did your kids start to take responsibility for their own tanks?

Ethan - thanks for the tip! I'm not sure if he is still just too spooked by our presence to eat or simply didn't like the one I grabbed for him at the LPS but luckily we have a wide variety of other foods from our other fish that we can try as well as one of those "Dial-A-Treat" things that comes with a few different freeze dried options like bloodworms, daphnia and my sis. The one we tried was Seachem NutriDiet Betta food so in a little while I may try using a long spoon and offering one of the others to see if it's just my hand over the tank that spooked him.

Edit: I originally though we would only be substituting things in only occasionally for some variety but it ended up being good we have multiple other foods that the fish from our other tank eat and were able to get him to eat a pellet of the Omega One Community Color micro-pellet food we were giving our guppies and harlequin Rasboras, wasn't too impressed with the mysis from the Dial-A-Treat Container since he inspected it initially but ignored it after that, the bloodworm (only a tiny piece of one equal to a single micro pellet) was eagerly accepted, so was an equally small crumble of shrimp pellet but I didn't want to push it more than that with really heavy meals right from the start. We will try the Seachem one again at another time and if he still doesn't take it, I'll have to go find the one you recommended Ethan

 

Update: he is eating the Seachem one, along with pretty much everything else he has been offered. I may try to get a sample of the New Life Spectrum one anyway just to compare. A little variety never hurt, right?

 

Inspecting the bed my son made for him. I don't think he rested on it more than once or twice that first day and not since then but it did result in some gorgeous photos!


I'll give you one guess who chose the tank decor here Oh well, under the moon light it's just enough to make him think it's a real Glofish decor piece which I refuse to buy him. (I don't feel that the chemicals in them to make them glow can possibly be as fish safe as they claim and everyone all around is better off with regular old bright colored fake decorations under a good quality LED light if they want something that will make that type of impact)

 

I started my own tank when I was nine. A betta bowl, that I am ashamed of.

 

*sigh* Today, I woke up to this:

"Mommy, now that the bigger filter finally arrived and we have the bigger filter finally installed...doesn't that mean we can put more fish in that tank?"

"In theory, but that depends. What did you have in mind?"

I will summarize the rest for the sake of brevity: neon tetras, lemon tetras, serpae or ember tetras "and maybe if they look nice, some nice black and white ones like penguins!" I am as much a fan as a big, lively tank full of tetras as the next person except for a few small snags here: #1: The tank he was talking about was the 55g. cold water setup complete with goldfish, dojo loaches and a small pleco, #2: The only one we have on the premises that is not a cold water tank is the 10 gallon the betta, a few ghost shrimp and the three Nerite snails are in. Call me crazy but I have a sneaking suspicion that Jay (the betta) might not appreciate that idea quite as much as Anthony did, and #3: even if by some crazy coincidence we just happened to have the only betta that was chill enough to live peacefully in a community tank, there is still the issue of overstocking. Even at the minimum of 6 per type, we would be looking at adding an additional 18-24 fish to a 10 gallon tank!

Well, I suppose I should give him some credit for enthusiasm, right? (And yes, of course we had a repeat of the old standby chat about what fish "match together" and which ones don't) He was busy trying to figure out with money he hopes to get for future birthdays and holidays, plus odd jobs he can do for people, how many years at that rate until he could afford the 25 gallon corner hex and stand, 15 gallon bow front and stand or 20 long plus stand or 30 gallon and stand kit today at the pet store and how many fish would that translate to, haha!

 

Haha lol my betta is also chill in peaceful tanks


-Cacret, Dapper King with total dapper . I LOVE MY DOG AND BETTA lol

 

Haha lol my betta is also chill in peaceful tanks


-Cacret, Dapper King with total dapper . I LOVE MY DOG AND BETTA lol

Is he "chill" enough to go in community of mixed tetras though? Too many variables and too much potential for disaster for me to want to attempt it, although I will admit that IF he would tolerate them, Jay (our betta) would make a stellar centerpiece fish in that kind of setup.

 

Yup he is SUPER chill. But I wouldnt recommend it for a beginner ur best bet for tank mates with Jay would be a female betta.(that's risky too)


-Cacret, Dapper King with total dapper . I LOVE MY DOG AND BETTA lol

 

Yup he is SUPER chill. But I wouldnt recommend it for a beginner ur best bet for tank mates with Jay would be a female betta.(that's risky too)


-Cacret, Dapper King with total dapper . I LOVE MY DOG AND BETTA lol

True. While I may not be a beginner (far from it as we got my first school of fish give or take 20 years ago), my son is and so I am going to treat this tank as a complete beginner tank and not push the rules any more than we already have by adding shrimp. Someone said cherry shrimp but I am skeptical since they might just end up an easier meal since Jay will actually be able to see and catch those ones. I am not entirely convinced he can see the ghost shrimp, and that even if he wanted to have himself a fresh invert feast he might not be able to currently, lol. It's more that if I let him, and we had the money to do so, my son would buy half the pet store and dump all of the fish into our one big tank together. We're still not quite set with the theory of what fish "match" together yet but we are making progress!

 

ya know, I do remember reading that fish are blind to the color red


-Cacret, Dapper King with total dapper . I LOVE MY DOG AND BETTA lol

 

The famed Jay the betta is apparently now Captain Jay, dreaded pirate leader of his clan of his undead invertebrate crew (translation: don't let the 8 year old with Pirates of the Caribbean before letting him redecorate the tank)



If you can see him, he is down near the bottom near one end of the ship & was checking out the plants and the starfish)



Clearly my plants have seen better days. Anthony uprooted them and let them float while rearranging everything and the tall ones on the right got a little scorched. The anacharis on the left had been in the other tank and were being nibbled to nothing by goldfish so I'm hoping they can regrow in here. In the mean time, they are faux seaweed and kelp.



Inspecting his new abode by moonlight.


Anthony thought it was just too funny that Jay slept there "guarding" the buried treasure that night. I couldn't bring myself to tell him it was just the Anubias, Marimo pieces and Java moss making such a nice bed that I doubt Jay even noticed the treasure, much less cared. At least Anthony is happy with it though.



According to Anthony, this is Captain Jay plotting with his first mate, Mama shrimp. What they are plotting is still a mystery to me but apparently they were plotting something. The more likely scenario is that there is shell blocked by his fins and the anchor decoration that Jay likes to drape himself over, spread his fins and tail out on and lounge there and Anthony just happened to catch a picture of it when Mama Shrimp was nearby.

 

my daughter had and maintained a tank for almost 2 years starting when she was 5.. I told her if she wanted the fish she had to take care of them.. she did for a long time.

 

My son is only 4, he feeds his axolotl. That is his one absolute responsibility. He hasn't forgotten in 6 months.

I'll probably start letting him help with water changes soon.

 

My son is only 4, he feeds his axolotl. That is his one absolute responsibility. He hasn't forgotten in 6 months.

I'll probably start letting him help with water changes soon.

I have wanted to get an axolotl since a friend showed me a picture of one they were ordering years ago but have yet to find one. My son has also been trying to talk me into a black one specifically because he says the black ones look like Toothless from the "How to Train Your Dragon" movies, but without wings obviously. Like I said in an earlier post though, he would own half the fish and critters in the pet store if he could but then again so would I at that age (well, maybe still if time and finances would only allow) but that doesn't mean I am just going to give in to him simply because he said "I want one of those!" I have also heard axolotls require some pretty specialized setups tailored to their needs and I want to make sure we can fully commit to getting everything right before taking any more on. The way we are stretched pretty thin right now, a few low-key types of fish and inverts like we currently have, and our two dogs too are more than enough for the moment but I can always dream, right?

 

I have wanted to get an axolotl since a friend showed me a picture of one they were ordering years ago but have yet to find one. My son has also been trying to talk me into a black one specifically because he says the black ones look like Toothless from the "How to Train Your Dragon" movies, but without wings obviously. Like I said in an earlier post though, he would own half the fish and critters in the pet store if he could but then again so would I at that age (well, maybe still if time and finances would only allow) but that doesn't mean I am just going to give in to him simply because he said "I want one of those!" I have also heard axolotls require some pretty specialized setups tailored to their needs and I want to make sure we can fully commit to getting everything right before taking any more on. The way we are stretched pretty thin right now, a few low-key types of fish and inverts like we currently have, and our two dogs too are more than enough for the moment but I can always dream, right?

They really aren't too much more difficult than fish!

Specific food, can only be on bare bottom or smooth sand, & cool water. Summers are a hassle... And I have 2 tanks with 1 axolotl each.


^This is my son's axxie, Slender.

 

They really aren't too much more difficult than fish!

Specific food, can only be on bare bottom or smooth sand, & cool water. Summers are a hassle... And I have 2 tanks with 1 axolotl each.


^This is my son's axxie, Slender.

I would love to chat sometime if you don't mind about where you got it, what you feed it and so on...even if we aren't ready to take the plunge now as much as my son would like to, it will be helpful to know for the future. It might not be right away though since we will be going out of town soon and won't be back for more than a week so my ability to reply during that time will be spotty at best.