Any freshwater aquarists?

[Math_Rocks]

My mother's day gift this year was a fish tank (being given away for free, with lots of supplies, but needed lots of clean-up). I grew up with a fish tank and have always loved them. We had a smaller one many years ago in CA but its been more than 10 years. I'm thrilled to be back to this hobby but I need to keep costs at a minimum and feel like I keep doing things wrong. I've lost a Gourami and two cichlids so far and I am currently treating the tank for ich.

I would love to know of others who share this interest, even if you're an amateur like me.

[haulingthescoreup]

Wow, I've flushed a bunch of fish corpses over the years. One time DS, age 3, who was seriously into dials of all kinds, turned up the heater and killed everything. Or so I thought, ignoring the green-slimed mess for a month, until on cleaning it out found that there were still 4 White Cloud Mountain fishies chugging along, without light, oxygen, or food for weeks and weeks.

And they're cute, and they like to live in schools, so you get some bang for the buck:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Cloud_Mountain_Minnow

If you do nothing else, splurge on the oxygenator and filter. It will definitely pay off with time.

Good luck on the fish tank! I keep telling myself that I'd like to get back into that now that the kids are up and gone, if only to entertain my cat.