I'm looking at getting a fish tank AND fish to sit on my desk at work. Can anyone recommend anything, or recommened a place I can go - I live at Indooroopilly.

Low Maintenance
Not incredibly expensive to setup
Look pretty

just go to big-w and buy a small tank for $30 and then go to an aquarium and get a couple of fish that you like. Neons are small, colourful and easy maintenance.... also get a suckerfish or two ( pleco ) to keep the glass clean.

How big a tank do you get for $30?

Will you need a filter or a pump or anything?

for most tropical fish, you'll need a filter and maybe a heater. if you're just getting goldfish and other hardy fish like guppies, you wont need any of that.

get a saratoga for your desk :)

Neons ftw

get a 2nd hand complete setup is my advice. recently i got given a 2' tank with a stand & air pump for free... it still cost me about $200 for the required accessories to get the tank started. (ie: filter, tubing, heater, gravel, light, etc...) whereas i could have easily bought a complete 2' tank setup for about $100 & the only extra expense would be the fish to go in it.

i bought a complete 4' setup from the aqarium trader forum on the qldcichlid.com site that splash recommended a while back. (thx m8! :) whole thing cost $250 & even came with a heap of plants & fish. i keep an eye on that forum from time to time & there are some awesome bargains there. (compaired to buying stuff brand new).

$30 will basically buy you a goldfish bowl... not much more than that brand new. you can keep goldfish without the need for a heater or air pump ... but lets face it... goldfish are stupid & boring fish to watch. ;D for most tropical fish you will need a heater (for our winter only) & a filter. you only need an air pump if the filter isn't disturbing the surface of the water in the tank.

if it's just for your desk at work then you might want to consider getting an all-in-one jobby, similar to this one.

Built in lights and filter (not a super good filter, but good enough if you're only keeping a few fish).. just need to add a heater if you want to keep tropical fish.

splash recommended a while back. (thx m8! :)

no worries

oh, and here is a pic of the tank i have on my desk at work:

http://filestore.redlineau.com/filestore/splash/fish_tank.jpg

it's a 1.5 ft curved glass tank i got for cheap from my brother after he upgraded his tank at home

Thanks guys. I spoke to some of my friends and they suggested getting a Betta as they're easy to look after etc. They also look pretty!

a siamese fighting fish (betta splendens) is a good cheap option & they have good colour... but if you whack a single male (the female isn't as colourful) in a bottle by itself it won't do anything entertaining... it'll just sit there like any animal that has been caged without sufficient space to move. betta's breathe air directly from the surface so they don't need an air-pump or a water moving filter... but contrary to what a lot of people will tell you.. they do need a heater. if the temp drops below 22c they will become listless & die early... then you'll just have a bottle of water :P

get one of these..

I had a fighting fish in cairns, it's name was wang. Unfortunately when we moved down from cairns we took it on the plane with us, and the place was an international connection stopping between cairns and brisbane. So a dog sniffed it out and they took it off me =( poor wang probably got the royal flush....

lol at calling your fish wang. That's pretty cool

whoooooooo wanta some wang?

http://www.nipogames.com/article_images/445_11_medium.jpg

last edited by trillion at 16:19:42 29/Aug/06