I got influenced by my aunt with fish keeping, every time I visit her place I always go to her ponds and aquarium area to see her fish, believe it or not, it's relaxing to look at and somehow it relieves my stress.
There was a time, my life went downhill and I wanted to find a way to get rid of my depression, going to a psychologist was not an option for me so I thought of fishkeeping instead, it was the hobby that kept me sane from what I went through, it was an activity that kept me busy although it didn't do any much help, at least it helped subside the pain and It makes me happy temporarily.
I first bought a betta fish since it was suggested to me and as a first-timer, I didn't have any idea of what fish to buy yet, so I just followed what my fish keeper friend tells me and so I bought an all-set item for my fish, you can read about it in my previous blog above.
The thing that I love about fishkeeping is that I get to have free water plants to design in my aquarium, there are fishkeepers who keep on posting on Facebook about giving theirs for free. Water plants are hard to find that don't have any bacteria and if you buy them in fish shops 3 small plants already cost 3-4 dollars.
MATERIALS
I gotta tell you, fish keeping is not a cheap hobby, it is quite expensive, I visited all the fish shops in my area and everything was high-priced.
I'm stingy at times, so I thought of finding a way to buy materials that are very cheap, luckily online shops are to the rescue! specifically, shoppee all items I needed for fish keeping are in stock and cheaply priced but in quality.
FISH WITH GRADE
Fishes have a lot of different grades, some are cheap some are expensive sometimes depending on how beautiful and in demand they are, albino fish are the most expensive since they are very rare, I'm not holding back at buying just simple fish, I always go for the expensive one, 3 guppy fish costs around 4 dollars although if you buy directly to a wholesaler which they usually are located far away only costs a cent though buying in bulk usually works for business, as for me I'm just doing this for hobby.
Placing fish in an aquarium without design looks boring and plain after knowing that aquascaping was a thing for a fish keeper, and for someone whos artsy, I got challenged to do a design on my own. Plastic plants are usually the easiest design to put in an aquarium but I prefer the natural ones.
ME TRYING AQUASCAPING
I bought this soil in shoppee online, I know what you are thinking, why did I buy soil online when I can get them on common places, lava rocks ain't easy to find in my area, even if they are in my place it would be located far away it's like I don't wanna waste my time looking around for it and besides 1 pack of lava costs 19 pesos (0.33USD) very cheap! and it saves me the hassle too.
The first thing I did was clean the lava sand before placing it in the aquarium so it won't dirty the aquarium
I have these 2 aquariums customized, each one costs 1600 pesos (28.7 USD), yes yes I'd go this far on spending just for a glass 😁 like I said fish keeping is an expensive hobby but I am devoted to it or more like addicted to it, so I don't mind the expenses.
I placed the lava rocks the way I imagined them to be and put my aquatic plants randomly.
Another purpose of these plants is not only for design but to help newborn fish to hide from their fish parents since they always get misunderstood as food for being too small. poor little ones 😣,
After designing, I poured water slowly to avoid dirtying the tank, and let my sponge filter clean it to have clearer water, then I poured anti-chlorine so that my fish won't die if they are placed in after acclamation,
oh and meet my snail ~ it usually does a pretty good job cleaning my tank, I should've given him a raise for always doing a good job! hahaha my snail is the best and very cute too!
I designed my other aquarium, I bought go stones for a cheap price in Japan surplus and put it as a design inside the tank,
I then placed my other fish in and this is what it looks like inside, they are happily swimming and loving their new home setting. These little ones bring joy to me! Every time I look at them, I always have the thought of what it would feel like to swim with them.
PROUD GRANDPARENT HERE
Happiness was everything I felt seeing all the newborn fish babies, To be honest, these little ones are survivors some have been eaten, and I had to get them in the aquarium and put them in another container fast before they become their parent's food, catching them was the most challenging part because they are so tiny and would run fast to hide where I can't reach them.
To sum it all up, fishkeeping is not an easy hobby it also requires a lot of time and effort from feeding to cleaning the tanks and keeping the fish alive since they are sensitive little creatures.
