Much easier than you think, not that much work at all if you follow the science.
Fish in an aquarium basically live in their own toilet and unless you keep the water as pure as possible, then can soon become ill and die.
You can do tegular water changes, which become more difficult as you get older or ill or you can use science to help reduce the amount of work you have to do.
Decades ago when I had a large heated aquarium complete with tropicals, the water was kept clean by under gravel filters and fish (sucking loach) that kept the glass and rocks clean. . that was about it maintenance wise.
We used to keep marines many years ago which were fascinating animals, particularly the corals and living rocks, but they were really high maintenance what with water changes and getting the salinity just right. My wife and I were both working at the time and the maintenance became just too onerous, so we regrettably sold the set up on after a couple of years.
Thanks for this, I’ve always fancied keeping fish, we always had goldfish when the children were small.
I am especially interested in having a Betta, a Siamese fighting fish because I read they are fine being kept alone, while other fish need the sensory input of company and being in a shoal.
I bought the tank, pump etc a couple of years ago but what with Covid Inever got round to setting it up yet and it’s still in the garage.
Perhaps I’ll get it out again now things are getting back to normal
When my eldest daughter was younger, she asked for some fish. They were not tropical, but took a fair amount of maintenance to care for them properly. Every week I used to have to clean the filters & change around one third of the water. It was not hard work, but took close to an hour to complete, by the time I had added anti chlorine tablets to the replacement water & replaced it.
The cleaning could be a pain to have to do each week. But the fish were lovely to watch. She had a few black moors & some others.
Edited to add. I now buy cheap flaked fish food for my giant hissing cockroaches, which love it.
We used to have a large biorb with goldfish. It doesn’t seem to matter whatever the filter & set up, goldfish need regular cleans and it’s so high maintenance. I thought about getting a tropical set up but then you need the heater as well as lights on and the trouble with all this is that you need someone to look after it if you go away. At least you can hand the cat or dog to someone to look after, bit more difficult with an aquarium. Never again.
Exactly my experience too I had a tank for many years when I lived in the UK (late 60s early 70s). If there was any problems it was invariably the heater (though the weight of a few cubic feet of water could be a problem too).
In the end I preferred the loaches to the prettier fish like Angel fish
