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Tired? Stressed out? Just plain bored after school? You could try to relax in front of the television or hang out with friends. But did you know that keeping tropical fish in an aquarium can reduce stress and relieve nervous tension.

Imagine sitting in a room where the only light comes from a fish tank. Behind the glass a variety of colorful fine streams of bubbles. Some fish probe the crevices between rocks; others sift gravel searching for hidden tidbits. Without even realizing it, you might spend hours enjoying the playful antics of your fish. If a tropical fish hobby sounds interesting to you, the following advice will help you get started.

Equipment

Most pet store dealers have complete setups that include an all-glass aquarium (the 29-gallon size is best, but a 10-gallon tank will work too), air pump with tubing and air stones, under gravel and box filters, and even plastic ornamental and plants.

An aquarium kit is perhaps best. It will give you the basic equipment to work with and, more important, the opportunity to meet a reputable pet dealer. His advice will be invaluable in the future.

Since you’re new to the hobby, this might be the simplest way to go. But if you’re more adventurous (and cost-conscious too), you might find most of what you need at some neighborhood yard sale. Before you purchase from this and other similar sources, however, be sure the aquarium holds water and has a cover with a working light. The air pump should produce a steady and firm flow. Check out heaters to see that the glass isn’t cracked and that the heating element is free of rust.

Setup

You need to run a new aquarium for at least a week before adding your first a few fish, so don’t purchase any fish with your kit (although live plants and snails are OK). After rinsing out the tank and installing the undergravel filter (I prefer these even with smaller, 10-gallon aquariums because they promote the growth of helpful bacteria that break down fish wastes), you can begin constructing and underwater habitat. You should wash the gravel, whether it comes from the store or some riverbed. Coarse gravel makes the best substrate.

I like to use rocks collected from my yard, which I wash and settle into shelves near the back of the aquarium. Those hold down plants and look more natural. Driftwood is nice too, but it must be well aged, or your aquarium will look like a huge glass of dark tea.

About plans, although plastic plants are both natural-looking and trouble-free, I still like live plants. Many live plants are available to the hobbyist. Some of the most suitable are eelgrass, giant sagittaria, and elodea.

Once you have everything in place, it’s time to add water. Pour the water over folded sheets of newspaper or into a dish to keep it from destroying your arrangement. Don’t worry about some initial cloudiness; it should clear up within a day. If you live in an area where tap water is chemically treated with chlorine or chloramines, you will have to use special conditioners to neutralize the water. Ask you pet dealer about his. When the aquarium is filled halfway, you may find it easier to add plants and adjust your rocks and other decorations. After the tank is filled, you can hook up airlines to filters and test the heating system. It may take a few days checking with an aquarium thermometer and allowing the heater’s thermostat to regulate things for the water to settle to the recommended 78°F.

Selecting the Fish

Give your new aquarium some time to balance, and you’ll be creating the healthiest environment possible for your fish. This conditioning period serves to age the water, allowing any impurities to dissipate and bacteria to begin cycling wastes. Spend this first week developing a daily schedule for feeding times (twice a day) and daylight hours (remember, your fish tank is not a nightlight; fish need sleep too).

On your first visit to a pet store you’ll discover that the selection of tropical fish is enormous. You can choose quiet, harmless goldfish or aggressive, “tank-busting” cichlids. As a general rule for an aquarium of mixed varieties, you will want only those fish considered “peaceful.” I recommend the following, grouped according to their families, as the best choices for a community tank:

Carplike fish

This family is one of the largest, including minnows, barbs, and goldfish. Although some of these (like tiger barbs) are less suitable because they are notorious fin nippers, many in this group stand out as excellent for your fish community. Zebra danios and white clouds are among the favorites, mostly because of their bright colors and active schooling behaviors.

Live-bearers

Because of their hardiness, range of colors, and easy breeding, live-bearers are the most popular with beginners. They are, however, best kept in a tank by themselves, since they prefer hard water. Live-bearers include guppies, black mollies, swordtails, and platies.

Catfish

No community tank should be without at least one or two catfish. They are wonderful bottom scavengers and perform an essential job cleaning up leftover food.

Tetras

Tetras belong to the Characin family, which also includes piranha. Small species from the Amazon River are well suited to the community aquarium, however, and can safely be kept with carplike fish, catfish, dwarf cichlids, and labyrinth fish. There are cardinal tetras, serape tetras, and the most popular aquarium fish in the world, neon tetras.

Cichlids

Unquestionably the most interesting cichlids are the angelfish. Their different sizes and colors, and their quiet temperaments (uncharacteristic of most cichlids), make them wonderful fish for a community aquarium. Some hobbyists prefer to have a thankful of nothing but angelfish. Dwarf cichlids also behave themselves well in aquarium. One of them, the Kribensis, is not only colorful and active, but has along life span.

Labyrinth fish

This family of fish is very unusual. Labyrinth fish have the ability to breathe air directly form the water’s surface. Popular community fish in this group are kissing gourami, dwarf gourami, and blue gourami.

Start your aquarium with only three or four fish for the first month. After you bring them home, acclimate them slowly by floating their container (usually a plastic bag) in your aquarium for 30 minutes. This will reduce stressing the fish from sudden temperature change. At the end of one month you can begin building your whole fish community. The only caution here is not to overcrowd. Generally speaking, in a filtered system you can keep three one-inch fish to every gallon of water.

Maintenance

Now that you’re tropical fish aquarist, there’s some responsibility that goes with the hobby.

To begin with, you will need a few supplies: fish nets, an algae scraper, gravel vacuum, test kits, and of course, fish food. Like your daily feeding schedule, you’ll also want to make a regular schedule for testing water quality, changing water, and cleaning the aquarium. Pt shop dealers have test kits that monitor almost everything imaginable. I suggest you get kits for testing pH, hardness, and nitrites.

Make sure you change 20 percent of your water every two weeks, after first vacuuming the gravel to remove unwanted sediment. Algae are beneficial to fish, so I only scrape them from the front and side panels for better viewing.

The only other essential part of maintain your community tanks is feeding. Dry flake foods are fine, but I live or frozen foods like mealworms, tubifex worms, shrimp, and plankton.

If you’re like me, your first community aquarium might lead to a whole roomful of freshwater and even marine systems. Fish keeping is a wonderful, educational and relaxing hobby that the whole families will enjoy. And who knows? You might even turn your hobby to profit by breeding tropical fish.