About 2 years ago, I was keen to get back into fish keeping as a hobby after a very long time away from it. I visited a local pet shop and had a long conversation with the person there who basically told me that I should never consider sand, soil and only go for gravel and plastic plants as they are much better and keep clean. The lady was very friendly, but obviously had her own opinions and I very much wanted a more natural set up. I didn’t get anything a left a little disheartened.
A few weeks later, I visited a different family run aquatics store. Totally different approach, full of advice and encouragement based on what I was looking to do. I’m please to say I now have a lovely established planted community tank 🙂.
I guess my advice would be to anybody new to the hobby is that finding a good store is just so important and don’t let one person tell you that you can’t do something because if you want to and are willing to learn and put the effort in you absolutely can.
Posted by DarthPhoton
4 Comments
“use plastic plants instead of real plants because they’re easier to keep clean” is the dumbest thing I’ve read in here in a minute. Thanks for passing that along
Your tank looks awesome! I’m really glad you didn’t listen to that lady. I honestly don’t understand how anyone could think plastic plants are easier to keep clean… 🤔
I’ve run into plenty of fishkeepers with wildly different takes on the hobby too. I always try to stay polite, but after getting scammed a few times, I stopped being shy about pulling out my phone and googling things on the spot when something sounds off. Most sellers don’t mind at all… though I’ll admit, it’s kind of funny watching someone’s confident smile fade when they realize they were wrong
I started off with a fish tank. Now I have a plant tank with fish in it!
Think about how much bad advice is found on this Reddit. Those same people exist in real life.