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Now that you have decided on getting your pet, you need the supplies! You can't have fish without water, or a frog without food! Choose the animal you are interested in: |
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Fish
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African Clawed Frog
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Sea-Monkeys
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Where to buy
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Ok, let's face it! Fish cost money, time, and effort. But it's all worth it in the end. |
The list of supplies for fish can go on forever, but I'm only going to list what you must have, and what you should have. You can decide on what else you want to get. |
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Must Haves |
1. A tank |
2. 1-2 Inches of Gravel |
3. Filter |
4. Light |
5. Water Conditioner |
6. Thermometer |
7. Food |
8. Net |
9. Plants (fake or real) |
10. Hood |
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Should Haves |
1. Stress Coat |
2. Background |
3. Air Pump |
4. Brine Shrimp Flakes |
5. Cleaner System |
6. Ick Cure |
7. Timer |
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Why do you need all that? Well, you need a tank for an obvious reason. If you decide to have an under-gravel filter, you need at least 2 inches of gravel. Gravel is very important to an aquarium. Don't put sand in the aquarium because it will get caught in the filter, and run down your equipment. |
For a filter, light, and hood, I would recommend Eclipse. It is a wonderful system that works extremely well. It is a little expensive, but the price is worth it. If you don't want an Eclipse, a Whisper Power Filter with a regular fluorescent light will do wonderfully. |
The water conditioner does exactly what it says. If you are going to use tap or well water, which would be the sensible thing to do (seeing as spring water is expensive to fill up a 10 gallon tank up with), you need to take out chlorine and heavy metals. Stress Coat will work wonderfully. Plus, it will add the slime coat layer for the fish, which is very important to their health. |
As food goes, I would recommend TetraMin Pro. It's a new food which is high in nutrients, and my fish absolutely love it. (More than other foods.) Any flake food would do, but your fish need certain nutrients, and TetraMin Pro provides them. |
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Having a net is important for handling the fish. If a fish dies, you need to get it out of the tank. If a fish has a disease, you need to get it out of a tank. If you get new fish, you need to get them INTO the tank. A small fish net will do the trick. They aren't expensive, and all pet stores sell them. |
A thermometer is important because the temperature affects the lives of many fish. Certain types of fish need certain temperatures. For most cases, the water should be between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit If the water gets below 70 degrees, you need to buy a heater, which would keep the water at a steady temperature. Heaters are a few dollars, but aren't terribly expensive. |
You may be thinking that I put plants up there for decoration, and you can save a few bucks by not getting them, but if you are thinking that, you are oh so wrong. Plants provide the protection fish need from stress. If you don't put life-like or live plants in your tank, your fish will stress out, loose scales, get diseases, and eventually die. (I am not over exaggerating this is very true. Fish are more immune to diseases when they aren't stressed.) Be sure to get at least 3 plants for a ten gallon tank. If you don't think it's enough, go ahead and buy more. Don't buy too many so that the fish don't have room to swim around though. |
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Now why on earth do you need the items in the "Should Have" section? Well, the air pump is important to have in any tank, because it oxygenates the water. You can buy a small pump, and an air-stone, and make a neat wall of bubbles out of it, or just put in some hosing. An air pump is not mandatory for a tank though. A power filter (such as Eclipse) will provide a lot of oxygen too. As long as the surface of the water in the tank is breaking, your tank should do fine. |
A background is just for decoration, but a cleaner system isn't! If you get a cleaner system, it will make the job of cleaning your tank a lot easier! It usually consists of a long tube connected with a suction-squeeze, and a plastic end which sucks up water. (Ask your pet store about them. It's hard to explain.) |
Ick cure is very important to have, just in case you have a breakout of Ick in your tank. Ick is a very common disease, which can be deadly. You won't know your fish have it until little white spots are covering them, and by then it's too late. I would recommend Liquid Super Ick Cure, which costs about 4 dollars for a small bottle. |
Brine Shrimp Flakes are just a treat to your fish. I feed it to them once a week, but it doesn't matter if you do or don't. They seem to like it more than regular fish food, but it isn't as nutritional. |
A timer is handy if you don't want your filter on all day long. If you are a light sleeper, and your tanks in your bedroom, a timer may be a good idea. They can be found at any hardware store in either lighting, or near the extension cords. |
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Ready to go on? Then go to step three! |
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Top
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The African Clawed Frog (frog for short) isn't so picky about it's living environment as fish are. I doesn't have many Must Haves, and only has a few Should Haves. They all are: |
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Should Haves |
1. Background |
2. Filter |
3. Lights |
4. Hood |
5. Thermometer |
6. A Friend |
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Must Haves |
1. A Tank |
2. Gravel |
3. Water Conditioner |
4. Food |
5. Plants preferably real) |
6. Cleaning System |
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Of course you have to have a tank for the frog, and the same with the gravel. You want to simulate a stream or lake from Africa. The gravel pieces should be large, not small. NO SAND! (Not even an underwater sand-waterfall you can buy from the petstore.) The frog will go crazy during feeding time, and will eat anything in site. If you have any small pebbles, it could eat some of them and injure it. |
Food is another obvious must have. Reptomin is the preferred food recommended by many frog owners) It is manufactured by Tetra-Fish, which is very reliable. |
Real plants are important to have, especially if you don't have a filter in the tank. They will set up the biological filter, and it will give your frog the feeling of being in a stream or lake. |
Water conditioner is used to remove chlorine or any heavy metals. The best water conditioner out there is Stress Coat, which isn't too bad price wise. |
A cleaning system is very important to have, because the frog needs to have it's home cleaned quite often. (Especially if you don't have a filter.) The cleaning system is made up of a long tube, a suction squeeze, and a plastic piece which is used to suck up water. (Ask your pet store about them. It's hard to explain.) |
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Another thing (which isn't on the list) you need is the frog! I would ONLY recommend Grow-A-Frog. It is a full kit on raising a frog, with of course, the frog included. (Well actually, you send away for a tadpole in "suspended animation.") Click here for more details.) |
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Having a filter with your frog is a really good idea, but it isn't mandatory. A Whisper Power Filter (size J for a ten gallon tank) works great. It provides filtration, and some circulation. It doesn't necessarily need to oxygenate the water, because frogs breathe air. If you have fish in the tank also, (which I'll talk about in a minute) you may want to add in a small air pump, but you don't need anything extravagant |
A background and lights are only for decoration. Having a thermometer is good so you can tell if the water is at the right temperature. It should be room temperature (70-80 degrees Fahrenheit You may want to add a heater if the temperature drops below 70 degrees. A hood is great because frogs are good swimmers, and they can propel themselves right out of the tank. If you don't want the risk of a frog jumping out and getting killed, add a hood! |
Your frog can get lonely, so adding a friend may be a good idea. But then again, it may not. Don't put any small fish with it, turtles, or lobster-like animals at all. Either the frog will eat them, or they will eat the frog. A gourami or two would be fine. You would have to figure out on how you would feed them separately. I can't help you out there! (You may want to ask your pet store for help) |
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Still with me? Then go to step three! |
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Sea-Monkeys have the least amount of Must Haves and Should Haves, because you can buy it all when you buy the Sea-Monkeys! Instead of putting the list for what you have to have, I'm going to put the types of tanks and set-ups I suggest, where you can buy them, and how much they usually cost. I wouldn't suggest just buying the eggs, because you won't have the proper equipment to ensure your Sea-Monkeys lives. |
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New: Sea-Monkeys Aquarium Watch; $7-$11 |
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Sea-Monkeys Magic Castle; $10 |
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Sea-Monkeys Ghostly Galleon; $12-15 |
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Sea-Monkeys Ocean of Light; $11-$13 |
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Sea-Monkeys Ocean Zoo; $6-$7 |
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(No Picture) |
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Sea-Monkeys Ocean of Wonder; $10-$12 |
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Sea-Monkeys Ocean of Fun; $9-$11 |
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(No Picture) |
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Sea-Monkeys can be found anywhere! You can buy them online at Amazon.com, or you can buy them in The Learning Tree, or most any toy stores. The prices at Amazon.com are pretty good, so you may want to consider buying from them. Of course, there is shipping and all... |
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Ready for step three? |
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Fish supplies can be bought at almost any pet store. The same goes with frog supplies. Here are my favorite pet stores that are conveniently placed all over America. (Except *stores.) |
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-PetsMart |
-Pet Supplies Plus |
-AquaNest* |
-OceanLife* |
-PetsMart.com |
-Pets.com |
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The best company out there that makes Aquarium supplies, is Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. They have extremely reliable products, and most of the time they aren't too expensive, compared to other brands. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals has anything you need for an aquarium, ranging from Stress Coat, to Super Ick Cure, to the Rena Air Pump. I would not recommend any other company, unless it's a product which Aquarium Pharmaceuticals doesn't sell. |
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