pet pickerel??

Fake plants and such wont really scuff up your fish. I watch my brothers fish dart around the tank running into fake plants and such and there fine. If you really want real vegatation then go for it. It's just more maintenance to keep everything in balance.

And remember if you end up introducing any form of life into your aquarium make sure you observe it for any kind of disease or odd behavior. You dont want to get a pickerel you really like and have it die from some sort of disease.

Last edited by lunkerhunter2366 on Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:43 pm; edited 1 time in total

Well ultimately real plants will help with filtration and amonia levels, as for amonia levels I hope to get my tank filled after work tonight so I can start cycling my new filter. I'm reading up on ways of cycling a new tank without using fish ( I think its cruel even to bait) abd I'm probably going to be using household amonia insmall quantities to gradually build up the bacteria levels needed to effectively cleanup all the waste that such a large fish will produce. I may end up skipping the bulbs thougg in favor of pregrown plantlife from a fish store to save somw time cause as it stands now it will be 2 weeks to possibly a month before I can safely put a fish in there and expect it to not only survive but be healthy and happy

Well im no expert by any means and it looks like you've done some research so congrats to you making your new aquarium. Take some pics after you got everything set up.

Well I figure if ur unsure of what you are doing then educate yourself, if you are too lazy to bother then don't have fish as pets lol. Last thing I want is to be the little girl at the end of finding nemo ( the one that kills all her fish with ignorance lol) if I'm gonna do this I wanna do it right so my pickerel dies happy of old age not miserable and being poisoned by his own waste. And yes once I fet all setup ill post pics and then once I have my fish ill post some feeding videos thanks for all the input from everyone

Well I figure if ur unsure of what you are doing then educate yourself, if you are too lazy to bother then don't have fish as pets lol. Last thing I want is to be the little girl at the end of finding nemo ( the one that kills all her fish with ignorance lol) if I'm gonna do this I wanna do it right so my pickerel dies happy of old age not miserable and being poisoned by his own waste. And yes once I fet all setup ill post pics and then once I have my fish ill post some feeding videos thanks for all the input from everyone

LOL good stuff brooksey. I hope all goes well.

Thanks I can't wait to have my very own native freshwater predator tank! I <3 esox