Explore the Hobby
Click on any topic below for more information. Want to go deeper? TEAS members get access to hands-on demonstrations, tutorials, and the chance to meet experts in these fields at our monthly meetings.
Freshwater Fish
Freshwater fishkeeping is the most common starting point in the hobby, and for good reason, there's an enormous range of species suited to almost any tank size or experience level. Community tanks built around tetras, rasboras, corydoras, and livebearers are forgiving and colourful, while more advanced keepers often move toward species-specific setups for cichlids, gouramis, or rare imports.
A healthy freshwater tank starts with a stable nitrogen cycle, consistent water changes, and matching your fish to your actual water parameters rather than fighting them. Filtration and stocking density matter more than most beginners expect. An overstocked tank is the most common cause of frustration in the first few months.
Aquascaping
Aquascaping treats the aquarium as a living landscape, using hardscape (wood and stone) and plants to build a composed scene rather than just a container for fish. Common styles include Iwagumi (minimal stonework, open space), Dutch (dense, colourful planting arranged like a garden bed), and jungle-style layouts that favour a wilder, overgrown look.
Good aquascapes are usually built around the "rule of thirds," a clear focal point, and layered depth from foreground to background. Lighting, CO2, and substrate choice all shape what's realistic to grow in a low-tech scape with easy plants can look just as striking as a high-tech, CO2-injected one, just with a different plant palette.
Shrimp
Dwarf shrimp like Neocaridina (cherry shrimp) and Caridina (Crystal Red, Tiger) have become a hobby of their own, prized for their colour and their usefulness as a peaceful, algae-grazing addition to planted tanks. Neocaridina are the best starting point \u2014 tolerant of a fairly wide range of water parameters and quick to breed once settled.
Caridina species are more particular, generally wanting soft, slightly acidic water and very stable parameters, which makes them a better fit once you're comfortable with basic water chemistry. Copper is toxic to all shrimp in small amounts, so it's worth double-checking fertilizers, medications, and even tap water sources before adding them to an established tank.
Bettas
Betta splendens are often sold in tiny cups, which has led to a persistent myth that they don't need much space \u2014 in reality, bettas do best in at least 5-10 gallons with a heater, since they're a tropical species that suffers in cold or cramped conditions. They're intelligent, food-motivated fish that many keepers train to do simple tricks.
Male bettas are territorial toward other bettas and often toward other long-finned or brightly coloured fish, but can do well in a peaceful community with the right tankmates. Fin types such as veiltail, halfmoon, crowntail, plakat, and others are the result of decades of selective breeding, and different fin types have somewhat different care considerations around fin health.
African Cichlids
African cichlids from Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika are known for their vivid colour and complex social behaviour, but they need harder, more alkaline water than most freshwater fish closer to the mineral-rich conditions of their native Rift Lakes. Many keepers use crushed coral or cichlid-specific substrate and buffers to maintain this.
Most African cichlid setups are built around rockwork that creates territories and hiding spots, which helps manage aggression in what are naturally quite territorial fish. Stocking is usually done in larger numbers of a few compatible species at once, rather than the mixed community approach common with other freshwater fish.
Live Plants
Live plants improve water quality, give fish and shrimp cover, and simply make a tank look better but the amount of light, CO2, and fertilizer you need depends heavily on which plants you choose. Low-tech setups with plants like Anubias, Java Fern, and Cryptocoryne can thrive under modest lighting with little to no supplemental CO2.
High-tech planted tanks add pressurized CO2 and stronger lighting to grow more demanding carpeting or stem plants, but require closer attention to avoid algae outbreaks caused by imbalanced light, nutrients, or CO2. For beginners, starting with a handful of hardy, low-light species is the easiest way to get comfortable before scaling up.
Beginner Guides
The single most important concept for anyone new to the hobby is the nitrogen cycle, the process by which beneficial bacteria convert toxic fish waste (ammonia) into nitrite and then into far less harmful nitrate. A tank needs to be "cycled" before it can safely support a full stock of fish, which typically takes several weeks.
Beyond cycling, the basics that prevent most beginner problems are: don't overstock, don't overfeed, do regular partial water changes, and test your water rather than guessing. Most emergencies in a new tank trace back to one of these four things, and members are always happy to help troubleshoot at a meeting.
Articles & Resources
TEAS maintains a growing library of member-written articles, meeting recordings, and recommended resources covering everything from water chemistry to breeding logs for specific species. If you've written something you'd like to share with the club, reach out, we're always looking for member contributions.
If you don't see a topic covered here that you're curious about, bring it up at a monthly meeting. A lot of our best educational content started as a question someone asked out loud.