Little tropical fish can look very appealing as they sparkle and dart around mock chateaux and through fronds of weed.
Big fish have a certain dignity, as they swim in a stately, leisured way.
Fish seem to have simple lives and promise us endless evenings of unwinding from stress. The fish themselves are actually quite cheap compared to the cost of setting up a decent-sized tank with heater and thermostat, thermometer, filter system, gravel, and lid with light. It is worth investing in a good-quality system, since it will be less prone to failure. Ideally, you should have a back-up heater, in case your heater breaks down outside shopping hours. A water testing system is useful, as is a net for catching fish, an algae scraper and a 'hoover' type apparatus or detritus sucker, for removing floaty brown bits of decayed matter that collect on the bottom .