I plan to take more pictures of our tanks this weekend. When we first started, it was plastic ornaments, blue gravel, fake plants... now all our tanks have live plants, drift wood, and neutral colored gravel. I think we've been keeping fish for 3-4 years now, and we haven't done saltwater yet, but have some very colorful fish in the tanks we keep.
If any of you want to try the hobby, it can be a lot of fun and so relaxing. The key though is to "cycle the tank". You need to have beneficial bacteria in the filter to nuetralize the fish waste, and that either takes time to build up (you can read how to cycle a tank w/ an internet search) or to expect to lose fish in the beginning. Ones the tank is cycled, you can use filter media from an established tank to jump start new tanks. A lot of people think it's just about treating water for chemicals, but it's not... and the water actually isn't even where the beneficial bacterial lives (filter media is where it happens).
We got back into the hobby when we needed a distraction, but it was so much fun, we stuck with it. Right now, I am most excited about 10 growing yellow lab cichlids that were born / hatched here and some German Blue Rams we are raising (they came here in the mail smaller than dimes -- not in the same tank as the yellow labs). Lots of fun and those rural folk who have well water -- you're already probably ahead of the game!!!
I love all aspects of the hobby and my favorite parts are the water changes, watching the fish, and feeding the fish! Which is, I guess, 99% of what happens when you keep fish.
