Having marine tropical fish in your home or office may be an easier task than you think. A lot of people assume that marine tropical fish are hard to care for. Despite a few basic guidelines and compatibility rules, taking care of tropical fish is no different than freshwater fish. If you want to start your own marine tropical tank, here’s what you’ll need to know.

Marine tropical fish are popular because of their bold and bright colors. They live in saltwater environments. The fish are normally caught in the wild and require more live food than other types of fish. Their tanks have to be kept between 76 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit to replicate the tropical water environment.

To start, you’ll need a tank, sand, a heater, salt mix, a hydrometer, a protein skimmer and a pH kit. You can ask the aquarium specialist at your local pet shop for tips on how to use these components together to take care of your marine tropical fish. There are also many books and websites on the topic, since taking care of tropical fish can have a learning curve.

If you want to make your marine tropical fish tank easy to take care of, you should start with Damselfish and Clownfish. Damselfish come in many different varieties, but the most popular color is blue. Clownfish were the model for the main character in the film “Finding Nemo.”

Once you get more comfortable with taking care of marine tropical fish, you can move on to other varieties. Blennies, Gobies, Tangs, Hawkfish, shrimp and crabs are all good choices for the intermediate saltwater aquarium owner. For a challenge, you can care for tanks with Triggerfish, Lionfish, Seahorses, Anemones, Corals, Eels, Groupers and Starfish. Make sure you check with marine tropical fish compatibility charts before adding any new fish to your tank.

My golden retreiver will not allow other dogs to come near me (except my other golden) in the dog park and outside. I can not even go up to them anymore! I try time outs, but it is very hard to get her attention and the other dogs' owners freak out thinking that she will hurt their dog. She plays fine (submissively) with any dog as long as they don't get close to me. Any ideas?

I get scared when larger breed dogs growl or bark.
I got attacked by a corgi before and certain breeds make me nervous, but the breeds that I like are : Maltese, poodles, schnauzers, pugs and miniature mutts.

Also, due to a mild allergy, dogs with coarse hair like labs tend to make my skin itch. Yet, poodles and cavalier king Charles spaniels and those breeds mentioned above didn't make me itch.

A dog would give me an excuse to walk around and not look weird, especially when I go too close to people w/dogs.