I'd have to completely agree with the above. There are things I did in my past that I thought were completely acceptable and the general community consenus echoed this. Times change though and practices change or die out.
Keeping fish really isn't all that hard once you get things right. For the most part, you're not even taking care of the fish, you're taking care of the water. I may be being presumptious, but I think a fish can look after itself without having it's fin held.. What a fish can't do, is control it's environment.
Lots of the science behind fish keeping can look a bit daunting when you first read it, but it's really fairly simple once you get used to it and shouldn't be something to put you off. There are lots of people who like to get bogged down in the nitty gritty of fish keeping, but if all you're wanting to do is keep a little community tank, with some intersting and colourful fish, there's not too much you need to know.
That said, the things you do need to know about are:
The nitrogen cycle - Dead easy once you strip out all the scientific words. Fish poops, various bacteria in your tank make poop safer so your fish don't poison themselves with their own excrement. (Okay you might want a slightly better understanding of it than that
)
Water Changes - These get done every 1-2 weeks (Unless you're in a fish-in-cycle). Basically, once all the bacteria in your tank has broken down the waste there's still some stuff left behind (that can be harmful in large amounts) byt changing a small amount of water every week or so, this just dilutes this and stops it becoming a problem.
Feeding - Generally, less is more. That is to say, it's better to underfeed than over feed. Fish don't need nearly as much food as people seem to think they do.
There are other useful things to know, but unless you live in an area with really crappy water those three things are where I'd read up on.
Sorry for rambling on
kind regards
Jimi
