[Jaine Perotti]

Most things about fish have been mentioned already, but there are a couple of things that I would like to mention (I have two fish tanks -- one 55 gallon and another 25 gallon -- all with African ciclids):

1) Putting it near the window will probably give you algae problems. The sunlight may cause your fishbowl to get green in a hurry. (This has already been mentioned, but the proximity to the window may also cause extreme fluctuations in temperature, depending on how drafty it is)

2) To deal with the water changing issue -- what I do is I save our old half gallon and whole gallon milk bottles, fill them up with regular tap water, and keep them in one of our kitchen cabinets. After 24 hours, the chlorine found in tap water will evaporate out of the water and will not harm fish. This way, I know that I will have good water every time I do a water change.

However this does not eliminate the shock issue completely -- in order to survive, fish need a certain amount of bacteria present in the water. These bacteria develop over time as the fish lives in it's environment. However, if you change all of the water at once, the fish will no longer have enough bacteria and likely will die of shock. I recommend changing only 1/4 of the water at a time -- that way there will not be a dangerous lack of bacteria and the bacteria already in the water will have a chance to multiply themselves.

3) Get a book about fish before you buy one. A little bit of literature will help you immensely. Talk to the person at the pet store to figure out what's right for you. Fish can be a bigger commitment than one may think. Depending on the species of fish that you get, the difficulty of care varies greatly. Do your research so that things don't end up in disaster!

Hope this helps!