We do have a pet but he doesn’t live with us. Bollo the cat became rather unreasonable after we had children and decided he didn’t much like me. Never the friendliest of cats to begin with he became positively feral in nature if we tried to do such things to him like, oh I don’t know, walk past him while he was sleeping so we renamed him Bollo The Beast!

We used to send him off on sabbatical to my Mum’s in Norfolk where he would spend weeks at a time enjoying the countryside and getting into slightly less trouble (he had a LOT of fights with a LOT of dogs, foxes and cats in London and was always at the Vet’s), then as time went on the sabbaticals became longer and longer and he’s been on his latest one for nearly two years…

Don’t judge me too much, he was terrible to have around the children and it’s not like we abandoned him. He currently rules the roost at my Mum’s and lives it up in the countryside every day. He was always a BIG Tom cat that needed space and we just didn’t have enough of it here. He’s very happy and for the most part he and my Mum rub along nicely together. She doesn’t ever trust him fully and would always think about it before touching him to assess his mood but he’s much happier there than he ever was here.

And although I’d love a cat (a girl cat, I’m done with Toms) I just don’t think it would be fair to risk it again when we still don’t have a garden. So, what’s open to us? Well… Essentially, fish. They’re cheap and require very little looking after so that sounded good to me and yet the children still get to have a pet. Or two!

Peppa Pig has a goldfish and the children love the episode where Goldie comes to love with them. They loved it even more when they were sent a Peppa Pig Aquarium by Tetra for their very own goldfish to live in!

Now it might have been an idea for me to have read the instructions and prepared the tank (which takes 4 days) before letting the children know we were getting fish as waiting for water to be cleaned and fish ready seems to take ages when you’re little…

However, I set up the tank and wait we did… And in the mean time the children were able to decorate the tank with the Peppa Pig stickers that come with it. The stickers are good because they are removable and can be replaced somewhere else if you don’t like where you first put them. There is also a back drop which you have to stick on with Cellotape. That part is a little disappointing because the tape makes it look untidy. It would be far better if the back drop was made out of the same material that the stickers are made from.

The kit also comes with the pump and two filters (which last about 4 weeks), a solution to clean the water and once the pump is going you put that in and wait for four days before getting your fish. It also comes with gravel for the bottom of the tank and fish food. Strangely though, the food is for Tropical Fish when the cold water tank is actually not for Tropical fish at all. When we went to the pet shop they looked at the food and advised us not to use it but to buy specific goldfish food instead.

The tank, at 18ltrs, is big enough for one normal goldfish or four or five smaller fish. The pet shop advised we could buy two of the smaller variety of goldfish which suited us just fine.

The tank didn’t take too long to set up and the wait wasn’t too bad but we were very happy to go and get our fish for it. Overall I think it is a very inexpensive way of getting a tank with most of the things you need but there are things I would change. The instructions need to be a bit clearer, I’m still not entirely sure we did everything as it should be but the fish are still alive so I presume I did? I also think the food it comes with needs to be for the correct fish and it would be nice if the gravel was a little more exciting in colour. it might also be an idea to have some sort of ornament in the tank too.

The tank cost £35 in our pet shop which is cheaper than lots of the other tanks so actually, even if you didn’t want a Peppa Pig theme I would suggest this might be a good idea as you don’t have to decorate with the stickers if you don’t want to.

This would make a different Christmas present for someone and just as I thought, keeping fish is cheap and easy so not too much trouble for parents either. You can even get holiday food which is slow releasing for if you go away. We like the tank despite it needing improvement and our fish are very happy too! I haven’t cleaned it out yet but the filter just slots in the top of the pump so it doesn’t look too difficult.

We were sent the Tetra Peppa Pig Aquarium in return for an honest review.

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