Aquarium Care

When starting a fish tank, the hardest thing to decide may surprisingly be the type of fish to raise. Even though the funniest thing about owning a fish tank may be choosing the types of fish. Choosing fish can be a difficult and fun task, but if it is done incorrectly can cost a lot of money and time. There are many combinations of fish to chose from, but narrowing down these choices is fairly easy. To narrow down the choices, you need to decide the types of fish you would like to raise.

Raising fish to breed is a fun and most common way for raising fish. If you want to raise fish for breeding, I would suggest a bigger tank with lots of hiding places. The fish that I would first choose would be some Mollies and Guppies. Mollies and Guppies are very nonviolent fish and have many offspring. For bottom feeders I would suggest some Cory Cats and Bristlenose Plecostomus. Breeding tanks must be very peaceful for the offspring to survive.

If you would like a community tank with a variety of fish and many colors, there are many possibilities. Barbs, Tetras, Angel Fish and Kribensis make for a nice community tank. These fish swim around the tank for an active tank. Loaches, Cory Cats and Plecostomus are good bottom feeders.

If you just like a certain type of fish, or would like interesting fish to own I would suggest Cichlids. African Cichlids are very fun fish to rise, but can be very difficult. Finding the right type of Cichlids can be difficult and the wrong kind can cause fighting. Only get the same species of Cichlids in a tank, and you will be fine. Cichlids are egg layers and very protective of their young.

There are some fish that can be very hard to raise no matter the circumstance. I have had experience with certain types of fish that are impossible to raise. Jack Dempsies eat other smaller fish and I would not suggest owning one to begin with. Chinese Algae Eaters are very good at eating algae, but have one problem, they suck the slime off other fish and can kill them.

If you are new to fish raising, I would suggest using a few of these combinations to start with, you can add more fish and experiment as your tank grows. I would not start out with aggressive fish, these fish can be very difficult to own even if you are experienced. Trying new combinations of fish is good, but after you add a new fish, watch the fish to for a while to make sure they fit in.

Roshan Goodman gives help on saltwater fish and on freshwater fish.

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So how can I choose my first fish or maybe I need to change my current aquarium population? There are many families of tropical fish, tangs, catfish, bottom feeders, Characins, cyprinids, labyrinth fish, rainbowfish and many more. Make sure that your wishful tropical fish suit to your fish tank size and pick one. The Betta splendens is good selection; it is very hardy and tolerates species.

In the wild, bettas males have very shorter fins that those we usually see in stores, these are called by the Thai people “Plakad” (meaning- “Fighter”), and are used in Thailand for show-fights (just like roosters). The betta is very hardy and durable to low water conditions, though; long-finned strains are more susceptible to high amounts of nitrogen compounds in water and will quickly suffer from fin-rot, dropsy and other illnesses. In large fish tanks Betta splendens requires good filtration system with low to moderate water flow. If water flow is too strong, the betta will settle in a spot where flow is lowest and will hardly move from it. When kept in a jar, water should be changed every week or even twice a week- the amount of water changed, depends on the jar’s volume. Some people buy dry leafs of a tree called Ketapang/Indian Almond-tree (Terminalia katappa) and put them to the betta’s jar. It is said to help preventing infectious illnesses and getting the betta into breeding-mood. When feeding these fish, avoid over-feeding, as these fish tend to gorge itself, which might end up in a bloated fish suffering from deadly incurable Enlarged-leaver.

Another amazing freshwater fish is the Labidochromis caeruleus or by its common names yellow lab and lemon cichlid. The yellow lab is one of the most amazing Mbuna species that exist in the hobby, its yellow and black colors along with the fact That it is one of the least aggressive cichlids makes it very popular all over the world. The Labidochromis caeruleus requires at least 25 gallon tank size.

The Labidochromis caeruleus should kept in large community tank with other small Mbuna type fish like the species from the Labeotropheus Melanochromis. Decorate the tank with rocks, caves and other hiding places. These fish prefer hard alkaline water with a fairly high PH. The caeruleus or yellow lab will appreciate water changes on a weekly basis and well filtered water.

The last one but one of my favorites, belongs to the livebearers family, the well known Guppy fish. The guppy is an elongated tropical fish that available in many different colors. The guppy is one of the most popular aquarium fishes all over the world with many standardized varieties. This species offers a large selection of colors with no two fish look alike. It is a small member of the Poeciliidae family (and like all other members of the family, he is livebearer). The most notable characteristic of this group is the presence of a copula-tory organ in males the andropodium or gonopodium, this organ is formed by the anterior rays of the anal fin. It is very easy to distinguish between male and females, Females are dull grey while the males are very colorful and have large fins.

There is nothing special to setup if you want to breed this amazing fish, the only thing you should do is to keep a ratio of one male and three females, the reason you need to bring more than one female for the male not harass the females to the point of exhaustion. Like all livebearers when the female is in pregnant it will develop a dark triangular shaped gravid spot near her anal vent. As the pregnancy advances the gravid spot will get bigger and darker. At the time the fry comes out it is recommended to move them or the parents to another fish tank or else the parents will eat their own fry. These fry can be fed with crushed commercial foods.

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