Aquarium Care

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When Nature Aquarium Becomes A Hobby, Art and Business

Nature aquarium started as an upgrade from an ordinary aquarium making hobby to an art. It is where an aquarium that was originally intended for fancy fish was aquascaped with real live underwater plants. In ordinary aquarium, the emphasis of the hobby is the fish, while the emphasis of nature aquarium is the habitat and aquascape of the aquarium.

This art was popularized by a renowned Japanese photographer Takashi Amano. His specialty is naturistic photography which gave birth to his new art, nature aquarium. It’s like giving real life to all his photos and putting it inside the glass. His photography brought him to different parts of the world, and his nature aquarium became popular worldwide.

The aquarium that we are talking about is not an ordinary aquarium. Its main idea is about creating a miniature ecosystem inside the glass under a controlled environment, where fishes, bacteria, invertebrates, aquatic plants, and all other aquatic living organisms can live together as if they are living in the open wild.

There are several kinds of aquatic plants that you can plant inside the aquarium depending on your preferences and artistic imagination. “HC” or otherwise known as Hemianthus callitricodes can be a perfect choice for carpeting while Ludwigia Arcuata is a perfect choice for giving a purple color background for your aquarium. Dwarf Hairgrass is a good choice for creating a mountain like view. Again, it is all up to your own artistic imagination.

For the fishes, please note that since it is a miniature ecosystem, it is not really advisable to have huge fishes like Arowana or Oscar. It’s not what we are trying to achieve here. It is best to have small fishes such as Guppy and Tetra. If you can have some other colorful small fish, the better. But please, no Gold Fishes alright?

Also try to consider some invertebrates such as small shrimps and snails. They eat algae and some other harmful bacteria inside the nature aquarium. They can help maintain the balance of the ecosystem inside the tank.

Algae can also destroy the beauty of your aquarium that is why it needs to be controlled. But don’t bother yourself to totally eliminate it. Else, you will have an imbalance ecosystem, and you won’t have some food for your invertebrates. Just note that the goal here is to have a well balance ecosystem.

An alternative to invertebrates is a fish called “Siamese algae eater”. It is one of the best fish algae eater out there. But it is recommended to only have 1 Siamese for every 20 gallon tank.

Lastly, you also need to take care of the CO2 and oxygen, lighting, filtration, and substrate systems of your aquarium. These things are essentially important in growing the plants inside the aquarium. A mediocre quality of these tools won’t do any good to your plants.

Takashi’s hobby has become a business later on when he founded the Aqua Design Amano. He started this company that design high quality equipments for nature aquariums. Though they are quite expensive, the quality of these equipments are just so amazing and perfectly fit for your desired aquarium. It definitely one of the highest quality brand out there specifically designed for nature aquariums.

Bince is a nature lover. To learn more about nature aquarium, you can visit our site www.natureaquariums.org.

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Pet and Animal Care – Tips For Treating a Freshwater Fish Aquarium

Freshwater fish are perhaps the easiest fish to care for in comparison to saltwater species because they are usually hardier fish. You will need a tank, some rocks or substrate to line bottom of the tank. You will also need a filter, and some lighting. When choosing fish, it is imperative to make sure the fish are compatible. Not only do they need to be compatible for water temperature and P.H., but they also should have similar food requirements.

The water temperature in an aquarium for guppies should be kept between seventy two and eighty two degrees. The P.H. level should be kept between 7.0 and 8.2. As you can see these specifications are much more forgiving than those for certain tropical or marine fish. As with any type of aquarium, there are three basic components to caring for the fish.

Freshwater fish should be fed twice daily. Feed only a small amount that can be consumed within the first two to five minutes. Over feeding is a common mistake among novice fish keepers. Any excess food should be lifted with a net if possible, as it will become debris and quickly dirty the tank.

Conversely, most tropical fish will only allow about two degrees of variation in water temperature. It is not uncommon for the novice fish keeper to become easily discouraged. Water conditions are hard to regulate and unfortunately fish, even the freshwater variety, are not the hardiest of creatures. Sometimes they do not survive these fluctuations. It is important to be patient.

Be sure to clean the decorations and any substrate thoroughly before adding them to the aquarium. Live plants are highly recommended in new aquariums as they will help to generate the good bacteria necessary to reduce the amount of ammonia in the tank. It is a good idea to test the ammonia and nitrite levels before adding fish to the aquarium.

A few varieties of guppies are the Fantail, Flagtail, Spadetail, Deltatail and the Roundtail. The names of all of these different types of guppies focus on the tails because they are so remarkable and unique. The tail itself is usually about one third of the size of the whole fish. It is possible to mix guppies with other varieties of fish.

Guppies breed very quickly, usually about every three to four weeks. They will interbreed amongst themselves, so the aquarium could very quickly become filled with many different varieties of color. It is very feasible to have an attractive aquarium without having any other fish at all. If you don’t want the species to interbreed, simply keep them in separate tanks.

Jeff Parke is a writer and blogger who writes articles and blog posts specializing in animals, pets and animals rights. His betta fish care site is one of his many projects that he is passionate about. Along with betta fish care he has written about cats, dog and animal rights just to name a few. Click one of those links to learn more.

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Pet Fish and Animal Care – Tips For Treating and Caring for a Coral Aquarium

When people start a saltwater aquarium they do so because they have an compulsion to create a miniature version of the ocean in their living room. They want the whole kit and caboodle; the brightly colored fish, the flowing plants, the half rotted pirates ship, and the coral reef. Growing a coral reef in your saltwater aquarium is the ultimate goal for many saltwater aquarium enthusiast.

There are some steps to take when setting up a new coral aquarium. The process may seem to take a long time, and because of this, many people opt to use fake coral instead. However, the time spent waiting will be well worth it when you are later able to display your own coral aquarium.

Having good water is especially important if your want your coral reef to survive. An abrupt change in your water can cause the polyps to go into a state of shock, this will cause your reef to become discolored. Your aquarium must be filled with clear water which will allow the coral reef to get the full benefit of your lighting. Coral requires a strong water current, outfit your tank with a filter that circulates the water throughout your entire tank. Avoid a linear current.

After four weeks has passed, you will then add your first living creatures to the tank. It is best to add fish later, and slowly as to make sure the salt balance in the tank is correct and remains that way. At this time, you can add a variety of snails or crabs if you wish to have them part of your tank. You will also need to install a protein skimmer. The tank should be functioning as if it were full of fish.

Throw away any food that has been open for over five months, it becomes stale. You may want to consider purchasing liquid or bottled food for your corral. The size of the polyps in your coral reef will tell you a great deal about their food requirements. If you have large fleshy looking polyps you will be able to feed them large pieces of food, minced meat and large zoo plankton.

Now you have succeeded in creating your reef aquarium. During the course of the 10 to 12 week mark, you may begin adding your fish to your underwater world. It may seem a long drawn out process to get a coral aquarium up and running, but the time and hard work will pay off for years to come. Creating and caring for your coral aquarium will bring you much enjoyment and a wonderful sense of accomplishment for creating a spectacular coral aquarium.

Jeff Parke is a writer and blogger who writes blogs and articles specializing in pets and animals. His betta fish care website is one of his projects that he is passionate about. Along with betta fish care he has written about cats, dog and animal rights just to name a few. Click one of those links to learn more.

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Tropical Fish Diseases Explained

One of the many things that people find interesting is rearing tropical fishes. This is because they can be extremely rewarding and relaxing at the end of the day when you are admiring the vibrant colors you can find on them in your aquarium after a long hard day at work.

That said, it can also quickly turn to be one big stressful and frustrating experience for a lot of people when they find that their fish might not be as healthy. The fact that fishes are very fragile does not help and thus you would definitely want to learn how to properly take care of them before they fall sick. You will find about some of the common diseases that will afflict your fishes and how to treat them in this article.

One of the most common diseases in a fish is fungal disease, and the symptom you will see are white spots on your fishes. This is most commonly associated to stress experienced by your fish, as such those white spots suggest that your fish might be weakened due to prolong stress. What you should do is to isolate them from the rest and help your fish to relax and not further aggregating it.

Your fish might also easily get inflicted with bacterial diseases, and the telling signs are sores, swelling eyes, as well as ulcers. Bacterial disease can be controlled with the use of antibiotic medication that you can apply to the aquarium to stop the spread of such diseases.

Another different ype of disease is parasitic disease; this is easy to spot when you see your fish acting weird in the tank, such as rubbing their bodies on the floor bed or any other objects in the tank. What you should do to stop the parasite is to give your fish a bath with salt solution, as that will usually help stop the problem.

Finally, there are the viral diseases that you need to pay attention to. When you start seeing swelled up white spots on your fish, it is a symptom of viral disease. You need to immediately control the spread of these viruses before they end up afflicting on all your fishes, isolate the one which has the viral disease and clean your tank as soon as possible. While it might be difficult to find a cure and thus you might want to let it run its course, just be sure that the infected fish are not sharing the same tank with your other fishes.

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How To Get Started With Owning Fish

You may be interested to learn that the past time of keeping fish as pets has been around for far longer than you may think.

Ever since man has been what we would consider civilised, there have been people who kept fish as pets in glass tanks and outdoor ponds.

If you are just about to take your first steps as the owner of your own small aquarium then you are getting started at a time when this hobby has never been more popular.

So what do you need to do?

Well if you have no experience whatsoever in keeping fish and maintaining an aquarium then your first port of call should probably be your pet store.

The staff here should be able to put together some sort of package deal for rookies that gives you everything you need to get started.

It is common for beginners to get started with some fairly standard fish breeds so that if your first fish dies, it is not worth hundreds of dollars.

On the other hand you might be keen to jump straight in at the deep end and go for the more exotic breeds.

If you do take this route, then be sure to do all you can to educate yourself on the breed you choose.

Each breed of fish will have a slightly different set of requireements that you will need to understand.

If you can study up on these topics when you first get started then you are giving your fish the greatest possible chance at a

You should also be able to get some simple instructions from the guys at your pet store about the best way to set your aquarium up and how to keep it working.

Keeping fish is something that can become a lifetime hobby/(obsession).

Your fish tank or aquarium will be a grat source of relaxation for you and for other members of your household.

Keep in mind that the more information you learn, the greater your enjoyment of your new hobby will most likely be.

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