Aquarium Care

It must make any aquarium enthusiast cringe, having to feed his fish every day in the same water that they swim in, breathe in and release their bodily wastes in. If it were not for reasons of yuckiness that that such a situation could not be allowed, it would certainly be objectionable for the way this would poison the water and make it incapable of sustaining aquatic life. How do you treat your fish to a better life then? If the fish lived in a natural water body, a pond or stream, there would be enough clean water in the system that all the bodily waste would not make a difference; in a closed water body like an aquarium, it comes down to the owner of the aquarium to do something to constantly clean and freshen the water the fish live in, to give them a reasonable standard of living. Aquarium filters are the answer; though there are so many, they can hardly be called one answer.

The empathetic aquarium owner must worry most about the health implications of having his fish swimming around in a weak solution of their own bodily waste. What must all the bacteria and other pathogens in the water do to the fish? Do their eyes sting; do they breathe with difficulty in such a toxic water cocktail? Biological aquarium filters are the solution to such concerns. A biological filter is a unit that encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria inside it. These bacteria subsist on the bodily waste of fish; and they break down the poisonous ammonia in the waste into nitrogen compounds, nitrites and nitrates and these are a great way to take the sting out of the problem.

Under-gravel filters are a great example of biological aquarium filters; they’re not marketed as effectively these days, owing to the fact that they are simple to build, and offer no opportunity for a killer markup, but are very effective. The idea is that the filter is placed under the bed of the aquarium; water is drawn through the gravel over the bed; the gravel filters out a large part of the suspended debris, and the bacteria that live in the gravel take care of the ammonia. The water is drawn down and sent back up after purification by message of an air stone or a powerhead.

One of the best options that modern aquarium filter technology provides is the canister filter. Canister aquarium filters force the water in an aquarium through a variety of filters and cycle the entire contents of an aquarium every hour. The result is a visibly bright and clean and aquarium that manages to be free of most kinds of impurities. A minor drawback to this type of aquarium filter is the way it keeps drawing all the water through its system constantly; this action creates quite a strong current in the tank that can be annoying to some fish.

One of the most satisfying kinds of aquarium filter to use is the sump variety. Basically a sump aquarium filter is a large aquarium-like tank by itself, used exclusively for water purification in the main tank. The sump is sectioned off into three or four areas, each one installed with a different kind of water purification system. These aquarium filters are mostly the domain of experienced do-it-yourselfers; you could have a sump with a compartment for beneficial plants, one for gravel and charcoal purification, and so on. It is easy to be bitten by the purification bug and let it run away with you though. The final test of how successful your attempts are, rests in the health of your fish population. If your veterinarian certifies them to be as healthy as can be, there’s no reason why you should not congratulate yourself on a job well done.

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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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