There is nothing as spectacular as a freshwater aquarium with well-groomed live plants. If you have ever thought about incorporating live plants into your aquarium but haven’t done it yet – quit wasting time and get it done. It can make all the difference in the world. The benefits to your fish and the whole underwater environment completely out weight the extra effort it takes to care for the plants and their slightly higher costs.
Before you start, make a rough sketch of how you want the aquarium to look when completed. This will give you a simple plan when you go to buy the plants and a roadmap to follow when you begin the planting process.
One of the best planting strategies I’ve seen is to plant the taller plants toward the back of the aquarium and the shorter ones in front. This is a good technique to use if you are mixing plants that have different lighting needs. The taller plants can be used to shade any shorter plants that need less light.
These short bushy plants should be arranged to hide any unsightly equipment in the tank. Try to arrange them so they don’t look symmetrical in the tank. There’s nothing symmetrical about the way they grow in nature so don’t plant them that way in your aquarium.
When you start the planting process, make sure the tank is full. It may seem like it would be a lot easier (and it would be) to empty the aquarium to do the planting but that would be a mistake. You need the water to see how the plants will spread out in the water. You can’t do this with a dry tank.
Don’t bury the plants in the substrate below its crown. The crown is the area between the plant’s roots and the stalk. Be sure to place the plants far enough apart to let the roots grow properly. A rule of thumb is to separate them by the length of one leaf. Overcrowding causes the plants to eventually wither and die.
When talking about the health of the discus fish, there are really only two main aspects where great concern should be focused on. These two will dictate highly whether your discus fish will be able to spawn or let alone be healthy and live a long life. These two is the water where they live in and the food they ingest. Another minor aspect that should also be kept in mind prior to owning a discus fish is the tank mates that your discus fish will have. Generally, it is recommended that the discus fish should be the largest fish in the tank.
It has always been said that prevention is better than cure, so knowing what signs to look out for to determine whether there is something wrong with the tank or with your discus fish. To be honest, it’s much more bothersome to be treating illness rather than just plainly keeping a routine of maintaining a clean tank, at least you can put it in your schedule. Besides, keeping your tank water clean is just one of the responsibilities of owning an aquarium.
Imagine, what would life be if we don’t have air to breathe? Water is air to the discus fish. If your breathing in thick smog all the time then it’s a certainty that you would get sick, maybe develop cancer, or even choke to death in an instant. So, in maintaining the water of your tank, you not only need to keep it clean, but you also have to get the right pH levels and the proper temperature which will simulate the waters where the discus fish came from, which is the Amazon river.
Changing the water in your tank should be done at least once or twice a week. A partial change will also be good and it will require less handling of your fish. Changing at least a quarter to half the water in the tank will suffice as long as you have a good biological filtration system installed. In some cases, some aquarists would just add some medication to clear up the dirt. This though should not be done often.
As for their food, you should ask the store clerk what food they have been accustomed to. Discus fish can be picky so you need to ensure that you can, maintain the food that they usually eat. Make sure though to never overfeed your fish. The extra food will just become dirt inside the tank. For younger discus fish, you should feed them about four times daily, older fish only needs to be fed twice a day. Growing fishes need the food more.
Discus fish should also be fed live or frozen food from time to time. As they re carnivorous, this will add protein to their diet, protein they need to stay healthy. Usually, they would prefer bloodworms or shrimp brine.
To help keep the tank clean, always clean your tank two hours after you have fed them, remove the excess food right way.
Among the various types of freshwater fish, Rosy barbs, Tiger barbs, Sumatra barbs and Red Barbs are easiest to maintain and breed. However, it is advisable to place the larger barbs with fish of similar size. In communal tanks, trouble is stirred up by the larger barbs and they also uproot the fancy plants. They are more attention seeking than the smaller barbs and therefore, they should be separated and grouped.
Ceylon is the origin of the Purple Head Barbs and the Black Ruby. The fish do well in communal tanks and grow to about 2 1/2 inches. The female barbs are yellow-gray with dark stripes running in blotches and vertical lines. They lend colorful environments to the aquarium. The male barbs are brownish-black in color and/or black with vermilion red frontals. This fish lives well in communal waters, unlike the boisterous Puntius Conchonius groups. This fish feasts on all foodstuffs and is not finicky. It is also not demanding when it comes to water conditions and will survive even in moderately hard neutral waters. This is an easier fish to breed like the Puntius. The barb spawns like other barbs and lays about 300 eggs.
The Sumatra and the Tiger Barb belong to the Capoeta Tetrazona species, which originates from Sumatra and Borneo. Their size is about 2 inches when fully grown. This is a colorful fish with reddish-yellow bodies with a wide variety of black stripes. Its attitude is changeable which is the reason for its being the most diverse fish in the market. Some people are of the opinion that this fish bullies other fish, nipping at their fins, while other people feel that they have a calm disposition.
The Sumatra and Tigerfish share the same water condition needs as other barbs. The Sumatra and Tiger Barbs flourish in impartial or practical alkalinity water, as also in hard water. Fish owners are advised to set the temperatures at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. The Sumatra and Tigerfish will crave and eat all foodstuffs heartily. All barbs spawn healthily and they are the first choice of breeders.
The male Sumatra and Tigerfish are slim and colorful while the female species are plump. The female is simple and breeds like other barbs. The fry is, however, susceptible to bladder problems and tend to rot at the fins. The water then has to be extremely spotless and should be monitored very carefully during breeding, as the spawn of the Sumatra and Tigerfish is gnawed at by the mutants.
Ceylon is the origin of Capoeta Titteya fish or Cherry Barbs, which are about 2 inches in length. The fish have a red-brown or yellow-brown color and are outstanding by their top to bottom dark black stripes. This is a communal fish and needs the same water and feeding conditions like those of other barbs. Male counterparts of Capoeta Titteya are of dark colors and change colors when bred. They are usually cherry red and black, with stripes that virtually evaporate.
Breeding of the Cherry Barbs is similar to the breeding of other barbs and they spawn nearly 200 eggs. There is variety in Cherry Barbs, with some barbs feasting on their own kind, while others refraining from it.
You should have a look at the line of Harlequins if you are a novice to aquariums and fish care and are new to the hobby.
By Abhishek Agarwal Abhishek is an avid Fish Lover and he has got some great Aquarium Care Secrets up his sleeves! Article Source: EzineArticles
You can find them almost anywhere near the seashore boardwalks. All you have to do is walk into a cramped little gift shop on the beach and you can find them, stuck in a 6"X 3" carrying cage and nothing else. If you haven’t looked there, all you have to do is look at the nearest wannabe pet shop. They are stashed on the darkest bottom shelf with tons of others, cramped in a small aquarium with a little water and food. Some of them won’t even venture out of their shells. Some of them are even missing limbs and claws. That’s right, I’m talking about hermit crabs. Before they even have a chance to be chosen by people from a caring home, they are already being mistreated wherever they are being sold. The cards are already stacked against them.
Many pet stores treat hermit crabs as if they are simply stock. They take good care of their birds that are worth hundreds of dollars. Same goes for their expensive puppies and kittens. But where are the pet stores that care about pets down to the smallest and most inexpensive? Just because they don’t cost an arm and a leg to buy and care for doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be cared for in the same way. As you know, temperature and humidity are key components to keeping a hermit crab healthy. Shoving a small aquarium on the darkest bottom shelf in the store, leaving the lid open with no humidity or temperature gauge, and not even caring to regulate temperature and humidity is total, undeniable hermit crab abuse. Unfortunately, there isn’t a big organization to make pet stores treat these small creatures humanely. The SPCA won’t come barging indignantly into a pet store treating hermit crabs horribly. This isn’t something that is important to very many people.
If you are interested enough to purchase a hermit crab from a pet store, most of the time you won’t get any information or fact sheet about your pet. If you question the store clerk about tank conditions or ask the pros and cons of certain types of diets, you are dismissed because the clerk doesn’t know anything about the pets they are selling or just flat out do not care to learn. They see hermit crabs as a "disposable" pet. You know... the kind people buy and just in case they don’t take care of it and it dies, it’s ok; they are cheap and they can simply replace it. The pet store associates themselves even say that hermit crabs do not last as pets.
Not only do some people believe this way, some pet stores having a return policy for defective animals, are used when the crab is mistreated, dies within the 30 days, then is taken back and another victim is chosen. This should never be the case. Hermit crabs can live 15 to 20 years or more if taken care of properly. It is unfair to treat any creature this way. These animals are living, breathing creatures and deserve to be treated fairly. They didn’t ask to be plucked from their tropical climates. They didn’t ask to be bread in captivity for eventual sale. They are simply creatures that exist and deserve to be treated with care.
Please don’t think that if you purchased a crab and it died and you replaced it that you are necessarily in the same category as these impatient, uncaring pet owners. Many times, the hermit crabs are so stressed out from the horrible treatment they receive while they are waiting to be sold that they just can’t handle being moved to a new location. Besides the fact that most pet store clerks don’t handle or feed or house them correctly, they don’t monitor the patrons who handle them, either.
For example, the pet store I’ve been referencing about keeping the hermit crabs in a dark, hardly suitable atmosphere is the same place I found one of my hermit crabs, who was already missing a limb from stress. Instead of the crabs being in a place where they and the people handling them can be seen, these hermit crabs were on the last row so that no one could see who was picking up the hermit crabs. Unruly and unsupervised children and uncaring, ignorant people are both fully capable of accessing these creatures without supervision from a pet store associate. This means that they are fully able to roughly handle, terrify, and drop the hermit crabs that are for sale. If you researched hermit crab care, purchased a hermit crab, took it directly home, and began caring for it, and it still died, chances are, that it wasn’t you who contributed to the tragic demise of your hermit crab.
If any of this has happened to you, don’t blame yourself. The best thing you can do is find a reputable pet store and do research about it before you make a decision to purchase any pet from it. Take the time to look at the way the crabs are displayed to sell. Ask associates if they are sitting in temperature and humidity controlled climates. If not, strongly consider not purchasing from this store. Do research on hermit crab care, and question store associates to see if they know what they are talking about. Do your homework. In the end, you will be a much more satisfied pet owner. If you have that tendency to attract strays, you might consider going to that awful pet store and saving some of those poor hermit crabs.
An idea to help you with this is to put the crabs from that store in their own cage. Leave them separate from your healthy hermit crabs. As you observe, remove the crabs that are healthy and place them in with your current crab habitat. You can try to nurse the unhealthy ones back to health. It is a brave endeavor, but might not always turn out the way we would like. But if you are willing to try to save these animals, they are much better off with you than a person who won’t care for them. Whatever you decide, just remember that these are living beings. They deserve to be treated as such.
Marbled hatchetfish or Carnegiella strigata are a member of the family Gasteropelecidae. They are native to Panama and most of South America.
The hatchetfish derives its name from its peculiarly shaped body. Hatchetfish have an enormously enlarged sternal region. They are a smaller variety of fish reaching only about two inches long when fully grown. They have an average life expectancy of five years.
Hatchetfish prefer subdued lighting. Hatchets are surface dwellers. Most of their time is spent near the surface of the aquarium. They take readily to a heavily planted terrain. They also have an affinity for floating plants. Hornwort is a good choice if you intend to keep hatchetfish.
Beware: hatchet fish are accomplished jumpers. In nature, they often jump out of the water to escape predators. They are generally considered the only true flying-fish. Hatchets have extraordinarily powerful pectoral fins. The muscles attached to these fins accounts for 1/4 of their entire body weight. They actually flap their pectoral fins to aid in their flight. The rapid beating of these fins allows them to lift their bodies halfway out of the water and glide along the surface. There have been reported cases of them actually becoming airborne for short distances. Quite understandably, they should only be kept in a lidded aquarium.
Hatchetfish have a docile nature. They are good community fish provided they are surrounded by species of similar temperament. You also want to avoid housing them with fish that are large enough to consider them the perfect lunch.
Hatchets are shoaling fish. Nature didn't intend for them to live a solitary existence. It is not uncommon for them to perish without another member of their own species. A group of 6 or 8 is ideal. Given their size, this shouldn't present a problem even for smaller aquarium owners.
The Amazon River is slightly acidic. PH levels generally run around 6.8. The river ranges in temperatures from 76-82°. Hatchetfish will thrive under these conditions.
Hatchetfish are omnivores. In nature, their diet consists primarily of small insects, insect larvae and plant matter. In captivity, they are not picky. A general purpose tropical fish food will suffice.
Males are more colorful than the females and typically have more markings on their bodies.
Breeding Hatchetfish
Hatchetfish are egg layers. They will spawn in an aquarium providing there are plenty of plants. Spawning usually occurs under the camouflage of these plants.
Once released, the eggs will adhere to the plants. The fry will hatch in about 24 hours. They will be free swimming in four to five days.
The fry is particularly small. They should be fed infusoria or a similar liquid fry food formulated for egg laying fish. When they grow a little larger their diet can be switched to newly hatched brine shrimp. Or for the sake of convenience, they can be fed small amounts of powdered eggs. In about a week you can start feeding them finely crushed fish flakes.
By Stephen J Broy Jellyfish aquariums are the hottest new trend in the aquarium industry. Jellyfish do require a special Jellyfish Aquarium Fish Tank in order to survive but they are far easier to keep alive and healthy than saltwater fish. If you find the idea of raising pet jellyfish intriguing, find out more about Moon Jellyfish and other Pet Jellies. Article Source: EzineArticles
Corydoras catfish are very famous in the American continent. There are about 150 known species which are spread all around.
Corydoras catfish are very good for keeping with the other species of fish in the same aquarium. They live peacefully and will never trouble any other fish in the aquarium. As they keep on searching for food at the bottom of the aquarium, they help in cleaning the dirt and excessive food which is accumulated at the bottom.
They cannot grow beyond 2 to 3 inches. In nature, they are happy in a place where the water is still. They usually eat the insects which are lying at the bottom of the water. They also eat the flesh of a dead fish, so they are called cleaners.
They are considered 'social' in the aquarium as they would form a group along with other Corydoras. This group will swim together, search for food together and even take rest together! Usually, you will find one catfish resting on the other. Even if there is no catfish around, they will become friends with other species of fish and live happily. So you must keep them in a group or at least with some other species in the aquarium. If you keep them alone, they may not live long.
You need not spend much on their food. You will find their mouths facing downwards so they will always be searching at the bottom of the aquarium. You can offer them the same food which you offer to the other species of fish. Usually, they will prefer sinking food, but occasionally they will come to the surface of the water to eat food like bloodworms.
If you provide them with normal conditions of water, they are happy. If the ph level of the water is 7.0 and the temperature is of about 80° F, they will have no problems. The only precaution you should take is not adding salt to the water. They may not survive in such water.
You can provide sand or rocks at the bottom of the aquarium but care should be taken to avoid rocks with sharp edges. As Corydoras catfish would like to hang around at the bottom, such things may damage their body.
Breeding of Corydoras catfish is not normal. They should be kept in the proportion of two males to one female. The female will put their mouth at genitals of the males for swallowing the sperm. It will pass through the digestive system and it will then pass on to the eggs released by her. Initially, she will hold these eggs in her fins. Once they are fertilized, she will carry them to a safe surface in the tank, maybe on a plant or on the glass.
The eggs will hatch in a few days. However, there is a risk of other fish eating them before they are hatched. For this reason, the breeding should preferably take place in a separate tank.
Corydoras catfish do not take care of their little ones so you can remove them from the tank after spawning.
The small ones will start swimming around and eating food available at the bottom of the tank. They will be happy with the small brine shrimp.
Corydoras catfish can adjust themselves to any setup. They are not colorful, but they perform a great job of maintaining the cleanliness of the aquarium. That is why they have recently become popular among the fish keepers.
By Chintamani Abhyankar Chintamani Abhyankar is a goldfish enthusiast and has been raising and breeding goldfish for many years. He is an expert on their care and an advocate for raising healthy goldfish the natural way. Article Source: EzineArticles
Just as nature above the sea level is as variable as the sun, from the deserts of Arizona to the snow-topped caps of the Swiss Alps, so can the world under the sea be a constant study in contrasts, with no two reefs the same. This is good news for the underwater enthusiast who is attempting to establish the perfect reef aquarium in their home; there is no established "formula" for the perfect tank. There's plenty of room for creativity!
One thing that cannot be shirked upon is the size of a tank. It must be more than adequate to allow the species of fish that are chosen to inhabit it plenty of room to exercise and grow. Just as a person cannot thrive in an enclosed environment, neither can a fish. A 75 gallon tank is a generous size for the home marine biologist to establish their own eco-system and allows for space for several species of fish to spread out (provided they are compatible species, of course. Putting two species together who are unsuited to tank life together is a recipe for disaster, regardless of the size of the tank).
Courtesy of advances in the convenience of establishing a home aquarium it is now possible to purchase an aquarium that has been pre-drilled in order to prevent overflow. This provides a cleaner look than the traditional "hang on the back" overflow system for the home professional who is attempting to create the picture perfect reef aquarium.
There are many options for decorating a reef aquarium, although it is generally much more aesthetically pleasing and healthy to the fish to keep all of the decorations one hundred percent organic. Live rock is a vital element to any eco-system, yet makes a lovely addition to a home saltwater aquarium. The microorganisms which grow on the rock (the rock is not really alive, obviously; it gets its name from the fact that it is a natural habitat for many species of bacteria) will help to filter out the harmful waste products produced by the fish that will accumulate in the water of a saltwater aquarium in spite of the filtering system-after all, how often does Mother Nature need to clean her saltwater aquarium? She has created the perfect filtering system as long as man does not add any elements to throw off the balance.
Live plants and coral are also essential elements to the perfect reef aquarium. There are many different types of plants which can be added to a reef aquarium, and it is best to choose based on the species of fish which will be inhabiting the tank. For successful transplantation of live aquarium plants, it is essential that the sand or silt on the bottom of the tank be deep enough to allow the roots of the plants to successfully take hold. These plants will also require additional light and carbon dioxide to allow for proper photosynthesis.
There are many options for creating the perfect saltwater aquarium, many of them very costly; however, with the proper mix of imagination and frugality, it is possible to create a reef aquarium that is aesthetical, ecologically and financially friendly.
