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| Chameleon - Photo: Pixaby |
2017-09-10
2017-09-09
Brighten Up Your Aquarium With Attractive AQUARIUM BACKGROUNDS
Aquarium owners enjoy the luxury of keeping fish and other underwater pets for pleasure. Since a properly maintained and presentable aquarium can entail investment, the fish lover is keen on perfectly displaying and enhancing the appearance of his pet. Animals and fish look best in their natural habitat. The environment of their natural habitat can be recreated within the aquarium by using aquarium backgrounds
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These backgrounds are available in various shapes, sizes, and colors depicting underwater natural scenes. They are made of materials which are not harmful to the fish and can be placed inside the aquarium or outside.
Benefits of having Aquarium Backgrounds
The backgrounds have several practical and aesthetic benefits. They are attractive decorative items that enhance the overall appearance of the aquarium by increasing its depth. By concealing the cable, tubes, and cords that clutter the back of the fish tank, they present a neat and natural look to the aquarium.
Inside an aquarium, algae build up rapidly in presence of sunlight. In bright rooms, the presence of background reduces direct sunlight resulting in control of algae.
Options for Choice of Aquarium Backgrounds
· First it is important to consider the size of the tank. Aquariums of smaller size will require backgrounds that do not occupy too much space inside the tank. Positioning decorative objects in the fish tank will encroach upon the space that is important for the fish.
- On the lower price range, you can buy colorful aquarium background sticking labels that can be pasted externally at the back of the aquarium tank. These stickers or labels are available in different designs, portraying floral life and rocks. This is a perfect choice for those who cannot invest time for mounting a background for the aquarium. But if you are using internal backgrounds, which are higher on price, make sure that the material and paints used inside the fish tank are not harmful to the fish. Aquariums are delicate settings and can be easily polluted.
- The next option is the three-dimensional aquarium backgrounds
, which are cast into different shapes. They are made out of plastic, fiberglass or Styrofoam. Styrofoam and plastic backgrounds are suitable for small tanks, but the large saltwater aquariums use fiberglass backgrounds. Both the plastic and styrofoam backgrounds can also be cut into shapes for using them on other backgrounds of different sizes.
- Fiberglass backgrounds are widely used in zoological displays and public aquariums. Fish lovers who own large saltwater fish tanks can buy tailor-made fiberglass backgrounds which will present a real look of underwater scenes. These backgrounds are fixed internally at the backside of the fish tank with aquarium silicone. This silicone is made especially for use in the aquarium.
As per Feng Shui principles, the presence of an aquarium can bring peace at home. It is also true that when we gaze at fish in an aquarium, it brings a feeling of calmness. Moreover, displaying aquariums with attractive backgrounds add up to the beauty of the aquarium. So, whichever option you choose for creating aquarium backgrounds, you will be definitely spending quality time and money on your favorite asset in your home.
2017-09-08
The Key to TREE FROG Care is Regularity
Tree frogs, unlike the common ground frog, are any frog that spends the majority of its life in an arboreal state. Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees.
If one is interested in caring for tree frogs they will most likely need a vivarium (Latin, literally for "place of life") is a usually enclosed area for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research. This artificially controlled area can often rather successfully mimic the natural environment of the tree frog.
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| Waxy Monkey Tree Frogs, Phyllomedusa sauvagii at California Academy of Sciences (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Sufficient planning and care are required if one is to care for amphibians in the home environment as tree frogs are easily stressed if subjected to unnatural conditions. Therefore equipment to further enhance the quality of life of the tree frog in this artificial environment has been created. Conditions such as relative humidity levels and temperature must be kept as constant as possible to successfully care or breed tree frogs at home.
In order to achieve this, some automated systems have been created to seamlessly integrate with your vivarium to make tree frog care a breeze.
If you are a first-time frog keeper then to not be alarmed by the exact figures required, keeping tree frogs at home is by no means supposed to be scientific.
To give you a little story of how getting caught up in the finer details can stop you taking the plunge and getting some tree frogs as a feature for your house.
When I first attempted to brew beer at home, I thought that the temperature had to absolutely stay between about 21 to 27 degrees Centigrade. When I actually gave it a go and I found that you could in fact successfully brew great homemade beer below that temperature.
If you happen to own a frog now and are looking for ways to give your tree frog a better life try these tips.
Frogs like regularity -
Say you have the tank in which your frog lives in your bedroom. Let's say that you leave the light on and don't go to bed until three in the morning. As you can imagine, this can be very confusing for your frog. Its body is telling it that it should be dark and out hunting. However, it's light sensing organs are letting it know that it is still day. Maintaining regular lighting patterns will make sure that you reduce the stress that you tree frog will live a happy life.
Here is another example, Let's say your frog lives in the living area. You get cold in the winter to you put the fire or heater on. I think you know where I am going with this one. What do you think that the frogs head is thinking when it is so hot in the middle of winter?
Well, it most likely does not know that season in your country but frogs like regularity and this mean a regular temperature too. Keep the temperature constantly warm and humid for your tree frog to ensure a long life. Ramping the temperature right up so it's hot and dry right after a cold period will be very stressful for your pet.
Article Source: EzineArticles |
2017-09-07
2017-09-06
FLAME ANGELFISH (Centropyge Loriculus) Care
Among the most spectacularly colored dwarf angelfish, the flame angelfish has become the most recognizable and the most popular member of the genus centropyge. Almost everyone in the marine aquarium hobby has at one time either owned a flame angel or at least considered getting one. A true testament to the beauty this angel possesses.
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| Flame angel, Centropyge loricula (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The genus centropyge contains 33 species that have been found thus far, making it the largest genus within the marine angelfish complex (Pomacanthidae). Our fish of interest goes by the scientific name Centropyge Loriculus. Its common name is the flame angelfish, so named because it is colored a bright red-orange with vertical black lines down its body. The tips of its anal and dorsal fins are accentuated with neon blue patches.
The flame angel is a little on the high side in terms of price so expect to pay between $ 40 and $ 50 US dollars for a specimen. While this may seem like a lot for an ornamental fish, it pales in comparison with rarer angelfish such as the golden angelfish. Considering the effect it has on most onlookers I’d say the price is a steal.
While commonly thought to hail from Hawaii, they are actually collected around the Marshall and Christmas Islands instead. True Hawaiian flame angelfish are very rare and are said to have a very specific coloration. They are uniformly red without any orange throughout their bodies and their black vertical lines are always thin.
As with all members of the genus centropyge this angelfish can be aggressive towards other tank mates. They are particularly hostile towards members of the same species. Putting two flame angelfish together in a small tank is generally a bad idea. The same goes for housing two members of the same genus together. Such an endeavor should only be attempted if the marine aquarium in question is large enough, 75 gallons or larger.
The flame angelfish should be kept in an aquarium no less than 50 gallons. Ideally, you’d want something like a 75 gallon or larger aquarium for them. The added space keeps issues stemming from territory to a minimum. This is assuming the tank isn’t chock full of fish in the first place. They require caves and holes throughout the rock scape so your live rock arrangement should reflect this.
Like all members of the genus centropyge, the flame angelfish has been known to nip on corals in a reef aquarium. There is no telling when such behavior will happen. I’ve heard stories of flame angels that have never bothered corals for years only to begin sampling them overnight. This is how it is with all dwarf angelfish. No exceptions. Unfortunately, once they start nipping they usually don’t stop.
Flame angelfish are grazers in the wild. They constantly pick at the substrate and rocks that surround their territory. Their food items mainly consist of tiny crustaceans and algae.
Ensure they are given a varied diet within a marine aquarium. Provide a good mix of algae based foods along with meaty foods. Nori, spirulina, frozen mysis shrimp and other meaty or algae gel cubes should be part of their everyday diet. A good dry food for flame angels is new life spectrum, formula one and formula two pellets. A great food that contains everything they find in the wild is the pygmy angel formula gel cubes by ocean nutrition. These only come in frozen form i believe.
In the wild, flame angelfish form harems, a single male will dominate up to 7 females. Each female maintains a separate territory within the male's territory. Every evening the male approaches each female in his harem until he chooses to mate with one of them. He then assumes courting behavior. Fins are flared, he darts around the female in circles and assumes mating colors.
Courting ensures anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes until they finally spawn. The male nudges the female up into the water column until they are perfectly positioned to release eggs and sperm at the same time. The actual mating process takes no longer than half a second. Having mated, they disappear into the rocks.
While there have been many cases of flame angel pairs spawning in the home aquaria, there have been no cases of their larvae being raised to adulthood. Dwarf angelfish have only been successfully raised on a commercial level by companies with a lot of money backing them. And even then, success came not more than 7 years ago.
The biggest breakthrough in angelfish breeding happened in Hawaii around 2002. It was found that the key ingredient to raising dwarf angelfish larvae was in finding an appropriate food for them. The food item had to fulfill 3 criteria. It had to be small enough for the larvae to eat, it had to be nutritious enough for them and it had to move in a way that elicited a natural feeding response from the larvae.
Frank Baensch of Reef Culture Technologies along with three others collaborated to find this food, and they were successful. What followed was the captive breeding of not just the flame angelfish but of rarer species such as the bandit angelfish, Colin's angelfish, and the Japanese pygmy angelfish. All very expensive fishes in the hobby. The breakthrough food is reputed to be an undisclosed copepod nauplii.
Such success has not been seen by hobbyists or even small scale breeders of marine fish. Baby brine shrimp and rotifers are the mainstays of home breeding but both of them do not seem to elicit a feeding response from dwarf angelfish larvae. As a result of the larvae usually, starve to death. So the key is finding an easily bred food that would work on this species. Until that time comes we are left with buying wild caught flame angelfish and even the occasional captive bred ones.
2017-09-05
2017-09-04
Tips On Aquarium CATFISH Care - Adding Fun To Your Aquarium
Catfish are very popular in freshwater aquariums. They are very different and unique in their own way compared with other fish regarding their care and health. These catfish are so called because they have "barbells" which are a distinctive and prominent feature which resembles whiskers of a cat. Catfish also have no fish scales which are present in most other fishes. If the fish is in danger or irritated in any way, they can emit a stinging protein from a powerful, hollow ray which is found on their fins.
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| Spotted raphael catfish (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Most aquariums house the more popular catfish known as the armoured catfish which are the smaller sized catfish and look great in any aquarium. When setting up your tank, it is the best time to decide on whether you are going to purchase catfish, as you will need to buy the correct type of gravel or sand for your tank. You will also need to know the pH level of water required to house your catfish. A soft bottom material in your tank is the preferred option of the armoured catfish which like to forage for food within the substrate. Catfish like to hide from the light as they feel more secure so have some hiding places such as caves for your fish.
Caring for catfish is not much different to the care of other fish, although you should try to purchase food that settles to the bottom of the aquarium as they feed on the bottom. The water in the middle should be a temperature in the 70's and it should be neutral pH level. This set up is usually the same for the water balance of other fish that you will house as well, so it is not a major concern when choosing to house catfish.
Catfish are an amusing addition to your aquarium as they have funny and comical looks, but this also depends on the species that you buy. Their behaviour can vary, though they do look rather nice to have in your tank. Catfish can come in groups and schools which get on with each other quite well, but you can also buy loners which prefer not to have neighbours. When you have a communal tank full of different species of fish, the catfish is a good choice to have as they occupy the bottom of the tank, unlike many of the other occupants. They usually mix well with other types of fish, so you don't need to worry about them. You watch out for the larger Cichlids which are very territorial in trying to claim the whole tank.
Look at the other size of the other fish in your existing when choosing to add a catfish. Catfish, in general, get on with other fish, but they will also eat smaller fish. As they are nocturnal, catfish do not need to be feed until later on in the day or night. Adjust your schedule according to when you can feed your fish and to what types of fish you have in your aquarium. Armoured Catfish come in many different species so you can have an array of comical looking fish. The aquarium should be kept clean and healthy at all times so that all your fish stay healthy and you will get years of pleasure as you learn more about caring for them.
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