Natural Pet Health

You have endless possibilities when setting up an aquarium of your own in your home. A fresh or saltwater aquarium can be a great addition to any room of the house, and you can create any environment you like using an array of aquarium supplies for your fish to live in. It is important to keep in mind that there are things to consider when first setting up an aquarium, such as the type of fish you would like to have in it. This will determine whether you want a freshwater aquarium or a saltwater aquarium, or maybe even a warm water aquarium. Tropical fish will require a heater to supply warm water, but geneally it is best to start with a cool water aquarium until you gain experience wit fish tanks. Besides, tropical fish are expensive, and chances are, they will die if you don’t yet have the experience.

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The most important part about taking care of fish is cleaning the aquarium. If a person does not regularly clean the aquarium, the fish will get sick due to the amount of algae and bacteria that will build up in the water. Cleaning out the tank every other week will ensure the safety of the fish inside and will keep them healthy for a long time.

Never remove all the water from a tank. Turn off the filtration system and begin to siphon water from the bottom of the tank. Since most algae growth takes place on the sides and on the bottom of the tank, using a siphon system found at the pet store will remove algae but not the rocks or harm the fish.

Getting rid of algae involves scrapping the sides of the tank with a scrapper or razor blade. Do not use any harsh chemicals as they can harm the fish. This could take a while to scrap all the algae off the tank. Once this has been completed, remove the rest of the water until there is only half a tank of water left.

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I often get a knock on the door and am welcomed by a currier holding a polystyrene box covered in ‘Fragile’ and ‘this way up’ stuck all over it. My face will instantly light up and my hands rub together.

I’m sure you have or will be wanting to order discus fish from the internet or over the phone. If so, there are a couple of important factor you must first take into consideration. The main one is that you need to be sure you are getting quality fish, this may require looking at pictures of those fish and talking to the breeder or importer.

What I want to tell you about today is how to unpack and acclimatize your new fish.

Unpacking…

You need to unpack one box at a time, don’t go and open every box if you have 4 or 5. I know you want to look at your discus fish but please take your time. Take the lid off the first box and take one bag at a time out. Then open the bag, roll down the bag and float it in the water. Do this for the first box and then move onto the next stage.

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It is a well known fact that feeding live food to your fishes will help them to grow better, show better coloration, and improve vigor. Fish love a variety of foods, and live foods are more closely related to what they feed on in their natural habitat. Although raising live foods can take up a small amount of space, and a bit of your time, the results in seeing your fish thrive are well worth it!

Vinegar eels are basically fry food, and very easy to grow. They are not really eels, but are classified as a minute nematode worm (Turbatrix aceti. and feed on vinegar or acidic, fermenting vegetable matter. These tiny roundworms are bilaterally symmetrical, approximately .08 in. (2 mm) long, and lives for around 10 months with a minimum effort of care.

To cultivate, fill a gallon jar with a quart of undistilled apple cider vinegar, a quart and a half of aged cool tap water, and an apple cut into 6 sections. If your water is typically hard, increase the apple cider vinegar to a 60% ratio. Introduce your vinegar eel culture to the container, and cover with a piece of cloth, held in place by a rubber band to keep flies out of the culture.

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Fishless cycling is the process of cycling a tank, or establishing a biological filter in a fishless aquarium.

The biological filter, or nitrogen cycle, naturally occurs over the first 4-6 weeks after a tank is set up. Cycling a tank is necessary to keep the water free of pollutants and the fish healthy, but while the filter is establishing itself, fish are exposed to toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite and often succumb to disease and death. Fishless cycling removes fish from harm by establishing the biological filter before fish are introduced to the aquarium.

If your goal is faster cycling or larger bio loads, I’m afraid you may be disappointed. Fishless cycling is not designed for this, and rarely can either of these be realistically achieved any better than traditional cycling. Both require a certain amount of time. However, there is one main difference. Here is where I get into my philosophy, so bear with me, but I really think you need to understand this to justify your use of this method. Fish have rights. Just like any living animal which is in our care, that animal was at one point, whether domesticated or not, taken from its natural environment. At that point, we took on the responsibility as aquarists to provide a suitable and favorable environment for our fish. One way to do this is by utilizing fishless cycling.

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The benefits of feeding live food to fish in a community tank are many: live food will improve vigor and color, and more closely resemble the food found in the fish’s natural habitat. Live food is easily obtained.

Some drawbacks include the transmission of diseases or parasites to the aquarium, it is time consuming to maintain the cultures, and a lot of space needs to be devoted to raising live foods. The cost of equipment and supplies needed to maintain cultures is also a consideration for the beginner.

In this article I will discuss how to raise Daphnia. This article will be part of an on-going series on live foods. You can find many more related articles on http://www.kingdiscus.com.

Daphnia belong to a group known as the Daphniidae, and are close relatives of the freshwater shrimp, and the brine shrimp (Artemia). Their generic name is generally referred to as “water flea.” This common name is derived from the jerky movements of Daphnia in the water. The over 150 different species can be found in North America, with a similar amount of species growing in Europe. Some of these species find common ground on both continents.

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So you have seen the vividly coloured Guppy at your aquatic centre and have decided they will make a beautiful addition to your community aquarium, indeed you are right, and the flamboyant colours of the male Guppy look stunning and are the easiest fish to keep in your tropical setup.

However there are some things that you need to know about Guppy’s before rushing off to buy them.

Guppy’s are live bearing fish which means that they give birth to free swimming fry, they also breed very quickly, imagine them like the rabbits of the water.

Once a female Guppy has mated she will give birth for up to six months consecutively, therefore you must have a large enough tank to be able to handle to the vast amounts of new fish that the Guppy will introduce to your tank.

The first brood will be delivered after 25 to 28 days and will usually be around twelve to twenty fry, the second can range from twenty to fifty and consecutive deliveries of up to a hundred or more fry can be delivered, all within twenty to ninety days apart.

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While you may think that the hardest part of designing an aquarium is over the moment you have picked out the best looking and most practical tank; that was only just the beginning. From here on out, every little decision you make in regards to what types of flora and fauna you put in your tank will have an effect the lifecycle of the fish, plants and everything else in this miniaturized ecosystem.

From the plants to the coral to the size and density of the fish to what rocks and sand you use to how many invertebrates you accent your tank with – everything will affect everything else. For this reason, picking out the best plants for your tropical aquarium is of the utmost importance and should certainly not be taken lightly.

Since tropical aquariums are all salt water, you can start narrowing down your search for the perfect plants by eliminating all plants that are fresh water only. A great way to search for plants for a beginner aquarium lover is to narrow down the amount of plants little by little until there are just ten or twenty different options to choose from.

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Owning an aquarium full of beautiful tropical fish can be very enjoyable. Many people say that watching the fish is a very relaxing past time and the living beauty it provides the home is very satisfying. The fish make outstanding pets as they hardly take any time for care and do not require any demands for your time. There is one thing that is required thought and that is maintaining and caring for the fish tank. Fish tank maintenance is a very important part of tropical fish ownership.

When performing fish tank maintenance it has been thought that it is best to remove the fish from the tank. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is best to leave the fish in the tank when cleaning the tank or changing the water. The fish will become stressed when you are chasing them around the tank and then temporarily putting them in a different environment.

During fish tank maintenance you do not need to remove all the water anyway. You can remove a quarter up to half the water and then replace it with clean water. It is best to put pure water without chemicals like chlorine into the tank.

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Did you know that the keeping of fish dates back to antiquity? It may be true but only recently has the activity become popular among all age groups.

Have you joined the multitudes who have recently contributed to the popularity of keeping tropical fish? It really has become popular as many homes now have at least a small aquarium among its furnishings. They may consist of a few goldfish in a small coldwater aquarium or they may consist of several colorful fish swimming about.

Your aquarium is most likely one of three different types: coldwater, warm water (heated) or marine. If you are keeping tropical fish, you almost certainly have a heated aquarium. Remember, tropical fish come from the tropics where it’s warm. The Amazon, Africa and the south of Asia are where most tropical fish originated.

Most pet and fish stores have all in one packages that include everything you need to get started: aquarium, stand, lights, heater, filter and gravel and other decorative additions. If you’re just starting out, this is a good way to go since you will save money over buying all the components individually.

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