Learn About Aquariums

Every successful breeder of tropical fish knows that feeding live foods to their charges is one of the best ways to maintain healthy and active fish…

Live foods are overall high in protein. They stimulate spawning, and help to intensify coloration. Live foods enhance the natural tendencies of fish to forage for their food as they would in their natural environment.

White worms (Enchytraeus albidus) are a great source of food for the aquarium. They are about 70% protein, 14.5% fats, and approximately 10% carbohydrate. The white worm in size is approximately 3/4″ to 1 1/2″, somewhere between Tubifex and Grindal worms. Fish love them, and they are appropriate for a large variety of carnivore fish, even the smaller cichlids.

Nick Lockhart, breeder for King Discus feeds white worms twice weekly to our breeding discus and juveniles. His goal is to provide a wide variety of food to keep the fish interested and feeding to stimulate breeding.

White worms are easy to raise. A plastic shoebox from the dollar store will meet the needs of most aquarists. As worms need to breathe, the container shouldn’t be air tight. Cutting a small hole in the lid and placing a piece of breathable foam in the hole will suffice to allow enough oxygen to reach the worms.

Fill the container about 3/4 full with peat moss as the medium. The peat moss should be wet, but not soaked. Test by squeezing a bit of the medium in your hand. If a few drops emerge, then you have it right. If water emerges from the mass in a stream, you have it too wet.

Add your starter culture of worms. Finding a suitable starter culture can at times be difficult. A good source can be from auctions at local fish clubs, or from a fellow enthusiast. Also, looking in the classified in the back pages of magazines like Aquarium Fish Magazine or Aquarium USA can sometimes lead to a good resource.

Place a piece of wet crustless white bread on top of the medium for compost. Cover this with a sheet of plastic the size of the slice of bread. The plastic aids in keeping the bread from drying out. It is a good idea to bury the piece of bread in the medium when first starting a culture to prevent mold from occurring. Allow the worms a week to establish before feeding them. Check on them on a daily basis to insure that they are eating the bread.

White worms will need to be housed in a cool dark place, free from insects. We use an apartment sized refrigerator with a temperature control sensor that maintains the temperature at 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the best foods for white worms is Gerber’s Baby Oatmeal. Add a pinch of active dry yeast to the mixture. The trick is to feed the worms enough to insure they thrive, but not so much that it will begin to mold. A good rule of thumb is to feed only what they will consume in three days. A little trial and error work is needed here. If mold occurs, simply spoon it out of the medium, and replace the food, using less the next time.

White worm cultures will “crash” if the population becomes too large. This can be noted by the worms attempting to crawl up the sides of the container. Simply dump the medium onto a sheet of newspaper, separate the medium into two parts, and you have another culture to fall back on if the first crashes. Get another shoebox, top to 3/4 full with dampened peat moss, and you have the insurance of a supply of white worms.

To harvest white worms, simply wait until a nice clump of them are underneath the sheet of plastic, pluck them out with tweezers or your fingers, and clean appropriately before feeding to your fish. rinsing with dechlorinated water, by pouring from one container to another will do the trick, removing any soil or left over food. You can then feed the worms to your fishes.

The biggest thing to remember about growing white worms is to never let the medium dry out. It is also a good idea to have two cultures growing at the same time, in case one of the cultures “crashes.” Keep an eye out for mold, feed the worms appropriately, and you will have happy, vigorous fish!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alden Smith is a published author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His website, http://www.kingdiscus.com, is a resource for articles, software and information on the tropical fish hobby. Visit his website for more information on live foods, tracking software, and articles on the tropical fish hobby, especially if interested in raising discus fish. weekly articles are posted, along with updates for Fish Minder software,

Written By: Alden Smith

Over the years I have come across a number of helpful do’s and don’ts for marine aquarium keeping that would have saved me a lot of time, money and disappointments. If only I had them all together in a list from the start!

Well here they are - I have decided to jot a few of them down in the hope that they will save at least one new marine aquarist some time, money or disappointment.

This is only a very basic guide and is not meant to be conclusive or detailed just a memory jolter in bullet point form that you can refer to every now and then to refresh your memory. I encourage you to research in more detail any and all of these points using your favourite marine aquarium book or even the internet!

The Dos
Do buy a good book on marine aquarium keeping. This should be your first purchase and most valuable accessory!
Do look at your tank every day to check your fish and invertebrates health. Are they acting differently than normal, do they have any damage or signs of illness etc
Do react quickly when you think something is wrong. Test your water quality and conditions. Look for indicators of problem or disease. Read your aquarium books, search the internet and talk to your friendly marine aquarium retailer for advice.
Do create a maintenance schedule that helps you remember to regularly check your water quality, top up with freshwater, replace saltwater, replace consumables etc
Do feed small amounts of food regularly
Do feed a varied diet that accommodates all your inhabitants needs
Do ensure you have adequate filtration (biological and/or mechanical)
Do ensure you have sufficient circulation in your tank. Most people recommend at least 10x your tanks volume be circulated every hour. This includes powerheads, filters (both internal and external), protein skimmers, circulation pumps etc.
Do use a timer if possible on your tanks lights as the inhabitants like regularity with respect to their daytime and night-time.
Do adopt a photoperiod that considers the output and intensity of your lights and either mimics the inhabitants natural environment or that of your local environment
Do wash your hands before putting them in the tank or working with any equipment that will come into contact with your tanks water. Soaps, creams, medicines etc can all harm your inhabitants.
Do use good quality activated carbon in your tanks - this removes unwanted toxins and keeps the water crystal clear.
Do regularly replace your activated carbon (approx. every 8 weeks)
Do keep your tank as close as possible to Natural Sea Water conditions (NSW). These are, for the most, a pH of 8.3, Specific Gravity (SG) of 1.025, temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. There are many other levels that need to be considered (eg Calcium, Carbonate Hardness, Iron, Silicon, Phosphate, Copper etc) but these are the main ones.
Do acclimatise your new fish and inverts appropriately - your marine aquarium retailer should notify you of their requirements as they can vary from 10 minutes just for temperature adjustment for hardy fish to hours for sensitive inverts.
Do use, where possible, natural sea water in your tank - there is nothing like the real stuff!
Do make sure you know where the real sea water is coming from - you dont want it to have been collected in your local marina or just offshore as it will not be suitable as it will contain all sorts of man made pollutants.
Do use RO/DI (Reverse Osmosis/Deionised) water when real sea water is not available. Use it to top up or when mixing new salt - especially in tanks that contain corals and other sensitive invertebrates.
Do use a protein skimmer if possible. It complements your mechanical and biological filtration and in some cases is a mandatory requirement for keeping certain inverts.
Do ensure you understand the nitrogen cycle. This is the fundamental basis for how wastes in the aquarium get converted from toxic chemicals (ammonia and nitrites) to less toxic chemicals (nitrates) by bacteria that live in your water.
Do select your new fish and inverts very carefully. Ensure they are not damaged, diseased or otherwise looking unwell. If possible, quarantine them in a separate tank before adding them to your main tank. An alternative is to use an Ultraviolet (UV) steriliser for about four weeks after adding the new inhabitants to kill off any newly introduced diseases.

The Donts

Dont overfeed. This is most probably one of the most common mistakes for a beginner. Fish always appear hungry and it is very tempting to feed them often but this can cause all sorts or problems the most common being poor water quality. If nor corrected this can lead to sickness and death of your fish and inverts in a short time. If you are going to very often then ensure you only feed small amounts and that it all gets eaten immediately. Also test your water quality often (eg test ammonia, nitrite and nitrates at least a couple of times a week).
Dont overstock you tank. This is also one of the most common mistakes for beginners. Tanks can only successfully support a certain amount of life in them and this is based upon a number of factors. Some of these are volume, surface area, aeration, circulation, filtration (mechanical and biological), maturity, quantity and frequency of water changes, flow, number of fish and inverts etc etc. It is better to start slow and small and build your way up. Talk to your local marine aquarium retailer for advice on stocking levels.
Dont rush the maturation of your new aquarium. This is another one of the most common mistakes for beginners. Sea water is a complex living thing. It contains thousands of elements, compounds, minerals and organisms that are all reacting together. When setting up a new aquarium it takes time to mature enough to sustain higher order living animals such as fish and inverts. Generally it can take up to eight weeks for the nitrogen cycle to complete and the sea water stabilise enough to allow for the addition of fish. A good idea is to stick to one or two hardy fish initially and then slowly add more fish over a period of time, all the time keeping a very close eye on water conditions. I would be testing daily for pH, salinity (SG), ammonia, nitrites and nitrates during this phase. After six months or so if everything is going all right I would then consider basic, hardy invertebrates such as soft corals, algaes, shrimps, anemones, star fish, urchins etc. After these have been living successfully for a while (after about one to two years) I would then consider the more sensitive inverts such as stony corals, clams etc.
Dont mix inhabitants (fish or inverts) without some research of your own and/or advice from your local marine aquarium store - they dont all get on together even if they look weird or wonderful and you just have to have it!
Dont change any critical aquarium conditions too drastically - stability is your friend. The main ones include salinity (Specific Gravity or SG), pH and temperature.
Dont use water from your tap without treating it and testing it. Some local water supplies have unwanted chemicals such as copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Ammonia (NH4), Nitrites (NO2), Nitrates (NO3) and heavy metals in them. They all have chlorine and chloramines in them and need to be removed before being added to the aquarium (or even mixing salt in - remove the chlorine first).
Dont use fly sprays, air fresheners, incense etc in the same room as your fish tanks as they may well poison your inhabitants
Dont use the cheap types of hydrometers to measure your Specific Gravity (salinity) as they are inherently inaccurate! These include your common floating type (they quite often also contain a thermometer in them as well) and the floating needle types that stick to your glass and a little plastic needle floats in the water indicating your SG! These types are also affected by temperature and may be giving an incorrect reading is not used correctly. I find the most accurate is a refractometer and they are not too expensive (approx $100)
Dont use only one powerful heater in your aquarium. It may save you a little money but if it breaks (turns off, or even worse gets stuck on) you could lose everything. Preferably use two smaller heaters so that if one breaks you have a back up and if one gets stuck on it wont cook your fish.
About the Author
Doug Kamp has been keeping aquariums for 30 years, the last 15 of those being mainly marine aquariums. Doug is the proprietor of Aquariums Online which is an online mail order business based in Perth Australia. This article, and others can be found at www.aquariumsonline.com.au

About the Author

Doug Kamp has been keeping aquariums for 30 years, the last 15 of those being mainly marine aquariums. Doug is the proprietor of Aquariums Online which is an online mail order business based in Perth Australia

Written By: Doug Kamp

Choosing a New Home for Your Tropical Fish, Saltwater Fish, Coral and Invertebrate

All it takes is one glance and the carefree motion of flapping fins entrances us. Fish silently add beauty to every environment and ask for a lot less in comparison to other pets. Of course, choosing the right aquarium in a market flooded with products is enough to make you dizzy. Factoring in location, available space, and base support will make introducing aquatic life into your home a breeze.

Choosing a location before you buy an aquarium increases the likelihood of purchasing one that’s the right fit. Aquariums are heavy and fragile. It’s a good idea not to lug them around while you decide where the aquarium will look its best. When selecting the tank’s location, consider the aesthetics of your environment. Will your aquarium easily be seen? Would it compete for attention with other dcor, or be complemented by it?

Selecting a location is not all aesthetics. Avoid direct sunlight and airy drafts that can affect your tank’s temperature. Save some extra “breathing room” around the aquarium for maintenance and cleaning. For safety’s sake, you should also keep the aquarium clear of high traffic areas. After deciding on a location, carefully measure the space to determine how much aquarium can fit into it. Great Danes are wonderful dogs, but they are not so great in studio apartments. This same theory applies to aquariums. With your location in mind and measurements in hand, you are ready to purchase an aquarium. You are certain to find several that will fit comfortably into your space.

Water chemistry and temperature are best stabilized in larger volumes of water, so it’s best to get the largest tank that your space and budget will allow. However, do not select an aquarium by water volume alone. Surface area is also a critical factor to consider. A tall twenty-gallon tank is very different from a short one that is twenty gallons. Taller tanks may take up less space, but they do not have the surface area relative to the water volume. This results in a low rate of gas exchange that is unhealthy for fish. Twenty to thirty-gallon tanks are ideal for those new to keeping fish and they allow for a nice selection of fish.

Aquariums come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are constructed of either glass or acrylic. Glass tanks are less expensive and are easier to clean. By nature, they are also more apt to crack and break. Glass aquariums were once only available in rectangular shapes that are still popular today. They also now come in octagon and hexagon models. Acrylic aquariums, on the other hand, offer more shapes and sizes than their glass counterparts. The strength of the acrylic also allows the material to flex upon impact rather than break. Acrylic aquarium owners can boast of a clearer tank and one that is easier to lift, which may offset their aggravation from the tank’s tendency to scratch. (These scratches can be buffed out with scratch-remover kits.) Many acrylic tanks come equipped with covers and fluorescent fixtures, something that you would normally purchase with your aquarium. Glass tanks, while less expensive, typically are not packaged with cover. Consider this when doing price comparisons.

You’ve got the perfect aquarium in sight and accessories in your shopping cart, but your purchase is still incomplete. On what will your tank sit? Too many new aquarium owners (and some nave experienced ones) mistake household furniture for tank stands. A modest twenty-gallon tank weighs over two hundred pounds once it is filled with water. If your table or bookstand is not sturdy enough for a football player to sit on, then it is certainly not enough support for an aquarium? Support for your aquarium also differs according to its construction. For glass aquariums, choose a stand that supports the outside of the aquarium. Acrylic tanks require full support along the bottom, so choose accordingly. With support in place for your new aquarium, you have everything you need to start making a home for your new aquatic friends.

About the author:

Copyright 2006 - Reef Saltwateraquarium - http://www.reefsaltwateraquarium.com

Reef Saltwater Aquarium markets aquariums for tropical, saltwater and freshwater fish. The manufacturers we represent make quality aquariums designed for home or office use. The information provided comes from years of experience in aquarium setup and care.

Written By: Reef Saltwateraquarium

Keeping tropical fish is a fascinating hobby that has been enjoyed for centuries in different parts of the world. The Romans kept live anemones in saltwater jars, but never succeeded in keeping these beautiful creatures alive for any longer period of time in captivity. They were however much more successful with keeping eels in aquariums, and some sources claim that certain types of eels reached an age of up to 60 years when kept by the Romans. In South East Asia, the first fish keepers had their fish in ponds, not in aquariums. The first domesticated species were probably carps and all of today’s fancy goldfish types actually hail from a wild carp that can still be found in Asian rivers and streams.

If you want your fish to thrive like the Asian carps instead of quickly vanish like the Roman anemones, it is important that you take the time to learn the basics about fish keeping and aquarium maintenance before you set up your first aquarium. By obtaining the basic information before you go about, you will save yourself a lot of time, money and effort in the long run since you will be able to avoid the common beginner mistakes. One common beginner mistake is for instance to purchase a very small aquarium, thinking that a large one is much more difficult to manage. The truth is however that the mega-sized show aquariums that you can see in your fish store are easier to maintain than your tiny 5 gallon tank. In a small aquarium, there will be a very little amount of water. If a fish dies in a large aquarium, the pollution will be diluted by gallons and gallons of water. If a fish dies in your 5 gallon aquarium, the carcass may very well pollute your entire tank before you even notice the demise and remove the body from the water. I therefore recommend the beginner aquarist to choose at least a 10 gallon aquarium, and a 30 gallon aquarium is ideal. Avoid extraordinary deep aquariums since they are more difficult to clean. A very deep aquarium can also become a problem if you want to introduce plants to your aquarium, since you might have to install extra strong lights that are capable of penetrating the deep water all the way down to the plants at the bottom of the aquarium.

Filling up your aquarium with water and then promptly add all your fish at once is extremely unadvisable since the aquarium is ready to accommodate that many fishes. An aquarium is actually a miniature ecosystem and fish is not the only thing inhabiting it. Your fish will produce plenty of waste products (chiefly fish poop) that will eventually begin to build up in the aquarium. It is naturally not very healthy for fish to swim around in there own feces, but fortunately enough there exists a certain type of bacteria that can convert waste products from fish into compounds that are less unhealthy. Fish poop contains a high level of ammonia, and ammonia is also excreted via the gills of your fish. Ammonia is harmful to fish and also can turn extremely poisonous if your aquarium experience a sudden change in water chemistry that pushes the pH level above 7.5. If you allow populations of suitable bacteria to establish in your aquarium before you introduce all your fish, the bacteria will convert the ammonia into nitrite. Nitrate is also very unhealthy and high levels of nitrite will kill your fish, but fortunately enough there is another type of bacteria that will love to live in your aquarium and that will change the nitrite into a less harmful compound - nitrate. Nitrate is less dangerous than ammonia and nitrite, but high levels of nitrate will be unhealthy for your fish. There are unfortunately no beneficial bacteria to aid you here, and you must instead remove the nitrate by performing regular water changes. Changing 25 percent of the water once a week is a good rule of thumb, but some aquariums require more frequent water changes. When you are trying to establish your new aquarium or if you are experiencing problems with the water quality, smaller and more frequent water changes are advisable.

About the author:

It is good to read a book of two about aquarium keeping before getting your first aquarium and i would therefore like to recommend a good free book about tropical fish available for download named Tropical fish - A Beginners guide which you find by clicking the book name and is available for free download at AC tropical fish

Written By: William Berg

Most children are fascinated with animals and want a dog, a cat, two birds, a horse and some fish. But are fish and aquariums suitable for children. The answer to this question is to a very high degree depending on how old your child is. Children under 12-14 years are not suitable to keep an aquarium by themselves and will need help from their parents or some other adult to maintain their aquariums. The child can take care of the daily care such as the feeding of the fish. They will however require help with larger undertakings such as changing the water in the aquarium and cleaning the electrical equipment.

Small children under 5-7 years of age should not be entrusted with the care of any animal including fish. This is not to say that small animals shouldn’t have pets but rather to say that the parents understand that the pet is their responsibility and not the child’s. A child in this age group can benefit a lot from being allowed to interact with animal, se fish swim and feed the fish but is not ready to care for the animal themselves. As an example can be said that children off this age group only should be allowed to feed the fish when a parent is present. It isn’t an uncommon event that children tries to be kind to the fish by feeding them the entire can of fish food causing a biological disaster, and if not discovered and corrected the death of all the fish in the aquarium within a matter of hours.

Small children under 5-7 years should never be allowed to change water in the aquarium or work with the electric equipment used in the aquarium due to the risk of injury.

Some parents might think that a fish is a good pet for a child since it require less care than say a dog and are cheaper. This is only partly true. A fish requires good care to remain healthy and the parents should expect that they will have to do a certain amount of work to keep their child’s fish alive and healthy. True it didn’t cost that much but it is still a living thing and does as such deserve to be threaded with care. Expect that an aquarium will require 5 minutes of your time each day for daily care and an hour each week for partial water changes etc.

Remember that a small aquarium requires more work than a large one. You should therefore never buy a small goldfish bowl or other small aquarium for your child. It might seem easier but requires a lot more work and only experienced aquarists should keep fish in small aquariums. I recommend an aquarium of at least 25-30 gallon (around 100 L) as a first aquarium for your child. Anything smaller will give you a lot of extra work and most likely more dead fish. A little larger aquarium also allows you the luxury to choose between more fish for your aquarium. So what fish should you choose to your child?

Some fish species are more suitable than others for children. First of, a child should never be allowed to keep toxic or otherwise potentially harmful fish species. Secondly the fish should be hardy enough to be easy to take care of, accept flake food and other easily storable foods and be calm enough not to be stressed by the children playing near the aquarium, tapping on the glass etc. Suitable fish includes many livebearers, barbs and tetras. Always buy fish that are suitable for you aquarium and don’t just let your child by the fish he think is most beautiful, coolest or otherwise most appealing without considering their demands.

And don’t forget that you as a parent have to do your research so that you know how to take care of an aquarium before letting your child get one. It might be your child that is getting an aquarium but you are getting the responsibility.

About the author:

You can read everything you need to know about setting up and caring for an aquarium at AC Tropical Fish & Aquarium . AC Tropical Fish & Aquarium features a large amount of articles containing info on all aspects of aquarium keeping from setting up the aquarium, to diseases and fish breeding. Visit the Aquarium article archive now

Written By: William berg

If anyone else has been a keen aquarist as long as I have then I am sure by now that a few mistakes have been made when choosing the right fish for the tank.

In the early days I was much too eager to buy the fish and shove them in the tank without any consideration to how the fish would interact with each other. As far as I was to know all fish would get along ’swimmingly’. Definitely not the case!

Unfortunately rushing to the pet store and picking out the prettiest, most colourful and interesting looking tropical fish is not the best way to stock the tank.

Instead consider this; if you were to buy a house what do you look for. First of all you look the house over, does it have what you need for your family, what about the location, does the area look inviting? Is there a decent school for your children and a park for them to play in? Does the property have a garden and all the niceties you imagined when deciding to purchase a house? Now what about your neighbours? You are not going to want to live next door to an undesirable character are you? It is very much the same for your fish, their needs are all different, and characters unique. It is important to know that your fish will be able to tolerate other fish species.

Before even setting up your tank decide what kind of fish you are going to keep, some people don’t have much time on their hands and so low maintenance cold or easy to manage tropical fish are the best ways to go, for those with much more time and a higher level of commitment there are many varied species to chose from, including the easiest to care for fresh water fish to beautiful and fascinating marine fish.

Research your fish well, visit your nearest aquarium centre and ask advice. There are a vast number of web sites from enthusiasts including myself, right through to the professional aquarists who are always willing to assist.

You will need to find out firstly what environment the fish need, for example a tank with lots of planting or a rockery with many hidey holes for fish to escape or deep open water with lots of swimming space. Remember also that the aquarium is for your enjoyment, so if you want to be able to watch your fish swim about then maybe fish who like to hide in rocks may not be your ideal choice. Consider all the options from the needs of the fish right down to your own needs.

A community tank is a good all round choice as long as you ensure you research well. Remember that certain breads of fish like to nibble long flowing tails; some fish can be aggressive towards smaller or weaker breeds of fish. Also remember that fish grow, do not go for a fish that will outgrow the tank within a short period of time. You need to be able to accommodate your fish’s needs at all times not just in the set up stages.

I have found the best method is to go along to an aquarium centre and see the livestock in the flesh, there are always wonderful varieties on show and an expert on hand to answer any questions. Ask lots of them, a professional dealer who knows, understands and values the need for setting up the aquarium and stocking it correctly will accept as many questions as you wish to put forward, will answer them and readily offer any help and guidance. If he/she is the kind that is only after your money and does not care about what equipment or combination of fish you buy, then find another who knows his/her stuff.

When a tank is fully stocked with compatible fish, the aquarium will provide hours of entertainment, provide a focal point to your living area as well as provide all of the essentials the fish needs to survive including good neighbours.

About the author:

Cerianwen is a keen aquarist with many years experience in fish keeping. This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.PetLovers.Com/ which is a site for Pet Forums.

Written By: Cerianwen Ball