by Pat Bridges
Pat edited “The Scat” - newsletter of the St. Catherine’s Aquarium Society, Canada, for 9 years Aquarticles
Read these notes and maintain a healthy, problem-free aquarium. You won’t encounter the usual problems that occur and you won’t be among those who ask “Why did my fish die?” Read the rest of this entry »
by Grant Gussie
Originally published in The Calquarium,Volume 40, Number 7 Aquarticles
Your first tank arrives home, possibly with a bag of fish, possibly not. Possibly with a kit-type collection of assorted lights, heaters, and filters, possibly not. What are you going to do with it all? This article is intended to provide you with instructions for setting up your first tank. I assume you want your new tank to be something to admire, and that the typical “starter kit” aquarium complete with bubbling plastic skeleton is not going to cut it. Instead, this approach will give you a showpiece aquarium; one that will be an attractive feature in a semi-formal living room rather than an eyesore in the family rumpus room. As such, it will be naturally aquascaped with hardy, attractive, and (most of all) living plants, and be supplied with a nice collection of attractive, peaceful fishes. Read the rest of this entry »
by Rajendra Kumar, G.G.
First published in “Infoaquaria”, newsletter of The Aquarist Society of Karnataka, India Aquarticles
You have bought yourself a new aquarium, filled it up with water, then added a few fish, and naturally you feed them. The fish digest the food and excrete waste into the water.
In nature fishes live in vast water bodies or in flowing rivers that refresh their water continuously removing waste. But in the stagnant and limited quantity of water in your aquarium the nitrogenous waste products break down into ammonia. Read the rest of this entry »
by Dr. Adrian Lawler
Extracted from the staff Operational Handbook which Dr. Lawler wrote as Aquarium Supervisor for
the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium, of Biloxi, MS Aquarticles
A tank should be “seeded” (inoculated with waste-oxidizing bacteria) when:
l. A remodeled tank is stocked-out.
2. An ammonia build-up occurs when:
- A tank is over-fed, or animals throw up their food.
- Air is left off a tank for too long a time and the biological filter bacteria die off.
- A tank’s filter is cleaned too well, discarding too many bacteria.
- An organism gets killed or dies (does not survive shedding, injury, or other causes of death) in a tank.
- Too much city water (high in chlorine and ammonia) is added to a tank killing biological filter.
- A treatment used in tank kills off biological filter. Read the rest of this entry »
by added Wednesday 12, July 2006
You will obviously need to start out with a bag which is the appropriate size for the fish you are transporting. My lovely assistant in the photos below is a betta, so I used a fairly small bag. Read the rest of this entry »
by Andy Gordon of England, and Michelle Stuart of Ontario Canada.
Reprinted, with permission, from their web site Fishtanksandponds.net Aquarticles
There are a good number of fish that have become established as good fish to keep in a community aquarium and with most of them that is the case. But there are some that a lot of books and dealers recommend as being fine but in fact they are poor subjects for the general community tank for varying reasons. Here is a “rogues list” of fish that should be treated with caution. This does not mean that all the following fishes can’t be kept, because in the proper sized aquarium with suitable tank mates and conditions they all still have something to offer. Read the rest of this entry »