Guest Blogging Part II.
Hello again and welcome to my second round of guest blogging here.
Robbyn, for those of you who are curious, will have left Aruba by now and be cruising the Caribbean. On Thursday they will be going through the Panama Canal, on Friday cruising the Pacific, and Saturday arriving in Costa Rica. She will be home very late Saturday evening/Sunday morning and, I assume, normal knitting blogging will resume early next week.
On to today’s subject…
I’ve always loved animals and loved having pets. Over the years I’ve had just about every kind of pet imaginable… Save snakes.
I hate snakes.
Can I hear a “I hate snakes!”?
Thank you.
Anyway, one of the easiest pets to keep, yet one of the most confusing to most people, is fish. Fish are, of course, not exactly the most affectionate of pets, but a well-kept aquarium can be very decorative, provide a lot of entertainment, and not require a lot of time, energy, or money to maintain. Aquariums can also be very instructive, as well as be a good pet for children with a little care and adult supervision. The problem is most people have no idea how to set up a tank. What generally ends up happening is someone gives their ten-year-old a small tank and a fish. The fish goes in the tank and rather rapidly goes belly-up. This can be very discouraging, to put it mildly, especially since it’s often not really clear what went wrong.
Well today I’m going to talk about fish and aquariums a little and hopefully explain away some of the confusion. I’m not going to go into the nitty-gritty, mind you, just hopefully tell y’all enough so that you could set up your own aquarium if you wanted to.
The first thing you need if you want to keep fish is, of course, an aquarium. When you go into a pet store you’ll see that there are dozens of choices ranging from hundred gallon (or more) monsters down to little one gallon tanks. One thing to keep in mind when it comes to aquariums is that smaller is not better. The smaller the tank, the harder it is to keep things balanced. Realistically I wouldn’t look at anything smaller than 5 gallons, and, if you have the room and funds, ten to twenty gallons would be better.
This is a 5 gallon Plexiglas bow-front tank. These have become fairly popular and you can find them at pet stores, Wal-Mart, and such for very reasonable prices. These generally come with some extras, typically a filter, light, and some fish flakes.
These are two different kinds of filters that typically come with these sorts of tanks. They both work on the same basic principle, water gets sucked into the chamber and run through a filter media. The difference is that one hangs on the outside of the tank and the other on the inside. My preference is for an external filter, but either will work.
These are types of bulbs that can go in the hood to provide light for your tank. The bulb that comes with these tanks, the one on the left, is generally an incandescent. I recommend, especially if you’re going to have live plants, replacing it with a florescent like you see on the right. The fluorescent bulbs cost a little more, but they last a very long time, use far less electricity, and, most importantly, provide a light that is more natural in that it’s closer to sunlight.
You’ll also need to get some gravel. Make sure that what you get is safe for fresh water aquariums (some of the stuff used in salt water tanks is not suitable for fresh water). You’ll need enough to fill the bottom of the tank to a depth of about an inch and a half or so. It’s generally a good idea to rinse the gravel first in order to get rid of any dust, though that generally isn’t an issue with gravels you’ll get today. Gravel comes in all kinds of colours, and you can add in fun little pieces of decorative coloured glass or whatever to liven it up.
You’ll also need a heater. Fish, especially the commonly kept tropical fish, require a fairly narrow temperature range, usually in the 75 - 80 degree F range, to be comfortable. The heater must be powerful enough to keep the tank at the proper temperature. The heater’s power, measured in watts, will be on the box it comes in and there should also be advice on how many watts are required for a particular sized tank.
To monitor the temperature of the tank you’ll need a thermometer. There are a variety of thermometer types available, everything from floating ones like in the picture above to liquid crystal thermometers that attach to the side of the tank. It doesn’t really matter which you get, but generally I prefer the liquid crystal ones.
An air pump is also useful, if not absolutely necessary. Contrary to what most people think, the primary benefit of having an air pump is not to oxygenate the water. The bulk of the oxygenation actually occurs at the surface of the water, the air bubbles from your pump aren’t in the water long enough to make a huge difference. The main reason to have an air pump and air stone in your tank is to keep the water in constant motion so that no ‘dead zones’ develop. For this reason an air wand, as in the picture to the far right, is generally preferable to just having an air stone because the wand creates a wide curtain of air bubbles and moves the water more thoroughly. It’s also important to have a check-valve in the tubing between the pump and the air stone. The one in this picture is that blue thing on the air line towards the bottom-right. The reason for this is that if the power goes out that airline can act as a siphon, sucking water out of your tank, making a big mess, and possibly killing your fish. A check valve allows air to go one way in the line, but nothing to come back the other, preventing any such potential problems.
These things are not essential, but are very helpful. The first bottle on the right is Stress Coat. Stress coat acts as a water conditioner and it helps to replace the coating on fish scales that is often lost due to handling and the stress of being transported. You use Stress Coat whenever setting up a new tank, whenever adding new fish, or whenever fish are, well, stressed.
The middle bottle there is Cycle. Cycle contains bacteria that are essential to an aquarium’s proper running. I’ll get to that in a bit, but for now just say that it can help immensely in setting up a new tank and ensuring that an established tank runs well.
The last bottle there is EasyBalance. EasyBalance is one of a number of products that simplify maintaining water chemistry. It helps to stabilize pH and other water characteristics so that you don’t have to spend a ton of time and money on water testing.
The little carton there is salt, basically just plain ol’ kosher salt. Adding some to a tank, as per directions, can be beneficial to most fish and help ward off illnesses. You only have to add it when you’re adding new water, do not add salt to replacement water.
The last thing you need is, of course, water. Depending on where you live, your tap water might work perfectly fine once it’s conditioned. Among other things, conditioning means getting rid of the chlorine that is added to tap water but is deadly to fish. Using a product like Stress Coat, you can basically do that instantly. You can also condition tap water by leaving it out and uncovered for 24 hours, the chlorine in the water will simply evaporate away. Since products like Stress Coat do more than just get rid of chlorine, though, I recommend using them.
If the tap water where you live is very hard you probably know it. Washing clothes requires more detergent than it otherwise would, you get a white film on the bathroom tile, you know the symptoms. While some fish like hard water (some like soft), water that is too hard can be a problem. Where I live the water is extremely hard, so I don’t use straight tap water to fill aquariums. You also can’t use straight distilled or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water, fish do need some minerals in their water and some of those minerals (expressed as KH) provide a pH buffer. What I do is use about 1/3 tap water and 2/3rds distilled water to get a mix that is just about right.
So you’ve got all of these things together, what do you do? First rinse the gravel, then add it to the tank. Now fill the tank about halfway up with water. Attach the filter and heater to the tank. Attach your air wand to an air line, a check valve (make sure you have it oriented the right way) to that airline, and a short piece of airline from the check valve to the pump then attach the wand (generally they come with suction cups) to the back of the tank down near the gravel line. Add any rocks or other decorations. Fill the tank the rest of the way. Turn on the filter (it may need to be primed by pouring a little water into the filtration chamber), the heater, and the air pump. Add in or attach your thermometer. Add Stress Coat, salt, and EasyBalance to condition the water.
So now what? Now we add the fish?
No! Nonononono! Now we definitely do not add fish. Adding fish immediately after a tank is set up is why most first time aquarists end up with dead fish.
For an aquarium to work and support fish life there must be a working nitrogen cycle. Putting things simply, fish, like every other creature on earth, produce waste. That waste creates ammonia, which is deadly to fish. If the ammonia levels build up in a tank, and that can happen very rapidly, your fish are going belly up. Fortunately there are little bacteria called Nirosomonas that eat ammonia and convert it to nitrite. Unfortunately nitrite is still dangerous to fish, but another set of bacteria called Nitrobacter like to eat nitrites and convert them to nitrate. Fortunately, these bacteria exist everywhere, and given time and the food they seek they will colonize your tank. But it takes time and it takes a biologic load that doesn’t change too rapidly.
The operative word here is time, it takes a fair amount of time and the right conditions for the necessary bacterial colonies to establish themselves. Fortunately, thanks to modern science, we can short-circuit some of that time by using a product like Cycle. Cycle contains a lot of these bacteria just waiting to establish themselves in your new tank. By using something like Cycle as per directions you can greatly shorten the time it takes to get a new tank up and running.
Shorten, but not make instant. Now that you’ve set up your new tank let it run for about a week. Adjust the temperature, make sure nothing is leaking, and add Cycle as the directions on the back of the bottle say, and think about what kinds of fish you’d like to have.
Once the tank has had some time to run and become stable and any kinks are worked out, it’s time to start adding some life. The trick here is to do it slowly. Those bacterial colonies I spoke of earlier will grow depending on the biologic load, but they do not adapt overnight—sudden changes in biologic load can overwhelm them quickly. The first creature you add is going to be the riskiest and it should, in my opinion, be pretty hardy. Some good choices are snails, useful creatures to have in any tank and not nearly as icky as their land-based counterparts, or an air breathing aquatic creature such as a Betta or a frog. Snails are pretty hardy, and Bettas and Frogs, since they don’t breath water, are somewhat less sensitive to water conditions than many fish would be.
So you’ve got your tank up and running and your Betta has been in there by his lonesome for several days to a week, what now? Add fish and other life slowly. Add a catfish, let the tank adjust for several days or a week. Add a couple of tetras, let the tank adjust for a couple of days or a week. Keep doing that until your tank is stocked.
So what kinds of fish should you add? Well for our small five gallon tank we don’t want anything that will get very big, nor do we want anything that is particularly aggressive towards other fish. We also want to think about what role a particular creature might play. We want some creatures that are going to clean the tank, Snails are good both for helping to keep the base and the sides of the tank clean. Cory catfish tend to be very hardy, and are tireless bottom cleaners. African Dwarf frogs are also good bottom scavengers. For more ‘looks’ fish, there are a variety of tetras—especially headlight tetras and cardinal tetras—that are relatively easy to keep and very attractive. No tank, at least as far as I’m concerned, would be complete without a male Betta. For all but the larger tanks fish that get very large—plecos, Jack Dempsey, to name two—and fish that are generally aggressive (generally these tend to get large as well)—Silver Dollars, Angels, ect.—should be avoided. It is definitely wise to search the ‘net on any fish you’re thinking of buying and finding out what size it gets to, how well it gets along with tank-mates, and if it has any particular needs.
A couple of things need to be said about some of the creatures I suggested above. First, snails. A little care is required in choosing a snail because some varieties get very large indeed. Apple snails are called that because, well, they can get as big as an apple. The other problem that can crop up with snails is that they can breed very readily. Some are even hermaphroditic. This can be a problem, as snails can quickly over run a tank, though if you’re careful about watching for eggs and/or have fish in your tank that like to eat eggs it generally isn’t a problem.
The next thing to mention is Bettas. Bettas are beautiful fish that come in a variety of bright colours. The males generally have large fan-like fins, the females much less finnage and generally less bright colors. Bettas are sometimes called Siamese Fighting Fish, and they’re called that for a reason, Males are especially aggressive towards any other male and will fight to the death. Females aren’t a whole lot better about it. Never, ever, put more than one Betta in a tank. And these tanks with dividers where the two Bettas can still see each other? Bad idea, it stresses them out to constantly be in a ‘want to fight?’ mode. You typically see Bettas in little cups because they can’t be mixed. The reason Bettas can survive this is that they breath air, not water. Those little cups still aren’t very good for them, like any other creature Bettas like to have room to move around. The fact that Bettas breath air is important to remember. If they can’t reach air they will drown despite the fact that they are fish. Their aggressiveness can also sometimes be a problem. They will go after another fish that isn’t a Betta if they think it looks enough like one—this usually means fish like male guppies with lots of colourful fins. Bettas like to be the king of the tank, and they will tend to harass any new fish that comes in. They quickly settle down, though, and after an initial acclimation usually make very good community fish. Bettas are both top-feeders and carnivores, in the wilds of Thailand, where they come from, they live in rice patties and eat insect larva. A betta diet has to keep this in mind. There are specific foods for Bettas, small pellets designed to float on the top of the water, but Bettas also particularly love live or frozen foods—especially frozen bloodworms.
Frogs also require special consideration. There are two kinds of aquatic frogs one commonly sees for sale in pet stores. The first are African Dwarf Frogs, the second African Clawed Frogs. African Dwarf Frogs make a good addition to most small community tanks. African Clawed Frogs, which tend to get relatively large and can be quite aggressive, do not. Unfortunately many pet stores confuse the two, as it’s not clear which is which when they’re young unless you’re paying attention. The easiest way to tell the difference is that Clawed Frogs, as their name suggests, have claws on the ends of their front fingers and do not have webbing. Dwarf frogs have webbed front and hind feet. As far as African Dwarf Frogs go, like Bettas they breath air so the same warning applies—they must be able to get to the surface periodically to breath or they will drown. African Dwarf Frogs can occasionally be aggressive, especially towards small crustaceans (ghost shrimp and such), but in general will not bother anyone if no one bothers them. African Dwarf Frogs are also carnivores. There is some belief that dried foods, pellets and such, are not very good for them and can cause intestinal blockage so live or frozen foods are preferred—like Bettas, they love frozen bloodworms. They are also pigs, will eat any bloodworms they can get their paws on, and can sometimes be aggressive about defending “their stash”—generally not an issue as long as the food is broken up before being put in the tank.
Okay, so you’ve set up your tank, checked out what kinds of fish you’d like, added them, and everything is going great. What do you feed the little buggers? Well, it depends. What it depends on is what zone they like to live in and whether they’re carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. Fish tend to be either top feeders—Bettas are one example—bottom feeders—a cory catfish would be an example—or somewhere in the middle—anything that isn’t a top or bottom feeder. The food has to reflect this. For top feeders it must float, for bottom feeders it needs to sink right down, for everyone else it needs to slowly sink down so they can eat it as it goes by.
Here you see some common types of fish food. On the right is flake food, a kind of all purpose diet that is good for most kinds of fish. Next we have Betta pellets. This food is formulated to float on top of the water and give Bettas time to eat. Next we have shrimp pellets. This food sinks right down to the bottom and is for carnivorous bottom feeders like cory catfish. There are also sinking pellets made of algae for herbivorous bottom feeders. Lastly there are frozen bloodworms (the name is because they’re red, not because they’re bloody), which just about every kind of carnivorous aquarium dweller seems to love.
A note about the bloodworms. For some reason I find that I am highly allergic to them. Or, more accurately, my eyes are. If I have even touched a frozen cube of bloodworms and, with no discernable sign of residue on my fingers, rub my eyes, my eyes will swell up bigtime. I have no idea why this is, it really doesn’t make any sense, nor if it’s common or just me, but I always wear gloves when handling frozen bloodworms in order to eliminate any chance of such a reaction. Just something to be aware of.
As for how much and how often to feed your fish, that depends on a number of factors but overall less is better. Fish will over eat, most can be real pigs, and any food that isn’t eaten adds to the biologic load. I generally feed my tanks a little pellet and flake food in the morning, some frozen bloodworms at night. I generally skip feeding once a week. Not feeding a tank for a couple of days—say, if you go away for the weekend—is not a problem, any longer than that and it’s best to either use an automatic feeder of have someone come over and feed them every day or two.
Okay, so you’ve got your aquarium set up, stocked, and you know what to feed your aquatic friends. What about upkeep? Aside from the various chemicals, which should be added as per their directions, tanks need to have some water changed, the gravel vacuumed, and the filter changed on a periodic basis.
This thing is a godsend, it makes remembering when to do tank upkeep easy. Basically it’s a countdown timer for categories like filter maintenance, water changes, and all the rest. It counts down the days since you last performed these tasks and then, once the number of days you’ve set have passed it beeps at you to alert you to the needed jobs. I have mine set to beep once a week to tell me to add chemicals, once every 21 days to tell me change the filter media, and once ever 28 days to tell me to vacuum the gravel and change water.
Your filter media will most likely look like this, a kind of sock of floss and some charcoal. The frame should be re-used as beneficial bacteria will grow on it and you don’t want to throw those away.
This is a kind of gravel vacuum cleaner. You start a siphon and then push the end down into the gravel. Junk stuck in the gravel is sucked out. When you’re done, I usually siphon out about a gallon of water or so ever 28 days, just replace the water with freshly prepared conditioned water.
The only other upkeep task aside from these and feedings is that you have to periodically replace water that has evaporated out. I use distilled water for this so as to not add to the mineral content of the tank—it’s only the water itself that evaporates, the salts, metals, and minerals are left behind.
Well, that’s the basics. There is, of course, a whole lot more one can do and a whole lot more one can learn about aquariums and fish keeping, but hopefully that gives you enough information to be able to successfully start your own aquarium.
And that’s it for me. I’ve enjoyed guest blogging here and thank you to everyone for the kind comments on last week’s post. I hope everyone is doing great and I’ll see y’all in the comments section where I generally haunt in these parts :).
Myria
No trackbacks yet.
NOW I know why you know so much about rabbits when you posted a comment on my blog, Myria! You’re a detail girl!
Interesting post! I’m not big on fish but it still tears me up to see the Bettas living in the tiny bowls. That’s just Not Right!
And unlike you, I love snakes. Have never owned one but any opportunity to touch or hold (a harmless) one and I am THERE!
Thanks again for being a guest blogger and giving me my weekly fix of “Something Completely Different.” Robbyn left us in very good hands!
Ryan -
Me, a detail girl? I suppose that’s true. You’d never know it to meet me, though, I tend to come across as being more than a bit scatterbrained because what I laughingly call a brain rarely sticks to one subject for more than ten seconds.
The Betta cups bug me, too, especially when I see some of them without airholes. What really drives me bonkers is these little tiny tanks they try and sell people to keep their Bettas in. Bettas can survive those environments, sure, but they like having room to move around. Putting a Betta in those little tanks is like keeping your cat in a cage, just not fair to the animal.
Robbyn like snakes too. When we’re in a pet store if they’ve got one out you’ll see me heading as far away as possible and her heading right for the bloody things. Just thinking about them gives me the shivers, I can’t imagine wanting to hold one.
I’ll probably be guest blogging again when Robbyn goes on her next cruise (March, I think), but for now I’m glad to be back to the comments section :).
Myria
