All about aquarium fish

The underwater world beckons with its tranquility, it seems like a real fairy tale and allows a person to escape from everyday problems. It's not for nothing that psychologists recommend breeding aquarium fish as a great way to relax and feel better. Such pets are too different from humans and their other pets, therefore, it is recommended that novice aquarists study all the nuances of keeping fish.

Aquarium fish, in comparison with any other domestic animals, are the least independent living creatures. The inhabitants of a home reservoir cannot cope without you - at least they need to be constantly fed and optimal conditions created for them. Therefore, in the vast majority of cases, the aquarium reliably ties you to the house, if, of course, you are not indifferent to the fate of the fish.

Most aquarists tend to divide the inhabitants of the aquarium into relatively easy to care for and more complex, but the principles of caring for them in any case should be brought to automatism.

Another important point is that many newbies start fish too irresponsibly... An aquarium inhabitant is not a cat that is accustomed to the outdoor environment of our latitudes and, in urgent need, is able to find food for itself or defend its territory.Most of the inhabitants of the aquarium are guests from distant southern countries, where the water is always warm and about the same temperature.

Their comfort depends on indicators that you have never paid attention to, for example, the hardness or acidity of the water. A sharp change in such indicators for some species of fish can be fatal. You will probably have to buy special equipment, but you also need to handle it reasonably, because both a lack of oxygen and its excess are dangerous for pets.

A separate difficulty for beginners is that fish are too general a concept. Different species require different living conditions, diet, and so on. Moreover, some of them should not be lodged together, otherwise some of your pets will inevitably regard others as food.

Finally, you need to understand that the aquarium is the decoration of your apartment and, ideally, it should resemble the real underwater world. To do this, do not limit yourself to a vessel, water and fish - you need to take care of the selection of the bottom, aquarium plants, and any decorations. Again, all of this must be combined, otherwise your concept of aesthetic seabed could be potentially dangerous to the living creatures.

Hence it follows that no sensible future aquarist takes action before they have a clear plan of action in their head... All points, including the volume of the aquarium, its design and the compatibility of the fish, must be checked so that there is no doubt about the correct combination.

Theoretically, many species of fish can live in an aquarium, and if the common crucian carp is unlikely to even become a guest there, then decorative tropical species should be considered more carefully. In fact, the assortment includes dozens and even hundreds of species and breeds, for a description of which there is simply not enough space, therefore, we will only talk about the most famous and common aquarium inhabitants.

• Pecilia - in the top among beginners, they include guppies, swordtails, platies and so on. These fish are viviparous, which means that their owner does not have to bother with nursing eggs. Such pets look very colorful, while breeders have actively worked on the diversity of their appearance. It is impossible to accuse such favorites of being whimsical, which is why they can be considered a “popular choice”.

• Cichlids are considered the largest vertebrate species and have about 1300 species. Unsurprisingly, some of them have made it to the aquariums. Such animals can be both harmless herbivorous and aggressive predatory, but they all have a very atypical trait for fish - mothers do not abandon their offspring to their fate, all the more they do not try to devour them, but they have a maternal instinct and protect the young from enemies.

• Catfish highly prized for their unusual appearance - their mustachioed muzzle is difficult to confuse with anyone else. Such a pet is an aquarium cleaner, and therefore its content is not only interesting, but also useful. Moreover, such a fish can grow to an impressive size, so when buying, you should clarify what are the maximum sizes of an adult and whether it is a cub in front of you.

• Labyrinth views unusual in that they breathe air directly from the atmosphere - for this they float to the surface. This feature of respiration allows these fish to settle denser than any others, because the saturation of the water with oxygen no longer matters for them. For obvious reasons, containers with such animals are never closed with a tight lid, ensuring normal air circulation. Labyrinth pets include such popular pets as gourami, macropods, chelostomes, and many others.

Buying fish and launching them into the water is not a complete list of the responsibilities of a person who decides to become an aquarist. Underwater inhabitants, settled in a limited and relatively tight space, cannot rely on natural processes that allowed them to survive in natural reservoirs, which means that you will have to work for the pets to live and delight you with their cheerfulness.

The first task is to decide where the aquarium will be located. A beginner usually starts from where there is enough free space in his apartment, and in this he is very mistaken - the location is not determined by this criterion. Fish require a plausible imitation of daylight hours, and if night has officially come, it will be wrong that a bright light is on in the room - pets will not be able to sleep from it and will be overworked.

Aquarium equipment, for example, the same compressor or filter, can make quite a loud noise during operation, but the needs of certain species of fish do not allow turning off the equipment at any time - this means that sleeping next to the aquarium will not always be comfortable. With the choice of the aquarium itself, not everything is so simple, because theoretically it can be small, but then you will put only a couple of fish there, which will be bored.

Buying a large aquarium in this context is much more reasonable, because it allows you to settle a whole flock of inhabitants in it and combine various compatible species, and cleaning such an ecosystem, oddly enough, turns out to be easier. Another thing is that it is not so easy to choose a place for a large vessel, taking into account all the above criteria for choosing a location.

As already mentioned, the parameters of the aquatic environment are extremely important for the maintenance of underwater pets, and it is the owner's responsibility to maintain them at a constant level. In many ways, specially acquired equipment is responsible for this, but it is unlikely to bring everything to a 100% automatic level. Control on your part is still necessary and obligatory.

You must monitor at least the following indicators.

• Water temperature. For the predominant part of fish, the norm is the water temperature in the range of 22-26 ° C, but for each species it should be specified separately, since the same discus need more heat (28-31 ° C), and the famous goldfish is looking for coolness (18-23 ° C). In any case, too sharp changes in temperature remain extremely undesirable, and for those fish that swallow air directly from the atmosphere, its temperature compatibility with the water in the aquarium is also needed.
• Hardness of water. This indicator determines how effectively carbon dioxide will dissolve in aquarium water, and it is necessary for the normal functioning of the ecosystem. Tap water usually has a hardness of 10-20, while some fish that love soft water only need 3-8. To achieve such an indicator, the liquid is passed through reverse osmosis filters, and then mixed with tap water, reaching the required performance, but this is done, of course, not by eye, but under the control of special measurements.

In doing so, the water in the aquarium interacts with soil and rocks. By dissolving limestone shells and corals, it increases its hardness, which is good for some fish, and a disaster for others.

• Salinity of water. It is no secret that some fish live in fresh water, while others enjoy sea water. By purchasing this or that pet, you are obliged to create for him a believable living environment "like at home." And if he likes salt water, he will have to regularly add sea salt to the liquid.How much depends on the salinity of the natural reservoir in which the ancestors of your pet lived.
• Gas composition of water. In a healthy reservoir, water is saturated to varying degrees with several types of gases that are productively used by flora and fauna, but in case of an overdose, they can pose a danger to all living things. The required oxygen level (again, depending on many other parameters) is maintained both using electrical equipment and by planting aquarium plants.

It is also important to keep the ecosystem clean. Carbon dioxide in large quantities can harm fish, but it is necessary to maintain the life of plants, therefore it is necessary to make accurate measurements and look for reasonable concentrations. Hydrogen sulfide and methane are removed from the liquid in any case - they are present only in polluted water bodies and poison your living creatures.

The water in the aquarium must be cleaned with special filters that capture and retain harmful particles. Maintenance of filters should be regular - you need to make sure that they do not clog and clean them promptly. However, even the presence of such equipment does not relieve the owner of the need for regular water changes.

It is extremely undesirable to change all the water at once, because it already contains colonies of bacteria that break down fish waste.

For this reason, usually no more than 1/3 of the water is changed at a time, the need for such a procedure arises on average once a week. Exceptions in favor of a more rare implementation are possible if you organize the correct operation of the ecosystem, buy good filters and do not fill the aquarium with inhabitants too densely.

Before entering the aquarium, tap water needs preliminary preparation, otherwise chlorine gas and other unwanted impurities from the pipes will end up in the reservoir along with it. To avoid this, experts advise to settle the liquid in a shallow wide vessel for 24 hours - during this time, gaseous impurities will evaporate into the atmosphere, and insoluble impurities will precipitate.

A complete water change is allowed only in an emergency, when your ecosystem, by all indications, suffers greatly from any distortions. Such a step is justified if all living creatures have died from an outbreak of the disease, fungal mucus has grown excessively in the reservoir, and abundant water bloom is observed. However, with a complete water change, you still greatly risk the vegetation - in such situations, it can discolor or lose leaves.

It is important to feed your aquatic fauna in a timely and correct manner. Suitable food options for each species are different - you should be interested in this when choosing a pet. Experts advise feeding adult fish 1-2 times a day, while once a week a fasting day is arranged for them, when no food is given at all.

It is advisable to calculate the dosage of feed in accordance with the needs of your own pets - they must eat everything that you gave within literally 2-3 minutes, otherwise the residues will be deposited at the bottom and cause unnecessary bacteria to multiply. At the same time, overfeeding is dangerous, even if the pets seem to cope with the entire volume of food.

Freshwater species are generally considered less fussy in terms of feed selection - except for alternating between different types of products, the priority is. If your aquarium is home to several species of fish that eat the same food, but live in different layers of water, you need to make sure that those that live near the surface leave food for benthic species.

Lighting is useful for many fish, but it is also necessary for people who want to admire their pets. However, it is more worth focusing on the preferences of the fish themselves, since some do not need extra light at all and natural lighting will be enough, while others require backlighting even at night. Average illumination is usually indicated as 0.5 watts per liter of water, but you should understand that in a wide and shallow aquarium this will give one degree of illumination, and in a thin and narrow, but deep one it will be completely different.

Globally, the choice of aquarium pets does not look limited at all, but for a beginner, most of the options are not available for reasons of logic. Lacking experience in caring for even unpretentious species, you are unlikely to cope with more demanding fish. Considering that novice aquarists rarely acquire truly large containers, they also need to choose small pets, especially since they are usually the unpretentious ones.

Guppies are rightly considered one of the most obvious choices for a beginner to teach you how to handle the Peciliaceae family. Such fish have long been registered in most aquariums. These fish are interesting from all sides - they are found everywhere and are sold in any pet store, have an attractive bright color, and belong to viviparous species.

Moreover, they cannot be called very tiny - if the males are still quite small (3-4 cm in length), then the females are quite noticeable (up to 6 cm). These handsome men feed on plant food, and all their care includes timely feeding and regular cleaning of the aquarium with intensive aeration.

Cichlids are often considered as an alternative to the Petsilievs. This group of fish is often considered exclusively carnivorous, which is not entirely true - there are both really toothy and dangerous species, as well as herbivores, as well as omnivores. Predators are usually not advised to beginners - they require special care and are deadly for any of their roommates, but with omnivorous and herbivorous species, no problems usually arise.

The first thing to do is choose a suitable aquarium. Surely by this time you already have an idea of ​​what kind of fish you would like to see in your home artificial reservoir, and have read about what requirements they put forward to their living environment. According to these requirements, it is determined how the aquarium will look like - how many liters of water should it contain, what shape it will be. Determining with the size of the container, you inevitably have to make a start from where it will be installed. We remind that it is required a place where you can adjust the lighting and temperature regardless of the comfort of the people around.

Fortunately, the times when fish were started up in an ordinary three-liter jar are long gone, so you should decide on a set of equipment that will support the normal functionality of the ecosystem. It all depends on the needs of the fish and the characteristics of the aquarium. At least you need to take care of filtration water sufficient aeration, lighting and, perhaps, heated... The same will not hurt thermometer, clearly showing what the temperature of the aquatic environment is at the moment - so you can react in a timely manner to any deviations from the norm.

When trying to create a complete and believable simulation of a corner of the underwater world, you must take care of planting plants. They can have many functions - they remove harmful carbon dioxide from the water and turn it into useful oxygen, they can serve as food for fish in your absence, and they are also a good shelter. Even if the fish does not have natural enemies in the aquarium, this does not diminish the efficiency of its instincts.

It is worth deciding on the vegetation depending on the specific inhabitants who will live in the aquarium, because almost no plant is a priori useful - many of them, for example, not only do not emit oxygen at night, but also absorb it from the water.

If your aquarium is just making its debut as a habitat for living things, it is important to properly prepare it for this. - by the time of settlement, there should already be an adequate ecosystem with microscopic inhabitants that you do not even see. Experienced aquarists advise, having "assembled" an aquarium, not to add anyone there for a week, so that the microflora develops to the level when it can cope with the waste of the new inhabitants.

If this is already your second aquarium, and the first is in its current form, you can go the other way - you just need to pour a few liters of water from the old container into a new one. An alternative is to soak a sponge in the old one and then squeeze it into a new one. If the presence of water from the "working" ecosystem is significant, the waiting time before launch will be greatly reduced and will be only 2 days.

Launching the fish does not imply any difficulties at all - the water with them is simply poured into the aquarium. At the same time, it is extremely important to ensure that the liquid in the aquarium and the container with the fish is approximately the same in all respects, otherwise the difference in conditions can have an extremely negative effect on the health of the pets.

The incompatibility of pets can lie in different characteristics, the most obvious is the risk that the predator will eat its herbivorous neighbor. Other incompatibility options suggest that pets need fundamentally different care, for example, some like cool water, while others need a higher temperature. The same differences may apply to other parameters of water, including hardness, acidity, and so on.

To get the alignment going well, follow these simple rules.

• All inhabitants of the aquarium should be approximately the same size. The fish eats its prey only whole, and if the sizes of the rivals are the same, they will no longer eat each other.
• The temperament of the pets should be similar. There are playful species that are constantly frolicking - they will be more appreciated by those who support their activity. Conversely, fish that are too calm can get annoyed because their neighbors do not follow the "rules of decency."
• Combine wisely. If you nevertheless decide to settle together two or three species of fish or more, place "fellow countrymen" in the same aquarium - since they can live together in the wild, it means that it will succeed in the aquarium. Alternatively, go the opposite way: choose a whimsical fish, and add to it the one that is undemanding and will agree to "imposed" living conditions.

If your pets may turn out to be incompatible due to too different characters, this does not mean that a cross should be given to their combination. Follow the tips below to get things done.

• The spacious aquarium will accommodate everyone. Calm fish can sit in quiet corners while the free center is occupied by active colleagues.
• Those wishing to retire should have such an opportunity. While someone is frolicking and needs a lot of space for this, other fish want no one to bother them. Equipping shelters will help to separate them from an overly active neighborhood. You can even zone the aquarium with the help of dense thickets - it will be even more interesting.
• Lack of food is a common cause of aggression. It is no secret that even a predator, while he is full, often does not want to attack anyone. The opposite situation also happens, when the fish mistakenly takes other people's fluttering fins for food and nibbles them. To prevent this from happening, feed your pets regularly, in sufficient quantities and in a balanced way.
• It is better to accustom to something unusual from childhood. Fish of different temperaments do not perceive each other so critically if they live together with their youth, but sharing two adult populations with each other will certainly cause rejection.

Finally - a few interesting facts that, perhaps, will further fuel your growing interest in the aquarium hobby.

• You don't have to be an expert to understand that a fish swimming belly up is bad. However, for some catfish, this behavior is normal and does not mean anything bad.

• While you are puzzling over how to combine two types of fish in one aquarium, at the Radisson hotel, located in Berlin, Germany, the aquarium is populated with 56 species at once! This cylindrical reservoir is considered the largest in the world, its height alone is 25 meters.

• Since we are talking about dimensions, let's remember the smallest aquarium. It is no bigger than a matchbox - only 3 cm long and 1.5 cm wide! Incredibly, this is not just a toy - there are both live plants and live fish inside.

• Astronotus ocellatus is rightly considered the largest aquarium fish - the length of her body can reach an impressive 35 cm.

• In one of the aquariums, a female eel once lived for 88 long years. Having got such a pet, you have every chance to pass it on by inheritance.

• Acanticus is completely non-hostile when it comes to fish of other species. Whether it is fellow tribesmen - he simply hates them and is trying with all his might to destroy.

• Clown fish cannot be born a female - all representatives of this species are males from birth. Only then will nature decide for itself who will acquire functions that are unusual for individuals from birth.

Top 10 most unpretentious fish awaits you in the next video.