Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Tropical Fish Aquarium

Tropical fish are beautiful and are brilliant for keeping at home provided that they have the right habitat. When thinking of keeping tropical fish always remember to have a suitable home for them, a large enough tank, clean fresh water, a tank that resembles their natural habitat and plenty of food. When fish are happy then they are likely to live longer so making sure that you fish has all those things mentioned then you are already on your way to being a great fish keeper.

There are several types of fish that you can have in your tropical fish aquarium. You can keep smaller fish such as Neon’s, Tetras, Angel fish, Guppies and Gourami’s or you can keep larger fish for example cichlids or Malawi’s. When it comes to cichlids and Malawi's there are different types of fish that fall into these categories. Cichlids are well known to be like cannibals, there are fish such as Oscars, black belts, jaguars, parrots and Jack Dempsey’s to name a few. The list goes on. Malawi cichlids have fish like Black Doral’s, blue nose, chidunga and luhuchi to name a few.

Tropical fish aquariums are made up with freshwater. The water needs to be completely purified, no salt or chlorine in the water. The best thing to do is set up your tank about four weeks before purchasing any fish and let the bacteria cycle, this will give your fish the best start in your tank. You get what is known as new tank syndrome, if you put your fish in the tank too soon. The bacteria has not had enough time to build up and the fish suffer. The bacteria is extremely important as this is what gets rid of the fish waste and if there is not enough bacteria the waste gathers and becomes toxic to the fish. This is also why a lot of learning needs to be done. Never use fresh water always take out boiled tank water to clean your filter so that you don’t destroy the good bacteria! When cleaning the gravel in your tropical aquarium always remember to have some water prepared a few weeks beforehand. Fill up a bucket of water and leave some chlorine solution in it. This will also help to protect your fish.

A tropical fish aquarium is an absolutely stunning piece of furniture for any home but it does require constant attention, so you have to make sure that you know what is involved before getting into fish keeping. If you are ready for the challenge and you can keep your tank clean and your fish happy, then there is no reason why you can't be a great fish keeper, good luck!

Tropical Aquarium

Tropical Aquariums are for keeping tropical fish, but you can have two different types of fish, saltwater or freshwater. Saltwater fish obviously needs saltwater and the salt needs to be a regulated level along with the PH and temperature. Freshwater fish need to have fresh purified water, both of these set ups need the good bacteria that helps to keep the aquariums clean.

Tropical aquariums that contain saltwater are only for saltwater fish. If you put a freshwater fish in this tank it will die! Saltwater fish are made to stand the levels of salt and are essential for the fish to breath and move. If salt wasn’t present they would die a death like suffocation. In saltwater aquariums you need to make sure that there are living rocks in it, this means rocks that already have the good bacteria present. You then need to leave the rock in the tank for at least two months before putting any fish in, this is to get a bacteria cycle on the go. Once the bacterium has built up, I set up the filter. After that it is safe to add the fish.

Freshwater tropical aquariums are for fish that need clear and clean water. This water has to be chlorine and ammonia free. The freshwater tank also needs to be set up and cycling for at least four weeks before adding any fish to it, as this will help the bacteria to build and make sure that the ammonia levels are kept to a bare minimum, ammonia is a substance that will kill our fish as it makes breathing for them very hard to do. You know when your tank has very high levels of ammonia because the fish are at the top of the tank struggling to breath but the trick is not to change the water, what to do is clean out the filter in some of the tank water (in a separate bowl of course) and then put it back in within a day or so. The water will be in a completely better condition. Purchase a water test kit to check your levels or nutrients before putting in your fish, they are not expensive but are a great help.

Tropical aquariums are stunning ornaments in any household! Just make sure that you don’t forget about the work and responsibility involved, they may be fish but they are still alive and should of course be kept that way!