50 Ways To Kill Your Fish: Improper Habitat

How to explain this one? I think all new fish keepers generally know that fish need food and clean water to survive. But beyond that, it's kind of a mystery why things die. Maybe there aren't any obvious signs like white spots or wounds. Your fish just slowly gets lethargic over time, stops swimming around, doesn't feel like eating, and then poof, it's gone. This silent killer is known as improper living conditions. In order to fight against its deadly trap, let's talk about a couple of key tenets for setting up a comfortable habitat for your fish.

I think all new fish keepers generally know that fish need food and clean water to surviv 50 Ways to Kill Your Fish: Improper Habitat

Try to Replicate Your Fish's Natural Living Conditions

We've all seen those extensive care sheets for each type of fish where they list recommended tank size, temperature, food, etc. While many fish have been raised in captivity for so long that there's some leeway with the requirements, try to match the natural living conditions and environment of the species you keep. We want to emulate their life in nature as best as we can.

That's not to say that you have to make a full-on South American biotope that only contains creatures from that region. The cool thing about aquariums is the very fact you have flexibility to mix-and-match fish from all around the world. However, one of the best pieces of advice I've heard from veteran fish keepers is to plan your tank around your favorite fish.

For my community tank 3.0, I felt so overwhelmed when planning which fish to keep. Should I narrow it down by swimming level to get a good mix of bottom feeders, mid-tank swimmers, and top-dwellers? Or maybe I should first choose a temperature range of super warm, regular tropical, or cold water? In the end, I nailed down my favorite, must-have fish (albino corydoras!) and planned the whole tank around their ideal needs. That meant buying a healthy school of them and skipping out on more aggressive fish that might out complete them for food. And in the end, I'm really happy with my choices – because I put my favorite fish first!

Don't Push the Boundaries as a Beginner

I'm totally guilty of this, especially when it comes to matching the living conditions for multiple species. I really, really want something to work (even if the research says "probably not"), but I don't have the experience to make it succeed. For example, my first betta was in a 3.5-gallon tank, and I was so proud of all the amenities he had (e.g., filter, heater, good food). But when I found out bettas can be kept in community tanks, I become obsessed with getting more fish but... I didn't want to buy another tank. So I kept searching the internet until I found one site that said they had kept their betta with cory catfish and neon tetras in a 3-gallon tank. Yeah, that didn't work out for long.

Another instance was when I read that albino cory catfish like waters at 72-79°F and German blue rams prefer 78-85°F. I thought that maybe if I kept the temperature at 78.5°F, everyone would be happy. Unfortunately, the super sensitive German blue ram didn't agree with me and slowly faded from the stress of being too cold. After watching a video about a breeder of rams, I now realize a solid 84°F would have been more appropriate.

I think all new fish keepers generally know that fish need food and clean water to surviv 50 Ways to Kill Your Fish: Improper Habitat
"Dude, I'm freezing to death in here! Crank up the heat!"

Bottom line: do what it takes to make your animals happy. If care sheets for axolotls say they can live in temperatures from 50-74°F, don't settle for room temperature – spend the money to get a fan or chiller and shoot for the mid 60's. And if you can't make certain conditions happen with your setup, then don't keep those species. (For example, fish that need soft water aren't going to thrive in my extremely hard water, especially without an RO/DI unit.) There are plenty of aquarium fish to pick from that will perfectly match your environment, so as a beginner, keep it simple and go for easy, hardy pets that you know you can make happy. Best of luck and keep on swimming!

Follow the rest of this series: 50 Ways to Kill Your Fish.

Komentar

Posting Komentar

Postingan populer dari blog ini

How To Fix Cloudy Aquarium Water For Axolotls

Gambar
Axolotls are one of the messiest pets I’ve ever owned, so how do you keep their tank water nice and clear? Well, there's a lot of different reasons why your aquarium water may be cloudy, but if you have a pet axolotl, most likely it’s because of their poop! đź’© These cute little creatures can produce big ol’ brown logs that look like miniature dog turds. Unfortunately, axolotls just seem to have a knack for stepping right on them and then poof, you’ve got poo dust all in the water column. Yuck! 4 Ways to Fix Cloudy Axolotl Water So to keep your water clean of axolotl poo particles, here are my top four suggestions, listed from least time intensive to most time intensive: Axolotl poo (source: headFeed from caudata.org ) Tip #1: Bigger Tank Get a bigger tank with more water volume. The more volume you have, the more diluted the waste will be and the clearer the water. This advice can also be rephrased as “Don’t overstock your aquarium.” For example, I started off with ...
Baca selengkapnya

How To Raise Cory Catfish Fry

Gambar
Apparently your cory catfish have been, ahem, gettin’ busy, and there are white little eggs all over your glass. Babies! So what in the world do you do now? Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about raising corydoras fry. How to Breed Cory Catfish Okay, for most of you, breeding corydoras was probably an accident, but here’s what you can do to encourage it. For me, I had a 20 gallon tank with 6 adult-sized albino cory catfish (to increase my chances of having enough males and females). To get them in the mood, condition them by feeding lots of good food, and then do some water changes with fresh water a few degrees cooler than normal. Next thing you know, everyone’s gettin’ frisky, the males are chasing the females and doing the T-shaped mating position, and then the female lays sticky eggs on any ol’ flat surface around. Female albino cory catfish carrying newly fertilized eggs in her pelvic fins How to Collect Corydoras Eggs If you leave the eggs alone, ...
Baca selengkapnya

Do Axolotls Need Salt? | How To Make Holtfreter’S Solution And Other Salt Recipes

Gambar
Do axolotls need brackish water? Then why do axolotl websites always talk about Holtfreter’s Solution and other salt recipes ? And why is it so hard to make them? In this article, I cover: Recommended pH, GH, KH, and salinity levels for axolotls Easy recipes for making Holtfreter’s, Modified Holtfreter’s, and John’s Solution (found on axolotl.org) The effect that salt solutions and aquarium salt have on pH, water hardness, and salinity Recommended Water Hardness for Axolotls First off, let's examine the axolotls' natural habitat. They come from high altitude freshwater lakes in Mexico City, but there’s not a lot of isu how on what the water quality used to be like because nowadays the large lakes have been reduced to narrow canals and have been affected by pollution and runoff. Comparison of axolotl habitat in 1500's versus 2000's (modified from Places Journal ) However, I did find a veterinary article titled Water Quality Explained: How It Can Affect...
Baca selengkapnya