Passion4 Pets

Posts Tagged ‘Fish’

Fish keeping can be fun if managed properly but it can also become a daunting and frustrating endeavor if you embark on it with little or no preparation. One of the most important things to consider before one embarks on keeping pet fish is to be thorough in learning about and choosing the right type of pet fish that can suit one’s resources, time and desires. In other words, you need to find the right pet for you.

So how does one go about choosing the right fish? Here are 5 important tips that will help you chose the right fish that will be a joy to keep without putting a strain on your time and resources.

Start by doing some research – Find out all you can about fish keeping. Use the internet or visit your local library and read as much as you can about the basics of managing an aquarium at home. In particular, learn about the different types of fish that are suitable for home aquariums. Learn about their behavior, how much space they need, what type of food they eat and how they breed, among other things.

Visit your local pet shop – Once you have acquainted yourself with the different types of aquarium fish, pay a visit to your local pet shop and see what types of pet fish they stock. Based on your newly acquired knowledge, find out how much the pet shop staff know about pet fish by asking them some simple questions relating to fish names, fish food, fish diseases and other basic questions. This will help you to find out whether they are knowledgeable enough to be able to provide you with the necessary advice and support you will need down the road. Also do your own inspection and see whether their fish tanks are clean. You can do this by looking into the tanks from the top and from the sides. A pet shop with dirty fish tanks, little fish knowledge or dead fish is certainly not a good store to buy from.

Review local stock availability against your choices – When you get back home, do some further investigations on the fish you found at the pet store especially the ones you liked. In particular, do an in-depth study into how they behave, whether they school or not, as well as the required level of care in terms of frequencies of feeding, water changing and tank cleaning. Thereafter, it should be pretty easy for you to select the type of fish that suits you.

Prepare your aquarium – Once you have come to you decision, proceed to prepare a fish tank according to set requirements for your kind of fish. Make sure you have the necessary equipment for tank maintenance to ensure that water cleanliness and appropriate temperatures are maintained at all times.

Choose your fish – Once all is set, proceed to the pet store and buy your first fish. In choosing your new pet, always go for the fish that is alert and healthy. Fish that appear sluggish, trembling, have torn fins, sores or spots that appear unnatural must be avoided at all costs. Also to be avoided are fish that have, recently, been brought into the pet shop as they may have come with some diseases.
Once you have collected your fish, proceed to introduce them into your aquarium and start enjoying your hobby of fish keeping. You will learn a lot along the way, most of it from the fish themselves. Soon you will be able to start distinguishing them based on their unique character as not all fish are the same.

Incoming search terms:

• aquarium fish stock

Introduction

The right food is important for the fish in your aquarium. Some will eat algae, others fish flakes, some will eat both and some will even eat each other.

So which kind of food is right for your fish?

Omnivorous

Omnivorous fish are fish that eat both plant and animal material. They are commonly known as fish that are opportunistic, which means they will eat what ever is in front of them.

Though they do not eat live fish, they will usually eat fish that are dead.

These fish are excellent for a community tank, plus they will help your algae eaters by eating some of the algae in your aquarium.

I have three Blue Three Dot Gourmai that are omnivorous. They will even come and eat fish flakes out of my hand. Between feedings they will graze on the bacteria and algae that is growing in my tank.

So if you have omnivorous fish in your home aquarium, feed them fish flakes and as a treat, I give them bloodworms and some freeze-dried brine shrimp.

Herbivores

These fish mainly eat plant material such as algae, fruits and plants. They will sometimes eat fish flakes but will make most of their diet from plant material.

These fish will usually eat live plants so if you have plant material in your aquarium, try to stay away from herbivores.

I have two Plecos in my aquarium that are classified as herbivores, but I have them mainly to keep my algae down. To keep them from eating my plants I also give them some algae tabs twice a day to keep them off my plants.

I also throw some spinach leaves in that they like better than my live plants.

Carnivorous

Carnivorous or predatory fish are usually fed feeder fish by their owners. Others will feed them live worms or even beef parts to prevent them from eating their tank mates.

But you need to be careful, if you do mix carnivorous fish with other types, try to keep them the same size or have the non-carnivorous fish bigger than the carnivorous fish. By doing this you should be able to prevent the carnivorous fish from eating the others.

I do not have any carnivorous fish in my aquarium but if you are interested in having them then you should consider wolf fish, some catfish and piranha, which are a few that fall into the category of carnivorous fish.

Incoming search terms:

• feeder fish
• live fish food