January 18, 2008
Great Tips About Domestic Fish keeping
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Fishes breeding at home are kept in aquariums and ponds. The hobby of fish keeping is categorize into brackish, saltwater, and freshwater fish keeping, out of which freshwater fish keeping is the most popular. The fishes which are popular for fish keeping with the fish hobbyist are angelfish, goldfish and guppies. Different species of fishes can be retained together and sometimes fishes of the same species are kept together for breeding purpose. The favorite fish species with breeders are guppies, mollies, catfish, killifish, cichlid, and characin.
Fish keeping as a hobby was started centuries ago. And now worldwide fish keeping hobby is a multi-million dollar industry. At that time fishes were raised for food in ponds and pools. Also, due to religious reasons, fish was eaten on days when meat was not allowed. The Chinese and Japanese traditions included fish keeping for food purposes. But later the kings began keeping goldfishes and koi, because of their attractive colors. They were kept in ponds and when guests used to arrive, the fishes were shifted indoors in fish bowls. Romans were also known to have kept lampreys in pools with salt water. In ancient Egyptians Oxyrhynchus fish were kept in captivity in temple pools.
Saltwater or marine fish keeping are generally more difficult and expensive to maintain. Hence, it tends to attract experienced fish keepers or aquarists into this hobby. This is certainly not for beginners. However, marine aquaria for sure is very attractive with colorful and attractive fishes along with different types of corals. While brackish fish keeping involves both freshwater and saltwater fish keeping, due to the fact that the salinity of the water is in between that of seawater and freshwater.
Fish keepers which are into this hobby focus on the aquatic plants rather than the fish. Some hardcore marine aquarists attempt to grow coral reef with the help of living rock, worms, and calcareous rocks with algae growth, sponges, and worms. When the corals begin to grow, echinoderms, crabs, mollusks, shrimps, and as well as small fish are also added to the aquariums, which are also called as reef tanks.
The aquarium should have ideal ecology which is similar to the natural habitat of the fishes. This is an extremely difficult task to accomplish. Also, it is important to maintain the predator prey relationship balance in the aquarium. Also more than the volume of the water, the surface volume is important. This is because, more the surface volume, more the oxygen levels in the water. Air pumps also are used to increase the dissolved oxygen in the water. This is part of the nutrient cycle, which should be maintained and controlled for the welfare of the fishes. Larger aquariums are more preferable and they make things easier, for example the event effects are diluted easily and the systemic shock is absorbed well.
Other factors to controll are nitrogen cycle, dissolved gases and balanced food supply. The salinity of the water should be checked regularly depending of the aquaria being maintained. The pH level should be checked to test the acidic nature of the water. For freshwater aquarium, most of the aquarist use tap water, which is a mistake as it contains chlorine. Chloramines should be used in tap water to make it chlorine free.
Depending on temperature, the aquarium can be differentiated to have tropical and cold water. For tropical aquarium, the water should be warm and the temperature should be nearly seventy-seven degree Fahrenheit. For cold water aquarium, the water temperature should be less than room temperature. For this purpose, a refrigeration device called chiller can be used.
Plants and certain organisms can be introduced in the aquarium which metabolizes the waste, especially nitrogen. But the more number of organisms added to the fish tank, the more difficult it is to maintain. The needs of all the aquatic organisms must be considered. Introducing many types of species in an aquarium is known as biological loading. Two important factors should be considered which are filtration process and oxygen levels. Aquarists interested in fish breeding should be more careful. Firstly, they shouldn’t mix many types of fishes together. They should also develop special conditions called spawning triggers for proper breeding.
Artificial ponds can be also made in the garden. It is very similar to freshwater keeping, except that they are big and out in natural conditions. Tropical fishes are a good choice for such garden ponds. But where the temperatures are cold, goldfishes, orfe and koi are good options.
Tags: breeding freshwater discus fish, discus fish info, tropical fish breeding, goldfish care, breeding discus fish secrets, Discus fish breeding secrets, discus fish health, Domestic Fish-keeping, Facts about discus health, discus fish care
Spread the word
del.icio.us Digg Furl Ask BlinkList BUMPzee Google Netscape Newsvine StumbleUpon Technorati Windows Live Yahoo! Help






