Freshwater Aquarium

Keeping fish as pets takes more than just feeding them and changing the water every once in a while. Sadly, many people aren’t aware of that and they just buy aquarium fish because they’re attractive. After a short while the fish start to get sick and die one after the other, and the newbie would lose interest in the hobby and give it up all together.

Basic knowledge of fish keeping, together with the right aquarium supplies, is crucial to the livelihood and longevity of your fish. It’s important to maintain the optimum living conditions for your fish and other living things you may have in your aquarium if you are to enjoy them for a long time.

To illustrate this, I shall share with you my own experiences when I got started with this hobby for the very first time as a child. The first experience was with bettas and the second with goldfish; two different kinds of fish with different requirements.

My first pet fish were a pair of bettas (a male and a female) which my mom bought me because she knew that I liked fish and felt sorry for me because a toy fish was all I had.

We put the bettas in a small plastic jar with a floating live plant. The male was aggressive. He continuously chased after the female and attacked her until she was full of bruises. One night, running out of place to hide, the female desperately jumped out of the water onto the floor. Fortunately I was nearby and was able to save her.

My mom then suggested that we separate the fish. So we put the female in a different jar. However, I felt that the female was lonely. So one day I asked my mom if I could buy another fish. There was a beautiful green male betta that I decided to buy.

At that time I didn’t know that bettas were fighting fish and that the males would fight with each other. So at first I decided to put the new male in the same container as the first male. I knew the first male was aggressive and I just wondered how he would react toward another male.

To my amazement the two males fought with each other and there was no sign that they would stop. After a while I got worried. I didn’t want any of them to die so I finally separated them and put the new male together with the female, and to my pleasant surprise they got along pretty well.

However, that little jar was kind of small for a pair of fish although they got along. So, we decided to move the fish to a much larger plastic container. Later I added a couple more females so that it became sort of a betta community tank.

Being fascinated by the beauty of the male bettas, I bought a couple more and put each in individual jars. I fed them dried food and occasionally bread. However, I fed them too much. The water would become cloudy fast from fish waste and uneaten food. So, I completely changed the water every other day. I would fill up the jar with new water right from the tap.

As you might guess, the fish didn’t last very long. After only a few months they started to get sick and eventually one after the other died.

Dirty water, untreated new water, fluctuating water temperatures, and trauma from being moved frequently during water changes were some of the factors that contributed to the fish’s low resistance to diseases.

Although it’s acceptable to keep bettas in relatively small containers without aeration, it would be much better to put them in a tank of at least 2 gallons, and you would still need to observe certain basic things such as not feeding them too much and setting aside new water to equilibrate the temperature and remove chorine prior to water changes.

I was only about 10 years old at the time and didn’t know anything about fish keeping. Neither did my mom. Also, back then there were very few books about aquarium fish and the aquarium supplies were not as sophisticated as they are today.

Today, there are plenty of good books and magazines as well as web sites about fish aquariums. So, if you’re serious about taking up this hobby, you should start by reading a few of them and gain the basic knowledge before you even buy your aquarium and fish.

In the next article you will learn what happened when I tried to keep some goldfish, also with very little knowledge. In the mean time I invite you to visit my web site (see below) to learn more about aquarium fish keeping.

About the author:

Jonathan Wangsa is the webmaster of All About Aquarium Supplies. There you can find resources and information about aquarium supplies and other aquarium related topics. Whether you’re an expert or a newbie, you can also share your own experiences.

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Having an aquarium is a fun hobby for many, and it brings so much color and life into the room that it is placed in. Before you go out and buy one, you need to decide whether this is a casual or serious hobby, and how much time you are willing to put into maintaining the water balance of the tank.

There are two main types of aquariums, the saltwater and the freshwater aquarium. Saltwater fish of course survive in a saltwater environment, while freshwater fish need fresh purified water. Obviously, if you put freshwater fish in a saltwater tank it will not survive, as saltwater fish need the saltwater environment and would “suffocate” in freshwater.

The freshwater aquarium is easier to maintain than the saltwater aquarium, and setting it up is quite simple, with all that is needed are a filter, heater, thermometer and lights. You need to leave the tank cycling for about four weeks to cultivate the bacteria cycle, and also to keep the ammonia level down. The fresh water must not contain any chlorine or ammonia, because ammonia is deadly to the fish as it makes breathing very difficult.

Once your tank is set up you can start out with smaller species of fish, until you become more experienced, after which you can move onto bigger species of fish.

The saltwater aquarium is more complex to maintain and requires a lot more maintenance and hard work. With the saltwater tank the salt in the water needs to be regulated along with its PH level and temperature. You should also place living rocks into the saltwater aquarium for about two months to get the bacteria cycle going, as rocks have the good bacteria present on their surface. Once the bacteria level has built up, then set up the filter. Thereafter the tank is ready for saltwater fish.

For more color and variation in your saltwater tank, you can add corals or anemones. These are living plants that have to be hand fed by placing the food above them and they then curl their tentacles around the food and bring the food into their mouth.

Do not put in the saltwater tank fish that eat the anemones, or bigger fish that may eat the smaller fish. Some saltwater fish are also poisonous, so beware. Saltwater aquariums are only for the serious as it takes a lot of work to get the water conditions just right, namely the saltwater, temperature and the PH must be at a safe level.

Regardless of which type of aquarium you choose, they are bound to brighten up your room and make it much more vibrant.

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Lungfish can survive in poorly aerated waters since they have lungs which make its possible for them to obtain oxygen directly from the air. The lungs are related to those in primitive amphibian animals. Today, there are six known Lungfish species in world, but they used to be much more common. Lungfish have been around since the Lower Devonian era and during earlier stages of the planets history there existed much more than six lungfish species. Those species that have survived have changed little since the Lower Devonian age. The Australian lungfish have for instance looked pretty much the same during the last 100 million years.

Today, you will find wild Lungfish in Africa, South America and Australia. The African and South American Lungfish species all belong to the family Lepidosirenidae, while the Australian Lungfish has its own family - the Ceratodidae. As mentioned earlier, all Lungfish species are capable of breathing oxygen from the air. Other shared features are their large, elongated and snakelike bodies. They are also predators and will eat pretty much anything that they manage to catch. Fish is their staple food, but they will happily also gulp down crustaceans, larger insects and other aquatic creatures. They are very robust and can survive in waters shunned by most other fish species. If you want to keep Lungfish in your aquarium you should however avoid the highest pH-values. Before you buy a Lungfish for your aquarium should consider their size. The largest Lungfish is one of the African lungfish species, a fish which can reach a maximal size of 2 metres / 6 feet which makes it unsuitable for hobbyist aquariums. Even the smaller Lungfish species grow very large and should only be housed in huge tanks.

In Africa, you will find four different Lungfish species. Protopterus annectens is the most popular species among aquarists. The three other ones are Protopterus aethiopicus, Protopterus amphibious and Protopterus dolloi. You should never get an African lungfish unless your aquarium is very large, since they grow rapidly. As long as you can provide them with enough space, they are however though fishes that will tolerate a wide range of water conditions. They will eat all sorts of food. Even though they are predatory fish, it is not very hard to make them accept dry and frozen foods. When kept on a diet of prepared food they will still appreciate occasional live treats. This means that your African lungfish should ideally be housed alone since it will happily devour any tank mates. If the other fish is too large to swallow, the African lungfish will simply bite chunks out of it until it is fully consumed.

On the South American continent you will only find one Lungfish, Lepidosiren paradoxa. This Lungfish can also be kept in aquariums and its requirements are very similar to the African lungfish species. Just like its African cousins, it must be given plenty of room. Lepidosiren paradoxa can reach a maximal size of 1.2 meters / 4 feet.

The Australian Lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, can also be kept in aquariums but you should be aware of the fact that they are CITES listed. You are only allowed to by Australian Lungfish from licensed breeders and if you live anywhere outside Australia it can be hard to get exportation and importation licenses. The Australian Lungfish is also known as Queensland Lungfish.

Read more about about African lungfish or other predatory fish

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