Tropical Fish Care:
As many know, I am an avid fish hobbyist. My wife Mandy and I care for two aquariums full of live bearer tropical fish.
The main tank is a 70 gallon fresh water, powered by a fluval canister filter, three electronic heaters, UV sterilizer, air pump, digital thermometer, and high tech lighting. At any one time I would say there's about 30- 50 fish living in there, but we can never be sure since they breed in the tank.
Guppies, platies, and mollies are all part of the live bearer fish family. These amazing fish do not lay eggs, but instead have a mammal like reproduction. Yes, females and males mate, females get pregnant, carry for about 1.5 months, then give birth to live young. Unlike mammals though, soon after the birth, the fry are on their own. In some cases maybe even eaten by the parents or other fish. Because of this issue, we needed to set up a nursery tank.
The nursery tank is a standard ten gallon tank also powered by a canister filter, and an electronic heater. Fish in this tank are much smaller, since this is the fry refuge from the main tank. At any one time there's maybe between 30 to 70 fry calling this tank home. Once the fry mature, we then pick the ones we like, and move them back to the main tank, the remaining fish are adopted out. I think at this point we are the sole supplier to a local fish store for swordtail platies here in San Diego.
So far both tanks are very healthy, and at the most we loose one fish every one or two months. We have had some fish since we set the tank up 4 years ago, and they're still swimming around happy. At this point we rarely go out and buy new fish, since we seem to have an endless supply at this point. The only reason to buy new fish is to get something we don't already have, or to replace a fish we don't breed. We do have a few non live bearers, such zebra danios. We have found that many fish store bought fish, no matter where we get them have a high probability of bringing disease to our habitat. To try to limit this we quarantine all new fish in a separate 2.5 gallon tank, (also used as a hospital tank) for at least 2 weeks. We may also treat the new fish with anti parasite meds, and antibiotics. Even with this, we're lucky if 3 out of 5 survive the first month. What's worse, if the fish were diseased, it can infect the entire tank. This is a disaster when this happens. Once I bought this wonderful deep purple guppy, which we did not quarantine. It died in 3 days, and later what ever had killed him nearly did in all of our other fish, we were loosing 2 fish every 5 hours. This is the risk you take buy new fish. Because of this, we never put fish purchased outside into the 10Gal nursery tank, and try to keep it totally isolated biologically from the main tank. So far, we have never had disease in the nursery tank, not even bad algae.
Keeping fish is a challenge, and constant battle. It's not your average pet, and fish protest mistakes in their care by dieing. Here's some important tips we learned along the way:
Water Changes: you MUST CHANGE 20% of the WATER EVERY WEEK! If you don't nitrates will build up in the tank, and nothing good will come from it. Having live plants helps this situation, but again weekly water changes are mandatory. If your fish tank is overloaded with fish, you may need to do this even more often. We change our 10 gallon tank at least every three days. Always use a siphon tube to get the material off the bottom of the tank. Remember to dechlorinate water and bring it to the tanks temperature before adding it to the tank!
Temperature control: Get an electronic heater! Do not get one with moving parts (contacts) that when they fail almost always get stuck on and will cook your fish. It MUST be electronic, and you will find nearly all heaters sold are mechanical with the contacts. Contacts are not electronic!. The contacts with time will arc weld themselves shut. Stuck contacts, and the heater runs forever rasing the water temp to fatal levels. Get a Fluval called a Tronic, I have found them to be excellent all electronic heaters. Second, if you have a large tank (more than 20 gallons), get 2 or 3 smaller submersible heaters and not one large one. This way if one fails, you will not be without heat, or worse if one gets stuck on, it won't have the energy needed to cook your fish. Tropical fish must have water between 72-83F, and each fish has its favorite temperature. Temperature control should keep your water at +/-1 degree. If you're not willing to pay for heat, get goldfish.
Filtration: Filters do two things, remove small particles from the water, and biologically change ammonia to nitrite then nitrate via bacterial action. There's all sorts of filters available, and nearly all of them will perform this duty. The differences between them are cost, size, quietness, maintenance, and capacity. Here's a tip, get a canister filter. I have tried others, and read about many of them. Benefit from my research, the canisters are the best. You run these under your tank, so basically except for tubing they are out of site. Most models run without any noise. On my fluval, I must put my ear on it to tell if its on and pumping. Since they are outside of the tank, it's easy to service, no need disturb your fish, and easy to put behind cabinet doors. Typically these can go 6 months before needing service, but I do it about every two months these days. You can also run just about any media you want. When I service the filter I add new activated carbon. I hear this stuff only lasts about 3 or 4 days, but will remove all sorts of bad chemicals while it's working. After it's used up, but will serve as a bacteria home. Never change more than 15% of your mature filter's media. If you do, you will though out the bacteria that are acting to make your filter a biological one. No bacteria in the filter = dead fish! It takes about 2 to 6 months to get these good bacteria to grow in there, so protect them! This also means the filter MUST run 24/7. A stopped filter, will soon have dead bacteria, and this is a disaster. My next purchase is a UPS (back up power) for the fish tanks. Also, if you're servicing your filter, do not let it dry out, or use tap water on the media which has chlorine in it, both will kill the bacteria. An external filter may also benefit from a flood alarm, so if a hose, or filter springs a leak, it will set off an alarm.
Water Quality: The type of fish you have will like their water a certain way. It's your job to provide it. Some like more acid water, other alkaline. Then there's hardness, (mineral content), salt, and all sorts of things. Make sure you know what your fish need. Some internet research will tell you. Because of this, you must keep fish of the same family, and not any old fish you want. (besides, that makes sure they won't try to kill each other) Decide on what type of fish, then find out the water type they need. My advise, keep fish that will live well in your tap water. Adjusting tap water to your fish is a pain you must repeat it every week. Here in San Diego and Los Angeles (and maybe any other areas using colorado river water) live bearer fish like guppies will do fine, since they like hard alkaline water. Some fish stores will tell you to add salt to any freshwater tank. This is such BS. Freshwater fish do not need salt. Fish stores use salt since it aides in killing pathogens (disease) in their tanks. If you have good control of disease in your tank you will not need to use salt, unless the fish you're keeping require it. Mollies which are live bearers can live in some salt, and a few species require it. I have many mollies, and don't use any salt in the water. Mollies can be considered a brackish (salt water) fish. Guppies and Platies can live in brackish water if needed, but make sure to adjust the salt content slowly. Some fish like mountain minnows hate salt, as do many other fresh water fish. If you buy fish, especially mollies, ask if they were kept in salt water, and how much they used. If it was in salted water, you will need to convert it to fresh slowly before you place it in your fresh water tank. I have learned some fish can't take this stress, and it may kill them. Another reason to be careful buying fish. Many fish stores have two sets of tanks, fresh and marine. The "fresh water" tanks can have radically different water than yours, so make sure you understand what it is. I went to a local store here, and found their tanks running at 86 degrees (maybe they were fighting a bug?), and 1 tablespoon of salt per gallon, with neutral PH. Needless to say, I didn't buy any of those poor fish there. One more thing, get a test kit, and be sure to keep ammonia, and nitrite levels to zero, and PH at the correct level. Measure nitrate, you're allowed up to 20ppm of this stuff, but less is better. Water changes and plants are the best way to get rid of nitrates.
Disease: Keeping good water quality is your best way to fight disease. A sick fish will not eat, a healthy almost always will. If you think it's one fish that's sick, remove it to a hospital tank (a 2 gallon tank separate from everything) and try to treat it with the correct drug. I have found salt is one of the best cures, since I hear many germs can't survive it, but the fish can for a few days. If you do, add it slowly. Research the internet (check my web site links page) for what it might be. If all your fish are sick, or the disease is in the water, you must treat the entire tank. This can be very expensive, and tragic if you do it wrong.
Myths: Not all fish need salt. Fish don't need an air pump, just be sure to have to surface of the water churning and moving. There's no such thing as a quiet air pump, however there are totally quiet filters that will do the same function to aireate the water. Fish don't need a lot of light, but plants do. Fish don't need a lot of food, they are cold blooded. Overfeeding leads to water quality issues, and fat fish. Fish are not stupid, and my fish will come if I wave my hands at them. Yes, they see us just like too! Cats will not attack your fish once they are use to them.
NO NOs: Never change more than 50% of the water, or "clean" the entire tank. Never change more than 15% of filter media. Never tap on the glass. Don't allow the temperature to change more that 2 degrees in a day. Never allow ammonia or nitrite in your tank, it will kill the fish. (new tanks must "cycle" before you will have zero readings for this, so start with a few hardy fish for this). Never overload your tank, 1 inch worth of fish per gallon. Never mix fish species unless you know they are compatible, the result will be a fish war. Don't over medicate. Keep your hands out of the tank. Remove dead fish ASAP. Never turn off the filter for more than an hour. Never add water that has chlorine in it. Never EVER add a fish to your tank of healthy fish that you know has a disease. Be careful if using pesticides anywhere near your tank, this is never good.
There are many more things to know, but if you follow some of my advise here, it will be less painful. Feel free to email me if you need help:
My 70 gallon tank. See the guppies swimming around
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