Freshwater fish diet recommendations? This vibrantly colored fish are tough and friendly but have a tendency to be territorial and hostile during mating season. Rivers are their natural habitat, so they are adept in swimming through currents. Male Cichlids are larger than females, growing to be 6 inches compared to females who only grow up to 5 inches. They will eat all types of fish food. In time you will realize that caring for a pet fish is not any easier than caring for any other pets. They also require attention, cleaning, proper nutrition, and a stable environment. If this is your first time to own a fish, do plenty of research about the fish of your choice, and be prepared to shell out some cash because their tank and accessories can be quite expensive. All efforts become worth it once you see them all set up and swimming peacefully in a tank.

Just like keeping any pet in the house, there are things you’ll need to watch when keeping tropical fish: Tropical fish can die very easily when something goes wrong with the tank. Often by the time you notice something is wrong with the tank or the fish, it will be too late for you to do anything for them (although you can take you lessons learned for the next aquarium you set up). Tropical fish do require more care than a plant; you must know how to change the water, clean the tank, and what to feed them. As opposed to bringing other type pets into the house, set up costs for fish keeping can be expensive. You’ll need to put in an investment in terms of the tank and the accessories. Plus many fish are not cheap! Tropical fish are living creatures. Things happen to them, even when you’re not paying attention. So they aren’t just design features and will require your frequent attention and care. If you keep your tropical fish tank without doing any research, things can get ugly! For example you can have algae blooms or snail infestations that are very hard to eradicate. Discover additional details at kuhli loach tank.

Return all the old clean decorations. If necessary, add more gravel or new decorations. Before adding new tap water to the aquarium, please treat it with a special conditioner. Everyone knows that tap water contains a lot of impurities such as chlorine, ammonia, and heavy metal salts. This water will harm the fish, so water conditioners have been developed that purify the water from harmful substances. Mix old and new treated water in the aquarium and measure its temperature. Control that the water remains the same temperature; otherwise, your fish will die. If necessary, dilute it with treated freshwater, or wait for the water to heat up and become room temperature if its temperature is lower or higher than the required level. Do not pour too much water into the aquarium; there must be space for air to saturate the water with oxygen. Carefully place the fish back. To make the fish experience less shock, you can put them in a plastic container with old water and put it in the aquarium; then, it will be easier for the fish to get used to slightly different water temperatures.

As needed, it’s important to clean the glass both inside and outside of the tank. Every couple days, or as needed, you can use a magnetic scrubber or scraper to get algae off of the glass. If the algae is too hard, such as coralline algae on the front glass, you can use a razor blade or hand-held algae scraper to remove hard buildups from the glass. As for the outside of the glass, DO NOT use commercial glass cleaners as it can cause harm to the aquarium. It is best to start by using a damp towel to remove anything from the glass and then use a dry towel to clean off the water. This will keep your glass clean and your reef tank healthy. Over time, the lighting used for reef aquariums shifts in spectrum over time as the bulb declines, which leads to algae growth in your reef aquarium. If you replace all of the bulbs at the same time, assuming there are more than one bulb, you could stress the corals leading to bleaching or die off. How do we handle changing these light bulbs without causing damage? The key is to split the bulbs up and change them throughout the year. See extra information at fish pets.