A successful aquarium keeping is based on having a well-balanced tank with a sufficient amount of bacteria, proper amount of fish and a correct mixture of species suitable for the tank dimensions and kind with a suitable filtration system.
There is plenty of information available on the internet on how to set up your first aquarium. It is highly recommended to join a fish forum or fish club, read recommendations and learn from the members joint experience before you start setting up your tank. Do not hesitate to ask questions, fish keepers tend to be very helpful and friendly to other hobbyists and especially to newbies. Remember to assure your fish always live in perfect water, suitable for their needs and you most likely will be able to enjoy them for a long time.
- Buy a reliable water checking kit or find a store which can check it for you. In any case, do not add fish to the tank before you are absolutely sure the water is safe for fish.
- Try to get only healthy fish for your tank. If you see sick fish in your retailers tanks, point it out o the owner and find a better source to get your fish from.
- Make sure you properly acclimate the fish before you introduce them to your tank and always acclimate new fish while your tank’s lights are off. Look for recommended acclimation procedures online. Some fish species are more susceptible to problems an must be acclimated in specific manners as fish coming from the wild while others are more resilient and actually might suffer unnecessarily from a prolonged acclimation procedure.
- If you can set up a separate tank to be used as acclimation / hospital tank it will prevent you from having issues with your main tank. In such case, any new fish should be kept in that tank for a minimum quarantine period of 10-14 days before you introduce it to your main tank.
- Do not add all the fish you want to have to the tank at once, better do it slowly, in small quantities and let the fish settle down before you add any new ones.
- Make sure the various fish species you intend to add to your tank, can and will prosper with each other.
- Remember that stressed fish are more likely to be susceptible to illnesses of all sorts.
Fish stress can be the outcome of many factors among them: bad water parameters, over feeding, lack of sufficient space, lack of proper nutrition, wrong light settings (too strong light, too many hours per day etc.), wrong mixture of species (having predator fish with delicate and easily timid ones, wrong water changing policy (replacing too much water or not enough), wrong or unnecessary using of medications.
- If you want your fish to behave naturally, show off their true colors and beauty then you should supply them a supportive surrounding with a natural looking gravel, live plants and sufficient hiding places.
- Remember that bigger tanks tend to be easier to balance and less affected by changes in water parameters. In a small tank it is harder to maintain proper steady water parameters than in a bigger tank.
- Ask your retailer which are the sturdiest fish and start with them, you can add more delicate species after you gain experience.
- Any aquarium will need regular maintenance, be sure to make the time for it.
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