Secrets to Owning a Healthy Freshwater Aquarium

A freshwater aquarium is like a miniature lake in our house and watching an aquarium provides immense pleasure. Watching your beloved fish swimming in a freshwater aquarium is the best way to relax after a long day at work. Owning an aquarium with healthy fish is a big achievement for any hobbyist. This article is going to help hobbyist make the right choices to keep their fish happy and healthy.

Purchasing fish:

Always buy healthy fish. A healthy fish has erect fins, breathes normally and should not have any white spots or red patches on the body. A fish that rubs itself against rocks is ill. The poop of the fish should be brown to a light red in color. White poop is a sign of an internal infection.

It can be very tempting to rescue an ill fish. This is a noble idea, but treating an ill fish can be very hard as you will have to self diagnose the disease and treat it with medication available in the market. This can be done after a period of time, when you have enough information about the various diseases and which medicine is required to treat a particular disease. But for the first 6 months it is recommended to purchase healthy fish.

Buy fish only from a local fish shop whose staff is knowledgeable and is ready to part with information. Staff that does not know enough information about the adult size of the fish, tank size required to house the fish, water parameters and other information will not be able to help you with any solutions when problems occur and will try to dump expensive medications on you.

After you have decided on a local fish shop, try building a rapport with the staff. Some Local fish shops give discounts to their regular customers and offer promotional products at a nominal rate.

Maintenance:

Fish produce ammonia through their poop. Ammonia is very toxic and can prove lethal even in small quantities. Luckily, nature has taken care of this problem. This ammonia is converted into nitrite with the help of beneficial bacteria in the tank in a span of 2 weeks. Nitrite is not as harmful as ammonia, but is not safe either. Another set of bacteria is formed in the tank and converts the nitrite into nitrate which is the least harmful toxin but can be dangerous in large amounts. Partial water changes of 25% can help keep the levels of nitrate under control.

The beneficial bacteria live in the filters and on the gravel bed. The gravel should never be removed from the tank and washed. Instead the gravel should be siphoned on a regular basis to remove the stuck poop and uneaten food particles.

Aquarium salt can be used to prevent diseases in fish and can also be used to de-stress the fish. The ratio of salt to water is 1 tablespoon salt for 4 gallons water. The salt should be non iodized and can be bought from a local fish shop. The salt has to be mixed in a bucket of water and then be poured into the tank. Salt does not evaporate; hence it is important to replace only the lost salt while doing a water change.

Hence we can say purchasing health fish from a reputed Local fish shop can prove beneficial. Regular maintenance on the tank helps prevent diseases and aquarium salt can be used to de-stress the fish.