Daily Fish Tips

Tips and tricks for aquarium owners, updated daily.

[dailyfishtips]

I'm the one that was asking about my Dad's goldfish, sorry I forgot if I said the tank is 21L or 21g. It's definitely 21 gallons not litres.

First part of this ask:

Hi, my dad has a goldfish I'm worried about. She's about 17cm nose to tail tip and she's at least 8 years old. His tank is only about 21L though which I know is too small. A few months ago I bought her a fake barrel toy and ever since I put that in her tank she has been so much more active, swimming in and out of all the holes in it and she sleeps in there. But it takes up 1/3 of the floor space and I worry there isn't enough room with it in for her to swim around. What is more important?

First off PHEW I’m glad it’s gallons not liters! 21 gallons for a single goldfish actually isn’t terrible. In my (and many other) keepers’ experiences 15-20 gallons per goldfish is generally sufficient to keep the water quality good between weekly water changes.

That said, even if the water quality is good 21 gallons is still a pretty small swimming area for a 17cm fish. But, if your worry is her not being able to swim around, but she swims around a lot more with the barrel toy, then it’s actually helping her achieve that, isn’t it? I’d be concerned if she were scraping herself on it but otherwise you make it sound like it’s encouraging her to be more active in an otherwise cramped space. I hope she can get a bigger tank with friends someday, but for now it sounds like the barrel toy is providing important stimulation. Glad she seems to be having so much fun with it. :)

[dailyfishtips]

This blog is so useful! Such a shame most posts only have a few notes!

Thanks! Yeah, it got a little discouraging and I also kind of ran out of tips, whoops.

[dailyfishtips]

You posted the Betta fish tips, but aren't mirrors dangerous? Because betta fish fight. Mirrors are really dangerous for them

Hi, there’s actually a fair bit of debate on this that I think I addressed in the replies to that post. People should definitely not leave mirrors in front of bettas all the time. They think there’s an ‘enemy’ constantly there that won’t go away, and they can exhaust themselves and even blow out their fins from the constant flaring.

However, a large number of breeders and owners think temporary (less than ten minutes at a time) mirror exposure can be stimulating and enriching. The betta gets to scare off an intruder without any fighting or pain. Many halfmoon betta breeders claim that halfmoon bettas can only get a full 180 spread as an adult if they practice flaring to spread out their finnage while they’re growing up. Plus, lack of exercise can be very harmful to a betta. If the fish is in a smaller enclosure, mirror exposure might be the most exercise it ever gets.

Basically, it’s up to you to decide! I don’t think there’s enough real research to ‘prove’ that temporary mirror exposure is either harmful or necessary.

[dailyfishtips]

Even tiny amounts of copper are deadly to invertebrates - shrimp, snails, crabs, crayfish, etc. It is often found in snail-killing formulas and is sometimes found in ich medication, anti-parasitic medication, and algae treatments. Always carefully check the ingredient list of anything you add to your tank, and only add copper if you’re okay with killing all invertebrate life.

Note: common plant fertilizers like Flourish and CSM+B contain trace amounts of copper and can cause shrimp mortality. If you want to use fertilizers in your planted shrimp tank, start out at a half dosage and monitor your shrimp carefully for signs of decreased activity or illness. Excel does not contain copper and should not harm your shrimp if used correctly.

[dailyfishtips]

If you want to use live plants in a brackish aquarium, you’ll need to plan ahead - most freshwater live plants are sensitive to aquarium salt and will become unhealthy if exposed to it over a long period of time. See this post for a list of salt-tolerant plants.

[dailyfishtips]

It used to be ‘common knowledge’ that permanently having small amounts of salt in freshwater fish tanks was good practice. However, this has since been proven false.  Freshwater fish have to spend more energy on osmoregulation in salted water, leading to less overall energy levels, muscle wasting, decreased growth, increased ammonia output, and possible kidney damage.  This is true even for fish like goldfish, guppies, and mollies. Livebearers can tolerate salt better than other fish, but there is no evidence it’s good for them.

In addition, many common freshwater diseases are easily treatable with salt - but leaving salt in the tank all the time will cause salt-resistant varieties of the illnesses to pop up, requiring much harsher medication. 

Bottom line - unless your fish is brackish-water fish, don’t add salt unless they’re sick.

[dailyfishtips]

Guppies can start reproducing when they’re only 2-3 months old. (The above photo is a 2-month-old guppy.) Unless you want your guppy population to reproduce explosively, separate them as soon as you can sex them!

(Photo Source)

[dailyfishtips]

Most pet store aquarium plants are raised out of water (plants grow faster that way so it’s cheaper to grow them like that) and are only put underwater in order to advertise them. Because of this, store-bought plants frequently experience ‘shock’ soon after being purchased as they try to adjust to a fully aquatic environment. They often lose all their leaves and will look terrible for several weeks as they get used to living permanently in water.

You can avoid this problem by purchasing from fellow hobbyists who grow submerged plants. I recommend making an account at The Planted Tank forums and checking out their sale board.

[dailyfishtips]

Goldfish are actually mainly herbivorous animals. Foods high in protein can cause floatiness issues, especially in ‘fancy’ (fat) varieties. If your goldfish is floaty, first stop feeding them for 2-3 days, then switch to a diet of blanched deshelled peas and other blanched vegetables like zucchini, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, and squash. 

To stave off future floatiness, avoid flakes at all costs (not only are they nutritionally barren, but they cause the fish to gulp a lot of air) and try to find a pelleted food that is under 40% protein. I recommend New Life Spectrum 1mm or 3mm goldfish food.

[fatlittlefish]

The Big Photo Gallery of Low Light Aquarium Plants

I took this lovely forum topic and added pictures so you can see potentially attractive plants at a glance without having to do a thousand Google searches. Hope someone finds this useful!

Keep reading

[dailyfishtips]

Note: all of these plants will do much better if kept in a fertilized substrate (such as a soil subtrate) with some kind of carbon source like CO2 or Excel. I can’t overemphasize how much better plants grow in a good substrate!

[dailyfishtips]

(Spoiler: they don't)

Disregarding the author’s shilling of their own products, this is a good article that demonstrates how those spinning ‘bio-wheels’ on many hang-on-back filters are largely ineffective and useless gimmicks.

[dailyfishtips]

It seems contradictory, but you will usually see more of a shy fish if you give them more hiding places. They will be more willing to come out in the open if they know there are plenty of nearby places to retreat to.

[fatlittlefish]

Is there any special procedure I need to use when switching from normal gravel to substrate in my fish tanks? I bought floramax substrate and I have rinsed it twice and now it is just chilling in a spare ten gallon tank filled with water with a small filter to clear out some of the debris that is still stuck in the tank. I want to add it to my 5.5 gallon betta tank, but I don't want to shock him and since I have never done this before I would rather be safe than sorry.

Changing out substrate is pretty simple! Just remove the old substrate with a cup/aquarium siphon, put the new substrate in, and do some large water changes to remove any waste that got dislodged during the swap. As long as the substrate itself is rinsed out and safe for aquarium use, the fish should be just fine.

For such a small tank, I recommend moving your betta to a different container while you swap out the substrate just to make sure he doesn’t get smacked by any stray falling gravel. It’ll keep him away from any waste pockets you might uncover while removing your gravel, too.

Regarding cycles: nitrifying bacteria are most concentrated in your filter, not your gravel, so your cycle should be just fine.

Regarding cloudiness: I’ve found that fish generally have no problem handling cloudy water caused by a substrate swap. Example 1: this photo of my 20 gallon right after switching it to a dirt substrate. You can’t see them through the muck, but the tank was full of guppies, fry, and otocinclus. I left them in while doing the switch because I figured it would be much more stressful to chase them all down with a net than it would be to just slowly replace the substrate while they were in the tank. My hunch was right: I didn’t have a single illness or death during or after the swap.

The only thing to watch out for with Floramax is that it’s known to raise PH even though it claims not to affect water chemistry. I’d test the PH in the ten gallon and compare it to your betta tank’s PH before doing anything. If the difference is more than 0.5 then you may want to change out the substrate slowly so that the PH won’t rise too fast. Just remove all of the old substrate, do a big water change, then add your Floramax in gradually, over the course of a few days. 

Good luck!!

(Note to anyone else wanting to swap out substrate: do some research on your substrate before putting it in to make sure it won’t throw off your chemistry. For example, ADA Aquasoil is well-known for leaching ammonia, Floramax raises PH, etc etc. BEWARE of ‘aragonite sand’ or ‘marine sand’ as it will shoot your PH through the roof.)

[dailyfishtips]

Just because your tank is cycled does not mean that you can do whatever you want to the tank without ever having to worry about ammonia again. A ‘cycled’ tank contains just enough beneficial bacteria to handle the bioload of its current inhabitants. So if you suddenly add a bunch more fish, or leave a dead fish in the tank, or take out all your live plants, or overfeed heavily, you will get ammonia even in a ‘cycled’ tank. This doesn’t mean your cycle ‘crashed’, just that the tank is adjusting to its new conditions. Always keep a sharp eye on your water parameters when making any drastic changes, especially stocking changes.

[dailyfishtips]

When ‘cycling’ a new tank, it is perfectly safe to leave live plants in the tank. Plants actually love ammonia and will thrive during the cycling process! However, it is NOT safe to keep fish, snails, shrimp, or any other animal in the tank during the cycling process.

[dailyfishtips]

Cycling with Ammonia

The most reliable way to cycle a new, fishless tank is by adding pure ammonia to keep the tank’s ammonia levels at 3-4 PPM (as measured by a water test kit) for several weeks, until your tests start to detect nitrates.

The ammonia you use MUST be unscented, undyed, and free of surfactants (chemicals that cause the ammonia to bubble when you shake the bottle). The ingredient list should read just ‘ammonia’ and ‘water’. You can often find large containers of pure ammonia at the supermarket. Alternately, if shopping online, you can buy tiny, cycle-sized containers of pure ammonia for $2.

[dailyfishtips]

The bacteria that run your aquarium’s nitrogen cycle generally live in your filter. They like high-water-flow areas where the ammonia is brought straight to them. You generally cannot ‘seed’ another tank with gravel or water from an established tank - it has to be filter media, and very fresh (only a few hours out of direct flow) filter media at that.

The positive side of this is that you can swap out all your water, decorations, and substrate in an aquarium without worrying about damaging your cycle.