Something I find funny about my fish is that the orange one (The Goods) is somewhat judgmental and tends to dart around when eating, very energetic and somewhat skittish although not quite fearful of people. Piracy on the other hand is sort of like The Goods emotional support. Piracy is extremely curious and is usually the first to swim up to the side of the tank to beg for food. In a way, Piracy is almost as energetic at The Goods, exept that energy is directed entirely towards begging.
And when feeding The Goods kinda just darts around the whole tank sucking up one or two pellets at a time whereas Piracy just sorta meanders up and sucks in the whole clump of 6 pellets.
When I use the sinking food they both do that meandering thing and I once saw Piracy suck up a bit and spit it out once The Goods came over only for The Goods to immediately spit it back out again and for Piracy to eat it.
I was initially worried that because one is a fancy and the other is a common that there would be issues with feeding and bullying but they get along great. I’ve noticed The Goods become less skittish and they will both sometimes seek each other out, swim around together for a bit, before splitting off to forage on their own and eventually come back together. Sometimes Piracy won’t realize The Goods went to the other side of the tank, look up from sorting through sand and then swim with what little might fancies have to be with The Goods.
I’m aware that the tank is a bit small (20gal +hardscape) and I plan to triple the tank size to accommodate them properly. Although right now they both seem to be doing good in the current set up.
Also, does anyone have any advice for some good plants that will accommodate them? Preferably something that absorbs a lot of the waste and is hardy enough to not immediately get murdered by them. Currently I have one anubias and it’s doing well, but I’m unsure whether I should fully commit to anubias or add something else for variety. It’s I don’t want to take up more of the tanks space than I have to because it’s only a 20 gallon. My current amount of sand is about 1 inch thick.
The Beginner's Guide to Cycling a Freshwater Aquarium: Unlocking the Secrets of the Nitrogen Cycle
🐠🌿 Dive into the world of freshwater aquariums! Discover the secrets of cycling and the nitrogen cycle, and set up your tank like a pro with our beginner-friendly guide. 🐟🏞️ #aquariumenthusiast #freshwateraquariums #fishkeeping
Welcome to the fascinating world of freshwater aquariums! As a new aquarium enthusiast, it’s essential to understand the importance of properly cycling your tank. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll unlock the secrets of the nitrogen cycle and help you avoid common pitfalls, ensuring a healthy and thriving aquatic ecosystem for your underwater friends.
Understanding the Nitrogen Cycle
The nitrogen…
Not all fishes have eyelids to indicate they are sleeping, except for sharks. They sleep with their eyes open (a technique that would have been so useful to us humans in boring situations). So, can fish sleep with the lights on?
The short and quick answer to it is no, they cannot. It disturbs their biorhythmic cycle, as light is a big indicator of their sleep and wake cycle. Keeping the lights on will keep them ‘awake’ and it will lead to sleeping, behavioral, and health disorders. Hence, they should be getting their beauty sleep at night just like we all do.
Since fishes sleep with their eyes open, people who are new in the fish keeping community might consider them to be awake all the time. But how do fish ever sleep if their eyes are always open? Would your room-light disturb their sleep? Let’s explore all these aspects.
Keeping Their Eye Open For Threat
One of the reasons why fishes do not look like they are sleeping is because they do not have eyelids. We can perceive others to be sleeping when their eyelids are closed.
Since fishes do not have it, it is common to mistake them as being ‘awake’ all the time. However, there is a distinction to make here – they never have their REM sleep.
To understand their ‘sleep’, you have to understand their brain structure and survival mode. Fishes, especially smaller ones, are prone to be eaten by any predatory animal. Hence, they have to be more alert than the other species.
They are fully awake and alert in the daytime. But at night time, they prefer to hide anywhere they find to be safe and ‘sleep’.
Now, some fishes will form a group and go in hiding together to feel safer when they sleep. Some will be lone rangers. They will go to the bottom of the sea or aquarium and hide behind plants and lush.
The idea is to be swimming gingerly in one place and take naps. They do not sleep as we do. They are prone to sleep in breaks than at full stretch.
When they are in their deep sleep time, they tend to go ‘blind’ to their surroundings – just like when we daydream. You can even catch a fish (without disturbing it or touching it) and shift it to another tank –and it will still be sleeping.
An alert fish will be swimming and showing some kind of movement or resistance to the move.
Just like us humans, fishes are prone to get irritated, get jittery, or get insomnia when their sleep cycle is disturbed.
Fishes deliberately wreck their sleep cycle if they are migrating or spawning or when they are taking care of their fry. This can make them aggressive for a while but it is rather temporary and small in impact.
Chronic sleep deprivation can make them lethargic, lose orientation, affect their health, and pick up a fight with other fishes in the tank. A lot of it has to do with the light they get in their aquarium.
Sleep And Its Relation To Light
Light affects most of the living organism’s biorhythmic cycle on the earth, including ours. Daylight indicates the body to wake up and be alert and the absence of it prepares the body to rest.
The main aim of sleeping (or even taking continual naps when we talk about fishes) is to replenish the body and mind. If one gets too much or too little of it, the body and mind suffer. This holds true for fishes as well.
Keeping the lights on for too long or keeping the lights too bright for some of the sensitive species can cause them to feel disoriented. Not only that, algae will start to flourish at twice the speed.
At one point, fishes and algae will be fighting for their spot in the aquarium. Some lights might even cause a change in temperature and this can affect your fishes as well as aquatic plants. Too much sunshine indeed creates a desert.
Fishes will sleep when you turn the lights off. Just make sure they get 12 hours of daylight and prepare for sleep by nighttime.
Interior fish lights are necessary for some species of fishes and aquatic plants, especially when your area doesn’t get a sufficient amount of light indoors.
Goldfishes are known to lose color if they do not get sufficient light. If you have corals and plants in the same setting, the requirements can get even more specific. We shall jump into that topic next.
But before we get there, there is one more question that one might be curious to know – do fishes get disturbed by your room’s light? Does light and sound from your television cause sleep disturbance to your fishes?
It depends mostly on the species of the fishes and the environment you create for them. If you have fishes that are habitual of riverside and seaside, they may be able to tolerate a quite decent amount of television volume and sleep comfortably.
But if you have fishes who come from more quieter areas, they might need more peaceful silence.
Even though sound travels faster in water than in air, it will not cause any disturbance to the fishes, as there is a barrier between the two medium – the glass tank.
If you create any noise source inside of the tank, they will get highly disturbed, but they cannot be much disturbed by the outside noise. However, you shouldn’t be listening to deep bass, as its effect can penetrate in water and disturb their sleep.
When it comes to room lights, do not keep it on when they are sleeping. If it is absolutely necessary to put the light on in the same room they are sleeping, put a thick blanket over the tank so that they do not get disturbed.
Types Of Lights For Your Aquarium And How To Choose The Best One
There are 2 types of tanks that a hobbyist mostly keeps:
Freshwater tank
Saltwater tank
There are subtypes to both types of water tanks:
Fish only tank (only fishes and no other aquatic species. Level: Beginner)
Fishes with only live rock tank (introducing plants, sponges, invertebrates, and others in the tank. Level: Intermediate to expert)
Reef tank marine aquarium (little to no fishes, mostly corals, and invertebrates. Level: expert)
You can mix and experiment with the lighting system only when you have full knowledge of the species you have in your tank and if you have a genuine enthusiasm for it. Else, improper lighting can ruin everything.
Find lights that are in your budget and are relevant to the dimensions of the tank.
A fish-only tank will require a simple lighting system without getting too fancy. However, fishes with only live rock and reef tanks need very specific light requirements.
There are four main types of aquarium lights available.
Normal Output Fluorescent Lighting
Normal output fluorescent lighting or standard fluorescent lighting is ideal for freshwater and fish-only saltwater tanks. They are enough to illuminate a tank efficiently.
There are other popular variants of these fluorescent lights that have different light-emitting qualities.
Actinic White Bulbs – Helps in mimicking marine type light and environment. Helps in coral growth for reef tanks
Color enhancing bulbs – Ideal for a fish-only tank (both saltwater and freshwater). It helps in enhancing the glow of the whole aquarium and the fishes.
Plant bulbs – Ideal for fish with live rock settings or settings where there are plants that need photosynthesis.
Daylight bulbs – Used to mimic natural sunlight. Ideal for both saltwater and freshwater aquarium
High-intensity bulbs – Ideal for marine aquariums and stimulates deep marine light conditions.
Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL)
CFL produces double the amount of light as compared to standard fluorescent lights and is more operating friendly.
You get the same benefits as the former but with less amount of lighting equipment. It is ideal for both freshwater and marine aquariums.
High-Intensity Metal Halide Lighting
Metal halides lightings are efficient for lightening aquariums that are deeper than 24 inches. Other light sources may not be able to illuminate effectively at deeper levels of water and this is where metal halides lightings come in handy.
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
LED lights are almost new in the aquarium lighting field but they are doing an efficient job in emitting light at less amount of energy. It may be a little costly initially but it saves your money and energy in the long run.
It is good for a fish-only tank for both freshwater and saltwater tanks. More research needs to be done if they are really efficient for other types of tank given that we can also control the color temperature with LED lights.
In any case, make sure you make an informed choice about the lights you choose with respect to the aquatic species you have, tank size, tank type, and your budget.
Algae, the green menace, the bane of pools, ponds, and aquariums!
And apparently Chinese beaches...
Today I’ll take about what causes it, what kinds there are and how to take care of it!
I’d be impressed to meet someone who doesn’t know what algae is, it’s a rather ubiquitous plant found all around the world, in virtually every waterway and will happily set up shop in untreated pools, ponds regardless of size and aquariums.
What is Algae?
Algae are basically a plant but... very different from the plants you’re familiar with. They lack a majority of the features we’re used to seeing in plants, no stems, no roots, just a very basic structure. Some are unicellular (Single cell organism, like Chlorella) and some are multicellular (Multi-cellular organism, like giant kelp).
The most common kinds of algae you find in aquariums are: Black Beard Algae, Blanket Weed, Blue-Green Algae (Not actually an algae but a cyanobacteria), Brown Algae, Fuzz Algae, Green Aquarium Water Algae (monocular so it reproduces insanely fast), Green Dust Algae, Green Spot Algae, Hair/Thread Algae, Oedogonium Algae, Rhizoclonium Algae, Spirogyra, Staghorn Algae.
The best way to figure out which you have is to enter in some descriptive words about what your algae look like and you should get the right answers right away. This is just a quick post so I won't be going into too much detail about the individual types of algae and how to treat each of them.
What Causes Algae?
Bright light, especially full-spectrum light, and live plants are all the most common causes of algae in your aquarium. Algae hitch a ride on the plants and if it finds the conditions favorable enough it’ll happily take up residence. So having non-planted tank should help you avoid a lot of these if it’s a hassle you rather not deal with. But don’t feel bad if you end up with an algae bloom in your tank, it’s just one of those things that are going to happen.
Generally falling back on water changes, not keeping on top of your tanks parameters (especially nitrate/nitrite levels) and not cleaning off the walls of the tank or scrubbing off decorations periodically. When cleaning decorations you can boil them if wood, or just use a toothbrush on the non-wood decor, but make sure to drop it in your tank change water that’s being dechlorinated so you don’t add too much chlorine into your tank and disrupt the benefitial bacteria. Overfeeding can also cause a bloom.
So don’t fall back on your water chances and keep an eye on the water conditions regularly! If you get a really bad bloom chances are something has gone wrong in your tank.
How to Deal With Algae?
Getting ahead of the problem is one of the better ways of dealing with algae. After your tank is established (about a month if it isn’t planted) I would recommend getting some algae eating critters. If you have a small tank you can get snails, such as: nerite snails, algae eaters (A variety of fish that enjoy eating algae) and amano shrimp. If you have a bigger tank you have a bigger variety of options, nerite snails, apple snails, mystery snails, Bristlenose catfish (also called Bristlenose plecos) these guys get up to 4-5 inches long so keep that in mind when buying them and make certain your tank is big enough to house them at adult size, Otocinclus catfish (these are super cute, very peaceful and work best in an established planted tank, they get about 2 inches), Rosy Barbs,(WARNING these guys get up to six inches! Only for big tanks!), Mollies (get between 2.5 and 3 inches so good for smaller tanks), and American Flagfish (These stay under 3 inches). Some neocaridina shrimp help as well!
UV sterilizes are also help but they’re on the pricer side, if you have a friend with one that is probably a good way to go. You could also darken your tank (no lights, shade the window) and not feed your fish over the weekend, which shouldn’t harm them.
I personally prefer to deal with it naturally but there are chemicals you can use, such as Tetra Algae Control, API Algaefix. Make sure to read the instructions very carefully and follow them to the letter.
Summation
Keep on top of your water paramaters, don’t skip water chances, avoid over feeding and keep algae eaters in your tank and hopefully you wont have too much of an issue!
Today I’m going to be explaining the things you need and why you need them when you want to get into the hobby! This is a very long post so get ready for lots of words!
Money
Before you do anything, the first thing you need to make sure you have enough of is money. You can get an aquarium fully set up for as little or as much money as you are willing to spend, but that doesn’t mean your set up will be successful or more importantly, good for the fish. Spending money on the right supplies will save you from spending the money on something cheap that will stop working and cost you, even more, having to replace it or ideally, update with something less likely to fail you.
Expect to pay at least 100$ for a small aquarium, after buying all you need to set things up and stock the tank. If that’s too rich for your blood, I’d suggest a nano tank and a marimo ball. Betta fish should never be in nano tanks. The smallest you should keep them in is 2.5 gallons, 5 is vastly better.
A Place for the Aquarium to Live
For nano aquariums, it should be easy enough to locate a spot to place them and they’re light enough that you don’t have to worry about them destroying whatever you’ve placed it on.
However the larger the aquarium, the harder to find a spot for it and the harder it is to find something that can support its weight. A 20-gallon tank (which is considered small in the hobby) can weigh up to and over 200 pounds once you add in the water, substrate, fish, and decorations. Things only get heavier from here on out.
Once you hit 10 gallons I suggest getting specially made aquarium stands, which can cost you as much as the tank! You can sometimes get them as a packaged deal for a great price. I suggest checking Facebook, Craigslist, Letgo and other kinds of services for used aquarium stands, often, people are trying to sell the tank along with it too, be wary of used aquariums though as you can’t know what has been put in them. The risk of dangerous chemicals being used on them isn’t worth the money saved on getting a used one unless you trust the previous owner.
Do NOT just assume whatever surface you are putting a 10+ gallon aquarium on will support its weight. Trying to clean up the mess of a broken aquarium is an absolute nightmare. Not just for all the debris but chances are your fish won't survive the experience, even if you’re standing there when it happens.
Time
Aquariums aren’t something you can just set and forget, even if you’re doing a nano aquarium that just has a marimo ball, it will still require your time. Aquariums usually require weekly water changes (about 25%+ of the water), monthly filter maintenance, daily feeding, gravel vacuuming, etc. When you’ve got the aquarium set up it’s really not that much work, but you can’t just neglect it, or your fish will die.
Also, take into consideration the lifespan of the fish. Some fish can live for years... even decades. Make certain you’re on board with this before getting a longer-lived species, if you want to see how you take to the hobby start with a shorter-lived species, such as livebearers (Guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies).
Aquarium
This one seems obvious, no aquarium, not fish! But it’s not as easy as you might think. There are 3 kinds of materials used for aquariums, plastic, glass, and acrylic, each with their benefits and drawbacks (or in the case of plastic, mostly negatives). For those new to the aquarium hobby, I suggest glass aquariums. Acrylic is both very expensive and not as easy to come by (the big box stores rarely have these at all). I’ll go into more detail in another post about the choices and which is best depending on your commitment and desires.
Filter
No filter? No aquarium. You can not do a setup without a filter, even in my plant only tank I still have a nano filter. The only thing you can get away with not having a filter is a marimo nano tank, even then you need to agitate the water often to move the moss ball around.
Filters are tied at the top for one of the most important things you need to keep livestock. It isn’t something you should cut corners on and it’s always better to over filter than under filter (with consideration to water flow... you don’t want to put a fast-moving current in a small betta tank).
There are a variety of filters you can use, sponge, internal, canister, HOB (hang on the back), etc. Each one has its uses depending on your set up. Do your research into the kind of filter you’ll need based on the size of your aquarium, as that’s the most important thing to consider. I’ll be writing an in-depth post about the different kinds of filters and the setups they work for.
Heater
Growing up I never once heard about an aquarium heater but they are a vital part of keeping your fish healthy and happy. Freshwater fish are almost exclusively tropical and require water that is warmer than the typical house’s ambient temperature. Depending on the area you live in and the seasons the fluctuation in water temperature can straight up kill fish. Even here in Phoenix, Arizona the change in daytime temp to nighttime temp can be drastic, especially if the tank is near a window. This is non-negotiable, if you have livestock in your tank, you have to have a heater.
Substrate
While you can have a bare-floor tank (quarantine tanks usually work best with bare tanks) there are a variety of reasons why you should have substrate. The biggest one is they are great at housing beneficial bacteria! If you do a bare-floor aquarium and do a big water change and change the filter at the same time you’ve basically just killed all your beneficial bacteria. Why do you need bacteria? It helps break down bad chemicals, without them, your ammonia levels will spike and kill your fish. You’ll notice that’s a common theme of this list, when we bring dogs and cats into our home our environment is already tailored to their basic needs, but with fish, you need to create an entire ecosystem for them to live in.
There are different kinds of substrates, sand, gravel of different sizes and substrate designed specifically for plants. If you want to do a live plant aquarium you’ll need to spring for a lot pricer special substrate, but it’ll help keep your plants happy and healthy. This kind of substrate is also great for shrimp! I’ll make a substrate post to explain the different kinds and the benefits of them!
Live Bacteria/Starter Bacteria
When you first set up a tank you need to cycle it. Dumping water in a tank, even if you have everything else set up fine, even if you dechlorinate water... without beneficial bacteria your tank isn’t ready for fish yet. Some (not good sources) say you only need to cycle for ‘24 hours’ this is a complete NO. You should cycle for at least a week, and to do that you’ll be adding a liquid starter bacteria to your tank daily (smaller tanks it’s usually just one cap of the stuff). You’ll also want to get a large bottle of it (Unless you have a nano tank) as you’ll be using it even after your tank is cycled and set up.
Water Test Kit
This one is ‘technically’ optional. Many places will offer free water checks (Petco and Petsmart offer them for free, local aquarium specialty stores will usually do the first one free then a small fee for each subsequent test). You could just take advantage of these free water checks but I suggest if you’re really interested in taking the best care of your fish you should get a water test kit and test the water regularly. You can also get test strips! They are not as accurate as the test kits are so shouldn’t be the only thing you are relying on. In my experience, Petsmart uses the test strips and local stores use the kits, the local stores can also give you better advice for what the water test results mean and how to adjust your parameters.
Decorations
Another ‘technically optional’. While you could keep a tank naked save for the bare essentials (filter, heater, tank, hood, and light)... that... isn’t what I would call an ideal set up. Decorations not only are visually appealing to use they are important to your fish as well! Many fish are shy and prefer to have hiding spots, they can grow bored without an environment to navigate. Territorial fish need something to demarcate their territory or they’ll become very stressed and aggressive.
Fish don’t really care about what color the decorations are or if they’re plastic, so don’t feel the pressure to get the really pricey decorations. While live plants have a lot of benefits they require their own focus and parameters and can get really complicated. Just make sure your decorations are fish safe. Never add wood to your tank without boiling and soaking it, fresh wood is never something you should put in your tank, even wood sold specifically for aquariums needs to be soaked to leech the tannins out. Tannins will turn your water brown/amber and make it murky which can work for a brackish aquarium but will likely not be appealing to a freshwater set up. Wood can also change the PH of your water. Like I said, plastic decorations don’t require any extra work other than a quick rinse off before adding them to the tank (never use soaps!), the natural materials take extra effort and thought.
Fish
This is so far down the list because you need to focus so much on everything above long before you get the fish. The most important thing to consider is the fish you want. A lot of fish sold at pets stores can grow to truly monstrous sizes (I have seen juvenile Silver Arowana sold at Petsmart! They grow to 3 feet long, sometimes more!) so you can’t just walk into the store and buy whatever strikes your fancy. The majority of the fish for sale are juveniles and the true sizes of them are rarely accurately listed, (the Silver Arowana sign at Petsmart claimed they only got 12 inches long) if they’re listed at all.
First consider the size of the tank you’re comfortable buying, as stated above getting a small setup (10-20 gallon tank) you’re looking at about 100$, if not more just for the base setup (My 20-gallon setup cost about 200$ because I use live plants and natural materials, it could have been half as much if I had taken it in another direction). Once you’ve picked out a tank size only then can you consider the kinds of fish you can put in it. The smaller the tank, the fewer the fish you can add to it and the smaller the fish must be. So turn your eyes away from the bigger fish unless you’re willing to invest in a tank that will fit them at their adult sizes. It’s about 1 inch of fish per gallon, and any other livestock you add count as well. Shrimp would be about .5 gallon per shrimp (as they have a lower load), snails also could towards the bio-load of the tank which is why getting an infestation can be dangerous for your tank.
Fish Food
Another obvious one but this is more complicated than you think! There is a lot of cheap and poorly made fish food available on the market. I don’t suggest ever buying it from the grocery store unless its an emergency and you plan on replacing it with something better very very soon. Different fish have different requirements, some are strictly carnivores, others omnivores, some herbivores. Feeding them the wrong thing can lead to starvation, malnutrition, constipation and general failure to thrive.
Always read the ingredient list, some foods contain copper sulfate which is a very dangerous chemical to any invertebrates (snails/shrimp). I once lost a beloved rabbit snail because I failed to read the full ingredient list of the algae wafers I got for the tank. It can also be toxic to fish in high doses. I’d suggest just avoiding any foods that list copper sulfate at all to be on the safe side.
Hood/Lid
You can go without a hood or a lid... however, there are very good reasons to make sure you have a good tank cover. Water evaporates and you’ll have to add water between water changes, which is tedious and can mess with the parameters of your water. Higher on the list of importance is the fact that some fish are jumpers. They will leap right out of the water! Betta fish are well known for this, the Silver Arowana I mentioned above is so notorious for this that even very experienced keepers have lost full grown ones to a hard leap, even with a secured lid.
If you have pets (cats especially) you may end up finding them pawing at the water, falling in or just trying to catch the fish. I say: better safe than sorry!
If you’re willing to keep on top of the water levels, have no pets that can get into the tank, a rimless acrylic tank without a lid does look amazing.
Lights
This is another one that can be as complicated or easy as you want it to be. If you have a very well lit area for the tank you could potentially get away without a dedicated light. You could even just have a hanging pendant light that is bright enough to illuminate the tank and that’s fine!
It gets more complicated if you want to do a planted tank, as I said in decorations, live plants require extra work and this is one of those things that will add to their time and cost. Live plants require a specific spectrum to grow properly. Some can survive with basic lights but if you want to really get a planted tank going you need to get full spectrum lights and full spectrum LED lights can be very expensive (for my 20 gallons I was looking at 60+ dollars).
LED lights take less energy to run, which is great in the long run and they last a very long time. Fluorescent bulbs are cheaper and readily available (hardware stores may even have the size you need!) but will need to be changed more often and it’s vital that you don’t let any of the moisture hits them.
And that’s all the things you need to consider when buying an aquarium and setting it up! There are other things you’ll need but aren’t as vital as what’s listed above. A small tank you could just use a soft toothbrush to clean algae off and you could just siphon the water out with a cup for water changes. Bigger tanks though will require gravel vacs and dedicated algae scrubbers (you could use a soft sponge like the ones sold at the grocery store but don’t use the scrubbing side!).
Here is a link to a PDF you can print out to check off what you have and still need!
Betta fish are often marketed as “easy” or “low-maintenance” pets, but first-time fish keepers quickly discover that proper care goes far be
The Essential Betta Fish Supplies Checklist for Beginners 🐠
Bringing home a new Betta? Don't fall for the "bowl" myth! Check out this complete guide to everything your fish actually needs to thrive—from tank size and heaters to the best high-protein snacks.
