Care and Feeding of Fish

Your new aquarium looks cool right? Awesome? Your little fishies are swimming around and happy. Congratulations, you are now responsible for pets that are more dependent on you than any other creature save perhaps an infant. That's right, these aren't cats and dogs that you can put out some food for and let outside once in a while and be good. Nope, these fish and their little environment will require constant care and attention from you. You're about to face the problem every zoo keeper in history has faced, how to manage an ecosystem and not kill the inhabitants.

Unlike dogs or cats your fish don't get the benefit of a natural ecosystem to sustain them. Where as dogs and cats can breath the air outside, chase other animals and roam around your fish are confined to that little box of water you dunked them in. They are cut off from the natural processes that provide even the most basic needs for them. You have to watch out for those needs.

Don't worry, its not as scary as I'm making it out to be. I'll assume you read my last post and your fish have a good filter, heater, and other such devices. If you took care of all that you should be good to go in most respects. I'll break this down in to simple categories. Stuff you have to do to get started, then what you have to do daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.

Initially

1) Buy Fish
Sounds stupid but hey, it's step one. First off you have to educate yourself about fish. Don't rely on the minimum wage employee at Petsmart to tell you what you need to know about the fish you buy. Take charge of your own education and PLEASE, do it before you buy a fish. Here's a few tidbits to illustrate why.

Goldfish, cute huh? Well they're really just shiny carp. Those little inch and a half suckers in the pet store will grow to be a foot long, easy, maybe more. They can live 30 years. They're also messy, a 20 gallon tank is just big enough for one goldfish, period. My 55 gallon tank could hold about 4 or 5. The rule for goldfish is 20 gallons for the first one, 10 to 15 for everyone after that and that's just to have enough filtration to keep them from dying, forget having enough room to move around in one fully grown.

Tetras, they shouldn't be kept in ones and twos but entire schools. Tetras of all kinds do best in large schools, six or so minimum. Less than that and they are timid and stressed, likely to die of disease. Serpaes will especially be a treat if you buy them singly. Their natural nippiness will get targeted on your other fish rather than members of their own school.

Guppies, flashy and showy right? Well unless you have fish that will eat their fry (baby fish) your tank will be overrun in sort order as they breed out of control.

See why I say you need to know about your fish before you buy them? Here's a list of the important things to know about a fish before you buy it.

a) Temperament - Are these fish mild mannered like a neon tetra, or is it just a shiny piranha that will clean your tank out for you? How does the temperament vary? Many fish are placid, until they have kids, then its a fishy horror movie as they kill off other tank inhabitants to protect their kids. Does their temperament change as they age? Chinese algae eaters start off placid foragers, once they bulk up a bit they start to kill everything else.

b) Schooling - Does the fish like to be kept in large schools or can it not stand the sight of another of its own kind? Guppies require a 2 or 3 to 1 female to male ratio or the horny little guys will hound the females into an early grave. They don't care though about other members of their species, so you can keep them in ones or whole large groups, just either have enough girls or none at all. Tetras and cory catfish need to be kept in schools, but a red tailed black shark or a betta will fight another of its own kind. If a fish does need to be kept in a school, do it. They're much better off and more fun to look at.

c) Water conditions - What temperature water does this fish do best in? Goldfish like cold water, tetras like it hot. Someone will be unhappy if you keep them in the same tank. Even similar kinds of fish like different temperatures, panda cory catfish like the temperature in the mid 70's, most other corys like it in the high 70s or low 80s. You can usually find a happy medium with most tropical fish. Also know what kind of pH they like. While most tropicals in the pet store are likely raised in the same kind of tap water you have at home some fish are caught wild and aren't acclimated to it, and still others just can't tolerate pH differences. African cichlids need hard, pH 8.0+ water, no exceptions. A discus needs soft pH 6.5- water. Putting them together would make one or both unhappy and eventually dead.

d) Feeding - While most fish will eat fish flakes just like people they need a varied diet. Are they carnivores, omnivores, herbivores? It matters. Find out what they like and plan accordingly. This is important, why? Well you know angelfish? They're carnivores. When they're small they're too small to really do anything, but when they get larger they will kill and eat smaller fish. Yes, angelfish.

e) Size - Remember what I said about goldfish, they can grow to over a foot long? Well they aren't the only fish that get big. Remember pet stores sell young fish, they're smaller, easier to transport, easier to display, and easier to feed. Almost every fish you see in the store will get bigger, some much bigger. Know what you're getting yourself into in regards to size. While your 20 gallon tank might be plenty big enough for that oscar now it won't be in a year when he's over ten inches long and can barely turn around.

Something to be aware of is how many fish will be in your tank. There are all kinds of yardsticks and just as many people who say they don't work. The biggest consideration is how good is your filtration. Good filtration can sustain more fish and bad filtration can't. Personally I'm going to have about 40 to 50 fish in my tank when I'm done. They're all small 2 inch or less fish and I have a filter big enough for a 75 gallon tank.

2) Put them In
Sounds simple enough, just dump the new fish into your tank and go right? Nope. Fish are delicate or at least more delicate than you think. The water in the bag you brought them home in is not like the water you're about to dump them into. A significant temperature/pH/nitrite level/etc change can harm a fish, in extreme cases it will just kill them outright. So what can you do? Get them used to your water slowly.

When you get home take out your fish bucket and empty the water and the fish into it, gently. Now if your bucket is too big you might need a smaller one to do this. Just remember to make sure its never had cleaners in it, in fact just go buy a new bucket, a small one. They're like a buck you cheapskate. Now that the fish and their store water are in the bucket its time to start acclimating them. The idea is to slowly dilute their water with your water until its pretty much just your water. Add small amounts of your tank water, straight from your tank, into the bucket. Do it slowly, the less at once the better. A few table spoons at a time and once every five or ten minutes. Yes, this is slow and mind numbing. Deal with it, you bought a fish tank. After you've throughly diluted their water with yours, even going so far as to fill the bucket once then drain it and do it again, maybe, you can introduce them to your tank, scoop them out one at a time with a net and place them in. Once they're all in then dump in the water you took out. The key to the whole process is taking it slowly. The slower the less stress on the fish the better the chance you didn't just waste your money on a kitty snack. For a really good hands off way to do this google "Drip Acclimation". Or just click here: http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=379&theme=Printer

3) Wait
The biggest mistake you can make in adding fish to your tank is to add every fish you want all at once. Too many fish making ammonia and not enough bacteria converting it equals dead fish. You have to increase the ammonia load slowly so the bacteria have time to grow and keep up with the fish. There is no way around this, don't waste your cash on products that claim to add bacteria immediately. It's simple biology. To survive an extended stay in a bottle the bacteria would have to be hibernating, to hibernate it'd have to be very cold. Did you buy a bottle at room temperature? Then you just bought a lot of bacteria corpses. Some people have said the stuff that is actually refrigerated actually works, I dunno. What I do know is if the bottle isn't cold its useless. Back to the fish.

Your first few fish should be hardy, and preferably cheap. I've heard a lot of people recommend zebra danios. Personally I'm going to use neon or cardinal tetras. Add your first few fish and then wait. Test your water daily. If your ammonia levels start to spike dangerously high do a water change to take them back down. If your nitrite levels start to spike congratulations you've got first stage bacteria turning ammonia into nitrites, but if the nitrite levels spike do a water change. Ideally you don't want the levels to ever reach danger territory because removing ammonia and nitrites from the water slows the process. When your test starts showing nitrates you know you've got both types of bacteria working away. Once ammonia and nitrites reach zero your tank has enough bacteria to keep your fish alive and its ready for more. Your test kit should indicate which levels of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are harmful. If your fish show signs of distress then a water change is probably in order whether your readings are dangerous or not. Once things settle down, chemical wise, you should be ready for more fish. Be patient, patience is rewarded with fish that live instead of fish you have to replace. Keep up this process of adding fish then testing and waiting until all your fish are in. Take heart, as you gain more and more bacteria in your tank it will take less and less time to cycle it if you keep your fish additions small.

That about covers what you have to do initially, so now lets cover the daily stuff.

Daily

1) Feed
Have a good quality flake food (if appropriate) to feed to your fish daily. Give them only as much as they can eat in 2 or 3 minutes twice a day. If they can't finish it all in that time give them less the next time. Fish are opportunistic feeders meaning they will eat everything they can when its available so you can easily overfeed the fish and make them sick. Don't do it. Once or twice a week supplement their flake food with a diet appropriate treat, some fresh brine shrimp or worms for your omnivores and carnivores or some fresh lettuce for your herbivores. Maybe algae wafers for your bottom feeders. Mix it up a little bit.

2) Inspect
Every day you need to give your tank a good once over.
a) Fish - How do your fish look, any tattered fins, weird looking spots? Are any of them behaving abnormally? Does it look like any of them are harassing one another? Remember, if you catch a problem early you can fix it before it causes too much damage.
b) Temperature - Check your thermometer, is the temperature within half a degree of where it should be?
c) Filter - Is your filter running, does its output look consistent? Any odd build up? You shouldn't have any problems if you keep up on your filter maintenance but if something goes wonky you want to know about it immediately, not when your fish start going belly up.
d) Air Pump - If you have one is it running, any leaks in the line? Are your air stones putting out consistent bubbles or are they starting to clog? Just like the filter you want to know if something is wrong here before it starts killing fish.
e) Decor - Any algae growth on the decor, anything fallen over? Fish are stronger than you think, and dumber than they look.

It sounds like a hassle but most of it can be done while you feed your fish or in a quick look over. The inspection of your fish and decor can happen when you're just sitting there admiring them.

Weekly

1) Test
Test your water once a week or if your fish look to be in distress. A cycled and well maintained aquarium shouldn't have too many problems with water quality but like anything else you're better off catching it early and fixing it. Testing will only take a few moments.

2) Vacuum
It's hard to give hard and fast rules about vacuuming your gravel because so many things can influence it, most especially how many bottom feeders you have, the more you have and the less you over feed the less vacuuming you'll have to do. What is getting vacuumed up? Fish poop, uneaten food, anything too big to remain suspended in the water and get taken out by the filter. This gunk can be a source of disease and ammonia spikes. The good thing about vacuuming is that it gets your water change started.

3) Change the Water
No not all of it. While those bacteria take out ammonia and nitrites they produce nitrates. Unless your tank is heavily planted with real plants your nitrates are going to build up and in large concentrations are lethal to fish. To keep them under control you need to remove part of the water in the tank and replace it with fresh DECHLORINATED water. If your nitrates are 40 ppm a 50% water change will reduce them to 20 ppm, that's the theory behind water changes. How much should you change is up to your test kit. If you're testing your water on a weekly basis you can figure out how fast nitrates are building up and how much water you need to change to keep them at safe levels. The idea should be that you do a water change before the nitrates get dangerous and to do enough of one to keep them safe until the next change. Some people only have to do a 10% change per week, some have to do 50%. It just varies but if you need a starting place try a 20% change and see how it goes.

Monthly

1) Filter Maintenance
Do it. Read the manufacturers instructions and follow them. Just make sure to do your maintenance in a bucket of tank water. This increases the chance that the beneficial bacteria in the filter will survive the process. If you have a two chamber HoB filter like a Penguin 350 alternate which cartridges you change out to maximize the amount of bacteria you preserve.

2) Clean
Even the best tank will get algae on it. Use an algae scrubber to clean the glass on the tank and keep it clear. If any of your fake plants or decorations are growing it on them take them out and rinse them in tank water. If the algae is really bad use a mild bleach solution to clean them then rinse them in tank water and allow them to sit out until bone dry.

Yearly

1) Change the Lighting
Change out your light at least once a year. This is far more critical on planted tanks but still important on non-planted ones.

2) Redecorate
This is probably more on the order of a every six months thing but once a year works. Redecorate the tank, most the plants, caves and decorations around. It provides some stimulation for your fish and it also breaks up older established territories and encourages the fish to make new ones.