Illustrated in full color, this comprehensive reference includes 500 of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish. It provides concise at-a-glance information on their behavior, diet and breeding, along with a recommended aquarium setup. Practical and well organized, this book is tailored to the needs of a wide range of freshwater-aquarium hobbyists.
A key decision for the aquarium owner, and also one of the most fun to make, is choosing the fish for a tank. 500 Freshwater Aquarium Fish is a “window shopping” trip, with an expert alongside to offer crucial advice. This thorough directory details every appropriate species. While most of the fish featured require a heated aquarium, there are other popular varieties, such as goldfish, that can be kept in an unheated one.
With more than 500 color photographs, the book is organized by major fish groups, among them:
Cichlids, including angelfish and discus
Catfish
Cyprinids, including barbs, danios, koi and goldfish
Characoids, including tetras, neons and piranhas
Oaches and suckers
Gouramis, including bettas, paradise fish and snakeheads
Rainbow fish and blue-eyes
Livebearers, including mollies and platies.
This comprehensive and useful reference, edited by a highly respected expert, will be welcomed by amateur fishkeepers of any age and expertise.
Tropical fish aquarium Here is a tropical fish aquarium. This has lots in it, plecs, angels, crabs, frog, loaches, sharks, congos, alsorts. Of course most went into hiding when the camera came out.
Tropical Fish : Tank Basics
Aquarium fish are like pets and you have to know what you’re doing and this article will cover one of the basics : what to look for when buying tropical fish, this article will cover the tank. Look for a tank that is big enough to store the tropical fish you want (keep note that some fish need bigger tanks as they need more place, so do your homework !) I’d suggest to go for a bigger tank because having some extra room for your tropical fish always a good idea. When you’re in the store make sure to take some extra equipment with you cause you’ll need it. I suggest getting the following equipment for your tank:
1. Heater
The heater is the most important part of a tropical tank. For most tropical fish, 25C is a good average. 4 watts per gallon is ok, but each heater will state the size aquaria it accommodate for. For the larger aquaria, it is often best to have two smaller heaters for a couple of reasons, one because should one break, u still have one to keep your tank going until u can replace it, and two should you have 1 big heater, and the thermostat got stuck on, it would raise the temperature of the tank far more and in less time than a smaller one would. All heaters now have a built in thermostat which turns the heater on and off when needed to keep the tank at a stable temperature, the heater should never be un-plugged.
2. Filter.
Best to check if the filter fits your tank. this is very important !.The size of the filter depends upon 3 factors :
- The tank size
- Number of aquarium fish
- Plants planted in the tank
There are lots of different types of filters available : internal filters, external filters, gravel filters and box filters (I advise to skip this one cause they only work for small tanks).
3. Gravel
The gravel is mainly for aesthetic purposes, but it also is vital if you are keeping live plants as they need a substrate of some sort to anchor them selves down with.
If you have a planted tank, then 2-3inches of gravel is advised, but if u have an unplanted tank, then u may use ½ – 2inches of gravel.
The gravel also holds some of the bacteria in the tank, and if the tank has an under gravel filter, then the gravel will contain nearly all of the bacteria in the tank.
Setting up a Tropical Aquarium Week by Week
by: Stuart Thraves
publisher: Firefly Books, published: 2004-10-02
ASIN: B0018SY5P4
sales rank: 954362
price: $9.61 (new), $5.53 (used)
A week-by-week practical guide to setting up and maintaining a superb living environment
As fishkeeping continues to grow in popularity, hobbyists are looking for authoritative advice and more sophisticated results.
Setting Up a Tropical Aquarium Week-by-Week is an encyclopedic reference that takes a fresh look at setting up and maintaining a tropical freshwater aquarium. New hobbyists are quite often impatient to set up their aquarium and want to add their expensive fish as soon as possible. This common misstep can have disastrous results that may discourage beginners from ever trying again.
To curb such enthusiastic impatience, this book presents clear step-by-step practical advice in a convenient week-by-week progression. The book uses detailed photographic sequences to follow each stage of setting up a warm water freshwater tropical aquarium in real-time over a period of ten weeks.
The set-up procedure starts with the first day, when the substrate and life-support systems are installed and progresses to the point at which the first fish are added – two weeks later. The book then follows the aquarium’s development during the next eight weeks as the tank turns from an artificial environment into a living eco-system.
Alongside the main aquarium set-up sequence are photographs that show how to create two different aquascape designs based on a cube and a bow-front tank.
Profile sections show fifty aquarium plants and one hundred popular warm water freshwater aquarium fish at relevant stages of the set-up process. Throughout, the book explains the natural processes that occur so that fishkeepers can ensure ongoing success.
Combining clear text and simple-to-follow illustrations, Setting Up a Tropical Aquarium Week-by-Week is a crucial reference for tropical freshwater fish hobbyists.
The hobby can be broadly divided into three specific disciplines, freshwater, brackish, and marine (also called saltwater) fishkeeping. Freshwater fishkeeping is by far the most popular branch of the hobby, with even small pet stores often selling a variety of freshwater fish, such as goldfish, guppies, and angelfish. While most freshwater aquaria are set up as community tanks containing a variety of peaceful species, many aquarists keep single-species aquaria with a view to breeding. Livebearing fish such as mollies and guppies are among the species that are most easily raised in captivity, but aquarists also regularly breed numerous other species, including many types of cichlid, catfish, characin, and killifish.
Marine aquaria are generally more difficult to maintain and the livestock is significantly more expensive, and as a result this branch of the hobby tends to attract more experienced fishkeepers. However, marine aquaria can be exceedingly beautiful, due to the attractive colours and shapes of the corals and coral reef fish kept in them. Temperate zone marine fish are not as commonly kept in home aquaria, primarily because they do not do well at room temperature. An aquarium containing these coldwater species usually needs to be either located in a cool room (such as an unheated basement) or else chilled using a refrigeration device known as a ‘chiller’.
Brackish water aquaria combine elements of both marine and freshwater fishkeeping, reflecting the fact that these aquaria contain water with a salinity in between that of freshwater and seawater. Fish kept in brackish water aquaria come from habitats with varying salinity, such as mangroves and estuaries and do not do well if permanently kept in freshwater aquaria. Although brackish water aquaria are not overly familiar to newcomers to the hobby, a surprising number of species prefer brackish water conditions, including the mollies, many gobies, some pufferfish, monos, scats, and virtually all the freshwater soles. Read more here.
Prospective tropical aquarium hobbyists will find vital information on many fish varieties–cichlids, swordtails, and many others. Readers will find tips on species identification, feeding, behavior, approximate and purchase prices. Quick-check data requirements are given regarding aquarium size, water temperature, food, compatibility with other fish, and much more. This title is one in Barron’s new series of pet buyer’s guides, all of them filled with practical information and approximately 250 vivid color illustrations.
