Marine aquariums offer many advantages to those who keep and maintain them. Some include the satisfaction of creating a beautiful ocean ecosystem in the confines of five sheets of glass or acrylic. Another important role played by the marine aquarium is its ability to release the tensions and pressures of everyday life. What could be better than watching the waves and the currents flow inside your miniature coral reef or fish tank?

Your goal when planning to aquascape your marine aquarium is to create a structure which allows for the best biological filtration possible, provides a natural environment for the inhabitants and is pleasing to the eye.

Let’s face it all the rock which you purchase is of different shapes and size and they never seem to fit together just as you would like. Also when you do find pieces which appear to fit together to give you the design which you would like it is never stable enough.

After you partially fill the aquarium with mixed salt water, according to the instructions on the box, you can add the sand or other substrate, then live rock. Be sure to keep the live rock wet so you don’t kill the creatures living in it. Once you have the aquarium up, plug in the filter (if you choose to have one) and the heater and let it cycle for a few weeks, changing a percentage of the water each week, before putting any creatures in it so that the bacteria may be given a chance to grow and mature, which will help rid your aquarium of fish and invertebrate waste in the future.

Once the tank has finished cycling, then you can add your first fish. Several easy and hardy fish include the damsel, with it’s striking blues, greens, and yellows. The clown fish, with it’s comical looks, and the firefish, which looks like it is “on fire.”

The constraints on buying an aquarium are the size of the space you can allot to it and your budget. People are told to purchase “the biggest they can afford”. The recommended starting size is 55 gallons, but you can successfully keep your creatures alive in an aquarium larger or smaller than 55 gallons. However, be aware that a smaller volume of water requires more diligent maintenance.

The general shape chosen for tanks is a rectangle. The common rule is to buy one as long and low as you can, making more horizontal swimming room for fish than vertical. Also having a relatively low tank also allows you to keep more light hungry corals in invertebrates closer to the bottom. Many people choose the compactness and good looks of a tall aquarium. This is a poor choice, as it will not provide much swimming room for your fish.

Whichever method you choose it is essential to ensure that the rock structure you create is both open and balanced. You do not want to create a structure which is not balanced and the rockwork falls over and either traps a fish or even worse the rockwork falls over and cracks your aquarium. It is also recommended to leave a gap between the rocks and the sides of the aquarium. If you do not leave a gap then you will have issues later on trying to glean the glass.

Pop-eye in itself is not a disease but is more a symptom of an underlying infection. The eye bulges out in this manner because of fluid build up, either behind the eye or in the eye itself. The first signs you will notice is that one or even both eyes are starting to bulge. Slowly with time it can bulge to such an extent that the fish will look really shocking with the bulge.

Ich is free-swimming until it attaches itself to the skin of a fish. Under a microscope, the organism is easily seen and identified, even under low magnification. It looks like a round, rolling mass. According to John Gratsbek, et al, in the book Aquariology, The Science of Fish Health Management (Tetra Press), ich is one of the few fish parasites completely surrounded by cilia. The organism’s U-shaped nucleus is often visible under a microscope.

If this disease is not detected soon after it is caught the fish can lose one or both of its eyes and its eye sight. Any impact the eye might be subjected to generally as a result of fighting, can cause this. If its one eye chances are it’s injury, if its both then it is possibly a bacterial infection. Bad water quality is a common reason enough to be the cause. High nitrAtes/nitrItes, ammonia, metal or plastic poisoning can be the reason too. Unsuitable salinity can also be the cause.

In nature, ich is not much of a problem. There are large numbers of fish to which tomites can attach. And with the greater amount of water volume, it’s likely that many ich organisms do not even find a host. However, in a closed system like an aquarium, ich re-infects the same fish over and over, resulting in severe infestations. That’s why it can be such a problem.

The flow rate of the unit is an important consideration. Flow rate is measured in gallons per hour (gph) or liters per hour (lph). While higher flow rates may be acceptable for killing algae and some bacteria, you will usually need a much slower flow rate to kill parasites. For example, a 15 watt bulb will usually kill algae and bacteria with a 120 gph flow, but you will need to lower the flow rate to around 75 gph for it to effectively kill parasites. Read the manufacturers recommendations for your particular unit for effective bulb wattage and flow rates.

The affected fish should be immediately taken out to be separately treated. It is difficult to specify a specific treatment unless the main cause is definitely known. Large daily water changes should help, if not Epsom salts has been used with good results to draw the fluid out. One tablespoon per 5 gallons of water for at least three days, longer if necessary. Epsom salts isn’t really salt (sodium chloride) it is Magnesium Sulfate. If water quality is the problem, a 50 percent water change must be made as soon as possible.

Nowadays Ultra Violet sterilizers can be found in local pet stores and they can definitely be found online. Look on eBay or similar auction sites for good deals on second hand and even brand new units. Since they are very expensive, you will want to research the unit you’re interested in getting before investing in one. Use a search engine to find reviews on tropical fish forums and discussion boards. Since you will usually need to change out the bulb every 6 months or so, find out how much a replacement bulb costs. The replacement bulb price may help when comparison shopping.

Water changes are extremely important in fighting ich outbreaks. Using a gravel washer, I do a 50 percent water change on a daily basis. This eliminates a great number of trophozoites and tomites from the aquarium.

These fishes have extraordinarily long guts and will develop lower-digestive problems if they do not get enough roughage in their diets. These problems are usually followed by a lethal bacterial infection. Almost all other fish will also benefit from some vegetable matter as greens contain folic acid and the carotenes that are needed for the creation of red and yellow pigments. The vegetables in the gelatin food discussed above are adequate for almost all fish, but plecos and mbuna should really have some additional plant foods as well. Easiest to provide are slices of par-boiled young zucchini (par-boiling makes it sink). Romaine lettuce is also useful. Plecos also eat wood. I’m serious. All plecos should be provided with a nice piece of driftwood for them to slowly rasp away at and hide under.

Nowadays all good aquarium stores have freezers with frozen fish foods. These include various mollusks, fish, crustaceans, and aquatic insects. None of them are inexpensive. Most of them you can make yourself with a food processor and a trip to Shun Fat (see above), but frozen adult brine shrimp (discussed below) and blood worms (midge larvae) are more difficult to come by and could be considered for purchase at the pet store.

But first of all, the flake foods. Aquarian, Tetra, and Wardley are all recommended brands. There are some other brands that are pretty good but these three are the most widely available. As a general rule of thumb, if a flake food is for sale in a reputable pet store, it will be pretty good. If you buy it at Walmart however, you are taking your chances. Department store flake foods tend to have a small list of inexpensive ingredients and a lot of white wheat flour filler. One particularly bad brand that you should avoid has a red label and a name that starts with H and is a homonym for your primary circularity organ (hopefully that’s sufficiently obscure that they won’t sue us for defamation).

A less expensive alternative to flake food is homemade food. If you like to cook, this can also be fun, although to be honest I tend to think of making your own fish food as a bit of a smelly chore. Thankfully, it is easy to make and freeze enough to last you a good six months or more so you don’t need to put yourself through it very often.

Both worms are aquatic but are found in very high nutrient bottoms. They are most often found in open sewers and therefore have a correspondingly bad reputation as disease carriers. Commercially sold black worms are however byproducts of the trout hatching industry, and so they are unlikely to give you something nasty like cholera.

Aquarium stores also sell freeze-dried foods. These differ from flake foods in that they usually have only a single animal-ingredient each ( e.g. mosquito larvae, blood worms, tubifex worms etc.) and they are usually in the form of chunks or as individual organisms, rather than flakes. These foods are not in themselves complete diets, but they can be part a well-rounded diet consisting of a good basic flake food, a Spirulina-enriched flake food, and several types of freeze-dried foods.

Almost all of the organisms that are freeze-dried and sold for aquarium use can be found as either living or frozen foods as will be discussed below, but in the freeze-dried form they provide a convenience of storing and feeding that frozen or living foods can not match. Feel free to purchase freeze-dried foods if you are unwilling to devote freezer space to frozen foods or to go through the significant bother of dealing with live foods.

The next thing to know about dried foods is how much to feed. Unless you want your fish to spawn or are raising their babies, don’t feed much at all. Fish are cold blooded, and therefore do not require food energy to maintain their body temperatures. They also are neutrally buoyant and so they don’t require any energy to stand up. As a result, fish can get by on remarkably little food.

OK, so you’ve now got your new aquariums or bowls and now you are wondering what fish you should stock it with. One such fish to consider is the Siamese fighting fish, more often referred to as Betta fish.

It has been suggested that due to their ancestors, who lived in poor oxygen environments, that Bettas do not require filters or aerators in the aquarium. However, I would tend to disagree and add a filter, provided it did not produce too much of a current for the fish to swim against. Natural or artificial plants are a good idea for the aquarium or bowl, this is because the Betta need to reach the water’s surface for oxygen and the plants give them some support to do this.

One fish will live happily alone but you do need to keep the temperature of the water fairly constant at around 78 - 80 degrees, so don’t place your aquariums, or bowls in direct sunlight. Unlike a lot of other fish, Betta can exist in smaller aquariums and bowls such as the Betta Garden Floral Bowl reasonably priced around $20 are an option. If you have more than one fish, go for a much larger tank. Your Betta will live for up to 10 years and grow to around 8 centimetres depending on the variety. The fish have been bred from their more natural dull colouring into some highly coloured and striking varieties that are incredible to watch.

Not only should you feed your Bettas on Betta pellets, but they also require their diet to be supplemented with brine shrimps or bloodworms, finely chopped carrots, corn, broccoli or soybeans to keep them healthy.

Betta are naturally aggressive, even the females, and care needs to be taken when breeding. It is actually the males who look after the eggs and although the females may try and eat the eggs, the males are likely to try and eat the fry after they have spawned!

In a small tank or bowl, it’s probably advisable not to put Bettas together as they are liable to fight. If you want to add fish to the tank, remember that Betta do not make natural tank mates because of their aggressive nature. The best options to add are something like platies (moons), loaches or Corydoras (catfish).

In summary, Betta are an ideal and interesting fish to observe for a smaller tank as long as you are aware of the aggressiveness of these fish. You must not overcrowd the tank and should seek advice from whoever you buy your Betta from, but do be careful who you partner your Betta with because of the aggressiveness of these fish!

Every child in school has been learning a brand new USDA “Food Pyramid”. The research that goes into finding out how best to feed our bodies is used to change our notions about nutrition. We know more now than we ever did before about the different categories of food and how, within each category, there are foods that offer specific nutritional qualities separate and distinct from the other foods in the very same category.

When we think of the food groups, we often think of protein first. It’s a big category that includes the heavy hitters - meat and poultry. However, fish is an important part of this food group and not just as an alternative to meat or poultry. Fish should be included in every well-balanced diet along with, not instead of, meat and poultry.

Is the protein food group different somehow from all the other food groups? Isn’t protein from meat and poultry the same as protein from fish? What if I don’t eat fish, will I be missing some kind of nutrient that isn’t in meat or poultry?

If you are living on a diet that includes meat and poultry as your only source of protein, you are missing out on the fatty acids, or “good fat”, that you need for a healthy heart. By including fish as one of your proteins, you will be adding an essential nutrition that you can’t find in a diet that consists of only meat and poultry.

Technically speaking, MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids) and PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) are essential for your health, and you cannot create these elements in your body from other fats that you eat. We’ve all heard of the “omega-3 fatty acids”, which is believed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Salmon, trout, and herring are said to have a high level of this healthy fatty acid.

How can you easily introduce your family to fish? Depending on the region you live in, you will have several types of fish from which to choose. Every time I spot a sale on fish, any kind of fish, I grab it and then start looking around for a recipe. That way, I’m guaranteed to serve fish for dinner at least once or twice a week.

You can start as simply as making some Pan Fried Fish, or going all out with a more complete Oven Fish Dinner. One of my favorites is a classic Fish Chowder. Don’t forget the very versatile tuna. Making a Quick and Easy Tuna Casserole may be a good first try, but I’d move on to something more interesting like Tuna Cheese Puffs just to keep the family from getting tired of the same kinds of dishes. Don’t forget to give Salmon Patties a try, too, as they are a real treat and may even become your family’s Sunday dinner favorite.

If you start serving fish once or twice a week, you may notice that your family is starting to enjoy the change from the same meat and chicken every night. Once you see which dishes appeal to your family, you’ll want to start jotting down the recipes. Before you know it, you’ll have your very own collection of fish recipes that your family adores!

The plants that you decorate with should be ones native to the fish’s original habitat. This is true even though your individual probably has never “seen” or experienced his native habitat first hand.

In general, five types of plants can be used in your fresh water aquarium. The first type of plant is grown by bulbs. These for the most part produce rather large plants, most of which are far too large to use in a normal sized fresh water aquarium. These plants, such as the water lily and the aponogeton, are much better suited to outdoor settings, especially koi ponds.

You may also want to use a classification of live plants called Rhizomes. This plant has a thick, horizontal stem with leaves sprouting on the top. The roots to this plnat are located on the bottom. The rhizome is used as a “runner” over the surface of the substrate. As it spreads, it grows new sections of leaf and root.

If you don’t have an algae eater, then you’re going to have to remove it yourself, by hand. There are numerous tools you can use, and they vary by cost. Remember that algae thrives in the sun! If you have a tank that’s in sunlight for an hour or two a day, it’s going to cause a lot more algae then if it were shaded the entire time.

Change your filter more regularly to ensure that this doesn’t happen, because it can hurt your fish tank, and kill your fish if it goes untreated. They simply can’t live in that sort of environment.

Ever wonder if there’s actually a benefit to having an aquarium? There are actually studies that are going as far back as the 80’s that have shown that keeping an aquarium can not only keep you more relaxed, but improve your health. For example, seniors who were provided with an aquarium - with fish, of course - had a surprising drop in blood pressure. Just watching fish can help calm hyperactive children, and no, that’s not just it.

The grass-like lillaeopsis is another good choice for your tank, especially if it’s exposed to strong sunlight. If you’re truly ambitious at trying your hand at plants, consider purchasing the cryptocoryne beckettii. This is an amphibious plant - meaning it grows both underwater and on land. It does remarkably well underwater and it has the added advantage of being available in a variety of gorgeous colors.

Then there’s the Amazon sword - technical name is the echinodorus bleheri, if you’re interested. This is, without a doubt, the most popular of all aquarium plants of all time. It’s an easy plant to care for, even if you’re only beginning your journey in aquarium keeping. It grows fast. And it’s great because it helps to control the algae content of your tank as well.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a big aquarium or a little aquarium - you can still reap the benefits of having the fish in your house, and they’re wonderful pets to boot.

I have seen people use pontoon boats for playtime and recreation, but now they are putting this floating pleasure palace to a more surprising use, would you ever think you can use a pontoon boat for hauling and pulling things? Oceanographers can use a pontoon boat in lieu of a larger watercraft so that they can get farther out into the oceans coral reefs, allowing them to take phenomenal photographs. Scientists can use smaller pontoon boats for various purposes as well, such as collecting data and studying animals for research. Some smaller fishing companies use a pontoon boat for their fishing crews, allowing them to take several employees out at the same time while saving money on the high costs of fuel and manpower it requires to operate a larger boat.

It has been frustrating for scientists who want to get close enough to a whale pod to study them and can’t in a large vessel. By using a smaller pontoon that also has an inflated pontoon the scientist can get as close as they want with out disturbing the pods. Making their research easier. When trying to observe a colony of seals or sea lions in a larger vessel, most of the marine animals are threatened, in using the smaller pontoon boat the seals don’t appear to be bothered and are not threatened with noise and commotions. The inflatable pontoon is a valuable resource for researching purposes.

When studying dolphins, many times scientists will want to dart them with a tag for tracking and monitoring purposes, here again is another perfect example of why they prefer to use a smaller craft like an inflatable pontoon boat. The dolphins will actually come and swim right next to the pontoon boat, thus making darting and tagging relatively easy. Dolphins are just one of many animals that are less threatened by a smaller pontoon.

When a scientist goes to study marine life on a secluded island, a larger sea vessel isn’t going to be able to dock safely. The rudders and motor would be torn apart by the rocky underwater terrain, so to solve this problem they will carry inflatable pontoon boats onboard. When a smaller pontoon is needed, they take about ten minutes to inflate and assemble; you can’t get much more convenient than that. Once the smaller pontoon is assembled the scientist can then proceed to the island, gather the needed information and troll back to the larger vessel when they are done. This is another perfect example of when a smaller pontoon is needed, and without them some scientists hands would be tied and they couldn’t do their job.

Ocean photographers all over the world have found that using pontoon boats in rough waters is easier to handle because they are easier to manager and are lighter. Another example of the use for a pontoon would be in the rain forest when needed to troll through the dense forest going and coming between points of interest. Because of the extreme durability, versatility and rugged design pontoons are being used for more reason than just to have fun.

A major mistake many people make is adding too many fish. Fish need space! You can get three to four small fish per gallon, or one to two medium fish per gallon, or one large fish per gallon. Make sure that the fish you get can be housed together so that you will not have any fish fighting. When you bring your fish home, float the bag in the tank for about twenty minutes so they will adjust to your tank’s temperature. After that you can put them in the aquarium.

There are many different types of fish foods to choose from but flake foods seem to work the best. Just make sure you don’t overfeed because this can make your tank very dirty. Just feed like twice a day.

Choose a good spot in your house to place the tank. Make sure that the table you put it on is able to support the weight of the aquarium. Water weighs around eight and a half pounds per gallon, so a ten gallon tank would be at least 85 pounds, not counting everything you put in it and the aquarium itself.

This will determine whether you want a freshwater aquarium or a saltwater aquarium, or maybe even a warm water aquarium. Tropical fish will require a heater to supply warm water, but generally it is best to start with a cool water aquarium until you gain experience wit fish tanks. Besides, tropical fish are expensive, and chances are, they will die if you don’t yet have the experience.

When you’re first setting up your freshwater aquarium, it’s a good idea to buy healthy, young freshwater fish. If you want to add more mature fish later, that’s fine as long as your system has had time to stabilize. You might also like to cheer up your aquarium with some plants. They add a touch of beauty, but also help with the ecological balance in the aquarium.

You must make sure that the temperature of your tank stays around 80 degrees. Get a thermometer and see what the temperature is. If it is not acceptable, you may need to purchase a heater for the tank. Just don’t put the heater by any air bubbles. Another thing you will need is a hood and light for the aquarium. The hood will keep the fish in the tank while providing light at the same time.

You must make sure that the temperature of your tank stays around 80 degrees. Get a thermometer and see what the temperature is. If it is not acceptable, you may need to purchase a heater for the tank. Just don’t put the heater by any air bubbles. Another thing you will need is a hood and light for the aquarium. The hood will keep the fish in the tank while providing light at the same time.

The most important maintenance to do on the tank is water changes. Every month you should change about one-third of the water. Use a siphon hose with a suction tube and siphon out about one-third of the water into a bucket. Replace with clean freshwater. Just make sure that the water you replace with is the same temperature as the tank.

Before you can catch a pike you have to understand a basic thing about the pike. To make this clear we can illustrate it with an example.

If you have ever watched an animal program about wolves and lions, you should have noticed a key difference between these two predators. Even if they have the same object, the reach it in two very different ways.

The wolf is an animal that chases its prey for a long time. It can chase it for days before finally catching up. This strategy is also used by a fish, the salmon. It hunts in much the same manner as the wolf with long chases and few surprises.

When we see a lion, on the other hand, we can see a totally different strategy used. It waits in high grass for its prey to come walking by. It then rushes out of its hiding place with extreme pace and catches the poor animal. This can be compared to the way that a Pike catches its prey. It finds a hiding spot, and waits for food to swim by just like the lion.

Does this information do us any good when we are fishing? Of course it does. It tells us where we should look for the pike. And that can be the difference between catching one and going home with an empty bag. And now we know that the pike likes places it can hide.

The second thing we learn is that the pike likes to be close to the bottom of the lake. This is because this is where the best hiding places usually are.

What should we use as a bait to catch a pike then? The best option would probably be a wobbler. It has everything that a pike looks for and it resembles not only a fish, it resembles an injured fish. An injured fish is always an easier target for the pike and will be much more effective. Another option is live bait.

If you want to take care of fish and their aquarium, you should try to relate to those fish. You can pick between freshwater and saltwater fish. The freshwater fish are of two types: coldwater and tropical. There are a number of fish types that you can get if you want to start keeping fish.

The Pantodontidae Species: This family of fish includes a few types, like the butterfly or the flying fish. Their origin is West Africa and their maximum size is 10cm (4 inches). The body of the butterfly fish is flat and it has small patterns on it. Tropical fish have a flat shape for the body.

The family from which the butterfly fish originates from is Chaetodontidae. They have an upward turned mouth and boat shaped bodies. You will also notice a huge chest that is wing like. Some of the will be colored brown, while others will be green or gray. In some cases you will see dark spots or streaks on their bodies.

This is a species that is quite passive, but you should still keep them together with fish of the same size or species.

Feeding them They will not eat from the aquarium’s bottom. They would rather eat small fish or insects. You can also teach them to eat worms or meat based dishes. Teaching them to do that will require a long stick.

The type of water They enjoy water that is a bit soft, with a temperature around 80F. The butterfly fish should be kept in an aquarium that is only half filled, but have plenty of thick plants inside.

This is not a fish that will breed easily in captivity. If you want fish that will breed, pick a species that will do that. If you still want to go with the Pandotidae and they do breed, give their offspring minute insects to eat. It takes around three days for the eggs to hatch.

The Mormyridae Species Another fish species is the Mormyridae, which can be found in Central and South Africa. One interesting fact about this fish is that their brain weight to body weight ratio is comparable to that of a man. It’s a fish that is easy to teach and curious about their surroundings. If you want to buy this fish, you should make sure they get the proper food, or they might decline it.

The Marcusenius Schilthuisiae Species It’s also called trunkfish or in some cases elephant trunkfish. Their origin is Central Congo and their maximum size is 10cm (4 inches). Their body is a silver/brown with a dull tubercle and some dark bands. In many aspects, this fish is similar with the G. Petersi, in areas like food, sexing, water conditions and breeding.

The Gnathonemus Petersi Species Another name for this species is elephant nosed fish. Their maximum size in an aquarium is around 10cm (4 inches) and they can be found in Congo and Cameroon. However, in the wild they can get to 23cm (9 inches). Their chins are elongated and squeezed against their body. They have both a dorsal and an anal fin. Their color is either dark brown or black, with two white stripes.

It’s a passive fish that can be kept in aquariums with other species of fish. They like eating freshwater fleas and Tubifex. Their aquarium should have plenty of plants for them to hide in and the temperature of the water should be 80F. Powerful lights are not a good idea.