Keeping a school of healthy fish is an easy task if you know the right way to maintain an aquarium. Once your tank is set up, you will have to carry out some basic steps to care for the fish. Some of these measures you will need to carry out on an everyday basis, while other things can be done on a weekly or a biweekly basis. The daily actions you need to do daily is actually very simple. Keep a watchful eye on them everyday to see that they are healthy and happy. You will find that fish that are emotionally disturbed will fall sick often and mental ill health is a cause of physical ill health in fish.

Properly monitor the lighting and filtering arrangements of your fish tank as they can malfunction. Feed the fish daily. Make it a point not to feed your fish anything that they cannot consume in 2-5 minutes. Residual food left after the fish consume what they want will add to the nitrite levels of the tank and will cause illnesses among the fish. Monitor the pH level of the water and note any changes if any. Be very particular about changing things if needed, promptly. You can get the right ph level for your particular type of fish from the pet store where you get your supplies from. They vary amongst fish species.

Maintaining filter hygiene is vital. The aquarium filters will collect all the wastes that the fish produce by way of excretion. The filters will eventually fill with debris and be unable to do their job unless they are cleaned. The filters have another important job to do apart from removing the waste materials from the tank - this is to cycle oxygen within the tank.

If the filters are clogged, circulation slows. This can cause a lowering in the amount of oxygen available in your tank. If left untreated, this could be deadly for your fish. Do not keep the same filter for more than two to three weeks in the aquarium. When you find that the water has become milky in appearance and smells bad, you have to clean out the filter. Depending on the design of the filter, you will either have to clean it with water or to replace it.

Go slow when you are changing water in your aquarium. First unplug any lights and equipment before cleaning the aquarium. Change approximately one third of the water in the aquarium every one to two weeks. You are allowed to add water from the tap provided it is two degrees close to the water in the tank. If you are confused what kind of water would do best for your fish, your local pet store owner can guide you. For some kinds of tap water, a half hour treatment is enough, but for some kinds you may need to go in for an overnight treatment procedure.

You can remove the algal growths from the walls of your fish tank by using a scrubber. Be careful not to disturb or scare the fish. Move the rocks and other decorations of your tank slightly to allow the debris trapped in them to move out. Try to collect this debris when removing the water, either with a bucket or a vacuum type of siphon. Regularly pick out the decaying leaves of the plants in your tank. You can clean the exterior of your aquarium with a bit of sponge soaked in water. Also wipe the lid and cover of the tank clean. With your tank cleaning done, all you have to now do is to put everything back into its proper place and check out the delights of your fresh clean tank.

Tags: Fish

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Fish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.