The Chasm

Hello MantaChasm! Here is the conclusion to my “Short Guide to Starting an Aquarium” series that I started last week here on mantachasm.online. Part 1 laid out the foundation for starting in fish-keeping touching on topics like aquarium selection, planning, and setup. In Part 2 we’re going to discuss selecting fish and their tank-mates, how to acclimate your new pets to their brand new home, and then how to clean and maintain your aquarium. Let’s get to it!

I’m going to take a moment and give a VERY brief overview of fish species and tank-mates. Fish can be divided into three categories: salt-water, fresh-water and brackish, with brackish being a mix of fresh and salt. For the sake of this guide we’re assuming a freshwater community aquarium, but obviously the type of fish you want to keep will dictate how the aquarium will be set up and configured. Salt-water fish will need a tank tailored more towards the open ocean or a coral reef community and of course, salt-water. A fresh-water fish will be more attuned to life in a lake, pond or stream and will need fresh-water spanning various pH levels and temperatures. Now, within these ecosystem categories you also have to consider the fish you want as not all fish live in the same exact conditions in nature. Angelfish, while beautiful in the aquarium, hail from the rain forests of South America where the water is incredibly slow-moving, very basic and full of tannins (called “black water”). Compare this to a Plecostomus, or sucker-mouth catfish (also just called “algae-eaters”) that lives in faster moving streams with plenty of clean water and high oxygenation. In order to put these two fish together, one of them will need to live in a tank where their natural needs are not met, and that’s just not fair.

Another consideration is aggression levels. Some fish such as cichlids are known for their aggression and would not normally do well in a tank with very peaceful tank-mates. Now you can keep a cichlid tank, but that is a decision you have to make up front and then stock only cichlids in your aquarium, a decision that may bore certain hobbyists. Also think of predation and size: a large fish that enjoys hunting such as an Arowana will probably not do well in a community tank full of peaceful rainbowfish. Well, the Arowana will be fine and probably very happy, but your beautiful rainbows will be in fear for their lives until the inevitable day when they’re no more than a snack for their larger tank-mate. To sum up, do your research and pick the right tank for the right fish with the right tank-mates. In the case of a freshwater community tank species like Tetras, Rainbowfish, Mollies, Corydoras, and guppies (if you’re keeping smaller fish) would do very well together and eat mostly the same foods, saving you money and time.

Now that your tank is cycled you can begin adding fish. Try not to add too many, too fast. A good rule of thumb is one unique fish at a time, or 1 small school of fish (like Neon Tetras) at a time. Dumping a full tank of fish into a new aquarium all at once is a recipe for disaster as the bacteria won’t have enough time to reproduce to combat the amount of waste all these fish are producing, the fish will all be scared and fighting for territory and you will probably end up with some fights and dead fish right from the start, not to mention the chemical swings that will soon follow. Be responsible and patient when adding fish; they’ll thank you for it later.

The proper way to add a fish to the aquarium is to place it into a quarantine tank and monitor it for two weeks, but as this is your first aquarium you probably don’t have a quarantine tank, so we’ll just add this fish to the main aquarium, or Display Tank as it’s called. You must acclimate this fish to your tank, just as a hiker does to their own body when scaling a mountain. Just as we’re not accustomed to the thinner atmosphere so high up, a fish is not used to the specific chemistry or temperature or lighting of its new home and it needs to be introduced gradually. The first step is to “float the bag” to equalize the temperature: most fish come from the store in an air-filled bag, and that is what you will float in your aquarium. If the fish is double-bagged, great: remove the outer bag and float the inner. If it is single-bagged you should rinse off the bag in a sink; you don’t want to transfer debris or germs from a dirty bag to your water. If your tank has a corner away from the light fixture you should float the bag there, if not turn off your aquarium lights. Your new fish will be floating very close to the light in a clear bag and if you hadn’t noticed, they don’t have eyelids. You don’t want to blind your fish.

After the bag has floated for a good 20 minutes or so snip the tied end with some scissors to release the trapped air. Take a small cup of tank water and slowly pour it into the bag, then lay the cut end of the bag over the edge of the tank so that it stays out of your water and in place. If the bag wants to slide back into the tank use a chip clip or something to weigh it down on the outside of the tank: you don’t want to mix all that store-water into your nice treated aquarium water. Wait 10 minutes and repeat this process: this will gradually acclimate your fish to the chemistry of your water to prevent it from going into shock when it enters your aquarium. If the bag begins to fill too much, remove it from the tank and pour some of the water out, then return it to the aquarium and continue. Acclimate your fish for 1 hour, or 6 doses of tank water.

Now that your new fish is acclimated to the temperature and chemistry of your water, it’s time to add it to your aquarium! If you have a bucket nearby and a net, gently pour the bag over the net until your fish is caught by the net. Immediately transfer the fish to the aquarium and let it swim away to find cover. Wait a while before turning on the aquarium lights, you don’t want to spook it! Be aware, this method of transfer is not the safest for all fish so be sure to do your research before adding a new pet to your tank, however in the context of a starter freshwater tank this method is proven reliable for most fish you will add. If you do not have a bucket and net, go buy them. They’re essential tools for an aquarium. But in the meantime, if you need to transfer the fish to the tank after acclimation without them be very careful to slowly pour out the water into a sink while keeping the fish inside the bag. When all but a tiny bit of the store-water is gone quickly return to your tank and drop in the fish from the bag. Again, this is NOT the preferred method of transferring a fish. Go buy a bucket and net. Seriously, you won’t regret it.

It’s at this time that you’re thinking “I’ve gone through all of this planning, deliberation, setup, acclimation, etc., surely now the work is over and I just get to enjoy my fish!” Yes, but also, no; there is still work to be done. Every month or so (depending on whether your aquarium is full of live plants, stocked appropriately, well-filtered) you’ll need to clean your tank, and this involves usually siphoning out debris, performing a water change, and possibly changing your filter media. What you’ll find while siphoning your tank is that clouds of debris will shoot up your siphon out of what looked like otherwise clean gravel: this is because as leftover food and fish waste sinks to the bottom of the tank it breaks apart into tiny little pieces and sifts all the way through the substrate to the bottom glass of the tank. There is sits, slowly degrading into more waste product that your biological filtration needs to handle. And as your aquarium filter is for cleaning the water, all this debris under the substrate needs to be removed by some other means. This is where your siphoning comes in.

When it comes to siphons there are all kinds: you can buy simple little siphons that are just a hose that clamps to a bucket for easy draining, some have a squeezable bulb for easily starting the siphon, and some hook to a faucet to provide long-range siphoning and refilling in one tool. Buy whatever suits your situation, but you’ll need one to clean the detritus from your substrate. You do this by turning off your aquarium filter and inserting the siphon into your tank, starting it, then slowly moving the siphon head into your substrate and wiggling it around, then move the siphon had to a new location and repeat. This will dislodge any debris stuck in the substrate as well as suck up anything on the glass below and deposit it into your bucket. Be quick but not too quick: you don’t want to scare your fish but you also don’t want to siphon out too much water: a good rule of thumb is a water change should not take more than 25% of the water from the aquarium, and absolutely no more than 50% in the worst of emergencies. Think back to all the work you did acclimating your fish, now imagine taking away all of their nice tank water and pouring strange water all over them. Not good, and this is why we only take about 25%. If you can’t get the whole aquarium siphoned before you hit about 25% don’t worry, you can do the rest during your next cleaning. As you clean more you’ll learn where most of your debris settles and be able to target specific area that need more attention, making your cleaning sessions more effective.

To refill your tank after you’ve siphoned out some water, fill your bucket with room-temperature tap water and treat with an appropriate dose of your water conditioner. Let it sit for a few minutes (maybe give it 5) and then slowly add the water to your tank through a reverse siphon or by pouring it directly into the aquarium CAREFULLY. Finally, don’t forget to show your filter some attention as well! You may need to change your media on a monthly basis, so get into the habit of doing all of your maintenance in one sitting so as not to forget anything. Once everything is cleaned and topped off go ahead and restart your filter and resume enjoying your aquarium!

That about wraps it up for Part 2, and will probably keep this series satiated for a good while. With this information you should be able to start up an aquarium of any style and keep it maintained, minus all the research YOU need to do on your own. There’s no better better way to care for your new pets than by doing as much research as you can for yourself; the internet is a wealth of information, but oftentimes we turn to it for answers when a problem has already occurred. Do what you can to amass as much knowledge about your selected fish as you can, they’ll thank you for it and so will your wallet!