Water Changes

I'm getting ready to do a partial water change in my 75 gallon aquarium today. I usually start by taking the entire top hood and light off the tank. While I have them off I'll siphon out about 25 percent of the old tank water. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had two sources of fresh spring water. When I get the water I put it in 1 gallon jugs about 2 days before putting it in the tank. A couple of reasons I do this is because for one the water is around 55 degrees and it would be to cold for the fish. Another reason is to give the water time to settle and oxygenate itself. At this time it is also a good practice to check and clean your filtering systems and siphon out any debris in the bottom of your tank. After you inspect everything start to slowly add the new water back in your tank and hook everything back up. You will instantly see a change in your fish behavior. They have more energy and are more playful.

Tiger Barbs

Tiger Barbs in the freshwater aquarium adds color and diversity to the tank. They are a schooling fish and is best to keep them in pairs of at least six. I haven't done this yet but in the future I want to try to breed these fish. They are an egg laying fish. You can easily see the difference in the sexes mainly due to the size of the fish. Females are much larger than the males. Some of the points I have ran across during my research is that they have a tendency to eat their eggs or young fry. Another problem is just getting them to breed. To try to solve some of these problems people have suggested to me to separate the males from the females for a few days and the theory of this is that it will entice them to spawn. It was suggested to me if they do spawn and lay their eggs have in the bottom of the spawning tank big marbles or something round where as the eggs can fall in between the marbles and the adult fish can't get to them. I'll try some of these tips and tricks and report back to you when I have successfully bred these species of fish.

Fishing

I seen an ad on the blog about fishing and it made me get the boat out today. I have a 14 foot Grumman flat bottom boat. I took my two granddaughters and wife out with me. We went to a small lake and just used an electric trolling motor to get us around. We packed a small lunch and carried it on the boat with us. It was a beautiful day and we just enjoyed it by taking a cruise around the lake. If you have never been on a boat fishing I suggest that you go somewhere with friends and rent a boat for the day. It makes for good relaxing conversation and you always go home with memories that last forever. I haven't fished as much as I used to. But for the serious angler, early in the mornings and later towards the evening are better times to fish. That is when they feed more. If you are fishing during the day the fish tend to move toward deeper waters. The aid of sonar and depth finders will help to locate them. Without going into details different species of fish have different habits. If your interested in a certain type of fish get in touch with me on the blog and I'll help you answer your questions.

Water Quality

Just a short post on this subject. When it comes to filling your tank with water,do not use water that has been treated with chlorine or other chemicals. These chemicals are poison to fish and to humans also. Chlorine in the water is harmful to living things. I have two sources of fresh water I use when filling my tanks. So consider using and finding a fresh water source before filling your tanks. Also if your water supply to your house is chlorinated ,did you know that by taking a shower or bath in that water your skin will absorb it into your body and store all the toxins from it. In today's world all the major diseases are on the rise and this is one example why. Another one is our food supply. On a future post I'll talk about tropical fish diets and what you should be feeding them.

Tank Building

About 8 months ago I purchased thru E-bay an e-book titled do it yourself aquarium building. I was in a bidding war with another customer and eventually lost the bid. I think the final sales price was around thirty dollars. Within the next day I received info wondering if I would like to purchase this e-book at the last price . I agreed and received the e-book for a little under thirty dollars. When I received it and started viewing it I was disgusted with its contents. There were roughly 4 or 5 pages of nothing but garbage. They tried to show some drawings and went thru some procedures of tank building ,but it was written like the author just graduated 1st grade. At this point I'm in the process of building my own tanks to use in my store. I'll probably be doing somewhere around twenty to thirty tanks of all sizes. I have a friend in Michigan who is helping me achieve this task. When I'm done with the process I'll write an e-book of my own and put it on this site for anyone who has an interest in building there own tanks. The best teacher is to do it yourself and gain the experience.

Guppies

If anyone out there is familiar with guppies you know then the reason they have the nickname of the millions fish. I did an experiment over last winter in my garage. I had 4 ten gallon aquariums setup in the garage. I went out and purchased one male and four female fancy tail guppies. I wanted to observe the re production of these beautiful fish. First I put all five fish in one of the 10 gallon tanks. In about a weeks time I noticed about 6 little guppies swimming around the tank. Guppies are a live bearing fish. I watched for the next couple of days and soon the 6 fish disappeared. I figured that the adult fish may of ate them so I added some live plants for cover for the young fish . When I added the plants I also did a partial water change in the tank. The very next day I spotted about twenty guppy fry swimming in the tank. They stayed protected in the dense cover and over a period of a week there were over a fifty. When they got to the point of about a week and a half to two weeks old they stared to venture out in the open. When this happened their numbers stared to drop.So to solve this problem I transferred the adults to another tank and began the process again while at the same time leaving the guppy fry in the original tank. They again populated the new tank and I transferred them yet again into the third tank. I kept repeating this process until the fourth tank was filled with fry. By the time it was ready to take them out of the fourth tank the guppy fry that was in the first tank were becoming young adults. I went ahead an set up a 50 gallon tank and started to put the young adults into it. When it was all said and done the five original guppies I started with grew into roughly 250 adult guppies in about four months. Now that is what I call propagating the species.

Plants

Plants in the aquarium not only are beneficial to your fish but they add certain aesthetics to the tank.Just think of fish in the wild and all the vegetation in their environment. Live plants in the tank help with a natural filtration of the tank water and adding important oxygen and removing such harmful products such as nitrates and ammonia. It will give your aquarium a more natural and pleasing effect when you add live plants to your tank. It also serves as a hiding place for the more timid and smaller fish. Consider using more live plants in your tank instead of the fake plastic ones out there that look neat for awhile but soon lose their luster. You and your fish will be happier for it.