Reproductive Behavior in Freshwater Fish
Fish can be divided into two broad categories on the basis of their breeding behavior. Egg-layers, which form the majority, practice external fertilization, while in live bearers the eggs are fertilized in the female's body and emerge fully formed young. Some species show little regard for their offspring and cannibalize their own eggs or fry. Others display surprisingly high levels of parental care.
When fish mate, it is known as spawning. In egg-layers, this involves the male releasing sperm into the water at roughly the...
[Read the full story]
Using Fake Plants and Corals
Sometimes we get really into our hobby and want to make everything as natural as possible. Real sand, real rocks, real plants, real corals and hopefully real fish. But sometimes using fake decor items such as fake plants and corals can accomplish the same effect without much effort. Ofcourse there are times when using fake decor is a good thing...such as a fish-only tank (where using real plants or corals would be an expensive way of feeding your fishes) or those who don't have the time or passion to be fully-vested into...
[Read the full story]
Top 5 Things Not To Do When Setting Up A Fish Tank
1. Not Buying A Big Enough Tank
Raise your hand if you wish you had a bigger tank than the one you started out with? This is what happens. You want a fish tank and you decide on a certain size tank (29 gallon for me) and think that'll be big enough for everything you want to put in there. You set it up and get more into it and realize that the tank is too small. So you get a bigger tank. You realize again that it's not big enough. Repeat. This is why many of us have MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome). You can avoid this by looking...
[Read the full story]
Freshwater Snail Removal
While you often hear hobbyists saying they can't get rid of all the snails in their tank, having snails in your freshwater aquarium as a rule is actually quite beneficial. Most snails act as a "clean up crew" in the aquarium, eating excess food, decaying plant or fish matter, and moving gravel on the tank bottom. The problem with snails in an aquarium is that they reproduce very quickly, and can marr your beautiful tank by being stuck all over the glass and decorations. The real challenge is keeping the snail population...
[Read the full story]
Fishless Cycle
Introduction
Before we can have a discussion of fishless cycle, we need to make sure everyone understands what we mean by the term "cycle." The Nitrogen Cycle is the most important thing we need to understand as fishkeepers. It's chemically a very complicated process, but here's the Cliff's Notes version. Fish produce ammonia (urine), the problem is that ammonia is very toxic. Now, in nature, the currents in the water just carry the waste away until it's processed. In the home aquarium unfortunatly, we don't have that luxury,...
[Read the full story]
How Many Fish Can You Keep In A Fish Tank?
Many times when starting a tank, the most popular and very important question is: How many fish can I keep in my aquarium? Of course there are many problems with over-stocking an aquarium such as insufficient oxygen, lack of space etc. Most of our exotic fish will take a lot of punishment before coming to the surface to whisper their complaints by breathing atmospheric air. They can be overcrowded without any such demonstration.
Many times the aquarium is in beautiful condition but the fish do not grow. This brings out the...
[Read the full story]
Blue Green Algae Article
Blue-green algae and erythromycin
by -at-Tony.Clementz.mikrbiol.lu.se (Tony Clementz)
Date: 7 Feb 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria
I've followed the postings about blue-green "algae" and Maracyn (erythromycin) the last few weeks and the following is an attempt to review some facts about erythromycin (the active ingredient in Maracyn) and blue-green algae, with special emphasise on the use of erythromycin for treating blue-green "algae" infections.
BLUE-GREEN "ALGAE" IS NOT AN ALGAE.
Thats right. The correct name is blue-green bacteria...
[Read the full story]
Fluorescent Lights For Plant Growth
Light is the all-important source of energy used by plants in photosynthesis. But light is not just one simple, well-defined entity. The plant response is influenced by light quality, intensity and duration.
The energy contained in light is absorbed in the chlorophyll of plants. Not all wavelengths of light are utilized with equal efficiency. Looking at a chlorophyll/light absorption curve, one can deduce that red and blue light are more effective than green. This is logical. Plants do not use all of the green light. They...
[Read the full story]