General Care and Maintenance
Now that you have your aquarium going and all your friends and family ooohing and awwwing, besides feeding, there is some basic maintenance you must do.
Care
Feeding
You should feed as much as your fish will eat in about 2-3 minutes. If there is leftover food, feed them less until there is no waste. You should feed your fish once or twice a day. If you decide to feed them twice a day, feed them half a portion at each feeding.
Observation
When you feed your fish it is a good time to do a quick inspection of your aquarium.
- Make sure all equipment is functioning properly
- Check the temperature of the tank
- Watch fish behaviour to ensure fish are healthy
- Make sure decorations and structures still appear solid
- Any deceased fish should be removed
Diseases
If you have a fish that is not eating or is acting/swimming in a strange manner it may be sick. Usually when a fish is stressed it is more susceptible to disease. Stress can come from a variety of factors such as water conditions, incorrect temperature or transportation/tank agitation.
Some of the most common diseases are:
- Ammonia poisoning – Fish have red or bleeding gills and may gasp for air at the surface.
- Ich – Small growths on the body that look like salt granules.
- Dropsy – Sides and stomach of the fish bulge and may protrude the scales outward.
- Fin Rot – Fins look frayed or split and may develop a haze.
- Popeye – Eyes puff up to an abnormally large size, and may become hazy.
- “Death spins” (swim-bladder disorder) – Fish appears to lose its balance or equilibrium, and cannot stay upright.
If you have a fish that appears to be sick, many of these diseases such as ich are treatable. Make note of the symptoms and go to talk to your local pet store expert. If many of your fish are displaying symptoms, take a water sample with you.
If the fish looks deathly ill, it is a good idea to remove it from the tank. Now you have two options here; using a bowl or pail let it live out the rest of its life or “put it down.” If you decide to put it down, this is NOT flushing it down the toilet right away, flushing a fish while still alive is very cruel and inhumane (how would you like someone to do that to you?). Place some water in a plastic (disposable) container with the fish and place it in the freezer. Now you may be thinking “What! Are you crazy? That’s mean!” but this shuts the fish’s internal functions down with no suffering.
Maintenance
Once ever few weeks or at least every month you should clean the gravel and perform a partial water change. Use a gravel siphon to vacuum up fish waste and uneaten food from the gravel. Do not drain more than about 40% of the tank. When you replace the water, make sure you treat the new water with the chlorine neutralizer before adding it to the tank. As well add some stress coat to the tank after you are finished
Check the filter and occasionally replace the filter inserts. If your filter has multiple inserts, you should only replace one at a time in order not to disrupt the lifecycle of the aquarium. If it only has one insert, do not replace the insert at the same time as a water change.
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