【 Tags:Novice fish farming】
writing. Photo: Wang Zhongjing (Taiwan)
▲ Figure | I believe that many aquarists have stepped into the ranks of aquarists because of peacock fish, right? Not only are they rich in color and breed in the form of oviparous breeding, but the owner can easily feel the accomplishment of being a parent because they produce many small fry in the tank. When rearing, it is recommended to put some coral sand and coarse salt in the tank, which can prevent some diseases.
For aqua veterans, the topic of "how to choose your first freshwater ornamental fish" may be a cliché and not worth mentioning at all, but it is undeniable that all senior aquarists have experienced the beginner stage, so the purpose of this article is to provide some advice for those who have just stepped into or want to step into the freshwater ornamental fish breeding ranks.
However, there are thousands of ornamental aquarium creatures on the market, which ones are suitable for beginners? Don't worry, before choosing a breed to raise, you must first consider the following things...
How much room do you have?
Maybe everyone's original intention and reason for wanting to raise fish is different, some people began to set up aquariums because friends gave him a few small peacock fish that they bred themselves; some people like the presence of dragon fish or ancient warships and want to try to raise large fish; some people see the green aquatic grass tanks in the aquarium and want to have a tank at home; some people just want to see them on their desks simply because they see the bright and small fire shrimp crawling at the bottom of the aquarium and think it is cute.
No matter what object you want to raise, the first thing you have to consider is how much space you need to raise.
▲ Figure | Elegant angelfish have towering dorsal and fins and require larger, deeper aquariums to provide adequate living environment. The author recommends that the smallest aquarium be 90 cm long
Considering that the equipment, amount and experience required to manage the huge aquarium of water are mostly not within the capacity of a beginner, most people will start with smaller aquariums as a starting point.
If you want to raise small fish, I recommend beginners to start with a standard tank of at least 45 cm to 60 cm long (about the amount of water), because the less water in the tank, the worse the buffering capacity for sudden changes in water quality, and the 30-45 liter aquarium is easier to establish a balanced ecosystem and can be polycultured with slightly more fish.
The basic feeding density of fish can be roughly assessed by the overall length of the fish by only 1 cm to 1 liter of water, for example, a 5 cm long electric light lily should correspond to at least 5 liters of water to feed.
What is the quality of your tap water in your home?
Knowing the quality of the tap water in the breeding area in advance is also an important consideration when choosing a fish species.
The quality of tap water in each region may vary greatly, and is closely related to the local geology, the quality of surface water, and the treatment of water quality in water treatment sites in response to unexpected situations (such as typhoons, heavy rains, etc.); in some areas, the water quality is neutral and soft, and some are alkaline hard water. If you can try to choose species that adapt to the local water quality to live, you can save a lot of trouble adjusting water quality.
For example, if you want to raise red crystal shrimp in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, you may first have to prepare a Reverse Osmotic (RO) pure water machine or use a soft water resin to remove the hardness of the tap water, and then add some water quality modifiers or mineral additives to adjust the water quality to the soft water quality suitable for the life of the crystal shrimp.
On the contrary, it is relatively simple to turn soft water into hard water, if you want to raise African three lakes cichlid living in alkaline hard water in Taipei, in addition to placing some coral sand in the tank or filter to improve the hardness of the water, for some more sensitive Tanhu cichlid, you need to invest an appropriate amount of mineral salts and trace elements to meet its needs, of course, this is more difficult for beginners.
In addition, some people will want to use groundwater to raise fish, although it is not recommended (groundwater sources are more unstable and lack of human treatment, there will be a risk of contamination or bacteria), but if you still insist on using it, you must first test the basic data such as pH, hardness and conductivity of the water source (you can use instruments or commercially available water quality testers and test strips) to understand the quality of your feeding water and make adjustments.
▲ Figure | Moon fish is probably the most common and spatiocary fish on the market besides peacock fish. Red sun, Mickey Mouse, spray rockets and other varieties of different colors can bring beginners a visual feast in addition to reproduction. In addition, it is best to raise them in hard water.
▲ Figure | Electric Beauty is a common small rainbow fish that can adapt to a variety of water quality
Are the creatures you want to raise compatible?
Back in elementary school, the first two-foot aquarium in my home contained golden pineapples, blitzkriegs, a pair of marble angelfish, red-tailed gold wire, a small spoonbill, and several stream shrimp that were used as live bait by the aquarium.
As you can imagine, it didn't take long for the tank to be in chaos: the shrimp disappeared overnight, the snappers defended the coral stone in the center of the jar, chasing after other fish from time to time, and the saddest thing was the pair of marble gods worth 800 Taiwan dollars that had just been sent (thirty years ago it was a sky-high price!). The next day I don't know why I turned my stomach in front of the eyes of the whole family. Fortunately, the information is now much more developed than before, many magazines and books and the Internet can find the information of the fish species you want to raise, and the combination of big fish eating small fish has been much less than before.
However, the selection of breeding fish species is not to see that they are beautiful and bright, and they can be polycultured in size, but also to consider whether the individuals who want to raise them are too territorial (such as Thai fighting fish), have the characteristics of feeding fins or scales (such as seemingly small and cute Mark toast is the standard scaly fish), whether they will nibble on aquatic plants, whether the difference in personality or mobility is too large, whether the adaptation water quality range of various organisms overlaps, etc., to avoid regretting regrets after the fish only get out of the tank. It can also reduce the number of polyculture individual casualties or being released by the owner at will.
▲ Figure | Many people's first ornamental fish is the improved Thai fighting fish, which is often kept alone in a small space by the owner due to its strong territorial nature, but often due to the lack of filter settings and the need to change the water regularly, and the low temperature in winter is often the main cause of the fish disease.
Do you understand and accept their feeding habits?
Most of the common introductory ornamental fish can be fed artificially with feed, but there may be a few species you want to raise that are not the case.
Many people's traditional impression of the "garbage fish" - rat fish or angler rat, in fact, will not eat garbage or remove the excretion of other fish, when you feed fine particles or flakes of feed, may not fall to the bottom of the fish tank to be eaten by other upper fish, then you may have to prepare additional ratfish or alien fish special bottom spindle feed; cute chocolate dolls will remove the eye-catching snails in the tank, but after the snails eat out, you may have to feed them other raw bait or live bait such as frozen red worms or shrimp. Can you or your family allow this raw bait to freeze in your refrigerator? Or maybe rock-climbing loach like the violin rat looks a lot like the algae-eating spoonbill alien fish, but did you know that they actually prefer to eat meat?
There are many such examples, and while buying fish can sometimes be impulsive, it's important as a responsible owner to know the creature you're buying beforehand and accept their habits.
▲ Figure | The Corydoras panda is one of the most common mouse fish on the market because of its black patches that resemble large cat bears, but many beginners believe that their juvenile fish are more sensitive to water quality and the environment than the more old flower rats, white rats and coffee rats
▲ Figure | Reptile loaches such as violin rats or gourd loquats feed mainly on invertebrates in the water in their native areas, and can feed on sedimentary feed or frozen red worms in captive rearing environments
Preferred artificial strains
A large part of the highly visible and inexpensive fish species on the market are from artificially domesticated strains. Most of these species are artificially bred in aquariums or cement ponds, and have existed in the ornamental fish world for many years, and their adaptation range and tolerance for water quality or water temperature are better than those of wild-caught individuals. They are also relatively easier to breed than wild fish and are therefore preferred.
On the other hand, due to long-distance transportation, wild collection individuals are prone to outbreaks of diseases or maladaptation under urgency, and after starting, they need to go through quarantine and a period of time of maintenance and adaptation in an artificial environment to have a better health state, which is more suitable for veterans with certain breeding experience to be able to control.
▲ Figure | Tanichthys albonubes is the best introductory fish species recommended by the author. Small in size, rich in color, and tolerant of water quality and temperature, it can live comfortably even in an unheated indoors in winter
▲ Figure | The hyphessobrycon megalopterus is a calmly colored South American lampfish with sail-like fins, and it is an artificially bred individual, and even inexperienced novice aquarists can raise them well if they grasp the basic breeding principles
▲ Figure | Trigonostigma heteromorpha is one of the most common southeast Asian small carps in aquariums, small in size, bright in color, mild in personality and easy to swim in groups, so even if they are mostly imported by wild individuals, because of their tolerance for water quality environment, they can live well in neutral or even alkaline water, so they are suitable for beginners to raise freshwater ornamental fish
Pick healthy individuals
The advantage of going to an aquarium with a physical store to buy live animals is that you can see the health of the fish with your own eyes as a basis for purchasing.
To determine whether a fish is healthy or unhealthy, you can tell whether its body color and body shape are normal, whether there is abnormal growth on the body surface, whether the swimming posture is natural, whether the fins are complete and naturally unfolded... and other phenomena to observe. Picking healthy, strong individuals can help beginners take the first step towards success.
▲ Figure | The improved Thai fighting fish is often kept in small fighting fish cups for sale, but you can actually give it a better space.
▲ Figure | Macropodus opercularis are often circulated under the name "Color Rabbit", which is one of the beautiful fish species native to Taiwan, whether it is raised in an aquarium or a balcony tank, it is suitable, and can also adapt to the local climate and water temperature, but the male fish are aggressive, and it should avoid placing more than two mature male fish in the same place at the same time
Suitable for the introduction of the aquarium ornamental species are very many, the family is not ready to load, the following author lists some common species for beginners as a reference:
A. Upper middle class species: Blue-eye lamp, Queen lamp, fluorescent lamp, black lamp, lemon lamp, black flag, rose flag, glass flag, Imperial lamp, Blue King lamp, Penguin lamp, red light tube, red nose scissors, red tail glass, head and tail lamp, diamond lamp, red belly pencil (pencil lamp), Congo lamp, cherry lamp (including white and longfin type), Baiyun Mountain (including various modified types), triangle lamp, golden triangle lamp, small zebra, black tail scissors, fire-winged gold diamond lamp, blue ribbon zebra, large zebra, four rooms (including various modified types), rose crucian carp, diamond rainbow crucian carp , Red and Black Jewel Crucian Carp, Red WingEdard Crucian Carp, Gold Bar, Purple Red Two-Point Crucian Carp, Yellow Sail Crucian Carp, One Eyebrow Daoist, Peacock Fish of Various Strains, Red Ball, Red Teapot, Mandarin Duck, Jasmine, Daylight Sword, Red Sword, Colorful Neon, Electric Beauty, Red Beauty, Red Apple...
B. Lower and middle species: red-bellied phoenix, African snail-eating seabream, Dutch phoenix, anchovy snapper, golden snapper, Bolivian phoenix (imperial gem), blood parrot
C. Bottom species: chipmunk, white rat, coffee rat, panda rat, snake fish, violin rat, moustache heterotypic, rose shrimp series (including polar fire shrimp, xiangji shrimp, etc.), Daiwa rice shrimp
Some people may think that the most common and common fish species in the market are suitable for beginners, but this is not the case.
Some species, although bright in color and easy to breed, are too distinct in personality and can easily become overlords or troublemakers in the tank, so they are not necessarily suitable for beginners to get started. For example, the nine pineapples and red-bellied fire mouths in Central America; the carps in Southeast Asia - four and black sharks; the fat carp in South America - red flags, flying phoenix lamps, blind fish; and the rock-dwelling species in the three lakes of East Africa - African princes, blitzkriegs, etc., all have problems in this regard.
In addition, there is a group of juvenile fish who are very cute and have a good personality, but in fact, the adult body is large and cannot grow smoothly in too small water bodies, such as: flower pig (red pig), angelfish, goldfish, koi, etc., which are not in the author's recommended list.
▲ Figure | Native to Central America, the nine pineapples (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) are adaptable to a variety of water quality and easy to reproduce, and have even become exotic species in the wild; even so, unless you only want to keep a pair of nine pineapples in a tank and enjoy them taking small fish out, they may cause harm to other polyculture species, so think twice before buying.
Planning and patience
Perhaps for some beginners, the species listed above are not the dream species you have in mind, especially when you see flocks of Egyptian angelfish swimming gracefully in the aquarium's display tanks.
Keep in mind, however, that if you have little experience in breeding and challenge the more difficult fish species at the beginning, it is easy to have a greater frustration in the process, and you will die halfway down the aquarium road that you were originally excited to rush.
Therefore, the author suggests that when you slowly accumulate enough experience and plan step by step, you will make your aquarium breeding road more solid, and one day you will achieve your dream.
▲ Figure | The red devil angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare var.) is one of many artificially modified strains of the angelfish. In view of their large size when they grow up, aquariums of more than 90 cm are used to allow them to swim comfortably, so they are not included here in the fish species suitable for beginners
▲ Figure | The rock-dwelling cichlids from Lake Malawi have a bright body color comparable to that of marine fish, but due to their territorial nature, beginners who do not know how to do so may be frustrated by the fact that they often fight in the jar.
Ask for assistance
While beginners can buy the species you want on many social networking sites, webcasts, and even e-commerce platforms, they have no way of telling you which creature is right for your needs.
In view of this, I suggest that you can first talk to them at the nearest aquarium and discuss it, and see what fish are raised in their display tanks. And how to decorate and landscape? Perhaps the store's expertise and experience can help you find the right species for you.
▲ Figure | Almost every veteran aquarium enthusiast will have a bookcase filled with aquarium books
In addition, professional books are still a good source of information; almost every senior aquarist I know has shelves full of aquarium magazines or reference books, most of which will systematically introduce the aquarium creatures you want to know.
The sharing of aquarists on the Internet or Facebook is of course also a reference source, but it is also possible that the information is not very correct or too subjective; at this time, the author must advertise for Fishbook: enter the keywords you want to know about the object in the search bar on the right side of the website, and you may be able to find the answer you want.
Dear friends, do you remember the first time you raised an ornamental aquarium creature? You are welcome to share your first experience of aquarium below, which may be of great help to other beginners who want to get started!
- About the Author -
Wang Zhongjing was the photography editor and editor-in-chief of the famous aquarium magazine Aquazoonews. Published "South American Short Seabream", "Aquatic Plant Cultivation and Landscaping", "Small Labyrinth Alien World", "Gorgeous Iron Armor Samurai - Freshwater Crayfish"... and many other professional aquarium books. He specializes in the study of small ornamental fish and aquarium photography. The 10th, 11th and 12th AQUARAMA International Ornamental Fish Competition in Singapore have been judged by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Taiwan IIAC International Aquatic And Plant Landscaping Competition "Shoot Your Ornamental Fish" photo contest in Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park for three consecutive years.
This article is published with the permission of the author [Wang Zhongjing].
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Does not represent ifish.
Photo @ Wang Zhongjing
Edited by @ifish-Yaqin
Reviewer @ ifish - big black, mixed water fish