When starting a fish tank, the hardest thing to decide may surprisingly be the type of fish to raise. Even though the funniest thing about owning a fish tank may be choosing the types of fish. Choosing fish can be a difficult and fun task, but if it is done incorrectly can cost a lot of money and time. There are many combinations of fish to chose from, but narrowing down these choices is fairly easy. To narrow down the choices, you need to decide the types of fish you would like to raise.

Raising fish to breed is a fun and most common way for raising fish. If you want to raise fish for breeding, I would suggest a bigger tank with lots of hiding places. The fish that I would first choose would be some Mollies and Guppies. Mollies and Guppies are very nonviolent fish and have many offspring. For bottom feeders I would suggest some Cory Cats and Bristlenose Plecostomus. Breeding tanks must be very peaceful for the offspring to survive.

Community tanks are, in my opinion, the funniest type of tank to own. With a community tank, you can have many types and varieties of fish corresponding peacefully. For a good community tank, there are many possibilities. I would suggest colorful fish that actively swim around the tank. Barbs, Angel Fish, Kribensis are my favorites. For bottom feeders, Loaches, Cory Cats and Plecostomus are my favorite.

If you just like a certain type of fish, or would like interesting fish to own I would suggest Cichlids. African Cichlids are very fun fish to rise, but can be very difficult. Finding the right type of Cichlids can be difficult and the wrong kind can cause fighting. Only get the same species of Cichlids in a tank, and you will be fine. Cichlids are egg layers and very protective of their young.

There are some fish that can be very hard to raise no matter the circumstance. I have had experience with certain types of fish that are impossible to raise. Jack Dempsies eat other smaller fish and I would not suggest owning one to begin with. Chinese Algae Eaters are very good at eating algae, but have one problem, they suck the slime off other fish and can kill them.

Choosing the types of fish to rise are fun, all the varieties and colors. I hope this article helped you make some choices on the kind of tank you want. If you have any more questions feel free to email personally at fishtankadvice@rocketmail.com. Remember to experiment with fish, as they may not react as planned. There are many variables that can make fish act strangely.

Roshan Goodman gives help on aquariums and on buy a fish tank.

Every week water must be added to your fish tank, because of evaporation. A few tips can help your tank be happy and healthy. To have successful replenishing of the tank water you need to know the type of water, type of fish, and how to get the type of water.

Filing your tank about twice a week can keep the cycle of water in your tank for maxim health for your fish. When filling your tank, be careful not to fill the tank too soon. Fill the tank when the waterline reaches an inch below the lid. Filling the tank too high can affect the fish by letting the water of the tank not be circulated to get enough oxygen. Fill the tank only to the bottom of the lid line.

When filling your tank, be careful not to fill the tank too soon. Fill the tank when the waterline reaches an inch below the lid. Filling the tank too high can affect the fish by letting the water of the tank not be circulated to get enough oxygen. Fill the tank only to the bottom of the lid line.

Filling your tank regularly is very good for the cycle of water. The fish get fresh water twice a week will increase their health. Fill the tank after the waterline recedes to an inch below the lid. When you fill the tank do not fill it above the lid cap. If you fill the tank water too high then the air will not flow and the fish will not get enough oxygen.

When filling your tank, most fish can handle a little of hard water. A little hard water is good for the fish. When you fill your tank I would suggest filling it with one-fifth hard water and the rest with soft water. If you have fish that like hard water I would suggest some hard water but never more than half hard water.

Being able to tell the type of water that you fill your rank with can highly impact owning a fish tank. Also finding the type of fish that can live in different types of water can help you avoid death. Filling your tank regularly can help your fish live a healthy and happy life.

Roshan Goodman will help you with buy a fish tank and buy an aquarium.

The size of the gravel is a vital piece of the puzzle for your tank. Having the wrong size of gravel can make owning a fish tank a hassle. This can be easily avoided with a few simple steps. The size of the grave usually depends on your tank and fish.

If the gravel is too big, then the food debris will get stuck in the gravel. When the debris gets stuck in the gravel then it makes it difficult to clean the tank. Also if you have fish such as cichlids, then smaller gravel is highly un-suggested. Cichlids move the gravel consistently, and if the gravel is smaller, the easier it is to move. The bigger gravel makes it a lot harder for the cichlids to dig in.

The drawback to having big gravel is that if you have smaller fish they can get stuck under the rocks. The bigger gravel is easier to clean; buy can grow a lot of algae on because of the surface area. Smaller gravel can get sucked into the filters and clog the filters.

If you have a highly decorated tank then smaller is suggested. The bigger rocks do not hold up decor very well. If you have live plants then smaller gravel is also suggested. Smaller gravel holds the plants upright well. Smaller gravel holds the nutrients for the plants better than big gravel.

My advice is to analyze the situation. If you have fish that like to dig a lot then I would suggest bigger gravel. If you have smaller fish I would suggest smaller gravel. If you have a range of fish than I would suggest medium gravel.

Gravel sizing is simple; a few steps can save you a lot of effort. You only need to ask yourself a few questions. What kind of fish do I have? What size of fish do I have? What kind of algae problems do I have? Is cleaning a tank hard for me? What kind of decor do I have? If you ask all these questions then the gravel you purchase will be perfect for your tank.

Roshan Goodman shows you how to maintain an aquarium an also gives tips on aquarium problems.

It doesn’t readily occur to people that the aquatic creatures in ponds, lakes, rivers, what have you, live the same way that we do – on energy from the sun. It’s easy to look down into the gloomy half-dark world they inhabit and to feel that in an aquarium, they could not want anything more than to be kept in a dark corner all the time and be blinded with bright lights when guests need to see how the light bounces off their iridescent scales. As it turns out, fish and all the pretty plants in an aquarium don’t quite work that way.

The light from the sun and moon may not be quite so bright for them in their natural habitat, but it does exist, and if you see yourself running an aquarium full of bright happy and healthy fish, you do need to replicate for them in your aquarium lighting, the kind of light and darkness that they would have enjoyed in their natural habitat.

Aquarium lighting comes in all kinds intensities and technologies. There are the regular fluorescent strips, the compact fluorescent lamps, metal halide lamps and light emitting diodes – every kind of lighting technology there is, as you can see. If what you have on your hands is an aquarium with freshwater fish, these can survive very well on low-intensity fluorescent lighting. Fish actually like fluorescent lighting much better than incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent lights run cooler, and the light they put out is closer in appearance to daylight. If you’ve been kind to your little finny friends, you’ll have a few little plants colorfully waving around your tank looking for a little light for their photosynthesis.

Plants can’t do with the mild lighting that fish can get by on; they will need brighter aquarium lighting, typically around 5 Watts of fluorescent light for every gallon of water your tank holds. Plants actually use the light they receive for energy; if you have a saltwater aquarium, the algae on the live rock you’ll have used, will appreciate much better lighting too. The key word here is “full spectrum lighting”; these life forms need to receive light on all the wavelengths or colors that the sunlight would let them have. Regular fluorescent lighting will work fine, but actinic light will work even better for plants and algae.

But there can be too much of a good thing too when it comes to lighting. The fish have wake- and sleep-cycles just like us; the idea is then to give them as much darkness as they would have in nature. About 12 hours of darkness would not be a bad idea. Using aquarium lighting of too high an intensity or leaving it turned on for too long can be harmful for the environment in the tank; nuisance algae tend to feel encouraged and tend to take over your tank if there is too much lighting too. A good way to go about it would be to buy an aquarium light timer. The fish will have a steady day- and night-cycle they can count on and you can be sure that you will never forget to make the sun come up or go down for the fish. You wouldn’t want to pull a Truman Show climax-like scene on your fish now would you?

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You’ve probably seen live rock in all the most elegant saltwater aquariums you remember. They sell aquarium live rock in all the better aquarium supplies stores: pieces of undersea coral reef broken off through the natural action of the sea, picked up by divers for use in aquaria. Coral reefs are made of a very porous substance. The ocean’s underwater environment is filled with tiny creatures, crabs, crustaceans, algae and myriad other life forms that make their home in the little pores, nooks and crannies of these reefs. When a piece breaks off and is fished up by people for use in aquaria, these rocks come with all the life that fills their entire structure; hence the name, live rock.

The saltwater aquarium is a pretty popular option around homes these days; it wasn’t really an option up until a few years ago when aquarium live rock was not commonly available. What is it about live rock that helps though? The thing is, when you put a hunk of live rock into your aquarium, you give the thousands of organisms holed up within, a home in your tank as well; in return, they are happy to earn their keep by entering a symbiotic relationship with their tankmates, the fish.

Fish eat and breathe in the same water space they release their bodily waste in; someone’s got to clean up all the pollution in the water before it gets too thick for the fish. Of course you could always roll up your sleeves every couple of days and filter it all out with plenty of time and equipment. With aquarium live rock though, all you need to do is leave it to the organisms in the rock, the aerobic and anaerobic critters, to turn the bodily waste floating about in the water into harmless nitrogen that bubbles up to the surface and leaves.

The rule of thumb for the quantity of live rock you want for your saltwater aquarium is about a pound of rock for every gallon of water your aquarium holds. But you can’t just lie back and relax just yet; the aquarium live rock that you buy from your aquarium supplies store needed to make quite a trip to your home all the way from the bottom of the sea. The living organisms in there seem to not find the inside of a mail order store’s mailer box quite as hospitable to life as the bottom of their favorite sea. After the grueling trip making it to your aquarium, the rock will take a while to acclimatize to its new surroundings and grow the full complement of life forms it is capable of. In the meantime, you will need to check the nitrate levels in your water from time to time and use a protein skimmer to take up the slack until your live rock kicks in.

When aquarium live rock does kick in though, there is quite nothing like it: the fish love to play around it, the rocks grow beautiful colorful algae and plants, and the rock really lives, changing from day to day in the life it supports. There are several kinds of aquarium live rock you’ll get to choose from when you set forth to buy some. There are rocks from the Fiji Islands, there is Atlantic rock and there is aquaculture rock. The ones from the Pacific are real coral reef, but when you buy something of this kind you never know if environmentally friendly harvesting practices were used to get them. Aquaculture rock could be the best choice; they artificially place porous rock at the bottom of the sea a couple of years to get all the life forms to take to them, and then ship it to you. If you have a saltwater marine aquarium, you owe it to your fish to help them feel at home. They’ll be healthier and happier for your trouble.

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If you are stressed out about a fish then you can solve the problem easily. There are a few steps to follow to fix the bad fish problems. The first step is to identify the problem. Secondly, you must figure out what to do with the fish. Finally, you must try out the solution to see if it works.

There are many reasons that fish can act up. Some common reasons that fish act up are: dislike of another fish, temperature, the pH of water, sickness, the habitat of the tank and if the fish are spawning or pregnant. These are common problems that fish may have. These problems are not set in stone as the problem but cover a good portion of the problems.

The most common problem when fish are causing problems is because of they do not like the other fish. This can be solved very easily, and is best solved as soon as the problem is found. Usually the problem is that one fish does not like another type of fish.

If the fish are fighting than there are a few solutions. Fist, you need to identify the fish that are causing the problem. If it is only one fish or one type of fish they probably need to be removed from the tank. You could put them in another tank together away from the other fish.

If a group of fish or a few groups of fish are fighting then the problem may take longer to fix. You can remove the first group of fish from the tank and see if the fish are peaceful without that group. Next move the other group of fish to see if the first group is the problem. The group that is the most troublesome must be removed from the tank.

Using these removal and test techniques are usually the best way to identify the problem. If you still have problems with a fish, the best way to fix it is to keep it in solitude. You could also give the fish away or the fish to someone that might have a better chance with the fish.

Roshan Goodman gives help on fish tank advice and on buy fish tanks.

Buying fish is a fun and rewarding task. Picking out the many colorful fish and varieties of fish can be fun. Getting the fish home can also be rewarding, but you must take precaution so that they survive and make it to your tank. With a few easy tricks you can make sure the fish get home alive and safe.

If at all possible the best thing to do, for the fish is to take them home ASAP. The fish can survive for only awhile in the bags they come it. The bags are filled with air and the fish can live only for a while without airflow.

Leaving the fish in the bags they come in is ok, but not suggested. The bags have only a certain amount of water and the fish ca survive for a small period of time in the bags. Moving the fish to a different container is highly helpful.

The worst thing you can do is leaving the fish in the bag in the sun. If you have to park leave the air conditioning on. If it is cold do not leave the fish in the car. Have someone stay in the car with the heat on. Do not leave the fish in the car alone.

When the fish are home there is one step left to insure their security to the tank. If the fish were in the small tank, put them back in the bags. Float the bags in the tank for at lest twenty minutes to get the fish used to the water. When the fish are acclimated net out he fish and put them in the tank. Do not dump the water into your tank; you can avoid diseases and bad water by not pouring out the water into your tank.

Float the fish the fish in the tank for around thirty minutes. After they have been exposed to the temperature of the tank, release them into the tank. A good tip is to not pour the water from the bags into the tank. Putting water that is from other tanks could be contaminated. Net out the fish and put them in the tank the tank. Putting the fish in the tank without the bag water can also prevent diseases.

Roshan Goodman gives tips on fish tank tips and on new fish tank.

Aquarium cleaning is a monthly task that must be done weather or not you want to do it. If you do it right the process can be very easy or difficult. The size of your tank can depend on how long it takes to clean. If you have a very big tank, and the tank is established then you may not want to vacuum out all of the debris it is good for the fishes growth and development. If you have a smaller tank the tank will take longer to be established and you may want to vacuum out all the debris.

When cleaning a tank, changing the filters is the first step. If you have a bio filter, or power filter changing the filters is a breeze. A under gravel filter is another story. You must remove all the plants, decor and accessories. Then you must pull it out from under the gravel to clean.

Once the filters are cleaned, replace them with new ones. If you have an underground filter do not replace it back in the tank yet. If you have an established tank then leave the plants and decor, even if they have algae on them. Black and smaller algae are vital for a healthy tank and should be left on the decor and accessories. If you do not have an established tank or smaller tank, (ten gallon or smaller) then wash off all the plants and decor. If you have real plants do not wash them. Washing live plants can damage or kill them; the best choice is to leave them in the tank.

After the accessories, decor and plants have been washed do not place them back in the tank yet. The next step is to siphon the tank. Siphon no more than one third of the water out of the tank. If there is still debris at the bottom of the tank fill it with water and re siphon until all debris is gone. If you have an established tank then only siphon out some of the debris and leave a little in the gravel.

When replacing the water only use soft water so the fish do not die of shock. Soft water is water without minerals. Tap water or filtered water is considered soft water. If you know what kind of water your fish are use to then you can replace the water half and half with hard and soft water. If you do not know then stick with soft water, it is safer for the fish. After the water has been replaced remember to not fill the tank too high because, the plants, decor and filters have to still be added.

Replace the under gravel filter if you have one. Also consider in investing a power filter, this will make your life a lot easier. Then replace the plants and decor. You’re all done, and now your tank is clean. Remember that cleaning a tank can be traumatizing for the fish, so they might be timid for a while after the clean.

Roshan Goodman gives cool info on fish tanks and advice on aquariums .