CICHLIDS

By: Gatekeeper

Keeping an aquarium can provide immeasurable rewards and satisfaction. It does, however, require some work as well, and before you venture in to the  hobby, you'll need some fundamental information. The best way to begin is with the basic understanding of what happens in a successful aquarium. You'll also need to select a good aquarium store, one that can provide you with reliable equipment, service, and advice. Finally, you'll need to take the first step in planning your aquarium: selecting a tank and a suitable location for it.

It's actually amazing that fish can survive in an aquarium at all. compared with their natural habitats-from jungle streams to vast lakes-even a relative large aquarium is tiny. An aquarium also has several built-in limitations that work against the health of its occupants. no matter how extravagant and no matter how carefully you planned, any aquariums is an artificial environment.

Natural aquatic ecosystems are much more complicated than the aquatic environment of an aquarium. The biological process in a body of water have been finely tuned over millennia to become a complex, living system. This system includes weather patterns, geological and chemical processes, and countless interrelationships among plants, animals and microorganisms. The life-forms found in these systems have adopted to very specific conditions, and their ability to survive depends on their environment.

A closed system like an aquarium is completely different thing, By definition, a closed system means that the environment consists solely of the tank and its contents. The natural process that, in the wild, would provide  food, protection, and a clean, uncontaminated environment for the fish are not a part of the aquarium. As a fishkeeper, your primarily responsibility is to see that these things are taken care of in the confines of your aquarium.

Providing nourishment and a safe comfortable habitat are essential, of course. Maintaining the water quality, however, is something a bit less obvious to most new aquarists. Water quality refers to amount of debris, pollutants, and other undesirable substances that appear in the water either naturally or through contamination, and more aquariums fail due to poor water quality than probably anything else.

Why is water quality is important? Approximately 80 to 90 percent of all fish disease have their source in physical stress on fish. The most common source of stress, if persistent and unrelieved, causes the immune system of a fish to become less and less able to fight infection from disease-causing organisms that are always present in the water. Some species of fish suffer from this problem more quickly than others, but all fish eventually become sick and die when kept in poor-quality water.

Beginning aquarists can have a difficult time keeping their aquariums healthy not because they lack skill or motivation but because they lack knowledge. Keeping water clean is actually not difficult at all; it requires only a little understanding, a little effort, and the right equipment.

Water quality deteriorates for several reasons. As part of their metabolism, fish produce various waste products that accumulate in the water, and other organic matter such as uneaten food decays into substances that can contaminate the water. Over time, these pollutants build up in an aquarium to a level that is dangerous to the occupants. In their native environment, fish are protected from this problem by a natural system. The water in a river or lake is continuously replenished with fresh rainwater, and different chemical and biological processes remove organic pollutants from the water. To keep a healthy aquarium, you simply need to understand this natural system and duplicate its effects for your fish.

Prior to the advent of filtration, hobbyists depended on their ability to maintain a balance in the tank. The number and size of fish, the abundance of plants, and the ability of snails and the other scavengers to consume excess food and other materials in the tank were all taken into consideration. It was, however, a balancing act that only the most skilled aquarists could maintain over time. The number of fish that could be kept in these balanced or natural aquariums was rather small. And yet, when measured against the natural environment of the fish, even these aquariums were rather overcrowded.

Today, new hobbyist often believe that aquarium technology, particularly the filtration system, eliminates the work and the problems of keeping fish in a bowl, where all of the water must be changed at least once a week, an aquarium with a filter is more convenient and easier to maintain. Still, filtration systems have limitations. 

No matter how sophisticated, a filter can only slow down the rate at which the water in an aquarium becomes polluted. No filter system can actually stop water quality from deteriorating. Filtration is important to maintaining good water quality for the fish, and filters do make it possible to keep more fish in an aquarium. Success with fishkeeping, however, requires more than a good filter. The true value of a filtration is that it helps you maintain good water quality more consistently, but only if some simple, easy-to-follow principles of aquarium care are followed.

 The real key to success is found in three basic rules, each formulated to create a stable environment for the fish. The more fish there are in an aquarium, the faster the water quality goes down. As noted earlier, the filter only slows down this process. The second rule is to not overfeed the fish. The accumulation of uneaten food in the tank will quickly contaminate the water. Rule three us to do frequent partial water changes. This removes pollutants and adds fresh, clean water to the aquarium, helping to maintain a healthy habitat.

If you understand these three rules and the reasoning behind them, you're well on you're way to becoming a successful aquarist. What remains is to learn about the equipment you'll be using-what you need and why you need it-and then to learn a little about the fish that you'll be setting up house for.