Guide to selecting your first aquarium fish
- Aug 03, 2020
- Anshika Mishra
- 447 0 0
It might seem strange to make that decision now rather than later. But if you think about it, so many of the decisions that you are going to make when it comes to your equipment, your tank size, etc are predicated on what type of fish you are keeping. So, it is better to make that decision now and set the tank up suitable for the fish that you want.
Selecting what type of fish you are going to keep is not an easy decision to make. With so many options available to this hobby, it can be pretty overwhelming. The fact is that many of these choices out there won't mix well together. It's the decision that can take some time to make. So, plan on doing some research, take your time, and enjoy this process. This is one of the fun parts.
If you see some fish that you find fascinating, you got to do some research just don't go in the store take a bunch of fishes and throw them in the tank. If you do so, you are turning your tank into a battlefield or it might be like throwing your new fish into a gas chamber. So, RESEARCH!
What to research?
So, what research do you need to do, before buying a fish? Here is the list of things that you need to know about the fish before buying them:
Water Parameters
The first thing to look for is what type of water parameters do your dream fish require. This will tell you whether your tap water at home is acceptable for the fish, or you might need to do some changes with the pH or maybe harden it a little bit to suit the fish that you want to keep.
All of these things are easy to do but some people just don't want to mess them that, some people just want to put the fish and not have to worry about it. In that case, you will want to get fish that match the parameter that you have come right out of the top.
Size Matters
The next thing you want to check is how big these fish can potentially get. This will help you in deciding what size of the aquarium to get when you are first setting up your first tank. You don't want to end up buying a small tank and then needing to go out to buy a second tank because the first one you got was small.
So, know how big your fish is going to get before you even spend a dollar.
Fish Compatibility
Find out what type of fish you want is compatible with you. You don't want to put it in the tank and end-up fighting with every other fish in the tank or even worse; eating all of the other fish. So, knowing what these fish are compatible with is going to help you in deciding it's tank mates in the future.
One of the first things that look for is the fish's temperament. This is important because you don't want to put a fish in that tank that you think is going to be a nice little sweetheart and it turns out to be terrorist in your tank. So, find out if your fish is aggressive maybe mildly aggressive. Or if they are nice fish; this is gonna help you a lot to keep peace in your tank and also to know who you can put in with and who you can't.
How to decorate?
You need to know that your fish in an open water swimmer, a bottom dweller, or if they like to have a lot of hiding places. This is going to help you in deciding the decoration for your tank. You might be a minimalist and you don't like a lot of decoration in the tank. Well, then you might want open swimmers.
But you love really intricately decorated tanks and you love all of the rock formations and stuff like that. It might make sense to get a fish that does not require a lot of open space. Because they like to pick their little spot and hide in it.
Bottom Dwellers are self-explanatory. They scavenge the bottom, picking up leftover food or sometimes even snacking on other fishes' waste. So, that is pretty self-explanatory what's that is but you also if you are going to keep a lot of bottoms dwellers; you need to keep a lot of floor space open fish to be able to scavenge through.
Breeding Habit
This is something that a lot of people overlook. Now there are so many things that can happen in an aquarium if your fish starts breeding. Their attitudes can become violent towards other fish. You don't want that to happen in your tank. Plus if you don't want babies in your tank you might want to take steps necessary to make sure that absolutely doesn't happen. Like maybe only buying only one that will completely take away the chances of your fish breeding in the tank.
So, know what their breeding habits are before getting them for your tank.
Educate yourself about the fish
So, they were some of the important things that you needed to look before you buy a fish. The information is out there are it is easy to find it. You can literally be looking at the fish store and search on your phone; you'll find a ton of information about that fish.
So, don't rush this. Take your time and educate yourself about the fish that you are interested in before you buy it. By this, you will be saving yourself tons of headaches down the road.
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