Tag Archives: fish

Pictures of the day, 30.7.2011

I haven’t had much to write about lately, all seems fine with out tank. So I add some pictures I took this morning for your enjoyment.

Rosy tetra

Rosy tetra (Hyphessobrycon rosaceus) is a pretty and calm fish that can live with almost all other fish. It likes to be in a swarm so you need to get six or more of these fellows. At least in Finland they are pretty expensive, but I have liked them very much so far. They like to take and play with the bottom food given to the Clown loaches, which is fun to watch at (although the loaches do not appreciate this :)).

Rosy Tetra

Rosy Tetra (Hyphessobrycon rosaceus)

Rosy Tetra
Rosy Tetra (Hyphessobrycon rosaceus)

Pristella Tetra and Harlequin fish

These are like your ordinary tetra fish, but I like them much more than neon tetras. They seems more lively and are really beautiful to look at when you have a swarm of ten or more of each. I think some underestimate these small fish, but they are easy to take care of and nice to watch at.

Pristella Tetra (Pristella maxillaris) and Harlequin fish (Trigonostigma heteromorpha)

Pristella Tetra and Harlequin fish

Our aquarium, 30.7.2011

Last but not least, yet another picture of our beautiful tank.

Our freshwater aquarium, 30.7.2011

Our freshwater aquarium, 30.7.2011

Images of today: Sunset Platy

Today I post some pictures of our Sunset Platy. We have two Sunset Platy, one male and one female. The Sunset Platys are very easy to keep as they can tolerate big variety of water temperatures and pH values. They like to play around in the tank by chasing each other. They like to hide behind the plants together, but are playful enough to be one of the more fun freshwater aquarium fish you can have.

If you are looking for some fish to start your aquarium hobby with, I definitely can recommend Sunset Platy for you. They are both beautiful and fun to look at but also easy to keep.

Feeding fish – too little is perfect

I saw this web site my accident: http://www.freshwateraquariumcenteronline.com/freshwater-aquarium-maintenance/. It is run by a professional and the web site says that you can feed  your fish up t0 2 or 3 times a day if you follow the rule of thumb that you give them as much food as they can eat in 3-5 minutes. I find this disturbing. Overfeeding is one of the main causes of fish death and non-working aquariums. And to me giving food 2-3 times a day is clearly over feeding. The guy running the site calls himself a professional, but that kind of advice is pure wrong in my opinion.

I feed my fish once a day – maximum. I give them enough food in the morning which they can eat in about 1 minute. Fish have very slow metabolism and they can endure a week without food. While I don’t encourage you to keep your fish without food for a week all the time, it tells me that giving good 2-3 times a day is just too much. This makes your water cloudy and leave you probably very fast with high levels of nitrates since the filtering system cannot take all the excess food and fish urine as a result of too much feeding. The website talks about vacuuming excess food from the bottom of the tank if the fish don’t eat all the food you give them. While I totally agree with this, I have never had the need to vacuum the bottom of my tank just because my fish couldn’t eat all the food. I believe this tells a bit of the statement he gives and that it is wrong. It is only by grave mistake you need to vacuum excess food from your aquarium.

So please bare in mind the simple rule when feeding your fish; too little food is better than too much. Always.