Tropical Fishes

Tank" + "Fish

2009-06-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Looks silly doesnt it? but this is the basic sysstem when you are trying to device an aquatic community. Tank" + "Fish = you get a natural biotope right inside your home. Depending on how you will set up the tank, then its up to you. In My personal experience I like Freshwater biotope more than the saltwater. The basic here is putting something alive into your tank, it doesnt necessarily mean that if you put an aerator it necessarily means that it is already a nice environment for the organisms in the tank like fishes and plants. Other experts in aqua culture use no aeration or CO2 what so ever to support life in the tank. All they have is a very very patient behaviour waiting for months, after setting up plants and fishes, before they could live their aquarium life sustaining on its own. So Tank" + "Fish? Its up to you to decide.

ORDER CICHLIDS ONLINE

2009-03-27T01:35:00.000-07:00

ORDER CICHLIDS ONLINE

Personally I like Cichlids, I have been breeding them for years and its perfect, I have been ordering my cichlids in through the net and I they have me packaged within 24 hours, Its cheap and also You could get latest species of them through cargo. Its very cool!

To Order Cichlids Online Lots Of Companies are their to deliver you the newest and great Cichlids from different and famous habitat of this freshwater jewels.

Koi Fish

2008-10-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

Koi Fish has been very popular in todays aquatic hobby. Actually Koi is a Japanese name for carp. Its just that through media and aquarium fish hobby hype, The Carp has been known also today as Koi Fish.

Koi are easily adapted to their surrounding. It is widely distributed throughout the continent as it has the traits of a hardy fish, unlike cichlids which some of the species require proper care, koi fish species are easy and a good attraction to your pond.

I have read some article years ago on how to make a pond for koi or carp, in which it has the dimensions of an adaptable habitat for all seasons. The dimensions are; 6 feet high, the diameter depends to you, and so on, I will show some illustrations and some detailed tips on my next post on How to Build a Koi Pond in which it can survive till winter. Just Keep Track of my post...

How To Breed Ram Cichlid

2008-09-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

How To Breed Ram Cichlid . The ram cichlid is one of my favorite dwarf cichlids since I started breeding fishes. Lighting brings good effect on this fish. The neon colors of blue red and pinch of yellow can I conclude that this is the beautiful dwarf cichlid I had.

I was able to breed this nice fishes. In fact it takes little effort but proper observation needed. Idid a lot of trial and error, and finally I got it right. The secret is nutrients, temperature and water quality. Essentials for breeding this good looking fish. Ok here are some pretty basic steps to start with breeding this fishes.

First Step, How to condition your pair. Ok first thing is, condition your female. You can notice your female just by comparing the size. Here are the pics just to have a glimpse.

Ok the pic seems not clear about the size, but you will notice that when your ram gets old, the female is smaller compared to the male.

Once you determine the gender, try to separate the female from the male. Here is the secret, feed your female with varied diets, protein mostly, shrimps, brine shrimps, and other heavy with protein, this willl strengthen the eggs and also the female. The sign to which the female is ready to give birth is her stomach becomes bright pink. There, once you see that you can bring the female back to the male. Here is the hint, I dont beleive in what they said about water acidity so that rams will breed, I dont beleive in the chemicals they add to lower the ph, the secret is, put plenty of plants in the aquarium, 2/3 of plants in the aquarium. This will lower ph levels as plants consume negative energy in the aquarium and produces soft water good for the ram, trust me, this is better that synthesized chemicals that you pour on the aquarium.

Ok, once you bring back the female with her stomach( that looks like its gonna burst) put some chipped clay into the aquarium floor approx 5 or 6 chiped clay with a diameter of 2 inches. ( see the pic below)

this are good places where the ram will spawn. Put the chipped clay pots in places where it is likely hidden, as well as you can track them. After that, leave the pair for 2 days w/o food, this will encourage the female to spawn, just keep track of the pair after you put the female back with the male. keep track of the clay pots or where the 2 are with together because if they are likely in a place without living it, there are great chances that eggs are in that area.

So, when you see the eggs in for example, on the chipped clay pots or in a leaf, you should try to take off that part, the clay pot with the eggs or the leaf with the eggs. This is the technique so that you can have higher mortality rate as compared to letting the parents take care of the fry. An example off ram eggs below, so that you wont get confused.

Now get the clay pot or the leaf where the eggs are then transfer it in a smaller aquarium about 8 inches by 5 inches by 5 inches big. with adequate sponge filter (be sure the aerator is not strong enough so that the fry wont be sucked in) there are available sponge filters in the store good for fry, just ask the dealer. Anyway( be sure that the aquarium where you transferred the fry must be aeratored and filtered for at least a week) after you had transferred it put it beside an aerator with an aerator stone so that the bubbles passes through the eggs so that no impurities would settle in the egg. Then put Methylene blue so that it will disinfect any bacteria and fungus present in the aquarium. The set-up looks like the one below:

After 3 days, the eggs will hatch, after another 3 days the fry swims, all in all approximately for a week the fry swims, the fry clumps to a particular corner where you can see hundreds of them clinging and swimming, but take note, when you see that the fry still has its yolk sac, it wont feed from the mouth( see the pic below).
After the yolk sac has been absorbed it will start to feed. Here comes the hard part, a small food that a point size fry could feed. What else can you think?, a traditional hard boiled egg, get small amounts from the yellow part then dissolve it in a water, this is a suitable food right for the small fry, get a medicine drops and use it to feed the fry. Other commercial food products for small fry are available in the market.

After 1 week of feeding, and when you see the improved size you can now start to introduce brine shrimp( brine shrimps are available in the pet shops and just ask the dealer on how to cultivate it) or you ll try this link..How to Hatch A Brine Shrimp. When the fry starts to feed on Brine shrimp this is 90 percent sure that the fry will live. Brine Shrimp is also known as Artemia...In case youre very cautious on water ph and temperature...ram fry and also the parents best peforms in 78 degrees F to 84 degrees F. Ph levels from 6.5 and 7 are great. Please comment on this post and keep track cause Im going to add other tips on breeding and cultivating as well as aquarium maintenace.

..... more on How To Breed Ram Cichlid

Neon Tetra

2008-04-16T01:35:00.000-07:00

Neon Tetras are characins look best when stocked on schools.. 10 to 30 neon tetras illuminate the aquarium, Breeding Neon Tetras are relatively quite difficult for beginners for it is very difficult to introduce food to its very small fry. Liquid vitamins are suitable, but the fys need a real food for their intake. Commercially produced powdered food is good. Egg yolks are even unsatisfactory, for eventhought eggyolks look small when powdered. They are larger compared to the tetras fry.

Filters

2008-04-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Filters are the most essential part of the aquarium system. They make the water pure and kill any harmful ammonia and bacterias. There are plenty of filters in the market, ranging from mechanical filtration systems, biological filtrations and to a complex chemical filters.

(an example of a mechanical filter)

Mechanical filters are good in filtering larger particles like dried leaves and other free swimming particles which is visible to the naked eye. By filtering these materials, it hinders the chance that the aquarium water will be polluted if these particles would decay.
(example of a biological filter)
Biological filters are good filters which uses nitrobacters, a bacteria which eats nitrite. Simple sponges could be used to vulture these bacterias. Using a powerhead or just a simple sponge filter, these bacterias will eventually polifirate in the pores and may in turn eat nitrite which pollutes the aquarium water. Another very best example of a biological filter is the substrate filter. Substrate filters use the depth on the floor of the aquarium and powered by a simple aerator. The secret in best culturing the bacteria is to have a very well oxidated water where the water circulation would pass through the pores, filter the water, and outputs clear and less nitrite water. (Carbon Media)

(Ultraviolet Filter)

The third type of filtration system uses water altering agents which purifies and cleanses the water. Examples are Carbon and Ultraviolet filtrations. Carbon filters are use to absorb any foul odors in the aquarium or even used in the pond. The stink of nitrate, and nitrate itself is very detrimental to fishes or even in larger scale may effect plant life, would be absorbed by Carbon filters. Usually carbon filters are mixed in mechanical and biological filtration systems to attain a much satisfactory water quality. Another best example of chemical filters are Ultraviolet filters. These mechanisms uses ultraviolet light to kill any algae which alters the color of the tank.

But in my experience, I never use carbon filter, because when you've got a well oxydated water and good filtration, water wont eventually smell like pee.. Carbon filters also absorb essential nutrients in the water such as minerals that plants and fishes need. also when your fishes get sick, never use carbon on the filter for it absorbs the treatment in the water..Trust me

Hygrophila Polysperma

2008-04-08T01:08:00.000-07:00

Hygrophila Polysperma is a hardy a type of aquatic plant. diversity of this kind of plant is mainly on freshwater streams and rivers. Usually on partially calm waters. Polyspermas looks good on an aquarium set-up specially when put in the center as the main attraction on a set-up. I had trouble cultivating these plants once, but on continuos experience and ideas of some experienced aquarists, i had observed much of these plants requirements.

I had tried cultivating polysperma for some time, but as of now there have been few that was left of my plants, I had observed that when the tip of the leaves reaches the surface of the water, the leaves turns red. I guess too much light might change the color of the plant but for a positive effect. Introducing algae eaters might lower the risk of algaes ending up on the leaves of these plants.

A Mango tree flower is an excellent fertilizer, if you are cultivating polysperma outdoors, then you could try putting mango flowers on the pond. After a few days, the pond will smell bad.. But it will have a positive effect on the plants..Try It!

My Very Own Aquarium Set-up

2008-04-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here you can see my planted aquarium set-up. I am an enthusiast in aquatic plants and fishes. After I saw my brother in law and Takashi Amano's Planted set-ups, I decided to have my own aquarium set-up. I am amazed of how symbiotic relationship of fishes and aquatic plants in your very own aquarium. Maintenance of aquariums like this is inexpensive( If you have resources available) but takes a lot of work to clean and maintain. Water quality must be soft , based on my experience, slightly brownish, and has a foul odor of that of aged water. I had good results in this set-up. I introduced only 4 serpae tetra( which I find it a hardy specie) and a stand-by powerhead and filter in case the water gets murky. I used artificial lighting ( but plants look more attractive on natural daylight).

The Golden Eye Dwarf Cichlid

2008-04-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

The Golden eye dwarf cichlid is a usually paired in calm inmates such as ram, angelfish, and tetra (but beware on angelfishes for they are sometimes territorial usually when they have established in the aquarium for a long time, I had observed this angelfish trait) I have raised this fish once but I gave up on them for similar to ram, this fishe's fry are also quite hard to raise (as I thought once). But further experienced in raising them is quite a challenge as well as success when you see them spawn and lay eggs. I had a cheap way to raise the fry at its full maturity but I wont tell them. hehe.

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi Also known as RAM

2008-04-03T00:57:00.000-07:00

The Mikrogeophagus ramirezi Also known as RAM is a softwater tropical fish which likes dense planting and calm inmates in the tank. I have raised ram for the past years and I found it difficult to easy. Water quality is very important, therefore it is very applicable to put dense planting on the sides of the tank. I have tried this set up and I had breed ram for some time until I gave up on breeding on them. It needs a lot of work and time to raise their fry. I usually use the yellow part of a hard boiled egg to feed the fry, for it is very small for them to eat commercialized foods. Ram is a a family of cichlids which includes tilapia(sunfish) , angelfish and oscars.