That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Having always kept saltwater tanks, I recently decided to try my hand at a freshwater planted tank.  Not having a lot of room to work with, I decided to set up a small, 2.5 gallon tank.  With such a small volume of water, I was limited in the fishthat I could keep, but I found a perfect fit for my new tank.

Dwarf Fighters (Betta rutilans) would be my new endeavor.  I researched the fish and took a look at the conditions of their native habitat in to get a better idea about how to furnish the tank. Betta rutilans comes from drainage basins in the Indonesian region and Borneo. They live in blackwater environments, where the water stays soft and acidic. These little guys only grow to a little over an inch in length, and they’re usually solid red or red with some green on their sides.  They have a longer and narrower body than Betta plendens, and have short, rounded fins like B. albimarginata. They can be housed with others of their kind. I’m hoping to see these fish spawn in the tank and I chose 1 male and 3 females to see how they get along.   Read More »

Many other blogs have discussed (and will continue to discuss, I’m sure) the importance of testing various levels in your water and its effects on the overall health of your aquarium. But, how can you actually test it? For anyone who isn’t able to bring a water sample into That Fish Place or their local fish store for testing or who wants monitor their water quality at home, there are lots of options for what tests to use. While what to actually test for is for another blog, there are lots of options when it comes to how the tests are actually done. Here we’ll look at the pro’s and con’s of the three most common aquarium testing methods: Test Strips, Liquid Test Kits, and Electronic Testing Equipment. Read More »

Many freshwater aquarists use or at least have heard of using salt in their freshwater aquariums, but few seem to know why. Most “read about it somewhere”, “heard it from someone”, or “saw it on the shelf so I must need it”. To some, it may be beneficial but to others it can cause far more harm than good.

What exactly is Aquarium Salt?

“Salt” is a very broad chemical term and can refer to an unlimited combination of elements. The salt used in freshwater aquariums is Sodium chloride (NaCl). This is NOT the same thing as what is probably in your kitchen and is NOT the same thing that saltwater aquarists use for their corals and clownfish. The “table salt” used as a condiment is mostly NaCl, true, but most table salt is Iodized Table Salt and contains iodine, de-caking agents, and possibly potassium or other trace elements. The marine salt used in saltwater aquariums is mostly NaCl, also true, but has buffers and other elements like sulfate, magnesium, calcium, potassium and others. All of these extra ingredients can range from unnecessary for to harmful to freshwater aquariums, affecting the biology of freshwater plants and animals directly as well as changing the water chemistry in the tank. For freshwater aquariums, use only salt sold as freshwater Aquarium Salt or pure NaCl like Kosher Salt or Rock Salt. Read More »

There are some products that you can find in every store that sells aquarium supplies and that every aquarist has purchased at some point or another, no matter how long they’ve been in the hobby or what type of aquarium they’ve had. Out of those stand-bys, how many of them do you really need, and do you know what they do (or do not) do for your aquarium? One of the most wide-spread of these “necessities” is activated carbon. Read More »

One of my first ever experiences with fishkeeping was with a goldfish won at a carnival – I thought it looked hungry and dumped an entire container of fishfood into the bowl. At a recent family picnic, I found a pretzel in the top of my small freshwater system courtesy of my four-year-old nephew and after a lesson on not feeding Aunt Eileen’s fish when she isn’t in the room, we all realized that the cycle is truly continuing (especially since that particular nephew loves to check my aquarium maintenance skills and point out all of the spots of algae I missed). I can’t wait until he has long enough arms for me to put an algae scrubber in his hand.

So how do we keep the aquarium hobby fun and safe while turning our little “helpers” into future aquarists? Here are a few tips that I’ve come across while working at That Fish Place, in my prior naturalist experience at a South Carolina state park, and with my own two nephews: Read More »