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Tag Archives: aquarium

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Visit us MACNA XIX in Pittsburgh

This years Marine Aquarium Conference of North America(MACNA)will be held in Pittsburgh, PA on September 14-16, 2007. This show has grown every year, and this year looks to be bigger than ever. That Fish Place has a booth in the trade show, I welcome everyone attending to stop in and visit, sign up for our free gift certificate raffle, and check out our show specials. I will be doing blog entries from the show, check back to see what is going on.

MACNA offers consumers and hobbyist a unique experience to interact with manufacturers, industry experts, and other hobbyist. For more information about the show visit the official MACNA XIX Website

I am looking forward to a great show, hope to see some of you there.

Dave

Feed the Fish, Not the Aquarium

As part of my Aquarist training while working for a public aquarium, I would have all of my feeding duties closely observed by the aquariums curator. To make a long story short, this was much more like military boot camp than I care to remember, ever see the movie Full Metal Jacket? One of phrases that were repeatedly drilled into my head was “feed the fish, not the aquarium”; I still hear the voice in my head today every time I feed my fish.

What I learned then, and teach now, is how important observation is when feeding the animals in your aquariums. Overfeeding, underfeeding and inappropriate foods are the common mistakes made by hobbyists when feeding the animals in their aquariums, or adding a new type of fish to their tanks.

Overfeeding is the most common mistake made by aquarium hobbyists when feeding their fish. Leaving uneaten food in the aquarium for your fish to eat later is never a good idea, especially when feeding pellet foods, flake foods, and frozen or fresh foods you should only feed enough so that all the food is eaten within a few minutes. Some fish will require to be fed multiple times per day, but only as much as can be eaten each time. Uneaten foods quickly start to decay in tropical aquariums, which will result in unnecessary demands on your filtration, resulting in poor water quality.

Underfeeding and inappropriate feeding will require much more observation from the person(s) who take care of an aquarium. The results of underfeeding will show in long term loss of body weight, or behavioral problems such as loss of energy, or erratic swimming patterns.
When I say inappropriate feeding I am talking about a couple different things. First of all I am talking about reproducing a natural diet for the animals that are in your aquarium. Most animals in your aquarium can be classified as either Predators (meat eaters), Herbivores (plant eaters), and Omnivores (meat and plant eaters). You should always research and ask questions about the animals that you intend to keep as pets, you should know what the natural diet of your animals, and provide the correct food for them. The second thing that I mean by appropriate food for your aquarium animal is knowing how the animal eats. Fish in particular, have specialized mouth parts for feeding a certain way. Surface feeders have upturned mouths and prefer floating foods. Bottom feeders have downward turned mouths and prefer sinking foods. Others will have centrally located mouths and prefer suspended or slowly sinking foods. And some predators require hard foods to keep their teeth healthy. Food size is also important, too small of a food size may be difficult for some fish to capture. Food that is too large may be very difficult to swallow, and can even injure internal organs. So it important to observe your fishes eating so that you can be sure you are providing both the correct type and form of food to insure good health.

So remember, feed your fish, not your aquarium

Dave

Marine Biologist Blog from That Fish Place

Welcome to the Marine Biologist blog from That Fish Place. Join us as we blog about the amazing world of fish and aquarium keeping, Post your comments, request a topic, add to the discussion.
Since our start in 1973, That Fish Place has seen the aquarium hobby grow in popularity and evolve into an amazing blend of science, nature and technology. Our Marine Biologists blog may cover any topic that relates to the hobby, and will hopefully help whoever reads this blog to become a more successful aquarium keeper, whatever you fancy.