18
May 3, 2004
lccc.wy.edu/wingspan
Aquarium Acquisition
Wingspan
Story by Tyler Trotter
Photos by Leigh Ann Sywassink
Before the fish are just thrown into your tank, the water should be at 78 degrees F for tropical fish or 72 degrees F or cooler for goldfish, and the pH should
be adjusted. (6.9 is good level for modified tap water.) A test kit is included in
your “kit.” Some aquarium salt should be added depending on the size of the
tank. Then these conditions should stabilize to help make for a smooth transfer
when fish are added.
Keep in mind as you grab your keys and head for the closest fish store that
it is a business. Some stores are all about profit and want you leaving with an
empty wallet, possibly sending you home with a recipe for disaster, or a lot of
unnecessary add-on sales.
B
ored again on a Friday night, you stare blankly at the
ceiling wondering what you could be doing. With your
mind wandering you start counting pieces of texture on
the ceiling. …456, 457, 576, no wait I mean 467…Damn!
I lost count again.
It finally dawns on you that your living space combined with the
solitude makes for a drab place to sleep and eat. Now that redecoration of your room is penciled into the agenda, you start thinking of
people’s places that are cool.
I could get a gerbil like Todd has…no way, I remember when his
last one escaped, and we attributed the weird smell to the grandma
next door “harvesting aliens in her basement.”
And then it hits you—I could get aquariums like Mike and have
fish. Maybe the sound of the pump will help me sleep; maybe the
fish will talk like the animals on Nutty Professor; or maybe I’ll meet
a supermodel/marine biologist, and we can talk about crustaceans
“all night long.”
Having a flourishing aquarium is not difficult, but does require
patience. Setting up and fully stocking your first fish tank may take
nearly two months, but after this time you will be able to rub elbows
with the scientific “elite” at Laramie County Community College.
“First-timers need to realize that they are building a biological
filter,” said Terry Blachowski, an employee at Denizens of the Deep,
a local store specializing in fresh and salt water tropical fish.
A biological filter is essentially a contained environment in
which some of the conditions are controllable. To keep a supportive
ecosystem functioning, an aquarist must also understand some
water chemistry and the nitrogen cycle.
The nitrogen cycle (or the nitrification process) is the waste
disposal process performed by two primary forms of the biological
filter. Because of life functions, fish produce ammonia that is toxic
even in small amounts. Bacteria take waste and turn waste into
nitrite, while another bacterium comes along turning nitrite into
nitrate. With a new aquarium, there are virtually no immediate nitrifying bacteria; therefore, the amounts of toxins exceed the capabilities of the appropriate bacteria until their numbers are adequately
established. Nitrate supports algae growth, which normally appears
six weeks after a new tank is set up. While too much algae is a bad
thing, partial water changes and hydro cleaning the gravel once a
month will invigorate and stimulate good health all through your
tank—and take away unnecessary algae buildup.
If reading all that made you feel like “Bill Nye,” or if you had
a horrible flashback to science class in which the lab performed
experiments on “you”—that’s OK. All these terms are disguised by
basic functions you the “fish keeper,” will perform to keep your fish
swimming with the “cool” school.
Before you spend any money on the equipment and supplies,
you need to ask yourself how much time and effort you can devote.
For a 10- to 20-gallon tank, once it is set up, you can expect to spend
half an hour every other week performing water changes, cleaning
your tank and coming up with a appropriate name for the catfish
who looks “fisheyed” all the time and swims upside down. Spending
a few minutes a day feeding fish and turning the light on and off will
also be a necessity for yourself.
“You’ll need to decide what kind of fish you would like to have,”
Blachowski said. “Do you want a community tank where everybody
gets along, or do you want larger more aggressive fish?”
Fish stores will always sell an aquarium setup with everything
you need to have a freshwater or saltwater tank. Denizen’s has a
10-gallon glass setup that Blachowski recommended for first-timers
priced at $59.99 that includes:
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Fluorescent light with cover
Air pump with tubing to attach to filter
Net
Thermometer
Heater
Under gravel filter and gravel
Food, pH tester, salt
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Here are some points to keep in mind when shopping:
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Just floating about:
Healthy fish love a clean tank
and live longer.
The fish tanks should be clean with the fish looking healthy and the
dead fish removed from the tanks. (Fish covered in fungus have seen
their last days—last week.)
The store’s policy on fish returns should be reviewed.
A knowledgeable staff should ask you questions about your tank setup. When
you ask questions, vague answers are not helpful to you the consumer.
In the store you should not tap on the glass, but you can plant your face inches away from the tank to be hypnotized by the reflective school of fish churning
the water while some striped fish are scurrying along the bottom and “sucking”
on the gravel rocks. (In your head, you think three reflective fish would be cool
looking with some of those black sharks in the other aisle. Will the shark eat the
little guys, or will the little guys team up and eat like kings for a few days?)
“Mickey Mouses, Danios and Mollies are popular with kids and are a great
beginner fish,” Blachowski said.
A beginner fish can be defined as one that is easy to care for, hardy, resilient,
able to live in a variety of water conditions and attractive. This is where people
who work at fish stores earn their paychecks. An employee should point you
in the right direction, giving insights and tips, but at the same time leaving the
creativity and freedom of fish selection in your hands.
Taking your new aquatic friends home is the final step in “the art of fish keeping.” Healthy fish living a long time, maybe even breeding and having babies,
can be one factor to judge your success as an aquarist, while the timeless story
about when you added a smuggled Amazonian piranha to a tank
of goldfish could be what you’re after. Nevertheless, the important thing
about an aquarium is you as the biological filter “oracle” have fun playing
“God.”
Get in the know with the glow
Creatures of the water:
Denizens of the Deep keep
a wide variety of tropical fish.
They also offer tips on how
to keep an aquarium clean
and algae free. Fish produce
ammonia that is toxic in small
amounts.
Bacteria take waste and turns
it into nitrite. Other bacterium
turns nitrite into nitrate. Nitrate
supports algae growth, which
appears six weeks after a new
tank is set up.
During the past couple months you might have seen in on the news information about genetically altered animals sold to the public. These “science experiments” are GloFish.
Glofish were specially bred to detect environmental pollutants. By adding a
natural fluorescence gene to the fish, scientists are able to determine quickly
and easily when our waterways are contaminated.
Because these Red Zebra Danios have the gene, (which turns them into
GloFish), their sale is covered by a substantial number of patents and pending
patent applications. The providers of GloFish are the only distributors that have
the necessary license to produce and market fluorescent fish within the United
States.
“The GloFish are really popular, more expensive, and had hit our stores
around Christmas,” said
Terry Blachowski of Denizens of the Deep.
Aside from the color,
these fish are the same in
every other way. Fluorescent fish absorb light and
then re-emit it. This creates the perception that
they are glowing, particularly when a black light is
shone on them.
In the next coming
years, it could be interesting to see what other species of aquatic animals will
make the leap to Glow.
4/29/2004 3:08:15 PM