Brief History of Nature Aquariums

The earliest known aquariums were artificial ponds created by the Sumerians over 4500 years ago. The ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, and Romans also kept fish in ponds for entertainment purposes and for food. The ancient Chinese were the one to breed fish with any degree of success. They raised carp for food and developed goldfish by selective breeding.

In later 18th century, the study of nature was awakening due to widespread public interest. Fish were kept in glass jars, porcelain containers, tubs, and small artificial ponds. It was during this time that Johann Matthaues Bechstein, a botanist and zoologist, kept a large number of amphibians and fishes and laid down the foundation of aquarium and terrarium science. The concept of proper aquarium and terrarium was developed later by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward in 1829.

During the 19th century, the idea of the balanced aquarium was created. It was an attempt to imitate a balanced ecosystem in nature. According to this method, fish waste could be consumed by plants, and plants along with the air surface of the water could supply oxygen. In 1869, the first tropical fish called Paradise Fish was imported from Asia. These days, tropical tanks were kept warm by an open flame. Because the filters were noisy and very expensive in earlier years, fish keeping was a hobby for rich people and scientifically inclined people.

In 1878, Daniel Ammon brought the Paradise Fish to the United States which leads to a decline in the popularity of goldfish. In 20th century, aeration, as well as charcoal and particulate filtration was introduced. Under gravel filters were developed and introduced in 1950s. By this time, the idea of balanced aquarium was viewed as unattainable and unnecessary by many people in the aquarium hobby but made a comeback at the end of the 20th century with the rising popularity of planted tank.

Today fish keeping has become one of the most popular hobbies that anyone can do. Aquarium fish are both bred and caught from Asia and Florida. Captive-bred species are inexpensive and widely available, and are less likely to be infected with parasites and diseases. Unfortunately, successive generations of inbred fish frequently have less color and sport smaller fins than their wild counterparts.

Nature aquarium is actually a form of aquascaping which means the craft of arranging acquatic plants, stones, rocks, and driftwoods in a pleasing manner in an aquarium or just simply gardening under water. Aquascape designs have a number of distinct styles, including the garden-like Dutch style and the Japanese-inspired nature style or nature aquarium.

The main goal of aquascaping is to create an artful underwater landscape. It houses fish as well as plants, but it is possible to create an aquascape with just rocks, plants only, or combination of rocks and plants.

The nature aquarium is actually a style of aquascaping introduced by Takashi Amano in the 1990s. Amano’s Nature Aquarium World inspired hobbyists to create a garden in the aquarium. The objective was to attempt to copy natural landscapes by a not balanced arrangement of plants, driftwoods, and stones. He introduced the Japanese gardening concepts such as Wabi-sabi and Zen rock arrangement to the aquascaping. He was inspired to create a new landscape miniature rather than a colorful garden in the aquarium or fish tank.

Taking Proper care of Your Clownfish

In looking after real-life “Nemo” or anemone fish or clownfish requires an additional care. They live on warm waters of Pacific and Indian Oceans. Although they are territorial fish and tend to guard the sea anemone and coral reefs that they are in, they usually get along with other kinds of fish that makes them as a very good addition to your aquarium tank.

1. When choosing an aquarium for the clownfish, you will need to select a large one because saltwater fish needs much more area as compared to fresh water fish. It’s encouraged to get 30-gallon aquarium to create a blooming setting to your clownfish.

2. Be sure you purchase those tank-bred clownfish instead of the ones that were captured from captivity.
The fish will most likely die if they’re from the wild as a result of stress brought by the capture and shipping.

When choosing your clown fish, be sure that the one that you will buy has bright colored scales, clear eyes, energetic and alert, and doesn’t have signs of whitened spots. It’s wise for you to choose the younger anemone fish so that you won’t have trouble if you try to breed them. However, if you want to breed them, you should try buying the paired one.

2. Seek advice from an aquarium technician or perhaps informed pet shop employee for lighting and filtration advice for the fish. A large filter is preferable to be sure that the aquarium is clean and is filtered correctly. Make sure you make weekly water changes of at least 10% of the total amount of water. A timer for lighting could be good so your fish will get the schedule of sunlight and darkness.

3. Buy the best fish food for the clownfish. Feed the fish in a certain time every day with a mixture of flakes and frozen food. Keep in mind that the fish should get appropriate vitamins and nutrients so it is going to be healthy and balanced.

4. Maintain the temperature of your aquarium between 24 to 28 degrees Celsius or 76 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit, and also the salinity levels between 1.020 and 1.026. This will help your clown fish feel more at home, considering they are tropical fish.

5. Place stones or sea anemone inside the tank and be sure that there will be plenty of hiding areas. This will make the fish feel more secure and feel home inside the tank. However, sea anemone isn't really important in the aquarium if you don’t have possible predators within your tank.

6. Don’t crowd the tank with several sorts of fishes. Clown fish likes the place to be peaceful. Overcrowding of the fish tank can cause stress and illness to your clownfish. If you're planning on breeding it, the fish has to be free from stress simply because stressed fish are not going to lay eggs.

7. You must observe your fish if it has any strange behaviour or has a disease or health problems. You should have a information about what illnesses will be present in a clownfish so that you could identify it and treat it before it gets worse.

Get the best guide for taking care of your Clownfish and learn facts about clownfish here.





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Learn To Set Up Your Nature Aquarium

Making your very first nature aquarium isn't too hard to carry out. All you need to accomplish would be to collect your components and place it up as a whole.

Listed here are the things that you should have:

Aquarium
Aquatic plants
Aquarium substrate
Drift wood
Aquarium Fertilizer
Lighting system
Filtration system
CO2 Injector

Photo credit: www.natureaquariums.org

How to set it up step-by-step:

1. Decide on how big is the fish tank that you simply want to setup. You could find all kinds of dimensions when we discuss fish tank. There is 10 gallons, 20 gallons, 30 gallons, even 60 gallons. However for a starter, I recommend that you pick the intermediate size, 15-20 gallons can be a good start.

2. Position the aquarium on the desirable area. Be sure that there isn't a direct sunlight. Algae will typically develop when you have direct sunlight. Furthermore, put it where by it will not be a roadblock, but where people could see it and increase beauty to your house. Nature aquariums are incredibly stunning when aquatic plants began to develop very well in it.

3. As soon as the tank is in place, begin putting the substrate. This can be an activated soil, pebbles, river sand or any commercial substrate great for aquatic plants. Basically, it will likely be the base of your fish tank.

4. You can add fertilizer before or whenever you put the aquarium substrate as long as it doesn't make the water cloudy. So this means that you put the substrate before you decide to put the water. It might be better if you put the fertilizer under the soil so that it will not be floating around when you put water, instead it'll be combined thoroughly with your soil.

5. Setup your stones or driftwood. If you will have to tie your driftwood to some rocks inside your fish tank, do it. But do it in a way that it will not be too noticeable to see. Don't forget, you want it to appear natural as much as possible.

6. Put a bit of water enough to submerge the front part and start planting. It must be tiny amount of water so that the plants won't be floating, instead you will have the opportunity of fastening them properly to your substrate so that it won't float when you add the water in full.

7. The more aquatic plants you have the better. Think garden. This is what you're going to create, only that it's within the aquarium and is also underwater. Absolutely no garden has only one type of plant. A combination of plants along with a good arrangement can make a marvelous elegance when it is all set.

8. Now you can put the filter, and light. Put the perfect filter. Usually there are some excellent filters for fish tanks. It is best to choose the better ones than the low cost ones. And since we're working with real live plants, your lighting system must be excellent. It should certainly be a good one since your plants will need to process photosynthesis to allow them to grow well.

9. CO2 fertilization is definitely suggested in planted fish tanks. Carbon dioxide together sunlight produces food for the plants, that is part of the photosynthesis. So it is not just recommended, but really necessary. Your CO2 injector system may be DIY or you can have professional Carbon dioxide injector which is often a little pricey.

10. Wait for about 2 to 3 months to enjoy the fruits of your work. It takes time to grow plants. Don't add the fishes yet. Let your plants to develop first before you decide to put any fish.

Remember that there are some other things that you need to do for you to be successful in nature planted aquariums. The main element to success is adequate maintenance which is to be discussed thoroughly on my other article. The method previously mentioned is just to provide you with an example how things can be performed in a very simple way.
 
For more information, visit Nature Aquarium website.

Freshwater Aquarium Shrimp and Its Benefits

Freshwater aquarium shrimps are beneficial in nature aquaria. They furnish some vital positive aspects that can make your fresh water aquarium turn to a higher level of hobby.

 Breeding and making use of shrimps in fish tank is now well-known when Takashi Amano a renowed professional photographer and aquarist made use of Caridina multidentata in his aquarium projects. Since then lots of people put into practice the concept and researched various other shrimp varieties if they can be equally beneficial as the Amano shrimp.

 Listed below are some effective positive aspects:

1.     Biological Filtration system - Shrimps are usually scavengers. They take fish wastes even dead fishes and fish food wastes in the absense of their natural food. They may be a fantastic section of the miniature ecosystem in your treasured aquarium.

2.    Aquarium Decorations - Shrimps are exquisite to look at, notably if you possess bright colored shrimps. Several good examples of beautiful shrimps would be the Red Cherry Shrimps and Harlequin Shrimp.
 The truth is, quite a few aquarists currently agree with the fact that retaining shrimps in fresh water aquarium is equally lovely in keeping freshwater fishes.

3.    Algae Controllers - Shrimps are good algae controllers. Most of them are tiny algae-hungry shrimps. Perfect illustration is the Caridina multidentata or popularly known as the “Amano shrimp”.

4.    Source of Additional Income - Keeping and multiplying shrimps are increasingly becoming ever more popular, yet there's still a vast market for these water species. If you can generate healthy shrimps, Almost certainly that they will turn into a tiny bit pricey sometimes in comparison with selling aquarium fishes.

Know more about nature aquariums here.

Salt Water Aquarium

Salt Water Aquarium usually are exceptionally good-looking. In cases where an individual enjoy the elegance of fresh water fish tanks, salt water aquaria are capable of doing much better at times.

Having and knowing these kinds of things can easily genuinely function your current approach with respect to developing the greatest salt water tank that will an individual previously dreamed of.

Salt water tank. The following are generally the materials which is actually a MUST to possess with regard to a profitable marine aquarium tank.

* Light bulbs ought to have light temperature in between 10000K-20000K. It's really twice as much as fresh water fish tanks need to have.
* Substrate may be smashed coral or coral sand as well as of course live rocks. This is where your live corals may grow and where fish will reproduce.
* Protein skimmer is essential. This one will skim the proteins which have large molecules. Moreover, it can provide you with further filter system.
* Sump is actually best to have however not essential.
* Auto top off is good to have but not really expected.
* Cylinder filtration is actually fine however hang on the back filter is greater.
* Wave maker or extra power head for good water flow. This contributes the “sea effect” thing of your fish tank.

Other gadgets which are not here are excellent to possess however not actually needed because of the cost. What I listed here should be excellent enough to get you started off. As for fish only aquarium, light temperature is not essential and in reality, it does not require substrate as well.


Now let’s go to the maintenance. Actually, it’s definitely not that tough to preserve salt water aquarium, however it is a little much more pricey than getting a fresh water aquarium.

Down below are a few of the common things that you will have to do in keeping your tank.

* Monthly water change is not necessary. Salt mix can be very pricey and on top of that, marine tanks require fully developed water. Water change can be completed monthly.
* Scrubbing the glass with algae may be done on a once a week schedule or anytime required.
* Checking the salinity each day is really important until you memorize the water degree where salinity can affect the water parameters due to evaporation.
* Water top off can be completed daily as well or if you possess an auto top off, this ought to not be a issue.
* Checking the water parameters each week is crucial for fish tanks that are not yet fully developed.
* Cleaning the tools inside of the sump can be done every three months or whenever required.
* Watch out for the skimmate cup of the skimmer, make certain you dispose the dirty water and thoroughly clean the cup.
* Nourish some corals as well such as sun coral and others.
It might sound plenty of work for the marine tank but most of this can be achieved in 2 to 3 minutes only.
Cost
The sole cheap material in a marine tank is the sand. Live rock will not be free depending on the excellence of the rock. The money necessary for a marine tank could be 5-10 times bigger than the cost of a planted tank.

Fish is additionally quite more expensive in a marine tank than fresh water aquarium.

The most affordable marine tank I had created which is nearly 7 gallons cost me $500 which is just about the cost of 3 planted tanks that I have.
Beauty and Satisfaction

The reality is that planted tank is often beautiful but marine tank has an exceptional beauty as well. From fish, to rocks and corals, it is indeed very colorful. On this kind of tank, all you have to worry is the rock arrangement.

You have nothing to trim and corals takes years or months to propagate before you actually need to frag them. So in this case it is hassle free.

Arrangement of corals doesn’t really have a rule just be sure there's space in between each kind of corals or else you will have a chemical warfare as part of your aquarium.

You can know more about salt water aquarium and nature aquarium here.