I am excited as hell to get
an aquarium tank in my room. Not that I never had one, but it has been a long
time since my last tank. I used to have tropical freshwater tanks that had
cichlids in it such as auratus, kennyi,
convict and red empress. These Lake Malawi fishes were one of my favorites
as they are very colorful, and easy to breed. The downside of owning cichlids
is that they are very aggressive towards each other, and thus require a big
tank.
I have also tried the
low-maintenance and good-for-beginners type of fishes such as the mollies,
platies and guppies. Give them a tank of water and they will breed for all
eternity. However, since I had been into aquarium fishes when I decided to try
the guppies out, I challenged myself into breeding albino guppies, which were
rarely found in pet shops. I only had one albino male guppy and several female
guppies that were bought from the same tank as the albino male. I took down
notes, set-up specialized breeding tanks and fry tanks, monitored progress, but
ended up with about five aquarium tanks without a single albino guppy. It would
have been easier to just look for a female albino guppy around Metro Manila to mate with my male
guppy, but the silliness got the better of me for I wanted
the challenge.
 |
| from www.erdingtonaquatics.com |
I have also tried the
high-maintenance and only-for-die-hard-fish-lovers saltwater tanks. My tank
included lionfishes, batfishes, boxfishes, dragonfishes, tangs, clownfishes, and a whole lot
more of colourful marine fishes which lived healthily inside the live rocks and
corals. All these came from Cartimar in Taft Ave.
 |
| from www.creationrevolution.com |
Owning this type of tank
requires time and dedication as there is a need to monitor the salinity and
temperature of the water. Also, tap water with salt CANNOT be a substitute to
the bags of saltwater you MUST buy from Cartimar when you need some to fill
your tank. Apart from the salinity and temperature, there are other factors
these marine species are sensitive to such as lighting, space, and overall
water and tank condition. Only for the moderate to expert aquarium hobbyists I
must say.
So, if you are planning to
own an aquarium tank, consider the time and budget you are willing to allot for
your aquarium fishes. You should also answer the question, "What is my aquarium tank for?" These are live animals that you are getting under your
care. In my case, I think I would settle for fishes that require small space as
I do not intend to get a huge tank. Which fish is still under consideration as
I think I have tried ALL fishes there is in pet shops EXCEPT discus which I am
reserving to try out when I have the budget, space and enough experience for it.
If you are wondering where all my tanks and fishes have gone, I still
have some of my tanks but my fishes have been given away. None were thrown into
the river or any public water system. You should NOT.
If you are planning to set-up an aquarium tank, I recommend the
following websites for your reading:
Hopefully on my next blog about fishes I could post my own aquarium tank, and the answer to "What is my aquarium tank for?"
No comments:
Post a Comment