Sure you can pay 13 year old Suzie down the street that usually babysits your kids to feed your fish while you’re on vacation for $10/day, but if you are as big of a control freak about your fish as I am and want to save some money too then you probably want to make sure your fish are getting fed the right amount everyday and on time.

Dissolving Feeder.

These are quite simple to use and come in a large variety of sizes ranging from 3 day feeders to 14 day feeders. What dissolving feeders do is slowly dissolve over the stated amount of time and slowly release food to your fish for the length of the specified time. Simply drop these into the water and let them do their magic.

The only downside to these is that they can make your tank quite cloudy if you don’t have proper filtration.

Automatic Timed Feeders.

Automatic feeders such as the battery operated EKOMIXO Fish Feeder are very easy to use simply fill out when you want to have your fish fed and it will release the set amount of food into the tank. Some automatic feeders can feed up to 4 times a day. These are the best solution because it can be like you never even left.

You can even use these while you aren’t on vacation!

Feeding tropical fish is slightly more involved than feeding goldfish but again, very simple.

Every fish is different.

Each and every fish is different and may require different types of food. Ask your local fish/pet shop owner what the best food for your fish is before buying or refer to a good book or online resource. Some fish may need flakes, while others may need sinking pellets, and you may want to give all your fish some frozen foods as a treat.

Feed 2 times a day.

While some say that once a day feedings are enough, I like to make sure my topical fish are fed 2 times every day. And I try not to feed the same food twice in one day. For example, flakes in the morning and pellets at night.

How much should I feed them?

Again, every fish is different, but to be on the safe side try not to feed your fish more than they can eat in a few minutes. If your fish starts taking longer than usual to eat, don’t feed them more, they may be sick, and you should resolve the illness before adjusting feeding patterns. And of course you don’t want to feed them so much that the food starts building up, or blocking the filter. Overfeeding is often times a  major cause of dirty tanks.

Many goldfish aquarium owners constantly worry that they may be over/under feeding their goldfish, however, feeding your goldfish is probably one of the easiest things you’ll ever have to do with your fish.Feed Goldfish 1-2 Times/Day.

Its almost as simple as that. Feed them once in the morning and once in the evening, just like a human would have their 2 main meals in the morning and evening.

Don’t Overfeed.

Your fish don’t actually need to eat all that much. Just enough for each fish to get a few bites. Watch your fish eat the first few times so you can gauge how much they should be fed.

Flakes or Pellets?

It doesn’t really matter all that much to be honest. It pretty much comes down to what your fish will actually eat. Don’t be fooled by the manufacturers charging insane prices for goldfish food. Unless you’re a die-hard goldfish owner, its probably not worth it.

Setting up your first tropical freshwater aquarium can be very overwhelming. But I assure you that it is really pretty simple. Follow this guide and your freshwater aquarium will be ready in no time.

First we’ll need to find a place to put our aquarium. Try to prevent placing the tank in direct sunlight because doing so will promote rapid algae growth, and possible overheating. Alternatively you don’t want to place your tank in a place that gets a lot of cold drafts, such as near a window or infront of an air conditioning vent.

Before you do anything you’re going to need to wash everything you plan on putting in your aquarium with hot water. As stated in the Aquarium Cleaning Guide, you’re going to want to use sponges/brushes that contain absolutely no chemicals.

The Usual Suspects.

Note: Don’t turn on any of these devices for long amounts of time until water has been added to the tank.

I’m going to assume since this is your first aquarium you got a filter like the one pictured below. First rinse out the filter sponge and media place the setup media filter into the filter. Remember: that all filters are different so refer to the instructions provided with the filter to insure that you’re using your filter correctly.

Its recommended that you always use a heater to keep the water around 74, however many will tell you different. But when dealing with tropical fish, you’re definitely making a smart decision for your fish, by choosing to use a heater.

If your tank is 10 gallons or larger I also recommend that you get an air pump. You simply connect tubing between your pump and some kind of air stone. And wire the air stone end into the tank.

Now before you put your gravel in make sure to put your aquarium on its stand or wherever you plan on putting it because the tank is now going to get increasingly heavier. Also before you put the gravel in be sure to wash that off as well, especially when working with colored rocks, because they carry a lot of paint residues. Once you have completed the above go ahead and add the gravel. One pound of gravel per gallon of water is the rule of thumb here, and you’ll need 0.5-1.0 inch thick layer of gravel.

Once you’ve placed your plants, decorations, etc. you can now add the water, trying to keep the temperature right around 74. Now is a good time to add your water conditioners (de-chlorinator, stress coat, etc.) to remove any toxins.

Now go ahead and plug in the filter, heater, air pump, and light.

Let everything run for 1-3+ days before adding your first few hardy fish. Places like PetsMart will test your water for free, try to do this before adding fish to make sure your water is safe. Ask your local fish shop, what their more hardy tropical fish are.

You’ll typically see betta fish in little aquariums all by themself. That is because they require very little space and tend to be quite violent towards other fish. They eat all kinds of feed from dry food to live brine shrimp.

Its no surprise that a fish also commonly known as the Siamese Fighting fish is very aggressive.
However betta are violent and aggressive by nature due to their natural habitat in Southeast Asia.

The Beautiful Frontosa

1. Disease: Most aquatic diseases are easy to spot. And if you can’t see the disease than one of the other 3 signs, will give it away. Some things to look for are spots or growths on their body or fins, irritated eyes, or loss of scales.

2. Irregular Eating: This sign usually takes a little longer for people to notice since we usually don’t watch our fish eat each and every time. But if your fish isn’t eating, it may be sick.

3. Trouble Swimming: You’d be surprised how easy it is for fish to get internal infections. These usually mess with your fishes buoyancy and will cause your fish to swim sideways, in the wrong direction, or even upside down.

4. Loss of Scales: As mentioned in point 1. This can either be cause by disease or your fish may be getting bullied by another fish.

Well your first choice should be to go with a community tank or a species tank.
A community tank consists of many different kinds of fish all living harmoniously. While a species tank will limit you to a few species of fish that get a long together (at least to some degree). If you have a small tank I strongly suggest you stick with the community fish, as they tend to be smaller and require less space.

Again refer to my other article about how much space fish need.

Keep in mind that it will be helpful to have some sort of algae eater or plecostomus in your tank that will help keep things clean.

Ideally you should change up to %25 of the water weekly.

Why only 25%?

Well because your fish have grown used to their current water. That perfect mix of chemicals, that specific temperature, even that perfect amount of waste. Changing too much water will throw your fish out of whack causing them to stress out. And we definitely don’t want that! Be sure to add the appropriate water conditioners when adding the new water!

Hey while the water is low, now is a good time to clean the sides of the aquarium, change the filter media and pads.

Cleaning the sides:

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to use proper cleaning supplies. Using 99% of household sponges or cleaning supplies WILL KILL YOUR FISH. Instead take the trip to the pet store or aquarium to get proper cleaning supplies such as sponges or scrapers.

For those that don’t like to get wet, you can buy these nifty magnetic sponges that will let you clean the inside walls of the tank without even touching the water. Keep in mind that these don’t work quite as well as the standard aquarium sponge.

The Gravel:

This step tends to be most people’s least favorite aquarium maintenance. There are basic gravel vacuum systems that work well for tanks smaller than 10 gallons and no more in my opinion. These require buckets, human started suction and usually end in a huge mess all over your floor. These are very messy!

If you’re serious about your aquarium I HIGHLY recommend you get a self-starting gravel vacuum system, you’ll save your self a lot of time and trouble.

What you do with these gravel vacuums is you push the open end under the gravel and the suction will pull the waste right out of the gravel without sucking up much gravel.

Final Points:

Its very important that you keep your aquarium clean. Once things start going downhill its usually very hard to make things better again, don’t be lazy and let your tank get dirty.

Keep the fish in the tank through the cleaning process. You’ll put more stress on your fish if you remove them than you would if you just left them in the tank.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The saltwater/marine fish you saw the other day were a lot more vibrant than those boring freshwater fish. I’d love to take care of saltwater fish too, but they are leaps and bounds more difficult to take care of. Heck I’ve had freshwater fish for 5+ years and have even worked in the fish section at a pet store and I still don’t feel confident that I can care for them properly.

There are 2 major groups of freshwater fish. Goldfish and Tropical.
Both types of fish tend to be very non-aggressive and for the most part can go with any other fish that fall into their category of goldfish or tropical, but saltwater fish are often times very aggressive and need much larger tanks.

While both fresh and saltwater fish can be very healthy and resilient if taken care of properly, you’re going to have to worry about a lot less disease and chemical imbalances when working with freshwater fish.

Ah I almost forgot to mention that saltwater fish are EXTREMELY expensive compared to most freshwater fish. God forbid you lose a fish or two, you’ll still be content that you only paid $1.99 for your guppy

Location, Location, Location:

Before you start setting up your aquarium its important to keep in mind that some places in the house are better than other for keeping fish. When choosing a spot you don’t want to expose the fish to too much light nor too much darkness. Don’t place your tank in direct sunlight such as in front of a window, instead put the tank in room thats well lit by the sun, away from the direct sunlight.

Shape and Size:

If this is your first aquarium your best bet will be to start with a rectangular tank as opposed to a round, hexagonal, or octagonal tank, because they are by far the easiest to clean and also give you the best view of your fish. Deep tanks are harder to clean as well, and if you’re uneasy about submerging your arm in the water, than the more shallow the tank the  better.

When it comes to size you’ll have to figure out how many fish you plan on having. To determine what size aquarium is right for you see my article about how many fish can be put in an aquarium.