When setting up a salt water aquarium it’s important to populate your tank with the right marine aquarium livestock. In essence this means that beginners to salt water aquariums should start off with marine fish only before thinking about invertebrates.
Beginner saltwater aquarium keepers should begin by learning about all the various families of fish, their behaviour and characteristics, their environmental requirements, and the type of food they need. When starting a new saltwater aquarium, it is suggested you stick with the hardier species and only buy a few specimens. Once you have gained enough experience, you can then start slowly adding additions to your fish stocks.
Are all salt water aquarium fish easy to look after?
You can buy many types of saltwater fish from pet stores, especially specialty tropical fish stores, but not all of them will be easy to look after in the artificial environment found in a saltwater aquarium. Certain varieties of fish have special feeding requirements, such as live foods, which means you will have to take more care with them.
Other fish are sensitive to water conditions and find it hard to adapt easily to the water in a new aquarium. These types of salt water aquarium fish should not be added to a marine tank until it has been maturing for several months.
How many fish can you put in your marine tank?
The carrying capacity of an aquarium means the total number of animals that can be maintained in a marine tank environment. Determining how many fish can be safely added to a marine aquarium depends on the weight of the marine animal, the type of substrate, the temperature of the water, and various water quality parameters.
Generally speaking if you go by the rule of thumb of 2 inches of marine animal for every ten gallons of water in your aquarium you will be pretty safe. For example, if you had a 20 gallon tank then you can safely accommodate two or three fish that are about 2-3 inches in size.
Compatibility problems among different types of fish
One of the difficulties of selecting fish to stock a salt water aquarium is picking species that will live together in harmony. Some types of fish are known to be aggressive and highly territorial and will not tolerate others of their kind. Unfortunately, the small and enclosed environment of a salt water aquarium often makes the natural territorial behavior of coral reef fishes even worse. If you really want to keep these kinds of fish then they must be kept in a separate tank.
Marine aquariums should be provided with ample shelter areas that will create boundaries between different areas in the tank. By becoming familiar with the general behavior of different families of fish and by avoiding overcrowding in the aquarium, incompatibility between marine livestock can be minimized.
Buying saltwater aquarium fish
When you have finally decided on what type of fish you want for your saltwater aquarium you must make sure you buy only healthy specimens. The things to look out for are signs of ill health like lethargy or difficulty in swimming.
The eyes of a fish in good health should be clear and not cloudy and its skin should to be free of discolored areas or reddened lesions. Frayed fins may have been caused by a fight with another fish in the tank or it could be a sign of a bacterial infection.
Saltwater Aquarium Environment
The acclimation period, in the first few weeks after introducing your new fish to the tank, is the most crucial period for them. They could either adapt very nicely to their new saltwater environment or get sick and die. Great care must be taken in maintaining a salt water aquarium by following the recommended water parameters such as the PH and the correct marine aquarium water temperature.
Optimal Aquarium Temperature
Unfortunately, there is no straightforward guide as to what the optimal temperature for a saltwater aquarium should be. This is because your marine wildlife may come from different oceans with dissimilar temperature ranges. Anything from 72-92 degrees Fahrenheit is common and many experts say that a saltwater aquarium temperature of around 80 degrees is a happy medium that will suit a wide variety of marine creatures.
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Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting