I started fish keeping 12 years ago. Being a novice I was more interested in keeping big fish and other accessories and decorations. Armed with all the useless accessories and incorrect information from my ill-informed local fish shop I brought home gold fish, shark catfish, and angels.
Setting up the tank, being very proud of it I encountered my first pitfall. "New tank syndrome". It killed most of my fish. It was the beginning of a streak of fish dying due to diseases, temperature, water changes, sick fish from local fish shops (lfs). It was a difficult and a painful part of the hobby I hope all amateurs could skip this part. I will try to consolidate all my learnings in subsequent articles.
Once I was able to successfully keep fish I moved to live plants to give the fish a more natural set up instead of tacky, artificial decorations. Having live plants in the tank has many benefits to combat many of the above mentioned issues in fish keeping.
Once you are able to get your plants to establish properly you can play with them to make beautiful aquascapes.
Then I ventured in fish breeding. I started breeding live bearers. I have also started keeping invertebrates like shrimps and snails.
I hope to help all beginners out there with the knowledge of my experience through this blog!
What is new tank syndrome exactly?
ReplyDeleteNew tank syndrome is caused by ammonia toxicity leading to sudden death of fish. The waste produced by the fish is the source of this ammonia. So this needs to be removed from the system. It can be done manually through daily partial water changes or biologically. Biological fixing of ammonia is done by microbes which will develop in your tank over time. That is why it is advised to let your tank sit for a few weeks before adding fish to let these beneficial bacteria to establish in the tank.
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