A biotope aquarium contains fish and plants that live together in the same place in nature. It replicates the habitat, water parameters and materials found there, like wood, sand and leaves, and is decorated to look as it would look if you were to snorkel underwater in that very place.Traditionally biotopes have been quite general like South American, Asian or African, although those three a...
Much of the UK has hard water, especially the South East, and a key indicator is limescale build up inside a kettle. But hard water doesn’t have to be a barrier to keeping tropical fish, as there are still loads to choose from.Rift Lake CichlidsFamous for their love of hard, alkaline water, cichlids from Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika in East Africa love water with a pH of 8 or over, and a...
What is a roller filter?Roller filters, also known as fleece filters, are mechanical filters that trap waste in water flowing through them using a roll of fleece. As each section of fleece gets brown and dirty it is rolled out of the way and replaced with new. They began as large pond filters, but now their most popular usage by far is as mechanical prefilters for marine tanks. Do they c...
Seahorses are some of the most universally recognizable marine fish, and everyone wants to keep them. They look very un-fishlike and cute, but they have their challenges and aren’t for beginners. They aren’t even suitable for established reef aquariums. Here’s why:Slow the flowReef tanks have powerful currents produced by wave-making pumps. That’s great for a strong swimmer like a...
The aim of any pond owner is to have clear, healthy water. But despite the filter’s obvious job of sucking in and trapping all that waste, a pond filter should actually be clean inside too. Here’s why:Pond filters typically work in two ways - mechanically and biologically. Mechanical filtration is when particles are physically trapped inside the filter, and biological filtration is when b...
Marine aquarium owners should aim for a salinity of 1.025 s.g. which is about 35 parts per thousand. That means that for every thousand grammes of freshwater you should add 35 grammes of salt, or 35 grammes of salt per litre of water. 1000g = 1kg = 1000ml = 1 litreKnowing this can help you makeup saltwater quickly and in bulk. Let try some tank situations:An Evolution Aqua eaReef...
Some of the most popular tropical fish like guppies, platies, mollies and swordtails all give birth to live young, and the difficulty is often not getting them to breed, but getting them to stop! Female livebearing fish get swollen bellies when pregnant, and when their bellies get really big that’s an indication that soon they are going to give birth.Unfortunately, we can’t always tell w...
If you find some eggs on the glass one day you may be wondering where they came from. If you have any Corydoras catfish in the tank, its probably from them, as they frequently lay clusters of large eggs on aquarium glass. They don’t look after them though, so if you don’t remove the other fish from the tank they will probably be eaten.Another catfish which lays eggs on the glass in plain...
Discus are highly sought after and regarded by many as the kings of the freshwater aquarium. But there are a few things you need to know about before you keep them. Discus are cichlids, meaning that they demonstrate brood care and protect their eggs and fry from others. They are pair forming but when not in a mated pair they are shoaling species and feel more comfortable in large groups....
Muck is ok in natural wildlife ponds but in ponds containing fish, it can lower oxygen levels and encourage algae growth. A lined fish pond shouldn’t have any detritus on the bottom, dealt with by a combination of filtration and maintenance. And if the pond is unfiltered the muck will have to come out before the pump and filter go in, as otherwise, they will just block within hours.Net it o...