Want a bit of greenery in your tank? Fed up of forking out on live aquarium plants that disintegrate and die? Stick to these five species and your aquarium will become a green, serene planted tank in no time. AnubiasAnubias is a genus of beautiful aquarium plants, known for their dark green, waxy, spade-shaped leaves. Those tough leaves offer them protection even from some herbivorou...
Reef aquariums demand a stable environment with optimum water quality at all times, but it's important not to become a slave to your tank or take the enjoyment out of watching it. Divide chores into daily, weekly and monthly. Just 10 minutes a day and an hour a week will keep the tank looking tip-top, leaving lots of time to sit back and enjoy. DailyCheck fish health visually and do a he...
Oddball is the term used to describe an aquarium fish which may look or behave unusually and is not suitable for the average community tank. Oddballs may be predatory of small fish, grow large or have specialist needs. Some oddballs may even need to be kept as a single specimen in a tank on their own.Oddballs are popular however because of their looks, shape and character. Popular oddballs i...
Brackish fish are some of the most well known, distinctive, characterful fish available and include species like Archerfish which can spit jets of water at insects in the trees above, Mudskippers which can crawl onto land, and many species of pufferfish. A brackish aquarium can be easy to set up and run and is guaranteed to be the talking point of your home. What does brackish mean?B...
Think of an unheated, coldwater aquarium and you may be forgiven for thinking that your fish choice is limited to goldfish. But there are dozens of readily available tropical freshwater fish that actually prefer their tanks on the cooler side and are better suited to our modern tanks and lifestyles. You don’t need a heater for them, and you will have a tropical-looking aquarium.The trouble ...
All tropical, coldwater and marine aquariums should be tested for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. We use these test kits to tell us if there are beneficial bacteria present in the system, if it’s converting fish waste into less harmful substances, and if the water is safe for our fish. We test the pH too, but its often less life-critical to fish than ammonia.The four most important tests can...
Loaches are a diverse group of popular aquarium fish that naturally inhabit tropical, temperate and cold freshwaters. Although some look superficially similar to catfish with those whisker-like barbles, they are actually part of the order Cypriniformes and are related to barbs, rasboras, danios and carp.They are often added to aquariums to provide movement on the bottom of the tank and to cle...
Gouramis are one of the most popular groups of aquarium fish. They are widely available, cheap and offer graceful swimming, colour and a centrepiece fish to the community aquarium. Gouramis can be told apart from other fish by their high bodies and thread-like ventral fins that they use as sensory organs. All gouramis are Anabantoids or Labyrinth fish, meaning that they possess breathing...
Flowerhorn cichlids are hybrid Central American cichlids, also known as Louhan in Asia. One or more of the original parent species was Amphilophus trimaculatus, and that’s the species that they most closely resemble, and behave like. They are tropical freshwater fish that originated in fish farms in South East Asia, and its in Asia that they are most popular.They are so-called because of t...
Rainbowfish are tropical freshwater fish so named because of the variety of bright colours displayed by mature males. They originate from Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and inhabit streams, rivers, lakes and marshlands.Rainbows are popular aquarium fish and Red, Blue, Boesemani and Neon dwarf rainbows are common in most aquatic stores. Although usually seen as plain, washed-out ju...