Freshwater aquariums for dummies
Book - 2006
"Setting up your first freshwater aquarium can be a daunting task. This friendly guide answers all your questions, from setting up your tank and selecting fish to the water, chemicals, plants, and much more. There's also expanded guidance on combining different species of fish, maintaining a tank, cleaning gravel, and dealing with common problems such a algae" --Cover, p. 4.
Saved in:
- Subjects
- Published
-
Hoboken, N.J. : [Chichester :
Wiley ; John Wiley, distributor
2006.
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Other Authors
- Edition
- 2nd ed
- Item Description
- Previous ed. published as: Aquariums for dummies. Foster City, Calif.: IDG, 1999.
- Physical Description
- xx, 336 p. : ill. ; 24 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes index.
- ISBN
- 9780470051030
- Introduction
- Why a Book for Dummies?
- What We Assume About You
- How to Use This Book
- How This Book Is Organized
- Part I. Aquarium Basics
- Part II. Fish and How to Care for Them
- Part III. Water, Chemicals, and Plants
- Part IV. Breeding and Other Fun Stuff
- Part V. The Part of Tens
- Icons Used in This Book
- Where to Go from Here
- Part I. Aquarium Basics
- Chapter 1. Tanks for the Memories
- Seeing the Big Aquarium Picture
- Where do I put my tank?
- What type of tank and stand should I buy?
- What do I put inside my aquarium?
- What does all this aquarium equipment do?
- Caring for Your New Aquatic Pets
- Why are so many fish so different?
- What type of fish is best for me?
- What should I look for when buying fish?
- What should I feed my fish?
- What if my fish get sick?
- Understanding Water, Chemicals, and Live Plants
- Expanding Your Aquarium Hobby
- Can I breed my fish?
- How do I keep track of all my fish?
- How do fish shows work?
- Is there another type of aquarium system?
- Chapter 2. The Practice of Aquarium Keeping
- The Benefits of an Aquarium
- What Kind of Aquarium Do You Want?
- Freshwater systems
- Marine systems
- Brackish systems
- Organization Is the Key to Success
- Chapter 3. Finding a Good Location
- Room Temperature and Its Effects
- Wicked windows
- Deadly doors
- High Traffic Areas and Children (Spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R)
- Water Sources
- Checking the source
- Using a Python
- Other Considerations
- Furniture and space
- Electrical
- Cleaning
- Chapter 4. The Tank and Stand
- Before You Buy a Tank
- Water is heavy
- Watching the tendency to overspend
- Checking out starter kits
- Finding free space
- Taking people into consideration
- Deciding where to buy
- What Aquariums Are Made Of
- Glass aquariums
- Acrylic aquariums
- Plastic aquariums
- Different and Unusual Aquarium Styles
- Portrait aquariums
- In-wall tanks
- Furniture aquariums
- Tower aquariums
- Indoor pond barrels
- Choosing the Right Tank
- Tank size
- Tank shape
- Carrying capacity
- Choosing the Right Stand
- Wooden cabinet stands
- Angle and wrought iron stands
- Do-it-yourself stands
- Material-based stands
- Mixed-media stands
- Bow-front stands
- Placing the Stand Correctly
- Checking floors and walls
- Looking for power
- Moving an Aquarium
- Chapter 5. What to Put and What Not to Put in Your Tank
- Taking Clues from Your Fish's Natural Environment
- All About Substrates
- Gravel
- Substrates and pH
- Substrates to avoid
- Gravel size and the perils of sand
- Adding substrate to your system
- Rocks, Wood, and Artificial Plants
- Rocks for freshwater tanks
- Wood for a freshwater tank
- Safely sealing wood
- Plastic plants
- Other Aquarium Decorations
- Unsafe decorations can cause problems
- Plastic divers and other oddities
- Aquascaping Tips and Tricks
- Chapter 6. Equipment and Other Technical Stuff
- Taking the Mystery out of Filters
- Mechanical filtration
- Biological filtration
- Chemical filtration
- Sifting Through Filtration Systems
- Undergravel filters
- Sponge filters
- Corner filters (submersible filters)
- Power filters
- Powerheads
- Canister filters
- Fluidized bed filters
- Diatom filters
- Wet/dry filters
- Natural filtration with plants
- Gauging Heaters and Thermometers
- Submersible heaters
- Non-submersible heaters
- How to heat your aquarium
- Making Bubbles with Airstones and Pumps
- Air pumps
- Airstones and circulation
- Connecting Tubing, Valves, and Tees
- Air-line tubing
- Gang valves and tees
- Creating the Best Lighting
- Looking at bulb types
- Making a hood choice
- Part II. Fish and How to Care for Them
- Chapter 7. Fish Anatomy
- What Really Makes a Fish Go?
- The dorsal fin
- The caudal fin
- The anal fin
- The pectoral fins
- The pelvic fins
- The adipose fin
- Swimming movement
- Respiration
- The gill method
- The labyrinth organ method
- The Senses
- Sight
- Hearing
- Smell
- Taste
- Feeling
- Osmosis and the salt to water ratio
- Fish that don't drink water
- Fish that need to drink water
- Recognizing Traits to Identify Fish
- Body shape
- Taxonomy
- The swim bladder
- Color and its purpose
- Chapter 8. Finding Your Species
- Freshwater Tropical Fish and Invertebrates
- Anabantids
- Cyprinodonts and livebearers
- Catfish
- Characins
- Unusual characins
- Loaches
- African cichlids
- American cichlids
- Cyprinids
- Oddballs
- Freshwater tropical invertebrates
- Freshwater Coldwater Fish and Invertebrates
- Koi
- Goldfish
- Coldwater invertebrates
- Captive-Bred Species
- Buying Fish on the Web
- AquariumFish.Net
- Fish2u.com
- Marine Depot Live
- Chapter 9. Purchasing Your Fish
- Choosing a Quality Dealer
- The search for a fish store
- The importance of great service
- The store's appearance
- Dealer Practices: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- Do Bee dealers
- Don't Bee dealers
- Wanna Bee dealers
- Developing a Good Relationship with Your Fish Dealer
- Selecting Healthy Fish
- Don't buy the first fish off the boat
- Don't be Doctor Doolittle
- Start simply
- Go with what you know
- Look for signs of good health
- Know your fish's behavior
- Getting the Right Fish
- Chapter 10. Diet and Nutrition for Your Wet Pets
- Basic Nutrition
- What your fish need
- Overfeeding
- Underfeeding
- Just-right feeding
- What Type of Eater Do You Have?
- When they stop eating
- Carnivores
- Vegetarians
- Fish that eat anything that falls into the tank
- Types of Food
- Comparing prepackaged and frozen foods
- Freeze-dried foods
- Spirulina
- Live food - the stuff they really love and want
- Brine shrimp
- Infusoria
- Rotifers
- Tubifex, bloodworms, mosquito larvae, and earthworms (yuck!)
- Feeding Fry
- Microworms
- Liquid, powdered, and growth foods
- Chapter 11. Diseases and Treatments
- An Ounce of Prevention
- Daily measures
- Weekly measures
- Monthly measures
- Common Ailments and Cures
- Common bacteria infection
- Constipation
- Dropsy
- Fin rot
- Fish louse
- Freshwater velvet
- Freshwater ich
- Fungus
- Gill parasites
- Hole in the head
- Intestinal parasites
- Large skin parasites
- Mouth fungus
- Pop-eye
- Septicemia
- Skin flukes
- Slimy skin disease
- Swim bladder disease
- Tuberculosis (TB)
- Frequent Causes of Disease
- Carbon dioxide poisoning
- Poor water quality
- Metal poisoning
- Chemical poisoning
- Improper diet
- Overfeeding
- Frightened fish
- Home Remedy: Salt Bath
- The Sherlock Holmes Method
- Using Quarantine and Hospital Tanks
- Purpose and advantages of quarantining
- Quarantine time
- Writing it all down
- The tank
- Setting Up a Hospital Tank
- Understanding Medications
- Part III. Water, Chemicals, and Plants
- Chapter 12. All Water Is Not Created Equal
- Comparing Different Water Types
- Tap water
- Rainwater
- The advantages of bottled water (not Perrier)
- Well water (don't count on it)
- Collecting Water from Bodies of Water (Why You Want to Forget This Bad Idea)
- Adding Water to Your Aquarium
- Home Sweet Home
- Chapter 13. Those Crazy Chemicals
- Understanding Chemical Use
- When should you use chemicals?
- Following instructions to the letter
- Chemicals You Need to Start Your Aquarium
- Glass cleaner
- Dechlorinator
- Water conditioner
- Cycling chemicals
- Bacteria in a bottle
- Bacteria on a medium
- Water clarifier
- Chemicals You Need to Maintain Your Aquarium
- Waste eliminator
- Aquarium salt
- pH regulators
- Cichlid buffers
- Chemicals You Need for Your Plants
- Creating your own rainforest
- Plant grow
- Root Tabs
- Algae control
- Chemicals Your Fish Need for Medication
- Chapter 14. The Nitrogen Cycle and Water Testing
- Eliminating Fish Waste
- Conditioning Your Tank
- Starting the Nitrogen Cycle
- Encouraging nitrosamonas (good bacteria number one)
- Promoting nitrobacter (good bacteria number two)
- Speeding things up a bit
- Preventing new tank syndrome
- Testing Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, and pH
- Changing the water frequently
- Maintaining proper pH levels
- Testing Hardness (dH)
- Chapter 15. Putting It All Together
- Setting Up Your Tropical Freshwater System
- Setting Up Your Coldwater System
- Setting Up Your Simple Indoor Goldfish Pond
- One Last Thing
- Chapter 16. Live Plants for Freshwater Aquariums
- What Live Plants Do for Your Aquarium
- Plant Types
- Floating plants
- Rooted plants
- Cuttings
- Easy plant species
- Maintaining Plant-Friendly Aquarium Conditions
- Temperature requirements
- Substrate for rooting
- Filtration
- Feeding
- Lighting
- Supplements
- Purchasing and Transporting Your Plants
- Taking from the wild
- Buying from a dealer
- Getting plants home in one piece
- Achieving acclimation
- Plant Problems
- Signs of poor plant health
- Algae
- Medications
- Planting Techniques
- Chapter 17. Choosing Plant Species for Your Tank
- Foreground Plants
- Cryptocoryne (Cryptocoryne wendetti)
- Baby tears (Micranthemum umbrosum)
- Pearl grass (Hemianthus micranthemoides)
- Brazilian micro sword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis)
- Madagascar lace (Aponogeton fenestralis)
- Dwarf anubias (Anubias nana)
- Background Plants
- Hornwort (CeratopHyllum demersum)
- Corkscrew val (Vallisneria spiralis)
- Elodea (Egeria densa)
- Carolina fanwort (Cambomba caroliniana)
- Giant anubias (Anubias barteri)
- Red ludwigia (Ludwigia mullertii)
- Oriental sword (Echinodorus oriental)
- Amazon sword (Echinodorus amazonicus)
- Red-stem milfoil (MyriopHyllum matogrossensis)
- Stargrass (Heteranthera zosterifolia)
- Floating Plants
- Amazon frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum)
- Duckweed (Lemna minor)
- Pond Plants
- Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes)
- Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)
- Keeping It Real
- Chapter 18. What to Do if Trouble Strikes
- Fish Problems
- What to do until the pet store opens
- Restoring your tank
- Separating fighting fish
- Looking at the injured
- Solving the aggression problem
- Correcting Feeding Problems
- Getting your fish to eat
- Dislodging items eaten by your fish
- Equipment Problems
- Fixing a clogged filter
- Analyzing heater problems
- Lighting falling into the tank
- Exploding light bulbs
- Flickering lighting
- Tank Problems
- Checking for leaks
- Getting your fish to safety
- Repairing a small crack
- When an entire side of your aquarium breaks
- Water Problems
- Solving green algae problems
- Controlling chemical problems
- Cooling a tank that's too hot
- Warming a tank that's too cold
- Part IV. Breeding and Other Fun Stuff
- Chapter 19. The Breeding Room
- Deciding to Breed Your Aquarium Fish
- Breaking new barriers
- Gaining new knowledge and enjoyment
- Conserving the environment
- Choosing Your Equipment
- The aquarium
- Putting a lid on the whole thing
- Decorations
- Substrate
- Spawning grates
- Turning up the heat
- Filtration
- Plants for safety, spawning, and inspiration
- Getting the Water Right
- pH and dH control
- Water temperature
- Cleanliness
- Conditioning the Love Birds
- The way to the heart is through the stomach routine
- The old fake rainstorm trick
- The barometric pressure advantage
- The old change the temperature ploy
- The new guy next door approach
- The absence makes the heart grow fonder routine
- So What's Next?
- Chapter 20. Let's Spawn!
- Introducing the Bride and Groom
- Dealing with aggressive males
- Setting up the second date
- Yay, my fish really like each other!
- Darn, my fish hate each other!
- Understanding Breeding Types
- Livebearers
- The egglayers
- Saving Everyone from Everyone Else
- Saving Mom and Dad from Mom and Dad
- Saving the kids from Mom and Dad
- Saving the kids from each other
- Raising the Fry
- Stepping up to brine shrimp
- Giving them a real home
- Picking new stock
- Understanding Genetics
- Choosing the best
- Obtaining variation the good way
- Obtaining variation the bad way
- Creating strains through inbreeding
- Choosing the Right Species for You
- Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
- Convict cichlid (Archocentrus nigrofasciatus)
- Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare)
- A Few Final Tips
- Chapter 21. Recording Data and Photographing Fish
- Keeping a Log Book
- Photographing Your Fish the Old-Fashioned Way
- The camera
- The film
- Lenses
- Black and white and the darkroom
- Photographing Your Fish with Digital Photography
- Printing your work
- Computer-aided fish photography
- Lighting Techniques
- Focusing Techniques
- Composition Techniques
- Using the rule of thirds
- Panning the scene
- Setting up for close-ups
- The Photography Tank
- Building your own photography tank
- Using different backgrounds
- Chapter 22. Competing in Fish Shows
- Why Competing in Fish Shows Is Good for Your Fish
- Getting to Know the Shows
- Small shows
- Regional shows
- Open shows
- Exhibitions
- Understanding Competition Classes
- Getting Your Fish in Shape for the Show
- Swimming upright and smiling
- The holding tank
- Exhibiting Your Fish Properly
- Water conditions
- Tank considerations
- Judging Guidelines for Your Fish: Another Point of View
- Size and body weight
- Color and fins
- Overall condition
- Transporting Fish to and from a Show
- Remember to Have Fun
- Chapter 23. For the Advanced Aquarium Hobbyist
- Brackish Aquariums
- Saltwater Marine Aquariums
- Types of marine systems
- Marine invertebrates
- Comparing Freshwater and Saltwater Systems
- Adaptability
- Availability
- Cost
- Beauty and friendliness
- Equipment
- Part V. The Part of Tens
- Chapter 24. Ten Cool Aquarium Gadgets
- Aquarium Claws (Those Handy Picker-Upper Doodads)
- Algae Scrapers Are Fun to Use
- Why Owning One Net Doesn't Cut It
- A Tool Box for Storing Stuff
- Extra Tubing for Emergencies
- Aquarium Sealer (Flood Insurance)
- Gang Valves to Hook Up Neat Junk
- Buckets to Slosh Around In
- Multi-Outlet Plugs
- Razor Blades (the Miracle Cleaner)
- Chapter 25. Ten Ways to Kill Your Fish Without Even Trying
- Go Away on Vacation and Forget Them
- Play Doctor Without a License
- Give Your Cat a Sushi Bar
- Stuff Your Fish with Seven-Course Meals
- Mix Apples and Oranges
- Add Too Many Fish (the Shoehorn Syndrome)
- Don't Do Your Homework
- Let the Neighbor's Nasty Kid Play with Your Fish
- Become a Hypochondriac Hobbyist
- Buy Used or Cheap Equipment
- Chapter 26. Ten Scientific Fish Laws
- The Fish Law of Thermodynamics
- The Fish Law of Metamorphosis
- The Fish Law of Motion
- The Fish Law of Anti-Matter
- The Fish Law of Nutrition
- The Fish Law of Company
- The Fish Law of Potential Energy
- The Fish Law of Psychic Felines
- The Fish Law of Aggression
- The Fish Law of Time
- Chapter 27. Ten Aquatic New Year's Resolutions
- Feed the Fish
- Clean the Tank
- Reduce Celibacy
- Remove Algae
- Change the Filter Pads
- Turn on the Lights
- Use My Test Kits
- Pay Attention to My Fish
- Change the Airstones
- Redecorate the Tank
- Appendix. Tank Figures and facts
- How Big a Tank Should I Get?
- Conversions (and Other Useful Data)
- How Many Fish Can I Put in the Tank?
- How Much Gravel Can I Put in the Tank?
- Index