Advice on Keeping Marine Fish

Hi,

If you are new to the aquarium hobby or thinking about becoming a keeper of all things fishy you have come to the right place.

Aquarists are a funny lot. Some are dedicated to the extreme and others just want to have a little bit of nature in their home. Which ever you are it is a wonderful hobby to be involved in.

Now you have entered the marine section of our store which caters for all manner of saltwater organisms from fish to corals and the multitude of other invertebrates that live in the ocean let us give you some advice...

Marine aquaria are undoubtedly harder to keep than freshwater aquaria due mainly to the fact the animals live in a pristine environment where water conditions remain constant. Water quality is the single most important thing that will decide if you are a stayer in the hobby or are simply passing through to be gone in twelve months or less and be out of pocket by a thousand dollars or more.

We cannot emphasize this strongly enough. If you do not have the time because of work or any other reason to maintain the water parameters diligently then you should consider a freshwater tropical aquarium or maybe even reptiles which are fast becoming a favourite due to their low maintenance.

Also if your budget is tight already and you are always going to be going for the cheap option for whatever reason then we again strongly suggest you look elsewhere for that new interest because you are not going to be in this one very long. This can be a wonderful exciting experience or a journey of despair and disappointment and unfortunately money does make a difference to whether you succeed or fail.

O.K. So you still want to give it a try. Good. Your journey will be exciting and very rewarding. Their will of course be ups and downs but that is what this hobby is all about. We have all had a bad experience or two and so will you sooner or later.

The first thing you should know there is no hard and fast rule about how to make the perfect marine aquarium work. What works for one person will not necessarily work for the next person.

However, there are few rules we believe you must adhere to have success.

FIRST RULE
Do your water tests every week without fail. And by this we mean YOU test the water yourself so you know the result. Water testing is easy and fun to do. We are only too happy to show you how to do it.

IF YOU DON'T FEEL ABLE TO DO THIS EASY TASK WE SUGGEST YOU TAKE UP ANOTHER HOBBY BECAUSE THAT IS THE EASIEST THING IN THIS HOBBY.

WE WISH TO MAKE A SPECIAL POINT HERE. IN THE PAST FEW YEARS IT HAS BECOME COMMON PRACTICE FOR SOME SHOPS TO DO FREE WATER TESTING. BRING YOUR WATER IN AND GET IT TESTED FOR FREE!!! WOW! SOUNDS GREAT.

BUT LIKE MOST THINGS THERE IS A CATCH. THIS IS JUST A GIMMICK TO GET YOU INTO THE SHOP EVERY WEEK WHERE YOU WILL PROBABLY BUY SOMETHING IN THEIR SHOP AND NOT SOMEWHERE ELSE .

Also if you do have test kits and two fish die and it is 7pm at night when you notice there is a problem you can find the cause straight away. And take remedial action. Otherwise you have to wing it and do a water change and hope all the fish are still alive in the morning so you can get your water tested on the way home from work. Oops forgot to get that water sample before you left for work. Too bad.

This is one of those money spends you have to make. If you cannot afford it see previous note above.

SECOND RULE
Buy a good not too complicated book which explains the basics of water chemistry and why it is so important and read it about four times.

This is going to be the first stepping stone to your success.

We have a couple of real good books that will give you that start.

Again if you think you can get it off the internet for free you are thinking of saving $40-$50 dollars and that means you are thinking cheap again and that means ????

The internet is useful if you want to type in the name of a fish you want know about but it is full of blog sites giving all conflicting information probably written by people with no credibility at all. To get a book published you usually have some sound knowledge. Arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can.

THIRD RULE
Be aware that not everyone has your best interests at heart.

This seems confusing to the novice but it is true. One would naturally think a retailer would point you in the right direction so you would remain a customer for years to come.

Seems completely logical and it should be. But this is sadly not always the case.

This is another one of those money things we keep harping on. Sorry.

But if you have a limited budget and you make this obvious you will sometimes be sold an inferior set-up to get money in the till and you will almost certainly fail and be lost to the hobby.

In the past few years there have been great advances in keeping a marine aquarium successfully.

We have been keeping aquaria for over thirty years and in the early days marine aquaria were very difficult even for the die hards and we have seen the remarkable changes happen.

In the early days we used undergravel filters and canister filters.

In those days live coral was not collected and all we had were dead pieces of white staghorn coral. When powerheads were added to the undergravel filter it made it easier but still it was not that uncommon for someone to come in and say “went to bed and everything was fine but when i woke up everything was dead”.

Ah yes. The good old days.

Then in the late eighties wet dry filters emerged and straight away it was much easier to keep the fish alive. They are excellent ammonia and nitrite converters. And straight away those wipeouts could be avoided. It was a revolution.

Through the nineties more advances were made in test kits being made simple and cheap. So everyone could afford to keep their water quality good. And the biggest change was the lighting.

Better metal halides designed especially for the requirements of corals. As well as t5 and compact lights. It was all becoming so easy to us. Then in the past decade refugiums and plenums have been very successful in largely replacing wet/dry filters which had the drawback of nitrate production. This is more of a problem in reef aquaria than in fish only systems.

If you interest is in the fish only there is a much wider choice of fish to keep and the lighting and filtration are not as important, however we still recommend a wet/dry filter. Canister filters did not work in the 70's and 80's and they are an inferior choice no matter how good the brand.

Well, if you are still not afraid of trying come in and see us.

A special mention here. Those budget conscious people are often sold small set-ups with inferior internal filters and poor lighting. We are constantly seeing people with freshwater aquarium all in one units come in with problems and when we explain that it is not

Going to work in the long term and the deaths of corals and fish will continue they are very disappointed they have wasted their money.

There are small all in one units with proper lighting and small protein skimmers but they cost accordingly. These are very good for seahorses or a couple of clownfish and a small fish or two.

Before we go as a last mention. You can not cram too many fish into a marine tank or it will fail. Many a time in the past twelve months we have heard of 10 or more fish going into a tank at the one time. We hear about it because they come and tell us because they have multiple deaths within a day or two.

Ok. It was a second last mention. The last mention is do not buy uncured live rock. Lately people are being sold uncured rock and they apparently believe it will make the system work better or so they are told. What they are not told is the smell will be atrocious and they will be pulling dead bristleworms and crabs and sponges out for a week of course not having to cure the rock would save us money and time but we do not sell it.

With all of the above in mind ...

One of the main advantage of a saltwater aquarium is that you will be able to keep a wide range of extraordinarily beautiful fish that can not be kept in freshwater aquariums. Examples of popular saltwater fish are Damsels, Lionfish, Clownfish, Triggerfish, Blennies, Butterfly fish and marine Angelfish.

When you set up your first saltwater aquarium it is advisable to begin with some of the sturdier marine fish species. Damsels are good beginner fish since they are tougher than many other marine fish species. They are also comparatively inexpensive. Damsels are frequently used as cycling fish by experienced saltwater aquarists when setting up a new aquarium. You should however keep in mind that Damsel fish are quite aggressive and unsuitable tank mates for a wide range of other saltwater species.