Tips to Ensure Success with Your New Aquarium

The creation and maintenance of a truly remarkable, vibrant, entertaining and healthy aquarium hosted by a plethora of color, diversity and personality is of the utmost importance to the aquarist, even before this ordeal carries out. Establishing guidelines, plans and safeguards while researching and reading either online articles, spending time on any of the myriad of aquarium forum sites available or through purchasing of one or more excellent books on the market regarding the aquarium hobby will increase your chances of success. One of the main reasons for the demise of a fish, invertebrate or coral is attributed to our poor selection of a healthy specimen.

So what does this mean? We, as conscientious aquarists, can never be too careful when it comes to making the right choice to ensure that what we purchase has a fighting chance at life within a closed system in our aquarium. This whole concept of whether or not, we have made the right choice, can be separated into different categories that will ultimately be linked to each other and interchangeable as well. Will this new livestock be compatible with the livestock I have at home? Have I inspected the livestock to decrease the chances of it dying in short time, or transferring a disease or parasite to my healthy livestock. Moreover, have I checked to ensure that the risk of introducing unwanted hitchhikers into my aquarium has been minimized. What about the other animals that reside in the same tank as that which I wish to purchase...are their any signs of distress, or other ill favored characteristics that could pose a problem to the livestock i wish to buy? It should also be mentioned that proper equipment should also be added to the mix(tank size, lighting, and filtration) along with your experience level and maturity of the tank.

As you can see, their are alot of details that should be first and foremost addressed before you even get the livestock home to add to your aquarium. Again, I want to reiterate that the prime selection of a HEALTHY specimen is the key to a favorable display provided by the animal you plan on purchasing. Not only that but the risks associated with purchasing an animal in question either due to your feeling and devotion to the particular animal, spur of the moment purchase and/or purchasing without thoroughly thinking about the purchase and observing and inspecting the animal. Failure to adhere to these aspects of selecting the right animal as well as a healthy specimen can prove more disastrous than you realize, especially down the road.

For example, say you decide to purchase some live rock for a marine aquarium. Without properly selecting and inspecting the rock you quickly decide on the pieces and get them home and in your tank. Without realizing it you end up having a Mantis Shrimp in your tank without realizing it, dismissing the loud clicks or death of some of your invertebrates and fish to nothing more than an imbalance in your water parameters. How about the scenario where you see a nice Angelfish and neglecting the telling signs that the fish is stressed and has ICH, you buy the fish anyway. You get the fish home and into your tank only to realize that in a couple of days, your other fish are now infected with the ICH infection, opening up another can of worms. Another good example is the purchase of a fish that is showing signs of elevated breathing, lethargic behavior and showing little signs of interest in you looking at the fish, but you buy it anyway since you like the fish, feel sorry for it or their isn't much to choose from and you want to buy something. A day or so later you are wondering where it is, only to find out that it has since died and remains at the bottom of your tank hidden in the rock and decorations, thus allowed to degrade your water quality, through increased ammonia and nitrites among other things.

The journey begins with the right path being followed and this starts with the selection of healthy livestock, hands down! Anyone who feels that this is not pertinent is making a grave mistake that could lead to the demise of all their livestock, much as what happens without wipe out from New Tank Syndrome or the death of a Sea Cucumber or Sea Apple. I can assure you disbelievers that selection is such a major factor in achieving and obtaining what we aquarists set out to accomplish and that is a healthy, beautiful and entertaining aquarium.

Take the time to do it right and go slow and you will reap the benefits of maintaining an aquarium!