Sad Fish

The most important consideration when keeping fish is the fish themselves. These live animals are totally dependant on you to keep them alive and healthy. They demand the right care and respect, and it is your duty to offer them the best conditions that you can.

Don’t stock too quickly

A common no-no. If you stock your tank too quickly, there will be insufficient bacteria to cope with the amount of waste being produced, and ammonia and nitrite will build up to toxic levels.

When you have a newly set-up tank, the choice in aquatic shops can be overwhelming. It is all too tempting to fill it with fish within days, but you must resist and cycle the tank first.

Cycling means maturing the tank by leaving it for days or weeks before adding fish.

In this time, beneficial bacteria will increase in number, covering all the surfaces inside the tank from the glass to the gravel to the filter media.

Bacteria can be added when you first set up the tank, giving it a kick-start into maturation.

Maturation products will either add live bacteria direct to the water or create a flock which offers a slimy home where the bacteria can live and multiply.

While bacteria are growing, water quality can change rapidly from being clear of ammonia to being high in ammonia and then nitrite.

You must not add fish within this time because they will probably die, poisoned by the ammonia and nitrite – yet the bacteria rely on ammonia produced by fish to increase in number.

Ammonia is food for bacteria, but toxic to fish. Fishless cycling is another way of feeding the bacteria with ammonia, but not exposing fish to it.

Raw ammonia (available from DIY stores and some chemists) can be added daily to feed the bacteria and make them grow in number before you add any fish.

The point at which they consume all the ammonia every day, leaving none behind, is when you add fish.

Another way of doing it is to add Waterlife Biomature or its equivalents, available from aquatic shops. A new tank takes at least six weeks to fully mature, and should be stocked slowly in that time.