Tips for the beginner aquarist.
A beginner aquarist, first of all, thinks about making their aquarium look beautiful. The idea of setting up an aquarium usually comes to them under the impression of seeing a nicely decorated and equipped tank at friends’ places, in aquarium exhibitions, or pet stores. But sooner or later, the beginner immediately faces a number of unforeseen phenomena that thoroughly ruin their initial optimistic mood and make them look for good advice.
As we know, everyone is eager to give advice. Very soon, the beginner starts noticing that they are given different, and sometimes contradictory, advice on the same issue. And it begins to seem like experienced aquarists are holding something back, keeping their experience a secret. Considering this bitter experience of previous generations of aquarium hobbyists, we advise beginners, first of all, to heed our following recommendations.
A beginner aquarist should not treat advice as something unquestionable, nor blindly and mindlessly copy it.
Those who are lured by the mysterious world behind the “glass shore” should not treat advice, instructions, or recommendations on fishkeeping as something indisputable, strictly mandatory, or unchanging, no matter how authoritative the source is. And certainly, they should not blindly and mindlessly copy everything down to the smallest detail based on the words of “experts”, hoping for the exact same success. Therefore, do not lose patience if at first not everything works out the way it is written in a book. In any hobby related to keeping animals, you can never foresee all the causes of potential troubles in advance. Even an aquarist who has been keeping fish for years is not guaranteed against failures and does not always know how to fix a situation.
We very often hear complaints (to some extent justified) about the lack of specialized literature on aquarium fishkeeping. At the same time, quite educated people completely forget to use the readily available knowledge that can be found in textbooks on biology, zoology, chemistry, botany, and geography. You can learn about the body structure and organs of fish, the biological features of their development, other inhabitants living alongside fish, algae and plants, the properties and hydrochemical composition of water, protozoan aquatic organisms and insects associated with life in water, and consequently with the life of fish, and much more from these textbooks. A knowledge of geography (climatic, geological, hydrochemical, and other features) of the places that are native to the fish now living in our aquariums can give an aquarist a great deal.
Of course, one should take advantage of the slightest opportunity to acquire specialized knowledge on fishkeeping from books, magazines, lectures, and other sources. The practical experience of aquarists, which has grown significantly in recent years, is of particular value. But one should never forget that in an aquarium we are dealing with living nature. And living organisms (fish, plants, etc.) tend to adapt significantly to new conditions over time in order to survive. That is why recommendations and advice from aquarists living in different cities and writing books (articles) at different times, but about the same fish, can differ noticeably. Therefore, any advice and recommendations require thoughtful application.
Failures in fishkeeping most often befall those who show excessive zeal.
Failures in fishkeeping most often befall those who show excessive zeal, constantly cleaning, re-washing, draining, pouring, catching, replanting, heating, cooling, acidifying, feeding “conscientiously” — in a word, engaging in frantic activity, thereby causing quite justified displeasure among family members due to the endless fuss with water. And the fish of such hobbyists get sick and die more often. Here is why.
For aquarium inhabitants, water is not just an abstract concept, but their habitat. And their life in the aquarium depends very heavily on the state of this environment. The body temperature of fish, and consequently the intensity of processes occurring in their organisms, depend almost entirely on the water temperature. Most species of fish breathe exclusively on oxygen dissolved in water, and a sharp decrease in dissolved oxygen can lead to very severe diseases.
To a large extent, the health of fish and other aquarium inhabitants depends on the chemical composition of the water and the amount of substances dissolved in it. The physical state of the water is also of no small importance for most fish. It is also necessary to consider that over time in an aquarium, if left alone, the vital interdependence of aquatic organisms becomes established: fish, plants, mollusks, and microscopic organisms that can only be seen with a magnifying glass or microscope (various bacteria, infusoria, amoebas, rotifers, etc.). Life in the aquarium will begin to resemble life in a natural body of water to some extent, and a state known as biological equilibrium will set in.
However, organism adaptation cannot happen over a short period of time. Sometimes more than one generation passes before fish brought from distant natural waters can be “accustomed” to life in our aquariums. Impatience is the main enemy of the aquarium. A sharp change in the nature of the habitat in the aquarium causes a lot of harm to its inhabitants. Fish tolerate a complete water change just as painfully, especially if they have lived in water with different hydrochemical parameters for a long time. And some plants respond to a sharp change in water composition by dropping their leaves.
That is why, if one must interfere in the life of the aquarium, it should be done subtly and naturally. Animals and plants in our home tank feel better the less and less frequently we disturb them. One can imagine how difficult it is for fish and plants if such shocks are repeated too often. Does this mean that once an aquarium is set up, we can hope that everything will go smoothly and our intervention will not be needed at all? No, that won’t work.
It is quite possible that for some time the aquarium will more or less match your expectations. But then, quite imperceptibly, unplanned changes will begin to occur. This is hardly surprising, because your aquarium contains living creatures that cannot possibly remain unchanged. As they change themselves, they continuously change the surrounding environment. Fish, snails, and other aquarium inhabitants release metabolic products into the water. As a result of the decomposition of organic substances (excrement, decaying food, dying plants, etc.), proteins accumulate in the water and constantly break down through bacterial processes.
When there are few such substances and they are removed from the aquarium during water changes with fresh water, the effect of these substances is unnoticeable. But if you stop caring for the aquarium, a serious disruption of biological equilibrium can occur — fish poisoning. The water in such an aquarium smells bad, and the fish suffocate.
There is another danger for the inhabitants of a neglected aquarium. One way or another, fish begin to get used to living in oxygen-poor water and to the indicators of “old water”. But a moment comes when the owner gets tired of the look of such a neglected aquarium, and all family members and visiting friends draw attention to this “swamp”. Then the owner is forced to drain the “old water”, wash the plants, sand, and all decorations, and set up the aquarium anew. Everything sparkles with cleanliness and looks beautiful. And the fish? And the plants? For them, a sharp change in habitat, chemical, gaseous, and qualitative water composition will be an unbearable blow. After all, they got used to the “swamp” slowly, over months, but were put into fresh water all at once.
Slovenliness is the enemy of the aquarium. The “old water” theory.
Quarantine of newly acquired fish. Quarantine and treatment aquarium. 
