Add a dash of green...

A bare aquarium with fishes but no plants is like a house without a kitchen: fully furnished but unliveable. Only plants bring that magical feeling of calm and nature to the aquarium. Most aquarists know this but are helpless when their freshly purchased plants become fodder for the fish or the leaves turn brown and wither.

The trick to get it right is in choosing fishes that don't eat plants. Easier said than done, but there are a number of fishes that keep off plants. Ask the pet shop dealer and he will help. Then get the plants right. Don't go for the fancy cobomba, Amazon sword leaf, which are pretty demanding in terms of light, nutrients and water conditions. Select vallesneria or hydrilla or some other plants, which are non-demanding. You should have substrate that is at least four inches deep at the rear, so that plants can grow roots. Plant them in such a way that the crown is out and the roots are in. If you cannot afford expensive lighting, place your aquarium at a place where sunlight streaks can reach for at least an hour.

Watch your plants grow, bubbling with life.

~S.N.

The gravel...

Years ago, the only gravel aquarists in India used was the white marble chip pieces which in time turned ugly green or brown. Then they moved on to sand, which tended to compact and was a pain to clean up. With Internet, snazzy pet shops and loads of aquarium books, things have changed for the better.

The choice of gravel or substrate that you want to use depends upon what you want to do with your aquarium. If you just like to see fish frolic in the water with an airstone and filter to clean up the poop, then you can go for fancy sand that has 7-9 mm rounded grains. Switch on the fluorescent tube and the sand begins to shimmer and shine. But, don't even think of plants if this sand is to your taste.

If you think plants, then you have to learn a bit of chemistry. True aquatic plants require nutrition and they draw it from water, but the chemistry of the substrate does affect the plant growth. The sand grains have to be big enough not to compact and small enough to let the roots grow. The sand is a neutral medium, plants need macro and micro nutrients. Only if these nutrients are made available the expensive plants that you buy from the pet shops will survive.

~S.N.

Lighting solutions...

"And God said let there be light. And there was light." But light is not such an easy affair in an aquarium. It depends on what you want to do, how you want the aquarium to look and what you want to keep in the aquarium. The incandescent lamp is out of the question.

If you want to stock goldfish and show off their gold and red colours, the best bet is what pet shop vendors sell: the Hitachi tubes which have a reddish glow. Switch on a single tube or a double if your aquarium is large and the ordinary looking goldfish start glittering. This type of light runs cool and doesn't raise the temperature of water.

Think plants, and the ballgame of light is altogether different. Plants require light with properties that are close to natural light and for the same duration as in nature. Try to Google information on light for aquatic plants and you will end up with loads of jargon. Stick to tubelights, increase their number, keep the window or door open to let sunlight filter in for a few hours, and your plants will grow. If you are rich, your aquarium is big and you have lots of space then try out metal halide lamps that will really replicate sunlight. The range starts at Rs. 1,670 for a 70-watt unit.

~S.N.

The Water...

Most aquarists know the basics of water, but not enough to have a good aquarium going. What they know is not use tap water for their aquarium as it is chlorinated and they should use water from either a borewell or a well. A little more information can do a world of good to your fish.

First thing first. Tap water is the best source of water if you let it stand for 24 hours with an aerator. Borewell water is a bad choice as it is hard water, untreated, and can contain a lot of impurities that affect the fish and plants in a negative way.

Tap water, on the other hand, is soft water, treated, and does not contain impurities that hurt plants and fishes except the chlorine that can be removed mechanically with an aerator or with some chemicals that are available at pet shops.

The impurities in borewell water can range from the usual calcium carbonate, magnesium, phosphorous, nitrites and other chemicals are destructive as they affect fish and plants by disrupting their physiology. Urea and nitrites are usually found dissolved in borewell water in urban areas. High levels of these chemicals can kill the fishes as well as the plants. If dissolved phosphorous levels are high, there will be an algal bloom that would be difficult to control.

Tap water on the other hand does not have many dissolved chemicals so it is a good base to start with and you have control over water.

~S.N.

The Right Fish...

"My fish keep dying every few days." "My fish keep fighting." "My fish eat up all the expensive plants." These are some of the groans of amateur aquarists. No one reason for the litany of problems but ignorance is not bliss when it comes to keeping fish.

Most beginning aquarists overfeed their fish killing them with their love. In the wild, fish have to be greedy to survive, but when kept in an aquarium they should be fed only once or twice a day with enough feed that they can finish in five minutes. Anything less, they will be fine, anything more, they will float belly up. Just like humans, all fish are not born equal. Some are born to fight. The Siamese fighter painfully kept in 500-ml bottles is what its name suggests. Some fishes are friendly, some aren't. Some need to be kept in pairs, some in groups and some singly. Ask your pet shop vendor to tell you how to keep them and you will avoid the nip, nibble and chase your neighbour game in your glassbox.

Plants cost as much as fish. Fish tug at roots of plants only when they are bored or when they are goldfish or carps.

Some fish are omnivorous meaning they will eat everything in the aquarium, but set up a habit of feeding them and hopefully you would have weaned them for life from eating plants. Hopefully.

~S.N.

The equipment...

Once you have selected a big aquarium and a sweet spot away from the elements, you have to get the equipment right.

Aquarium equipment doesn't mean the lone air stone pitiably releasing small bubbles, you can turn into a gizmo freak just for your glassed water with fishes.

Just check them out: a timer to regulate the time light is switched on and off, a filter that takes out the water and cleans and pumps it back, an under-gravel filter and a filter heater, a chiller, fluorescent lamps, the right gravel for plants, bogwood... and the list goes on.

But hey, don't get intimidated, you can get started with the aquarium, air stone and fishes. The other stuff can come later.

An aquarium is a home for your fishes and a centrepiece of your home. You wouldn't want your fishes to suffer, so get them the best. Buy the best, a big air pump is better than a small one, an internal water filter will do fine, what you need to splurge on is the lighting.

Most aquarium manufacturers don't go deeper than 18 inches, but they make wide aquariums. So, depending on the width and the length you can opt to have two or more aquarium fluorescent lamps and watch your plants grow when you plant them.

~S.N.

The basics

Come June and Hyderabad wakes up to the fish medicine dispensed by the Bathini Goud brothers. And yet another bunch will doubt the efficacy of murrel fingerlings packed with yellowish stuff to cure asthma. But, there is another kind of fish therapy that can give you joy and happiness throughout the year. What's more, it will also balance the yin and yang in your home and let the chi flow in the right direction.

Yep. We are talking about fishes and aquariums of the freshwater kind. Keep one in your house and it will turn into a home. We will take you through the basics to make you a happy aquarist.

First the aquarium and the size. The bigger the better. Remember the Pink Floyd song: We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year... Your fish should not sing the same song. So, your aquarium should be big, the shape and size you like (no fish bowls please). Find a spot where there is no direct sunlight or where the sun's rays fall for an hour.

It should be away from doors and windows, protected from cold draughts and hot air. Get a strong stand, you can get your neighbourhood welder to mould one with thermacole base. Now, you are ready.

~ S.N.

First-hand info and tips

Maintaining an aquarium is a hassle if you don't know the right things to be done at the right time. Being the proud owners to two huge aquariums at home, with lots of babies born last week and floating around merrily to bring in the Christmas spirit, we were sure we would be of some help to other aquarists.

Our aim, therefore, is to provide you with first-hand info and tips to enthusiastic aquarists (both beginners and pros) on how to maintain an aquarium.