Keeping nano saltwater fish tanks is challenging due to their inherent complications. For example, it is much harder to keep the
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Livestock Management
Saltwater aquaria offer opportunities to have some fun with--and test our skills in--many different areas. For example, we are chemists of sorts when we test and manipulate water parameters. We are engineers and technicians when we build/operate equipment. We are artists when we aquascape. But across the board, the one reason that we all really love to keep aquaria is to keep animals. Thus, one’s biggest role as an aquarist is as a zoologist and zookeeper. Properly managing aquarium livestock (especially reef aquarium livestock) itself requires a head for many hats. Though we collectively refer to ourselves as mere hobbyists, the typical reef aquarist is of a pretty impressive cut of cloth. With relatively meager resources, no formal training in marine biology or aquacultural technology, little direct assistance and oftentimes very, very little time, aquarists pull off seemingly impossible feats like breeding/rearing rare fish species, cultivating corals, etc. And, these successes never arise from lucky accident; rather, they are the fruit of calculated livestock management. Yes, livestock management involves handling. But it also entails so much more. To start, managing a community of captive reef animals requires planning (and lots of it). In the very least, after some forethought as to what sort of environment the aquarium will provide, the aquarist should carefully select (based on thorough research) aquarium species based on suitability for that environment. Then, almost as importantly, the keeper should plan the order in which each animal will be added to the system. Even so, one should know in advance everything they’ll need to know about the animal before acquiring it. Examples of issues include special requirements regarding acclimation or quarantine, diet, placement, special sensitivities, etc. In this this section you will learn how to prepare for and care for your valuable collection of animals.
32 Posts
Keeping Mushroom Anemones
No one starts a saltwater aquarium because they hate challenges. Indeed, it is the difficulty (or at least perceived difficulty) of
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Keeping the Striped Blenny (Meiacanthus grammistes)
There are a lot of blennioid fishes--something to the tune of like 900 species in 151 genera. Lots and lots of these are available
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Acclimating Captive Bred Invertebrates
Aquarists like to broadly divide classes of aquarium livestock into two big groups, the fishes and the invertebrates. The second group
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How to Acclimate Your Captive Bred Fish
Acclimation to a new aquarium home is a particularly stressful time in the life of any kind of captive fish. Like all aquatic animals,
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Unique Algae Eaters for your Aquarium
Even though battling algae is best done by finding and solving the underlying nutrient or lighting issue, it certainly doesn’t hurt to
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Most Beautiful Saltwater Fish for Aquariums
Most people in the reef or saltwater aquarium hobby can agree that it is the fish that attracted them to the hobby in the first place.
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Unique Symbiotic Relationships
It seems like every beginner aquarists’ dream nowadays. They set up the tank, cycle it, and want a pair of clownfish to start out with
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How to Choose Healthy Saltwater Fish
One of the most exciting parts of fish keeping is going down to your local aquarium store, browsing through their selection of fish,
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Dealing With Aggressive Tank Mates
One of the most important aspects to think about when adding new fish to your aquarium is the aggression from your established
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A Look at the Harlequin Shrimp
It is probably safe to say that the majority of aquarists (especially marine aquarists) are initially awestruck by the visual impact
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Utilizing the Trochus Snail (Trochus spp.)
Algae, of course, is not an inherently bad thing; without it, the natural world could not exist as we know it. However, there are many
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