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.