Can You Handle Big Saltwater Fishes?

One of the best things you can do to ensure your long – term saltwater aquarium success is to learn how to select the best and healthiest big saltwater fish. You should be selecting your big saltwater fish according to the right formula. Unfortunately, their people who get swayed by the newest brightest fish or coral in the shop and makes that impulse purchases. This scenario is the most commonly occurring mistake that even experienced aquarists make and then regret whenever they take big saltwater fish home.

One of the best things you can do to ensure your long-term saltwater aquarium success is to learn how to select the best and healthiest big saltwater fish. You should be selecting your big saltwater fish according to the right formula. Unfortunately, their people who get swayed by the newest brightest fish or coral in the shop and makes that impulse purchases. This scenario is the most commonly occurring mistake that even experienced aquarists make and then regret whenever they take big saltwater fish home.

Big Saltwater Fish: How to Select One

The reason intelligent selection is so important is that collection, transport, shipping, and multiple acclimation procedures are without a doubt the most stressful event in a big saltwater fish’s life. Up to 80% of wild-caught livestock die before they can even establish themselves in the home aquarium which is why it makes sense to learn how to choose the healthy ones and leave the rest in the pet store.

The second reason intelligent selection is critical relates to your tank; the ecosystem you have created and what you have living there.

Consider This!

Here are some crucial considerations with regards to your prospective new pet and your big saltwater fish tank:

• Available space in your tank, is there enough for the organism to be happy?
• Suitable habitat/s for your prospective pets
• Existing water parameters and light levels
• Availability of and ease of feeding any specialized foods
• Longevity in captive environments
• Compatibility with other species regarding territoriality, predation, toxicity, and chemical warfare

So, when it comes to selecting the right big saltwater fish, it all comes down to 2 things:

Adequate research on the species you want to ensure you choose something you can provide for easily and it will do well with your livestock and current tank environment. You need to go to pet stores and fish shops and choosing the best specimen available of your researched, chosen species. The second one is very important if you want to have a long – term thriving saltwater aquarium lies in the good upkeep of your tank.

Do Some Research

The purpose of your research is for you to create a plan. This “plan” is a written proposal, a blueprint of your tank outlining all species and equipment that will be the evolution of your tank over time. This plan is designed to be adhered to and abided by to ensure the long-term harmony and sustainability of your big saltwater fish aquarium.

Your plan should include a list of prospective species you want that are researched in terms the following:

• Care required (can you provide for them willingly?)
• Size (What’s the size of the big saltwater fish at purchase and at maturity compared to the size of your tank and how many species you currently have?)
• Diet (food and feeding, fish with difficult to provide for diets should be thought through very carefully before purchasing)
• Behavior of the big saltwater fish
• Set-up/water conditions required (additives, water movement, light levels)
• Compatibility with other big saltwater fishes (will they get along?)
• Degree of aggression/territoriality (if high will cause other species stress)
• Can they be kept in pairs or groups?

This planning will allow you to make intelligent choices where every other relationship in the tank is taken into consideration. It may seem like a lot of work but it only needs to be done once and is well worth the effort made.

Aquarium Maintenance

Keeping aquarium water conditions and the environment for your big saltwater fishes really is the secret to your success over the years. Having a well-maintained aquarium is the best thing you can do to avoid the problems that other less diligent aquarists often experience. This will save you time, money and the stress of replacing your marine pets.

If your aquarium is correctly set up your maintenance will in fact be less than for other pets such as cats or dogs. Saltwater aquarium maintenance can be easy and fast. Even though it is a chore, making a schedule and doing all the daily, weekly and monthly tasks when they need to be done will ultimately make life easier for you and greatly benefit your big saltwater fishes.

Factors to Consider

There are a few factors that influence the frequency and amount of maintenance that needs to be done in your aquarium. The first being what filtration you have in place; a canister biological filter will require more cleaning and checking than live rock which uses macro and microscope life to break down waste very effectively. Increasing biological load on your filtration system will require you do more cleaning, water quality testing and changing of media as will quantity and types of foods used, remember; overfeeding is the primary cause of poor water quality.

A marine aquarium maintenance schedule is the best way to stay on top of what needs to be done and when. If you have all the tasks written down in checklist form you can’t forget what needs to be done and it spaces out and breaks the maintenance up into easy chunks that you will quickly be able to get done. This is much better than trying to do everything all at once at the last minute. This schedule can include an aquarium log where you can record any details about your marine life, readings and levels this will really help you stay on top of what is going on with the workings of your aquarium.

Maintenance

Right, maintenance tasks can be broken up into daily, weekly and monthly chores:

• Daily tasks would be things like: checking on your marine life, your equipment and the temperature.
• Weekly tasks include: topping up evaporated water, water quality testing, checking filter and emptying protein skimmer cups.
• Monthly Tasks include: Partial water changes. You also need to add supplements.

Regular maintenance really is a must for a consistently healthy saltwater aquarium and even though it may seem like there is a lot to do, if you break it all up into a maintenance schedule it really becomes a series of short, manageable tasks that will save you and your big saltwater fishes a lot of problems in the long run.