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Freshwater Fish Compatibility Chart
Always wondered which fish can live with others? Are angefish campatible with Mollies?
This chart will help you work out which fish can live with each other, but remember it will depend on your own freshwater aquarium environment your fish live in, how many of the fish are together and many other factors but the compatibility chart will serve as a good guide to start with.
Source: thereefshop
What kind Aquarium do you want?
You are setting out on the freshwater side of the hobby or why else would you be here…right? This site wll go though the processes to set up your aquarium, but before we go to far into freshwater aquariums lets have a quick glimpse what you may want move into after you mastered the basic freshwater aquarium guide.
The aquarium hobby has three basic systems:
- Freshwater System
- Saltwater System
- Brackish System
The fish, plants, equipment, tanks and management will be different for each type of system. We will discuss over the next few articles a brief overview of each type of set up and give you ideas of initial set up cost, difficultly level, space considerations and availability of speices.
Freshwater Systems
freshwater aquariums are the most commonly practiced hobby and ideal for a beginner for a few reasons:
A freshwater system is not quite as expensive as a saltwater aquarium- Saltwater aquariums require additional equipment and genrally larger tanks.
- Freshwater fish are generally cheaper than marine fish- its always better to work wth less expensive fish an buying exensice fish and lsing them.
- Freshwater fish are generally more ready available from most aquarium shops than the marine fish- Marine fish are more sensitive to water conditions than freshwater fish which can have a more varied water conditions and still survive.
- Generally freshwater fish breed more easily- you may have the opportunity to sell yout fih back to your local fish shop.
- You can have more fish- With the same size tank you can keep more freshwater fish than you could mariine fish.
Freshwater systems can come in two types either tropical or coldwater.
Freshwater Tropical Aquariums
A freshwater tropical aquarium offers huge numbers of variety for both fish and plants and will give you endless ideas for your aquarium. Most tropical fish are easy to keep and very inexpensive which is why they are ideal for the beginner hobbyist. There is plenty of ready available kits for sale at your local fish shop which will include, tank,hood,light,filter and heater but these sets will exclude fish,plants and gravel but can be brought seperately.
Freshwater Coldwater Aquariums
These fish will come from colder waters than there tropical cousins, kits can be brought much alike the tropical kit, but they will not have any heater. Tanks or ponds will need to be larger as the fish are largr and consume more oxygen.
When keeping freshwater coldwater aquariums the room temperature they are kept in is important, as a warm room will heat up the tank. Generally getting fish for this setup is difficult except for goldfishsoyou may have to source though the internet to find the fish you want.
Marine Systems
The saltwater used for these type of aquariums is normally made form combining freshwater and a manufactured salt. A good filtration system is required in marine tanks as the fish require higher oxygen levels and lower ammonia levels.
Its recommended before you start out with saltwater aquariums is that you have basic knowledge with freshwater aquariums, you can actually go straight to saltwater aquariums but they are expensive and a little mistake could put you off aquariums for good.
You may want take a look at Saltwater Aquarium Guide to have a better understanding of whats required.
Brackish Systems
The brackish aquarium is the least popular of the three types of aquariums because they are hard to find at your local fish shop and generally they are more expensive than freshwater fish.The water in a brackish aquarium lies some where between the other two in terms of salt content.
The equipment is the same as a freshwater aquarium system but the plants are different as they need tolerate a brackish system.
History of Fish Keeping
Originally fish were kept in captivity not for pleasure but for practical reasons, as a food source. The development of fishkeeping as a hobby began when, out of curiosity, usually colored specimens were isolated from the main stock and then selectively bred. In China, particularly, early aquarist started to produce tank-bred carp in large numbers, not just with enhanced coloration but also with specific body and fin adaptations. By the 16th century, colored carp had been introduced to Japan. Within the next hundred years they had reached Europe, and by 1900 the Goldfish had made it to America.
THE BIRTH OF AQUARIA
It was probably in the early 19th century that the aquarium as we know it first came into being. Before then, there are only a few records of fish being kept alive for several years in glass jars. The turning point came in 1850, when a Mr R. Harrington presented a paper to the Chemical Society in London, England, describing how he had successfully maintained a stable aquarium. This sparked great interest, launching fishkeeping as a popular hobby.
In 1852, the London Zoological Society began building the first public aquarium, which was opened the following year. A second facility followed, in the Surrey Zoological Gardens, also in England, and before long public aquaria was established in all the major cities of Europe, their novel freshwater and marine exhibits drawing a steady stream of intrigued visitors.
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