Hole In Head Disease

Signs: Signs of hole in the head disease include, red mark on fish's head, whole in head, dent in fish's head.

Threat Level: Can be fatal

Causes: Poor water quality, stress

Cures: Cures for hole in head disease include salt treatments, water changes, medications.

Prevention: Hole in the head disease can be prevented by keeping good water quality, make sure the filtration is good, and the stress is low!

Fin Rot Disease

Signs: Signs of fin rot include torn fins, ripped, no fins.

Threat Level: Can kill fish and spread to other fish.

Causes: Cause of fin rot include: stress and poor water quality.

Cures: To cure fin rot, the are several things that you can do! Firstly, assure that you tank has clean water; and that the stress level is low! You can treat fin rot with salt treatments, which I recommend as first treatment, and then if needed you may use fish medications!

Prevention: To prevent fin rot, basically maintain you tank! Make sure that you tank has good filtration, clean water, no excessive feeding, no bullying, and just is a stress free environment for your fish!

Pop Eye Disease

Signs: Appears as a swollen eye, eye coming out of head!

Threat Level: Don't always lead to death, but can lead to blind, or loss of eye!

Causes: Causes of pop eye are improper water quality, bulling, and stress.

Cures: When Curing pop eye, first make sure that your have good water quality with clean, ammonia free water! Pop eye can be treated with Epsom salt, 2 teaspoons per gallon. If caused by bullying, its best to separate bullied fish, then treat!

Prevention: To prevent pop eye, simply keep clean water. Also reduce bulling in your tank as much as possible!

Bloat Disease

Signs: Signs of bloat include swollen stomach, heavy breathing, slow movement, laying still and lack of appetite!

Threat Level: Bloat is a disease that can kill that individual fish so it can be very serious!

Causes: Bloat is basically fish constipation! Caused by a different reasons; stress being the most common. Other causes can be improper diet, and improper water quality!

Cures: Bloat disease have a number of treatments. I recommend going with the natural treatments, which is Epsom salt. I use Epsom salt to cure my fish infected with bloat and see results the very next day!  Its best to use 2 teaspoons per gallon when using Epsom salt! Another good natural treatment is tinned pea's that have been proved to help with bloated fish.
         The other option for curing bloat disease is medicated treatments. However I would only  recommend this after trying natural treatments because it is more of a risk with the affects on your fish, also its less expensive!

Prevention: To prevent bloat, its best to keep your fish in a stress free tank. Make sure that there is minimum bulling and your tank, keep your tank clean and comfortable for your fish as well. Also make sure your fish is on a stable. appropriate  diet!

Ich Disease (White Spot Diseases)

Common Names: Ich disease, ich disease, white spot disease

Signs:  Signs that your tank has been infected with the ick disease are: tiny white spots on fish fins and body; fish scratching or rubbing against rocks or other aquarium ornaments.


Threat Level: Ick has a very high threat level because it is very contagious. One fish being affected can quickly lead to every fish in your tank affected, which can than lead to every fish in your tank or most dying.

Causes: Ick is often caused by introducing a new fish to your tank that has the parasite, which eventually spreads. It can also be caused by high levels of stress  in a tank.
Cures: Curing ich disease takes patience and diligence! You have 2 options for curing ich, natural treatment of medicated; I always prefer natural treatment because its less stress for the fish and the over all aquarium.
       For natural treatment of ich, the first thing to do is raise the temperature of your tank to 82F -86F degrees. This speeds the live stage of ich and cause the parasite to detach from your fish and now are free swimming. The next thing to do is to add aquarium salt to your tank, 3teaspoons per gallon, which kills the parasite. 24 hours later, preform a 50 percent water change. Repeat the salt treatment again, followed by another water change! Continue treating your tank after a week of not seeing disease!
       For medicated treatment, its best to raise the temperature as well. Follow the directions given by the medication carefully. Be sure to do frequent water changes. Don't end treatment until a week after disease leaves!
Prevention: To prevent ich disease, it is very important to observe every fish before adding it into your tank. Pay attention and make sure you don't see any signs of ich on a fish before getting it. Also before adding new fish into main tank is best to keep them separated in a smaller tank so that you can watch for signs of disease. Also try to keep stress level to a minimum.

Fish Diseases

          In Every hobby, there are ups and downs. In fish keeping, one of the major downs is diseases! When your fish catches a disease, it’s very miserable to watch them.  However there are many ways to prevent diseases including keeping up with your tank maintenance routine! Some common diseases are listed below:

 

Ick/Ich (White Spot Disease) : Ick disease, also known as Ich and White Spot Disease is a disease that appears on fish as tiny white spots on fish fins and body.  Ich is a parasite that attaches to your fish. Ich enters into your aquarium from new additions to that tank that have the disease, or from high levels of stress.  Symptoms of ick include tiny white spots on fish and fish rubbing and scratching.

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Bloat: Bloat is a disease where your fish appears to have a swollen stomach. Bloat comes from high levels of stress and improper feeding.  Symptoms of bloat include bloated stomach and excessive breathing.

More Info

 

Popeye: Pop eye is a disease where your fish’s eyes appear swollen! Causes of pop eye are bad water quality and stress. Symptoms include swollen eye of fish!

More Info

 

Fin Rot: Fin rot appears on your fish as the fins of your fish torn or ripped and rotting. Causes of fin rot are aggression, overcrowded conditions and stress. Symptoms include fins turning white, fins torn, or fins rotting!  

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Hole in Head: Disease that appears as a hole in fish’s head. Caused from bad water quality and improper diet. Symptoms include hole in fishes head or dark mark on fish.
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Aquascaping

          Aquascaping a fish tank is the part of fish keeping where you can be creative and make an environment that you and your fish can enjoy!      
         Aquascaping is the actual designing of your tanks interior looks. When you aquascape your tank, it is very important to not only make it enjoyable in your view, but also in your fish's view. Create a living environment that is expectable for your fish to live in comfortably, while at the same time look good for viewers!
    
  When designing your tank, its best to make your fish comfortable. To do so, be sure to add plenty of aquarium plants, caves, and others places for your fish to hide when they need to! Aquarium caves don't always have to be bought! You can use natural tank decorations like rocks and driftwood to create your own caves.
   
       The easiest way in my opinion to aquascape a fish tank is by trying to imitate your fish's natural environment.  If your fish natural live around plants, try to design your tank with plenty of plants! If your fish live naturally in rocky underwater areas, add plenty of rocks to the tank. Imitating a fish's natural environment can not only be pleasing to the fish, but also to viewers as well.

 So overall, when aquascaping and designing your aquariums, be creative. Make sure you satisfy your fish needs and your own! Below are photo's Of my tanks and there aquascapes:

1#: Below are two photos of my African Cichlid Tank. African cichlids come from the Great Vift lakes in Africa. There natural environment has many of rocks; so I filled my tank with lots of rocks, a few plants, and a sandy bottom!



2#: Below are two pictures of my American cichlid tank, hold cichlids from  South and Central America. I designed my tank to match south American planted rivers with driftwood!

 
 

 

 

3#: Below is my mixed tropical tank. The fish in this tank are from different areas of the world, so I used different natural themes including rock caves, driftwood, and plants!

Predatory Fish

Keeping predatory fish in an aquarium can be very entertaining! Predator fish are fish that naturally  survive on hunting for meals, fish with carnivorous attitudes!  Keeping fish that live in such a way can be amusing to watch how fish naturally survive, however, you need to make sure that their appetite  is controlled. Predatory fish tend to be more aggressive due to their want to eat, so care for them is very important!

Most people when its come to housing predatory fish, prefer to feed their fish pellets foods that contain meatier ingredients. This tends to be the most recommended way because its more healthier and it can ease aggression!

Another option when feeding predatory fish is live food. Mostly all predatory fish will love to devourer live foods like worms, crickets, and other insects!  There also are feeder fish available to feed predatory fish; live smaller fish (commonly goldfish and minnows). When feeding your fish live food, it can cause more aggression in your tank. Also feeding your fish live fish may cause your fish to turn on each other! So live food will be accepted by your fish, but may have some negative results.

To top it all off, predatory fish can be great fish to keep. I wouldn't recommend them for beginners due to attitudes and appetites, but they  would make a great pet for experienced fish keepers.

Feeding Your Fish

        One of the most exciting things in fish keeping is being able to feed your fish, who always seem eager and ready to eat! Some of the most shy and timid fish will almost completely transform when it’s time to eat! However, you need to make sure that you’re feeding them properly. Just like humans, there are a lot of very important things to consider when feeding your fish!

 

Diet:

 When keeping fish, it is highly important to KNOW the diet that your fish naturally eat in the wild. Different fish have many different diets, some fish are herbivores; meaning that they need a vegetable based diet. Some fish are carnivorous; meaning that they prefer meatier foods like other fish, insects, etc. Some fish are omnivorous; meaning that they can eat all types of food!

          You MUST know what your fish naturally eats in the wild; switching a fish’s diet from what they would naturally eat can affect them in many ways including appearance: they could lose colors or other features that are supported by their natural diet; it can affect your fish’s health, and it could possibly kill your fish. When buying fish food, make sure that it’s meant for your type of fish! When considering your fish’s diet, it is important to consider it as if it were your own diet, giving you fish all that’s necessary to survive!

How Much:

          Many people struggle with feeding there fish the right amount! It seems almost impossible to feed your fish the amounts recommended by major fish experts! It’s very important to know that all fish LOVE to eat! All fish: the big, the small, the tough, the weak, all fish love to eat! Many fish will even risk their lives to get another meal! It’s essential that you feed you fish without falling into the snare of their greed!

          When feeding fish, I’d say keep it simple. Keep a scheduled feeding two to three times a day. During each feeding, feed your fish as much as they can consume in 3-5 minutes, NO MORE. If you feed your fish more than they can eat, the leftovers can waste away an make your tank water nasty.