Aquariums have become increasingly popular lately. There are many reasons for this, starting with the availability of aquarium equipment and ending with the abundance of Internet resources showing the beauty of marine and freshwater aquariums in city apartments.
Indeed, what pet could be simpler than fish? They don’t need to be walked, there are no allergies to them, and they don’t run around the apartment spreading fur. These benefits make you run to the store and buy an aquarium and fish. But do you really need an aquarium? Is it worth buying an aquarium and having fish as soon as you want? Let's look at the main points in the aquarium hobby that may make you think about this issue and make the right decision.
Aquarium takes place
Most likely, it is no secret to you that it is easiest for beginners to start with a medium-sized aquarium. That is, the volume of water in your first aquarium should start from about 80 liters, because in this case it is much easier to achieve system stability than in nano-aquariums.
A man sits in an aquarium.
It is clear that an aquarium of this size takes up a decent amount of space in the room. The situation is complicated by the fact that you need to choose the right place for it. It turns out that an aquarium cannot be installed in every apartment.
Pros of aquarium fish
Fish as pets are a good option. They have plenty of advantages:
- Pisces are quite unpretentious . True, this applies to certain types. Therefore, if this is your first experience of keeping such pets, then you should pay attention to unpretentious breeds, then keeping these pets will consist of several fairly simple operations: feeding and cleaning the aquarium once a month. A filter and special equipment can handle everything else.
- For people who have children , this is an opportunity to simply kill two birds with one stone: get a pet for your child, and teach the child to care and responsibility in a playful and interesting way.
- Benefits for the nervous system . Scientists have proven that observing aquarium inhabitants relieves stress and calms you down. Again, a plus for families with active children - you can sit the child down to look at the inhabitants of the aquarium to calm him down a little, and at the same time relax.
- If you don’t get a pet just because you can’t go on vacation, then fish are an ideal option . Not that it is very useful, but they can live for more than a month without food. Therefore, it is enough to buy more plants for the aquarium, and go on vacation with peace of mind.
- It is beautiful . An aquarium can become the highlight of any interior in any style, the main thing is to place it correctly in the room and choose the right accessories.
The aquarium is noisy
Yes, sea creatures do not make sounds that you could hear. No wonder there is an expression “Silent as a fish.” The same cannot be said about aquarium equipment, which can make noise. The sound of air bubbles coming out of the aeration stone and breaking on the surface of the water can make it difficult to sleep at night. All these sounds can be irritating at first, so if you are used to silence, then you may want to consider whether to buy an aquarium.
Air spray in aquarium
However, in fact, you can make an aquarium completely silent by acquiring only those inhabitants that do not require oxygen in the water. For example, labyrinth fish inhale air by sticking out of the water, so you don't need a compressor. True, in this case you greatly limit yourself in the choice of hydrobionts.
Financial expenses
At first, it may seem that aquarium keeping is a very cheap hobby. Aquariums are usually inexpensive, Chinese equipment is also inexpensive, and many types of fish cost pennies.
Aquariums on the store counter
But you don’t need to naively believe that with the purchase of an aquarium, equipment, cabinet and fish, your expenses will end. For example, aquatic animals can get sick - this is normal and natural. To treat them, you will need medications, which can be quite expensive. Fish food is also a fixed expense. In addition, to treat fish, you will need a separate aquarium (albeit a smaller one than the main one) with aeration. Are you ready to purchase another aquarium and compressor? Is there room for them? If you cannot answer yes to these questions, then you should seriously consider whether you need an aquarium.
Aquarium store
Do not also forget that aquarium equipment constantly requires electricity. Yes, individually the same filter is not a particularly powerful electrical appliance, but collectively all the equipment (filter, compressor and thermostat), working around the clock, consumes quite a bit.
Fish may die
Unfortunately, fish, like any other animal, can get sick and die. If in the case of a dog or cat, you can take your pet to the veterinarian, then finding an ichthyologist to treat an aquarium inhabitant is very difficult. And fish usually live less than cats and dogs.
Dead catfish Corydoras
There are many drugs for self-treatment of aquatic animals for various diseases, but in order to purchase one or another, it is important to determine the disease of the fish. This is not always easy, and the death of an inhabitant of the underwater kingdom can be sudden. The death of any pet is very upsetting, especially children. In the case of fish, this can happen quite often, so if you are a vulnerable person, then you definitely shouldn’t buy an aquarium.
The effect of an aquarium on health
An aquarium in the house will be useful primarily from a psychological point of view. Contemplating the leisurely inhabitants of the underwater world for several minutes has a beneficial effect on the human psyche, helping to reduce stress, aggression and anxiety.
Arranging your own piece of the underwater world helps to realize the creative side of the owner and instills an interest in nature.
It is recommended to install aquariums in the room of hyperactive, restless and anxious children. For this reason, containers with fish are often present in kindergartens.
For children, an aquarium can be as beneficial as any other pet, as it fosters responsibility, curiosity, and respect for nature.
For a teenager, a home aquarium can become a field for many experiments - creating a paludarium, designing hydroponic installations, breeding fish, etc.
The water in the containers periodically evaporates, which helps to increase air humidity, which in moderate quantities is beneficial for the upper respiratory tract.
Aquarium inhabitants can be called hypoallergenic pets, which can be recommended for asthmatics and allergy sufferers. True, sometimes an allergy to dry fish food can occur, but in modern realities this is not a problem - the fish can be fed live or self-made food, which is much healthier for the animals themselves.
A beautifully furnished aquarium with spectacular lighting will decorate any interior, bring freshness to it and give it an interesting, natural look, and can also serve as a light source.
Passion for the aquarium hobby often encourages a person to communicate with other aquarists. In our country there are many exhibitions where visitors exchange experiences and pets. Who knows, maybe you will find new friends among them?
Aquarium and children
An aquarium is a glass, very heavy and rather fragile object. If you have children living in your apartment who like to run and play in the apartment, then the aquarium becomes a source of increased danger.
Children may be injured if they break or drop the aquarium. In addition, you may flood your neighbors.
Children near the sea aquarium
Fish food and allergies
Unlike other pets, fish do not cause allergies - that's a fact. But did you know that fish food can cause allergies in some people? Moreover, it can cause bronchial asthma. True, this only applies to dry food (gammarus, daphnia, etc.).
Dried gammarus
If you are allergic, then before deciding whether to buy an aquarium, you need to make sure that the fish food will not cause you health problems.
There are many fish that do not eat dry food. For example, tetradons or macrognathus can be fed either live food or frozen food. The other one they simply don’t eat and remain hungry. If the sight and smell of a live tubifex, coret or bloodworm causes you an irresistible disgust, then this type of food is not suitable for you.
Bloodworm
Questions you need to answer yourself!
Why do you need an aquarium?
The answer to this question does not imply the answers “It’s beautiful”, “For fish”, “Fashionable”. This is obvious, but still, in addition to the traditional, general motives for installing an aquarium, there is always at least one more, which usually encourages you to move from abstract thoughts about how wonderful it is to have an aquarium at home to getting down to business.
So why do you need an aquarium? Please pause at this point and try to honestly answer this question to yourself.
Now let's continue.
Someone sees an aquarium as a meeting place for family members to communicate with each other, at least once a week, like in front of a fireplace. The picture of an aquarium, unlike the picture of a TV, does not irritate, but relaxes, and where, if not in front of the aquarium, such important and long-awaited thoughts quickly gather in your head?
Some people see the aquarium as a contraption that subtly hints or, conversely, obsessively draws attention to the high level of material well-being of the owners.
Often, aquariums are intended to develop certain skills in younger family members or to provide a pleasant and interesting pastime for those who have excess free time. Aquariums can also divide or expand rooms, can be an important element of the interior lighting solution, its accent, and can perform image functions...
In general, we can talk about this without, of course, let’s try to approach this from the other side.
Should you have an aquarium?
Fish are the oldest inhabitants of the Earth, perfectly adapted to life in water, thanks to the protection of which they survived geocataclysms and safely survived many biological forms that disappeared from the face of the Earth. Pisces live in another world, rarely leaving it of their own free will. It must be said right away that, sad as it may be, people are interested in fish only as a possible source of food, and never more than that. In general, with rare exceptions, fish are afraid of humans, avoid contact with them, and only hunger forces them to overcome this fear for a while.
They never understand any human aspirations towards them, unless it is an attempt to catch them. You will never receive gratitude from a fish, even if you saved it from death. If this perhaps unexpected introduction did not disappoint you, let’s continue the tour. You can easily answer the question “should I start an aquarium” in the affirmative if, leisurely looking at the fish world behind the glass wall, you suddenly feel that you have always wanted to have fish in the house, there was just no opportunity or circumstances got in the way.
If fish only evoke gastronomic sensations (associations) in you, then most likely you should not have an aquarium. I am more and more inclined to think that a person’s interest in the life of fish originates somewhere at the genetic level. And although what has been said sounds like a joke, my observations are absolutely certain
they say that there is a large group of people (and these are not necessarily serious adult individuals) who are interested in fish only in the form prepared for the table. Some of them, once at the aquarium exhibition with their children, tend to stay on the street while the children stares at the fish - they are so uninterested in it.
People who decide to start an aquarium can be fairly clearly divided into two groups. Some like only large fish (large is more than 10 cm in length or diameter), others want small ones and do not recognize large ones. What this is connected with - I cannot explain, just like they themselves. This happens as if by itself, of course, according to the principle: “How could it be otherwise?” You, as a lover of large fish, will never have tender feelings for some kind of “small fry”, suitable only for food for your pets. And a fan of small fish, in turn, will not allow a “shaft” to swim in his aquarium. And there’s nothing you can do about it.
Observe your friends' aquarium, come to an aquarium exhibition and talk with specialists, and I hope the question of whether to start an aquarium for you will be decided correctly.
WHAT ARE THERE ARE AQUARIUMS?
What types of aquariums are there? Aquariums come in two types and several types.
First view. — A freshwater aquarium designed for keeping and breeding both fish living in freshwater bodies of different countries of the world, and exotic fish specially bred through selection, as well as aquatic and underwater plants and other forms of life accompanying them.
Type two. — A marine aquarium designed to contain marine inhabitants of fish, plants, corals, and others.
TYPES OF AQUARIUMS
Decorative
GENERAL - an aquarium for a beginner aquatic animal lover, where fish of several species of different systematic groups and geographical zones, but similar in temperature, chemical balance of water properties and daylight hours, live peacefully. (Neons, picilia, goldfish, etc.)
Attention! - Don’t even think about housing peaceful fish with active predators, you will be very sorry when these terrorists devour all the former.
COLLECTIBLE - an aquarium with the maximum number of fish from one species family.
SPECIES - an aquarium with one or more fish of similar species.
BIOTOP - an aquarium is a kind of copy of any part of the underwater natural environment.
DUTCH - an aquarium with a harmonious combination of a small number of aquarium fish and the maximum number of different species and varieties of aquatic plants.
POLLUDARIUM is a kind of aqua greenhouse, a combination of underwater and above-water vegetation.
AQUATERRARIUM - designed for simultaneous maintenance and display of combined aquarium and terrarium inhabitants.
Specialized
INCUBATOR - a container for life support of developing eggs and larvae of aquarium inhabitants. Volume from 1 l to 25 l. conditions of extreme purity, optimal temperature, hydrochemical composition and oxygen regime. For preventive purposes, 1-5 mg/l should sometimes be added to methylene water.
GROW-OUT - the optimal size is 150 by 45 by 60 cm. Designed for quickly growing a large number of aquarium fish fry. Regular water changes and plenty of varied feeding are necessary.
SPAWNING - needed for the reproduction of fish, so that other inhabitants of the aquarium do not interfere with spawning and do not eat eggs or fry. The volume, shape and other necessary conditions for spawning are selected individually for the fish species. Maximum sterility.
Attention! — It’s easier to transfer the remaining fish from the spawning pair from the aquarium to another, if the height of the first one does not exceed 50 cm and drain the water to the required level, and if there is a suitable replacement at hand for the first one.
MEDICAL - designed to test and adapt acquired aquatic life, as well as treat them if necessary. Space, cleanliness and constant monitoring of water quality are required.
CULTIVATOR - for growing food: ciliates, rotifers, crustaceans, etc. careful selection of the environment and nutrition is necessary, as well as the maximum possible area.
Need for care
Of course, you don’t have to walk your aquarium fish, but this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to take care of the aquarium. You will need to change 25-30% of the water weekly, which is not so little if your aquarium is larger than 100 liters.
Boy taking care of an aquarium
Aquarium care also includes wiping glass, cleaning the bottom, trimming plants and treating fish if necessary. Are you ready to do all this? Will you have the strength after work to walk around the apartment with buckets? If not, then you shouldn’t buy an aquarium, otherwise it won’t bring you joy, but will only stress you out.
Aquarium and your vacation
If you like to travel, relax outside the city or at the sea, then do not forget that someone should look after the aquarium at this time. Yes, there are automatic feeders and weekend foods that will keep your fish from going hungry, but what if you have fish that won't eat dry food? You will have to leave the keys to the apartment to relatives or close friends so that they can come and feed the fish in your absence. Whether it is convenient or not - judge for yourself.
In this article, we looked at the main points that may puzzle you in aquarium keeping. Some of them you will be able to come to terms with, but some you will not. Whether it’s worth buying an aquarium and keeping fish is up to you to decide.
Story
It is worth noting that people have been interested in aquariums for quite a long time. The discoverers were the Egyptians, who kept fish in artificial reservoirs, then this idea was tested by the kings of Ancient Babylon, and then by the Romans. However, it’s worth talking about serious successes when you think about China . It was Chinese aquarium lovers who seriously thought about selection. They were not satisfied with watching the gray-silver backs of the fish, so they bred the first and most famous breed of aquarium fish today - the goldfish. They were kept in special artificial reservoirs or in porcelain tanks. The aquarium industry developed in approximately the same direction in other Asian countries.
The year 1841 was a significant date in the history of aquarium farming. Since it was this year that the scientist H. Ward came up with an aquarium in the form in which we are accustomed to seeing it: transparent, made of glass. Well, how the aquarium hobby began to develop after that is not worth talking about: in the modern world, it’s enough just to go to any pet store and buy everything you need to keep fish at home.
