At the beginning of the 1900’s aquarists around the world began to keep tropical fishes, and it was the "trend" of so doing that started a new wave of popular fish culture (keeping fish as pets)...
The older aquarists were obsessed with copying nature in their tanks—or rather with the attempt to try and copy nature—whereas the keepers of warm-water fishes had to experiment and create suitable environments for them...
Often they started only with the knowledge that the fish must be kept warm, and this in itself raised problems, including the death of favorite weeds and water snails at higher temperatures...
So the aquarium gradually came to be regarded as most of us
see it today, as a beautiful display, not a mirror held up to nature...
However, until the keeping of tropical fish, it seems that aquarists in general thought that the proper aim of an aquarium keeper was to reproduce a segment of nature...
They now realize that their task is the maintenance of a highly artificial and restricted community of animals and plants, with a balance that can easily topple with disastrous results to at least some of the members. At the same time, aquariums can generally be easily maintained as long as a few fundamental facts are recognized and applied with commonsense to the problems that arise...
So lets talk now about some of the characteristics of aquariums and tropical fish...
The old fashioned fish bowl has almost completely
replaced for serious fish-keeping by the rectangular glass tank, either made wholly of glass or with a metal frame and glass sides and a bottom of glass, slate, or other rigid material...
Except when used for spawning, for exhibition purposes, or as a hospital tank for the treatment of disease, the tank contains growing, rooted plants; these are set in a sand or gravel layer 1 or 2 inches thick. There may be decorative rocks, but the chief decoration is usually the plants themselves, which contribute more to the attractive appearance of a well set-up tank than do the fishes...
Rectangular tanks are usually between 5 and 25 gallons in capacity; a 15-gallon tank measures 24 X 12 X 12 inches and is a favorite size. Smaller tanks than these cannot house many fish or allow proper development of the plants...
Larger tanks are very attractive and give scope for beautiful planting arrangements and for fine growth of the fishes, but they are expensive and not likely to become generally popular. Most fish lovers therefore prefer a range of medium tanks rather than one or two very large ones, but it must be emphasized that fine fishes can be grown in large tanks...
In general, tropical fishes can be housed in smaller tanks than cold-water fishes. This is because they are usually smaller and are also better able to withstand a relative deficiency of oxygen in the water...
Size for size, most tropical fishes can be crowded a good deal more than the common goldfish and very much more than fancy varieties of goldfish. A 15-gallon tank might comfortably contain a dozen 3-inch rosy barbs, four or five 3-inch common goldfish at the most, and not more than a pair of Orandas of the same size...
Fish consume solid food and excrete solid faeces. They breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, and therefore they tend to deplete their environment of oxygen and to pollute it with carbon dioxide and excrement...
Plants also breathe oxygen, but in sufficiently bright light they manufacture sugars, etc., from carbon dioxide taken from their surroundings, whether air or water, and they release oxygen. This is done in the green leaf...
Plants also absorb dissolved salts and use these together with carbon dioxide in building up complex organic compounds. Very few higher plants can utilize solid or very complex substances, and before animal excrement (usually known as "mulm" in the fish tank) is available to them it must be broken down by fungi or bacteria and made soluble...
So plants, in adequate light, tend to restore oxygen to the environment and to remove the waste products of animals. In poor light or in darkness they deplete the water or air of oxygen just as animals do. It is only in the daytime, or under bright artificial light, that they perform the complementary function to animals...
From these facts grew the concept of a balanced aquarium, with the waste products of the fishes absorbed by the plants, and the oxygen necessary for the fishes provided by the action of the plants in light...
The moral of the story? A well-planted tank with adequate illumination will usually stay clear and sweet for months or years with little attention...
Hopefully this article has given you a great insight into tropical fish as pets and the healthy keeping of aquariums.
