Fish keeping, a great hobby for the kids!
In the article it is spoken about Fish keeping, a great hobby for the kids! If you have school-aged children, then at sometime throughout the holidays you are likely to hear the phrase, “I’m bored”. If this is the case with your children you could consider setting up a small aquarium for them. Aquariums can provide children with plenty of hours of enjoyment and fascination as they watch the fish move about. Furthermore, they teach children about the responsibility of caring for a living animal. Unlike dog or cat ownership, as a fish owner you can go away for a few days without needing to find someone to feed and exercise them and they don’t bark during the night so they are very neighbour friendly too!
Having been in the pet industry for a long time, I have heard all of the stories about children keeping fish. About how the tank always went murky or smelt and how the fish always seem to die.
When kept correctly, fish do not smell, they are not noisy and the larger the aquarium, the less attention they require, just 5minutes a day and 40minutes a fortnight will keep them healthy.
With aquariums, the more water you have the easier the fish are to care for as the chemistry of the water changes at a slower rate in these larger tanks. However, if you are looking at buying a small tank to start with because you are worried that the children may lose interest, keep the following points in mind.
Where ever possible always purchase an aquarium with a filter. Filters not only help to keep the water clear, they also house desirable types of bacteria that break down the fish waste. Some filters use cartridges that need regular changing so check the price and frequency that they need changing when making your purchase.
When you are setting the aquarium up, remember that all water needs to be conditioned for the fish to live in. In some cases you will need to add a water purifier to remove the chlorine and chloramines and in other cases you may need to add some salt to the water. Remember straight tap, tank or bottled water can harm your fish.
Another common reason that people have a lack of success with aquariums when they are first starting out is that they add too many fish for the size aquarium that they own or they add the fish too quickly. As a rule with goldfish you should allow about 5 litres for each fish although you could increase the number of fish if you have a filter. Always seek the advice of our staff when deciding how many fish your aquarium can comfortably hold, we are trained in aquaculture and can assist you with all of your fish keeping requirements.
Finally overfeeding is probably the most common cause of fish loss in new aquariums. It is not because overfeeding the fish makes them unhealthy, instead, excess food rots in the water causing problems with water quality that can lead to stress and illness in the fish. Fish should consume all of their food in about 30 seconds and any left over food should be siphoned out of the aquarium after a few minutes.
Fish keeping is a great hobby for children and a small tank could lead to a life long passion!
