PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

I think most pet lovers, especially those who read this blog, know why it’s a bad idea to buy a cat or dog at a pet store. Even Oprah has taken up the cause of raising puppymill awareness. But did you know that if you buy a pair of rats or even fish for your aquarium at a pet store, you could be contributing to animal cruelty, unbalanced ecosystems, and the proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria, among other social woes?

Large pet stores acquire live animals from a variety of sources, including local mill-style breeders, huge warehouses where pets are bred, and importers who capture wild animals and sell them. All of these options are socially irresponsible and, in most cases, highly inhumane. Unfortunately, to keep up with demand, pet stores must make use of suppliers who can provide a continuous supply of large quantities of live pets. This means that more responsible means of animal breeding, like hobby breeding, aren’t compatible with pet stores’ needs — and besides, reputable, responsible hobby breeders wouldn’t dream of selling to retail stores.

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Last week, I was able to visit London Aquarium and I thought that I would take some photos so that I share my experience and write a short guide about what you can expect from the largest display of aquatic life in Europe. London Aquarium has three floors split into 14 zones and there are up to 400 species on show throughout the 50 display tanks. Each zone represents a different underwater habitat from small rivers and lakes to tropical rainforests and oceans from around world.

Zone 1: Freshwater Stream

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One of the first things that you will think about when planning to keep pet fish is where you are going to position the aquarium in your home. The most obvious concern will be to find available space where your chosen aquarium will fit. When you have chosen a potential site, it is important to check for any potential problems that may arise in the future and you should take the following aspects into consideration:

Space around the tank
Is there sufficient space above and around the tank? You will need plenty of room to access the tank for maintenance tasks. You may also need additional space to accommodate equipment such as lighting or external filtration.

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You have probably seen hundreds of them sitting in small plastic cups in various pet stores and you may have had a few Betas of your own, each one swimming gently in a little tank that never seems big enough. I know i have had a few betas, mostly as a mom taking care of my kid’s beta.

One beta, a very feisty one that would flatten its face whenever I entered the room and try to fight with me, was the epitome of what I believed a beta or Siamese Fighting Fish should be. He was tough, bright red and with a little blue and a great fish with a lot of personality. Unfortunately for him, he had too much fight and his short life ended with a horrible accident during cleaning that involved a net, a garbage disposal and a hysterical woman calling her husband at work because the fish had jumped into the garbage disposal. Needless to say, it took me a little while to get over being a fish murderer.

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Fish tanks are available in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and materials. Before you purchase your first aquarium it is important to consider how different designs will affect your fish.

Aquarium size
In terms of the overall water capacity a larger tank will often be better. A bigger tank is normally recommended to beginners as it is much easier to maintain good water quality. The larger water volume enables more stability in the aquarium due to the dilution effect. In smaller aquariums waste products will be more concentrated and have a greater negative effect on water parameters.

When choosing an aquarium you should find out the number of fishes it can support before making your purchase. Overstocking a tank will cause problems for your fish and may result in death so if in doubt buy a bigger tank or keep less fishes. One common way that is often used to determine how many fish can be housed in an aquarium is the ‘one inch per gallon’ of water rule. This is calculated as the length of the fully grown adult fishes compared to the volume of water after displacement. Although this is ok to use as a general guide, it does not take into account many other factors such as gaseous exchange and filtration.

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Wouldn’t a goldfish in a fish bowl be a cute gift for your six-year-old? It’ll teach her responsibility and be a source of constant entertainment. It’s a classic, seen in movies, comic strips, and children’s books for centuries. Right?

Wrong.

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Hello to all readers of the LVR series of blogs and everyone who is part of the HART network. My name is Robert, you can find my author page here . I will be here at PetLvr.com and also over at FishLvr.com, where I will be writing about my passion in life…Fish!

I have had a few pets throughout my life including rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats but the ones that I have a real obsession with are my pet fish. My first encounter with keeping aquarium fish started in my childhood when my sister and I kept a pair of goldfish in a small aquarium. We cleaned the water out once a week and fed the fish daily.

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If you are purchasing your first aquarium, you may want to consider a freshwater tank. There are several reasons you should maintain a freshwater tank before moving on to a saltwater tank. Although a saltwater tank will provide you with the opportunity to have a variety of interesting fish, it will not be as easy to maintain as a freshwater tank. It may take many months for you to become experienced with maintaining a saltwater tank. Of course, if you’re prepared for a steep learning curve, you may prefer to start with a saltwater tank.

A freshwater tank is easier to setup than a saltwater tank and much less demanding to maintain. It is also less expensive as far as equipment and fish go. For a saltwater tank, you’d have to buy marine fish, which are more expensive than freshwater fish. You will probably use live rock, which is also fairly costly, as a biological filter in the tank, as this makes setting up a saltwater tank easier.

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A good filter is probably the most important piece of equipment you can add to your aquarium. Aquarium filters usually provide biological, chemical or mechanical filtration. You might want to get a filter that provides all three kinds of filtration in one, as this will make your tank easier to maintain.

Your fish will be healthier as well. A biological filter will reduce the toxicity of the tank, a mechanical filter will keep the water clear and a chemical filter will remove dissolved waste in the water and prevent the water in your tank from becoming yellow.

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In order to maintain your aquarium, you may want to purchase a maintenance crew. This crew is actually a group of scavengers that will feed on algae and on uneaten food at the bottom of the aquarium. Some scavengers can dwell in community tanks without causing harm to the fish while some may eat or attack smaller fish, so be sure that you only buy community friendly scavengers. Why not add a few of these cleaning machines to your aquarium’s maintenance crew?

Algae in your tank is proof that your tank can support life on its own. Unfortunately, most tanks are plagued by more algae growth than is actually necessary. Luckily, this is where algae-eaters come in.

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