Basic Fish Care

1. Fill your tank only with "aged" or conditioned water. Never use unconditioned tap water. Conditioning tap water is preferred over aging tap water ("aging" is the practice of setting aside tap water a sufficient time to permit the release of chlorine and other substances harmful to the fish).

2. Plan on changing about 20-25% of your aquarium water every three weeks. Use the water to be discarded to rinse off any aquarium decorations. Never use detergents to clean your fish tank or aquarium decorations.

3. Change your aquarium filter once a month. TIP: experts cut off a piece of the old filter media, gently rinse it off in the water to be discarded and add it to the new filter media to promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. Keep the same piece of media and continue to recycle it to subsequent filter changes.

4. Maintain a consistent temperature in the fish tank. The temperature to maintain will vary depending upon your fish species, but should typically range from 74 - 82 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. Maintain a pH balance of 7.0 (use a Water Chemistry kit to test water quality).

6. Do not overfeed your fish. This is the worst, and most common offense by beginners. You should only feed sufficient food so that your aquarium fish can consume it all within 2 minutes. Use several different types of fish food to provide a variety of nutrients.

7. When adding new fish to your aquarium, place the bag containing the fish into the tank to acclimate the fish to the water temperature in the fish tank for about 15 minutes before using a net to move the new fish from the bag to your fish tank. Never dump the store aquarium water into your own aquarium. Pet fish should be added in groups of, not more than, 1 or 2 at a time, unless they are schooling fish.

8. Remove obviously dead fish immediately. They can increase the bad bacteria in your fish tank and stress the immune systems of the other fish very quickly.

There are many more subjects regarding fish keeping such as water circulation, water quality, aquarium environment, the sequestering, or quarantine, of new fish prior to introducing them into your pristine aquarium environment, aquarium equipment selection, fish population density inside your fish tank, and more that the beginner will have questions about, and you could write a book about each of these topics. The basic guidelines for fish keeping discussed here are only meant to orient the beginner in the right direction for further study.

Dan Galen is an author and enthusiast on all things aquatic and owner of FishTankShop.com. To learn more about fish tanks [http://www.fishtankshop.com] please visit the site.