Managing Aquarium with Water Shortage

If you are facing water shortage, in the first place its not recommended to keep too many fish. The lesser you keep the better. Fish constantly produce waste in the water and reduce its quality, which is why water changes are necessary along with good filtration. In this condition, you will want to throw in some extra filters in your tank which are well established with good bacteria. You must make sure that the filters are cleaned on a periodic basis and don't over clean the media to avoid heavy loss of good bacteria. Also if your filters are powerheads, since you are introducing extra ones inside, try diverting the water through PVC pipes to prevent too much turbulence. you could also use some jumbo sized bio foam sponge filters. These are known to be the best in harboring loads of good bacteria.

Even though you may have a filter overkill to combat ammonia buildup in your aquarium, that doesn't rule out water changes. You still must do some water change on a weekly basis at the minimum. You could do a 50% change or could go for a 75% if possible. Try to avoid pushing this for more than a week.

Feed your fish less to avoid excess ammonia. If you find they are not eating properly, that means the water is bad. Probably the filter is clogged, or bio load is too much for it to handle. If you got the cash, go in for some ammonia test kit and test the water every 2-3 days.

So to make things simple, if you suffer from less water supply:

1. Keep as less fish as possible.
2. Keep small fish that don't pollute the water.
3. Lots of filters - Use, power filters and sponge filters if your on a budget. If not, go for a canister that's designed for a tank bigger than yours. This is known as an over kill, but in a scarce water condition, this will be good thing.
4. Feed less. It depends on what fish you keep. Don't starve them. Get to know its minimum requirements and feed that amount to it daily.
5. Choose proper non-messy foods like commercial pellets.
6. If you have good lighting or your tank receives good daylight, throw in some hardy plants like Hydrilla, which will help a great deal in improving water quality.

The Convict Cichlid (Kindle Edition Ebook)

Convict Cichlid - Fighters of the Deep

In the wild, survival is a tough game. Everyone has heard of the law of the jungle i.e. Kill or be killed. That also applies right in your aquarium, especially if you got a lot of fish who end up competing against each other to get bigger and better.

Fish have their own ways of combating each other or other competitive species, in order to protect themselves or their territory. Cichlids make extreme warriors of the water world. They are smart and agile.

Convict Cichlids which are very common in the aquarium trade, are a very aggressive species that make great fighters. They are known to

House Keeping Fish

If your tank is placed in a bright location, or if you are using bright lights, you will surely experience algae issues every now and then. This leads to a tank that's filled with algae, which prevent you from seeing your fish. For this I would recommend a sucker. I have personally tried snails and Kissing Gouramis, but the sucker fish out beats them both single handedly. I've got one and I shuffle him between my tanks every now and then. He is a hog and it takes him

Zero Cost Way of Identifying Water Problems

Not everyone who keeps aquariums will spent a ton of money on test kits of all sorts. Getting into the aquarium hobby doesn't require you to be a scientist. The aquarium test kits out there in the market are over priced according to me based on the no of tests allowed. Bescides, if you really get into all this chemistry, you will not only need a test kit for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, but also test kits for water ph, hardness etc. You might as well also go in for water stablizer kits too, as water changes arn't always going to be the ultimate fix.

Phytoplangton (Green Water)

If an aquarium is receiving sunlight, in the presence of nutrients like ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, the water starts to turn green and can get to a state where you wont be able to see the fish at all. Green water is a sign of excess nutrients in the water and call for water changes. This could also be a sign of filter issues. Maybe its clogged and needs cleaning, or maybe the benificial bacteria has died out.

Hunger and Health

The difference between an aquarium fish and a wild fish is that an aquarium fish is stuck in a puddle. Whereas a wild fish has all the fresh water it needs to thrive. Since the water provided to an aquarium fish is limited, it takes an outside force to change the water in order to keep it fresh. If the water is gets bad, and this happens real fast in the absence of filtration, the fish will get sick. A sick fish doesn't move in the normal way and you will notice it.

Hunger

Hunger is one sign of good health in general. This applies not only to fish, but also to other living things. If your fish

Demons of the Night

Convict Cichlids are noted for their aggression. They will be aggressive towards other fish species, as well as their own. They are very intelligent in nature and can also be revengeful. These guys are known to pick, one target, at a time. These cichlids do most of the damage at night, when its dark. They will take their victim by surprise, by bursting at them with vicious bites. Convict Cichlids are smart enough to know that the eyes are a vital part of ones survival, and that's what they target first. If you observe them in the dark, you will notice, that they are partly maintaining their boundaries by warding off one another. They also launch attacks against other unsuspecting victims. Next morning you may notice a fish with all his fins torn up or bruised up real bad. You may also notice a fish with an eye or two, missing. So, if your keeping Convicts, be vigilant in the night as well and separate the victims.

Too Big to Get In

Female Convict Cichlids are much smaller than the males. Some males can get really big and nasty and they can sometimes attack their own mates and kill them. However, it has been observed that some smart-ass female convicts will pick places with small holes that are only big enough for them to squeeze in. The male stays out, as he is too big to enter. She interacts with him at the entrance and is safe from his temper tantrums. Where spawning is concerned, she lays the eggs inside the hole itself. The male still manages to get his sperm into the cave, but this is unobserved. Some eggs get lucky enough to hatch.