These are the three issues that kill more fish than anything else you can possibly do. Well, hello. Come right on in. You're at, Father Fish. Hello again. This is Father Fish. I want to talk with you today about the three great crimes that are committed by many people keeping tropical fish, but especially by beginners. These are the three issues that kill more fish than anything else you can possibly do. They have to do with substrate, water, and food. Let's take them in order. Substrate. What do you have on the bottom of your tank? Well, to determine what's best, you need to understand what the substrate is for. It's actually the foundation of your tank. If you think about it, it's the foundation of a house. It's what keeps the water healthy and safe. So there's certain considerations you have to have in order to be able to have the right substrate. Some people don't use substrate at all. They use filtration, canister filters, sumps, whatever. That's okay. They're merely substituting a substrate in the tank for a substrate, either in a canister filter or in a sump. Typically, when someone goes into a pet shop, particularly a chain store, then buys an aquarium, it will come with gravel. Now, gravel is probably the worst possible thing you can put in a fish tank. The reason is, it doesn't do anything with the waste that it collects. It holds onto it. And that waste deteriorates essentially in the water column. It's like having an open sewer. All the dirt, all that it brings, all the waste sifts down into the gravel, it breaks down and deteriorates, releases into the water, and you get bad water. Bacteria blooms, all of the problems that cause fish to become sick and die. So what's the alternative? Well, the one I have discovered is sand. Sand is a product that two to three inches deep, creates an anaerobic layer. Oxygen permeates about two inches into the sand. So that bottom inch is anaerobic. Now, what's the importance of that? Well, in an anaerobic environment, as anyone who has a septic system understands, is necessary in order to break down waste. It's then released as water and as typically nitrogen, which feeds out through the field drains in a septic system. In an aquarium, I like to add an inch of soil in the bottom of a bare tank. That creates a rich environment for bacterial microbial activity. You add two inches of sand on top of that, you're sealing in the dirt and making it possible for all of the waste that's coming into the bottom to sift down in, to break down, and by planting your tank, those roots go down into that soil and take up nutrition. The roots of plants must be in an anaerobic environment in order to be able to absorb nutrients. So anaerobics are your friend. Now, you don't want them in the water column, but you really do want them in the substrate column, specifically on the bottom. A layer of soil, two inches of sand, and you have a substrate that is ready to go day one, that will begin breaking down waste immediately, and that will last for as long as that aquarium was established. I have aquariums 20 years old with dirt and sand beds that have never had a filter, never had an air pump, that are perfectly balanced and grow plants prolifically. They are my mother tanks. I pull plants out because they grow them so profusely. So don't be intimidated by this, just do it. A layer of soil, wet and muddy, two inches of sand, dry on the top, and then fill carefully so you don't stir that substrate up. Once it's full, you can put your hardscape in, your driftwood, pottery, rocks, whatever you're going to use, and begin planting. And you will have a tank that you will delight in for as long as that aquarium is established. That's number one. Number two, water. Now, we think of filtered water, reverse osmosis water, spring water, rain water as delectable, delightful, delicious, and perfect for human consumption. Well, not only is that not necessarily true, but in the case of fish, it isn't true at all. There are a couple of issues. One of the primary issues is that soft acidic water, such as rain water, such as reverse osmosis water, such as surface water typically, contain very few carbonates. Carbonates are key to being able to hold a stable pH. That's the acid base level of the water. Now, why is that important? Well, water that is very base, has a lot of carbonates, has a pH of 7.5 to 8.0, does a good job of controlling bacteria. Now, while it is true that acidic water does a good job of controlling ammonia, so does a dirtied tank. A dirtied substrate controls ammonia. You don't get ammonia blooms with a dirt in substrates because you've got bacteria in there that are nitrifying the ammonia, creating nitrite and nitrates, which are overcoming the problem of ammonia. Hard water with carbonates, alkaline water, a high pH of 7.5 to 8.0 is much preferable to a pH of 6.0 with little or no carbonates at all. RO water is 7.0, no carbonates. You start getting biological activity, that water becomes acidic. Now, the fish that are living in it will probably survive and be able to tolerate it, but you can't put new fish in. The best way to kill fish is to take them out of alkaline water and put them in acidic water. They'll be dead in an hour. The pressure on the cell structure is so much different that the cells actually expand and can burst and will kill the fish. So, you may have a tank with a pH of 6.0 and the fish in it are perfectly healthy because they've gotten used to it as it's gotten there, but you can't put new fish in. Deep well water is the very best water for tropical fish. To be sure, there are fish that require soft acid water. A beginner's hobbyist is not likely to ever encounter any of those fish. More likely, the beginner will encounter fish that have either come out of brackish water or very hard water, such as the water in southwest Florida where most of the farms are. That's by and large hard alkaline water. Well water, and in truth most municipal water, is deep well hard alkaline water. There are a number of ways to add the carbonates in order to be able to get your pH where it needs to be. I do not recommend, however, that you do that. I recommend that your fish learn to live in your water just the way it is. In truth, if you're buying fish locally from a local pet store, a local fish shop, they're going to already be in and be acclimated to the same water you're using. So get them used to your water. That way, when you have to do a water change, it's not going to shock them. They'll be in the same water continuously. That's number two. Number three, food. Food for fish is poison. That doesn't mean that they're not healthy by eating it, but it means that in a limited volume of water, feeding excessively, which means feeding routinely several times a day, dozens of times a week, will cause problems in the water. Bacterial blooms, it'll cause waste that will lead to your fish becoming sick. The biggest single problem that most people have, keeping tropical fish, is believing that every time they come up to the glass, when you walk in the room, it's because they're hungry. They're not hungry. They're happy to see you. If you sit there and observe them, they'll say hello, and then they'll go on about their business. But if you feed them, they're going to keep coming back. They'll stay at that window because you're paying attention to them. Oh, they love to eat. Fish adore eating. They like nothing better to eat than to eat. Fish are hungry all the time. They have a very tiny digestive system that allows them to process food in about two hours. That means that the food that they evacuate when they poop it out still has substantial food value. Other fish will pick it up and eat it. In the wild, in the natural environment, there's a whole range of animals that depend on eating the waste from other fish. That waste gets eaten time and time and time again. And each time, more and more nutrition is taken from it. Now, if that happens five times before the food is finally has all of its nutritional value used stuff, that means that little bit of food you put in there that then one fish ate has fed five fish. So if you feed all five of those at once, you're putting five times more food in than they need. So the food builds up. If you see food laying on the bottom, you're overfeeding. Even if it's laying on the bottom for more than two or three seconds, you're overfeeding. I like to feed my fish once or twice a week. And in point of fact, I have fish that I feed once a month. These guys in back of me, they eat about once a month. Now they'll have a big meal. I'll give them a large piece of chicken for a big old fish or some live cut fish or shrimp that'll give them a big belly. Then they'll take because they have a larger digestive system. They'll take about a day to process and then I won't feed them again for another month. And they're perfectly healthy. I'm down here in snowbird country and I have snowbirds who are die hard fish keepers. You just want to have a tank. They have to have a tank, even for the six months that they're here. So they'll come in at the end of six months, bring me all their fish. I'll give them a little store credit for them. They'll put saran wrap over their tank, cut off the power, cut off the lengths and the filters and let it sit. This gentleman came in. He took the saran wrap off of his tank after six months and there was a guppy in there. It was alive and healthy and happy. Six months with no food of any kind. That fish was perfectly healthy and perfectly happy. I had the same thing happen once in a tank in an old fish room where a Jack Dempsey jumped into a tank on the floor in the corner. I didn't see it. A year later I saw it. Now that doesn't mean that didn't eat. It ain't very tiny things. It ate the algae that was growing in the tank. There was a sliver of light, sunlight coming into that tank for about an hour a day. It ate the micro organisms that grew big enough for it to be able to see them and pick them up. The aquarium provides lots of natural food, particularly in dirtied aquariums. If you have little tiny fish, you rarely need to feed them at all. They'll find foods and they'll be perfectly happy and perfectly healthy. A hungry fish is a healthy fish. Don't try to feed them until they're not hungry anymore because they'll get sick. If they're not hungry, they're sick and they may very well die. Don't give you fish more food than they really need. What they really need is much less than you may think. Feed very, very, very sparingly and try to feed a high quality food. Not something with a lot of cornmeal in it. Not something with filler. Feed something that they can actually benefit from. Well, those are the three main issues that newcomers and old timers face with virtually every aquarium. Substrate, water quality, and food. Keep them in mind as you set up and maintain your aquarium. You can have healthy, happy fish without any extra effort, without any real trouble. This is Father Fish wishing you happy fish. Bye for now.
