How to Create and Maintain a Minimal-Maintenance Aquarium
Use the gravel vacuum to remove leftover food and debris from the gravel. Along with water changes, this will reduce nitrate levels in the tank and keep your fish healthy. Maintaining a freshwater aquarium can sometimes feel like a balancing act. This section highlights common challenges like water cloudiness and fish health. Heaters maintain the ideal temperature to suit specific fish species.
Hailing from Mexico and Central America, only the male fish possess the unique swordtail, making males and females easy to distinguish if you want to breed them. Although not a fish, the African Dwarf Frog is a unique, low-maintenance addition to freshwater aquariums. These frogs are entirely aquatic, which means they never need to leave the water. They can coexist with non-aggressive fish species and get along well in community tanks.
An aquarium that’s safe for fish will read 0 ppm (parts per million) of ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, and around 10 ppm of nitrate. Therefore, it’s not recommended to keep fish in an aquarium without a running filter for more than a week and that’s pushing it. Generally, the fish for an aquarium of this size should not be an over-breeder or a fast-grower. A 5-gallon bowl with some live plants would make a good habitat for a single male Betta. Such small volumes of water get polluted by organic waste very quickly and sudden ammonia spikes, deadly for aquatic inhabitants, are often observed. Betta fish, which has a unique organ called the Labyrinth, is one kind of fish that can survive such low-oxygen environments.
Easy to care for and with a unique appearance, the bristlenose plecostomus is a fun addition to any aquarium. You can use marine salt for saltwater tanks, freshwater salt for freshwater systems, kosher salt in emergencies, and Epsom salt for stress relief or specific diseases. Each type serves different purposes, so choose based on your aquarium’s needs.