Aquarium and Pond Care with EcoBio-Block

It is always exciting to go to a pet shop and choose new fish for your aquarium, especially if you are new to the hobby of keeping fish. Unfortunately, if you do not know how to choose healthy fish, you may face the unwelcome dilemma of death for your chosen fish as well as the other fish in your aquarium. The best way to prevent this is to learn what healthy fish look and act like before you bring them home.

The condition of the pet store itself can give you a good idea as to whether or not the fish they sell are healthy. If it is cluttered, or has a funky odor, the odds are good that the fish will not be bursting with good health. Take a look at the fish tanks in the store. If they are dirty, with cloudy water or algae on the sides, you do not want to purchase any fish! If you see many dead fish, any fish you buy from this merchant will more than likely die as well, for there is obviously some sort of fish disease being passed from one fish to another.

Let’s say you leave this pet store and go to another one in search of your new fish. You walk in, and the surroundings seem to be much cleaner and more orderly than the previous pet store. That’s a good sign, but you also need to take some time to watch the fish as they swim around in their tanks. Watch how they interact with their tank mates. Do any of the fish seem to be sluggish, swimming slowly while other fish zip around them effortlessly? If so, these fish are probably sick, and may soon infect the other fish in the tank.

Spend some time observing the fins on fish that otherwise seem to be healthy. Do you see any tears on the fins? If there are more than one or two tears, they could be an indication of stress or even sickness. Other fish will often bully fish who are becoming weak, which causes the excessive tearing of the fins. The uninitiated may see this bullying in action, feel sorry for the fish, and buy it to rescue it from a bad situation. Don’t make this mistake!

You will also want to make sure to look at the body of the fish you are interested in buying. If you see many missing scales, any sores or odd growths, you are probably looking at a sick fish. If the fish in the tank seem to be sprinkled with tiny white spots, they are suffering from a sick disease known as Ichthyophthirius Multifiliis, or Ich for short. Many people also call this disease Ick. Ich is caused by a protozoan, and is a common fish disease that can be hard to get rid of. Needless to say, if you take home a fish with Ich, your other fish will become infected as well. Take note of the eyes of the fish. They should not be cloudy or bulge out.

Once you get home with your healthy fish, you will want to keep them that way. One of the simplest methods of keeping a fish healthy is making sure their environment is also clean. Partial water changes are usually what are necessary to keep the water in an aquarium clean and the water clear. Instead of having to set aside time out of your busy schedule to complete this necessary task, why not try EcoBio-Block Products?

The EcoBio-Stone sits unobtrusively on the bottom of your aquarium. It is infused with friendly bacteria. These bacteria will keep your water healthy and crystal clear for up to two years. Using one of EcoBio-Block Products is an easy method to make sure that the water in your aquarium is low maintenance.

Suffice it to say that Old Tank Syndrome is the opposite of New Tank Syndrome. To refresh the memory, let us remember that New Tank Syndrome takes place when an eager newcomer to the aquarium hobby starts to lose fish at about the six-week anniversary of aquarium ownership.

This can happen due to poor water quality, especially elevated ammonia levels because of an unhealthy filtration system. It can also take place because the novice owner is still a bit clumsy at giving the aquarium and fish the proper sort of care.

Old Tank Syndrome has a telltale symptom, and that is a sense of complacency in a long time aquarium owner when it comes to the condition of his or her tank. All of the excitement of having this hobby has passed by this time, and the fish-lover could almost be said to take his aquarium for granted.

The tank is stable, the fish are well fed and in good health. There have been no changes in the aquarium for quite a while now. The fish are fed on schedule most of the time, and no new fish have been added to the aqua community. No water tests for ammonia or nitrites have been done, either. All those partial water changes that were done at the beginning of aquarium ownership have fallen by the wayside as well.

It is about now that the long-time aquarium owner begins to notice that his fish tank seems to be a bit “off”. He or she may decide to do a partial water change to try and rectify things. Alternately, the hobbyist discovers a dead fish, and decides to go and purchase a few new occupants for the aquarium. Either of these scenarios is going to upset the balance of the aquarium.

The present fish are used to the aquarium condition just the way it is. A partial water change could prove to be very stressful, and could even kill the fish. Every seasoned pet fish keeper has heard this tale of woe from a newbie, “We had just changed the water, and then all the fish started to die one by one.”

New fish will also upset the balance in the aquarium, but in a different way. They will create even more ammonia and nitrites, and this will upset the balance that the fish have slowly become used to. Either way, you stand a good chance of losing some fish.

Old tank syndrome can be avoided by maintaining the same schedule of water testing and frequent partial water changes that you did when your tank was brand new. Or, you can take advantage of one of the EcoBio-Block family of products, and spend the time you would have spent maintaining your aquarium admiring your fish! EcoBio-Block Products will keep the water quality in your tank healthy for your fish population as well as maintaining the water in a crystal clear condition.