IS THAT A NEMO FISH!!??

I die a little whenever I hear that question. A lot of people ask me this when looking at my aquarium, or if I happen to be with them near an aquarium with clownfish in it.

Not pictured: Nemo

You'd think that by now I'd have accepted the fact that most of what people know about aquatic life is based on an animated Disney film, but it's more than that. This question symbolizes the epitome of the differences between aquarists and people who just like pretty fish. I'm going to do my best to address this... dynamic relationship.

The Problem

The reason I love aquariums so much is because their beauty is limited only by the aquarist's own ingenuity, knowledge, and dedication. They're jigsaw puzzles, except your pieces have no perfectly fitting grooves, no edge pieces, and some of the puzzle will eat other parts of the puzzle for no reason in particular.

"You want him to do what with the puzzle?" (http://backstage.stylemepretty.com)

Ecosystems are complex; like telenovela plot complex. (Those are Hispanic soap operas where everyone ends up being related.) Successfully replicating an ecosystem takes an immense amount of care and understanding of how they work (ok, maybe not telenovelas), especially when they're aquatic systems.

Saltwater aquariums in a nutshell. (wikipedia.org)

For instance, unlike pets that live on land, I can't just go in there and sweep out Nemo's cage when it starts getting messy. Not to mention Nemo would die a horrific, tragic, excrement-filled death if there wasn't something to immediately break down his waste into something less toxic. I mean, fish literally swim in their own sh... waste.

Here you can see a fish excreting waste.

Saltwater aquariums go through an initial phase called "cycling". The whole point of this process is to create a biological filtration system of tiny, microscopic organisms that break down fish waste into less harmful compounds before they can kill the fish. The process takes about 6 weeks for new tanks, after which you can slowly add fish one or two at a time while the biological filtration works to keep up with the increased bio-load (we use this term to refer to the impact the organism's waste has on the filtration of the aquarium).

The reason we don't live in our own... waste.

Waste management aside, there's the whole ordeal of creating a community of fish that have similar diets, temperament, water quality needs, current intensities, lighting needs, depth preferences, and the list goes on and on. Like I said before, creating a successful ecosystem is complex.

The Ocean as Your Medium

Once you've mastered the whole "don't let everything crash and burn in a fiery (can it be fiery underwater?) catastrophe of fish juice" there's the whole process of making it appealing to the eye. This is what separates aquarists from commoners, and I use that term in the most endearing, non-condescending, compassionate, condescending tone.

I'm not really sure this picture applies to anything, but I just wanted you to appreciate that somewhere, at some time, a woman had to pose like this for a stock photo to be used in meaningless blogs across the internet. "Hollywood is great, mom!" (cainbrian.com)

Let me start by saying there is no "yellow fish" in the aquarium trade. Nor is there a green fish, a blue fish, or an orange fish. I'm not arguing semantics. I'm fully aware there are fish that are yellow in color. It's just not that simple when it comes to selecting a fish to fit the tank. You don't just close your eyes and randomly pick a fish from amongst a bucket full of candidates. Aquarium fish are not legos.

You really can find anything on the internet. (seankenney.com)

Like I was saying earlier, balancing an aquarium's inhabitants is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle; except the box only has a rough sketch of what the puzzle looks like on the cover, the pieces have all fallen into a glass of water, and some pieces randomly go missing. Living pieces just don't mesh perfectly. There are hundreds of fish of all different shapes and sizes with countless different quirks that set them apart from the each other. As an aquarist it's up to you to know about as many of them as you can, and then to pick ones that compliment each other and create a happy, balanced tank. The diversity of your medium is limited only by you.

"I just want a yellow fish... what's so difficult about that?"

The same thing that's difficult about walking up to a bar and ordering a "beer". Yea, odds are you'll get some carbonated water that tastes vaguely of alcohol, but it's not necessarily gonna go with your Wendy's classic triple with cheese. And combinations in both regards, aquatic and alcoholic, can end catastrophically. Let me show you a "yellow fish".

A yellow fish from different angles.

I feel like I'm coming off pretty judgmental. Let me rephrase: I'm being judgmental. It's not that you're wrong in saying a fish is attractive because of its color. I'd say 95% of the time the very reason the fish was picked was because of its color, but that's generally the final stage of picking a fish. It goes something like this: "Won't release chemical weapons on death? Check. Doesn't grow to 9ft? Check. Plays well with others? Check. Doesn't need 3 lbs of golden seaweed per week that's only harvested twice a year from the northern coast of Tahiti at low tide on a full moon? Check! IS IT YELLOW? CHECK! Let's get one and try not to kill it for a while!"

"He keeps mumbling 'yellow fish, yellow fish, yellow fish'... I don't get it." (decalsplanet.com)

Every organism in the aquarium trade has a certain level of care required to keep it alive and healthy. It's never just about a fish's color, or body shape, or swim style, or even about their temperament. On some level, there's always that "How easy can you kill it?" type of mentality. There are certain fish that are harder to keep than others, and like all great hobbyists we like to challenge ourselves by keeping these fish. They're like the holy grail of aquarium fish, and we love nothing more than showing them off to other aquarists. We're absolutely elitists.

I wear this metaphorical aquarium shaped hat all the time. (poachedmag.com)

But elitism aside, there's also that sense of accomplishment every aquarist gets when they take a step back from their living masterpiece and admire just how beautiful and seemingly effortless it appears. What you see when you glimpse an aquarium is the final frame of an epic drama of defeats and victories; a saga of luck and misfortune. It's the revised umpteenth edition of someone's passion laid bare for everyone else to see. The hours of scouring through internet forums, and aquarium books, and the infected cuts, and the nibbled fingers, and random stings, and spontaneous leaks, and the headaches, and all the countless defeats culminate into the scene you see in that one 30 second glance at the glass box of color.

Aquatic elitism (my tank).

Balancing the artistic appeal of an aquarium versus the public appeal is a huge challenge for aquarists. To a certain extent you design and stock your tank with what appeals to you, but if you're hoping to showcase a piece of nature for everyone to enjoy, then you have to understand that most people aren't going to care that you have two Zebramosa sp. living together, or that you have a booming population of copepods. Aquarists want to be artistically appealing; people just want it to be visually pleasing. The challenge of being an aquarist is doing both.

So when people ask me "Is that a Nemo fish??", I do my best not to get frustrated. After all, saltwater aquariums are pretty esoteric. I just ask that when you next encounter an avid aquarist, do your best to be as appreciative as you are inquisitive. A lot has gone in to showcasing that yellow fish as seamlessly as possible.

Coralline is Eating Pellets!

I know what you're thinking, "Thank God!". And yea, I'm just as excited as you are (that's a lot of excitement)! For those of you that don't know, and that's probably most of you, Coralline is my Achilles Tang. As a majority of you do know (sarcasm was on sale today), Achilles Tangs are some of the most difficult fish to keep in home aquariums, so I'm pretty thrilled mine has adjusted so well.

Achilles Tang looking all sexy like (the watermark is a lot harder to see in person).

But that still doesn't answer the question of what "Coralline is eating pellets!" actually means. So today, I'm going to talk about what makes a fish an aquarium fish and why we can't all have killer whales in our pools.

But I want THAT one!

Aquarium life isn't for everyone. It's also not for every fish. The saltwater aquarium hobby has come a long way since undergravel filters and daily water changes, but unfortunately we're still unable to emulate the exact same conditions found out in the oceans.

My next aquarium I'm working on, eta unavailable. (ocean.goodplanet.org)

There are too many variables for us to try and balance simultaneously. There's not just the salinity (the specific concentrations of chemical compounds), but there's also the lighting, diet, water movement, nutrient levels, having HBO so they don't miss out on Game of Thrones, and so on.

Is this weird? This is weird isn't it.

 And some fish just don't make the transition well into the home aquarium. A majority of these fish either refuse to eat (and this can be for a number of reasons) or catch ich. Ich is a common aquarium parasite that really tests a fish's hardiness. It's about as common as a cold. It usually isn't a question of whether your fish is going to get ich, but more so whether or not they'll survive it.

Those white spots are not beauty marks. (ichthyologist.tumblr.com)

The key to beating ich is to keep the fish's water in ideal conditions, and more importantly to make sure that the fish continues to eat. Remember how I said fish that don't make it usually aren't eating? Well, that's another thing you have to cater to.

Who doesn't love pellets?!

One of the toughest things to do, and absolutely the most important, is getting a new fish to eat aquarium food. A lot of fish in the aquarium trade are caught in the ocean. They've never seen what flake food or pellet food looks like, nor are they that interested in trying it out.

Even when it's endorsed by celebrity fish. (liveaquaria.com)

High quality aquarium food is enriched with essential vitamins and minerals, ensuring that fish will stay in optimum health so long as they eat. But again, how do you get a fish that's used to fresh, live food to want to eat slow-sinking brown chunks?

"I'm still not eating that."

There are a few ways. The method I prefer is feeding my new fishy friend a live or frozen diet of whatever they're used to. Generally this includes either mysis shrimp or brine shrimp for carnivores and some type of seaweed for herbivores.

Brine shrimp, also referred to as "sea monkeys" (just add water!). (naturephoto-cz.com)

Red gracilaria, a favorite seaweed of tangs and other herbivores.

Normally I'll feed them only their natural food at first, then slowly I'll start tossing in a few pellets of food with their meal. It also helps if you have some fish that are already eating pellets. That way the new non-pellet-eating fish will take the hint when they see the other fish eating. Even so, it took almost 3 months for Coralline to start eating pellets.

"Pellets are so mainstream." (spreadshirt.com)

But not all fish make this transition. Some refuse to ever eat pellets or any type of flake food. Some won't get all the nutrition they require solely from pellet food, so you'll be feeding them a special diet forever. Pellets represent the epitome of aquarium acclimation. A fish that's eating pellets is a fish that has embraced aquarium life. A fish that is eating vitamin enriched food is a happy, healthy fish.

"We love pellets!"

That's a picture I took last week. From left to right: Yellow Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Tomato Clown, Achilles Tang, and Royal Gramma.

Here's a better picture of Coralline.

And that's why I'm so happy that Coralline is eating pellets. As long as she continues to keep a strong appetite and eats vitamin enriched food, her future as a happy, healthy fish is almost guaranteed. Additionally, Achilles Tangs are notorious for catching ich and not eating in home aquariums. So much so that LiveAquaria even lists them as "Expert Only: ... best kept by the most advanced hobbyists and research institutions." Things could change, and one day she may decide she hates her glass home, but for now she's a beautiful rare fish friend of mine, and I couldn't be happier.

Newest shot that I have of the happy tank.

Thanks for stopping by! As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

The Rescue

It's not every day that my exceptionally prolific skills as an aquarium fish wrangler are called upon, but on such days it's important I wear my big fish fins. Today's post tells the tale of a mentally unstable hogfish in distress, Mr. Swiss, and the heroic feats of a one Janitor of Atlantis to save his fish friend.

(artist's interpretation)

The Aquascape

 Aquariums are dangerous places. If a fish isn't careful, it can become victim to a number of gruesome fatalities. Aquarium hardware (mostly pumps and overflows) put aquarium inhabitants in danger, particularly small or slender fish, like wrasses and gobies. One of these culprits is an overflow. An overflow, or overflow box, is the beginning of the sump filtration system.

The black box on the right with the slits in the top of it is the overflow box.

An "L" shaped plastic box is inserted into the corner of the aquarium and sealed so that no water can enter it. The top of the box sits at the surface level of the water in the aquarium. This allows only water from the surface to "overflow" and fill the overflow box. The water then travels through a hole drilled into the bottom of the aquarium and enters the sump where it's filtered. Surface water generally contains oils and dissolved organic waste. Continuously filtering the surface water helps remove these excess nutrients.

The other overflow is located all the way in the far left of this picture.

The Escape Plan

Fish like to jump. They take their "fight or flight" response quite literally. Unfortunately for aquarists, this means you'll occasionally come home to your very own crisp fish chip lying on the living room floor. This is why a lot of aquarists will have canopies on top of their aquarium, like I do.

"Look at me! Look at me! I'm a hat!!" - The Canopy

Although they're not very fashionable, canopies do prevent jumpy fish from achieving their lifelong goal of becoming a crispy cat snack. However, aquarium fish are determined, and if they can't jump out of the tank, then they'll just jump into the sump! And how might they do that you ask? Why, quite simply, they jump into the overflow and follow the plumbing to the sump.

"ALL SUMPS LEAD TO THE OCEAN, RIGHT? RIGHT??" - Mr. Swiss

How to Retrieve a Psychotic Fish: Overflow Edition

If you look closely, you'll see a red and white striped slender fish in the bottom right of that picture. That's my pacific redstripe hogfish named Mr. Swiss. Here's a better picture from LiveAquaria.

I bet he tastes just like a candycane! (liveaquaria.com)

For whatever reason, my genius of a fish decided to jump into the overflow. Apparently this is trending, because a few days ago my mystery wrasse ended up in the sump and my dad had to catch him and put him back in the top tank. Fish these days, I swear. I didn't want to let this guy get into the sump because there are several high powered pumps in there that don't have their intakes covered. They're essentially just waiting to suck up Mr. Swiss and make him into fish confetti. I didn't want this to happen.

A better view of the overflow box.

Getting Started

So as I said, I didn't want him getting into the sump and potentially being minced, so I decided I'd have to catch him out of the overflow. As you can see, the overflow isn't just some empty box with a hole in it at the bottom. There are two pipes inside of it. The white pipe you see is open at the top. This leads down into the sump. The pipe behind that (squint a little harder!) is the return pipe from the sump pump. The important information here is that there isn't much space to fit a net inside the overflow.

Fish-vac 2000

First I thought I'd be able to just siphon out the overflow box and hopefully get Mr. Swiss with it, but unfortunately he didn't like the idea of being sucked through a 7 foot long aquarium hose. (Then why was he in the overflow box???) I started by shutting off the sump pump so that the overflow wouldn't keep filling up as I was trying to drain it. Then I siphoned out as much of the overflow box water as I could.

"I just wanted to see the ocean!" - Mr. Swiss

When it got down to about an inch and a half of water, it was time to catch Mr. Swiss. I started off trying to fit the net down there, but this was a terrible idea and didn't have the remotest chance of working, so I opted to use my arm instead. I'd like to take a minute (just sit right there) to tell you why shoving your hand into the overflow of your aquarium is a terrible idea.

Like broken glass, except made of bone! (ncmg.org.au)

If you can't make out that picture, just know those are tiny little calcium carbonate skeletons of tubeworms. They feel like barnacles, only more brittle and smaller. These grow everywhere in aquariums. They grow especially well in tight spaces where you may need to forcefully shove your hand.

"Go ahead, punch us!" (dreamstime.com)

My aquarium is about 28 inches or so deep, and my hogfish was at the bottom of it, all the way in the back, hiding behind a pipe covered in brittle, sharp, bony tubeworms. This is why shoving your arm down into tight spaces to catch a fish is a bad idea:

#hardcoreaquarists

After much flopping (and presumably giggling) Mr. Swiss finally tired out and I was able to pick him up with my hand. Of course, it wasn't that easy. I had to step onto the ledge of my aquarium stand, put my entire torso into the canopy, lean forward as far as possible, and blindly shove my hand 28 inches into the gaping maw of tubeworm hell. But at the end of the day, Mr. Swiss was back and happily swimming in his beloved (presumable) home. Let's take another look at that arm, shall we?

No fish left behind... or in overflow boxes.

I've since covered the overflow boxes with some cardboard while I search for a more permanent solution. Catching fish out of filtration systems is a pain in the ass. Sometimes it's nearly impossible, but every aquarist knows it's only a matter of time before a fish gets sucked into a pump intake if left in the sump for too long. That's why it's always important to be prepared for Evil Knievel fanfish, and rescue them asap. Fish suicide is a serious problem, and only you can help. Support fish in need today, and cover your intakes.

A Breath of Fresh Saltwater

I've been trying to remember to take more pictures when I do maintenance on my aquarium, and for good reason. I get a lot of questions in regards to maintenance and how much upkeep a saltwater aquarium involves, so I'd like to talk about aquarium maintenance today. I'm going to split it up in to a few segments though, since there's a lot to cover (THERE'S A LOT OF PICTURES). This week I'll start with the most recent picture of my tank. (ALSO, if you didn't know, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!)

"Why does he keep using a potato to take pictures of his aquarium?"

The Water Change

One big thing I see a lot of aquarists struggling with is the dreaded water change. Beginning aquarists, and this applies to anyone that just kind of wings it with their setup, either change their water too often, too seldom, too much, too little, or a combination of the four. With that being said, there is no end-all-be-all rule when it comes to changing your aquarium water. There are a lot of factors involved: how many fish you have, their diets, how often you feed, the types of filtration you have, the size of the filters, light intensity, the size of your aquarium, the quality of your tap water, and on and on.

Zzzzzzz... aquariums... ZzzZzZzzz,... (wisegeek.com)

I know, I know, it's a lot of information, but it's important to keep in mind. There just isn't a clear-cut answer about how much aquarium maintenance you'll have to do. It varies. What I recommend is to ask someone that does have experience with aquariums to help you. For instance, since I'm not there every day to maintain my aquarium, I have an extensive filtration system.

Protein skimmer, calcium reactor, phosphate reactor, carbon filter, refugium, and UV sterilizer.

These allow me to neglect weekly or twice a week water changes on my aquarium. I also try not to overfeed my corals and fish. It's important to remember that whatever goes into the tank has to come out of the tank. That includes all the food you feed your fish. So to answer the question, I change about 40 gallons (that's about 20%) of my aquarium water every 2 weeks.

That's about this much water.

Where it all starts!

Now, I know you're sitting there browsing another website and reluctantly coming back every few minutes to see if I'm saying anything interesting yet; I assure you I am. As we speak, I'm typing a blog in my underwear. More importantly, I bet you're wondering where the saltwater that my aquarium craves actually comes from. The answer, and this is going to blow your mind: I make it.

You calm the hell down right now. (maothebrok.deviantart.com)

It all starts with a lovely unit called a Reverse Osmosis Deionization System (RO/DI). The only thing you need to know about this terrifyingly named device is that it removes all the extra chemicals in tap water (and it probably got made fun of on the playground).
 

My RO/DI system. Essential material for Making Water 101.

You see the problem with tap water is that it contains all those filthy chemicals that prevent living things from growing inside the water pipes around the city. That's great for us when we want to drink it; not so great for us when we want our fishy friends to swim in it. The RO/DI unit takes out all the extra minerals and chemical agents leaving it as close to pure water as possible. It has a threaded fitting that fits most regular garden hose sized faucets. It takes me about 9 - 12 hours to fill up an entire 44 gallon trashcan with RO/DI water.

Now I have a trashcan full of water in my living room. What do I do?

Ah! Another common problem! You've followed my thorough guide step-by-step and now you're sponsoring the most pitiful kiddie pool on the block. So what do you do? You add salt, ya dig?

Snort this. Hilarity will ensue.

This is what a 5 gallon bucket of saltwater aquarium salt looks like. It has all kinds of delicious things for the fish and coral. It's full of calcium, magnesium, and other trace elements found in the water around coral reefs all over the globe. This is a main source for replenishing the vitamins and beneficial minerals to your aquarium.

One small scoop for fishkind.

So if it's not obvious, that's me scooping marine salt mix into a cup. Don't worry, for those of you lacking any form of imagination I even captured a picture of what I do with it (hint: it doesn't involve making it into lines).

"OMG I SO KNEW THAT WAS COMING!!!"

Bravo! Seriously, well done! Yes, after scooping up some salt I start adding it to the garbage can full of RO/DI water. Now, you can't just poor the entire bucket of salt into the trashcan. You only add enough salt to raise the water's salinity to the same salinity as your aquarium. Before you ask, let me tell you. The way you find out the salinity of the water is by using a hydrometer.

Salinity magician.

This is the simplest method of determining salinity. It is a pre-calibrated device that weighs the water inside of it and tells you how dense it is. The white circle inside the white arrow thing has a known weight to it. When the hydrometer is filled with water, the white circle causes the white arrow to rise up to whatever the corresponding density of the water is. As you know (start nodding your head and smiling knowingly), the density of water is affected by temperature and pressure. With that in mind, the hydrometer will give false readings if there is undissolved salt or if the water inside of it is not the same temperature as your aquarium. More accurate devices are refractometers (they use light to determine the density of the water) and conductivity meters (they measure the ability of the water sample to conduct a current to determine the salinity). However, these are expensive and for most cases a hydrometer will work fine.

Trashcan snowglobe!

The black cord in that picture leads to a pump on the bottom of the trashcan that vigorously mixes the water. I use a pretty strong pump to do this for a few reasons. The stronger the pump, the better the mixing. This reduces how long it takes the salt to dissolve into the water. Just as importantly, it also increases the amount of oxygen exchanged between the water in the trashcan and the air. That's also why I mix the water with the lid off: to make sure there is an ample supply of oxygen mixed into the water. If I added 40 gallons of anoxic water to my aquarium, the corals and fish could die. The next step is to start siphoning water out of the aquarium.

"Why does he have so many trashcans???"

 Multitasking: The Key to Aquarium Maintenance*

*the author takes no responsibility for hilarious aquarium related disasters involving unattended pumps and carpet, wood floors, or electrical outlets

If you're looking to cut down on your aquarium maintenance, it's important to be able to do two or three things at once. That being said, please don't ever leave a pump or siphon unattended (oh, man... that has so many inappropriate interpretations). Every aquarist has AT LEAST one tragic story about how an unattended hose broke lose and sprayed gallons upon gallons all over their floor. Just remember, only you can prevent carpet flooding.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuu..." (today.com)

When I say multitasking, I really mean killing two birds with one stone. That saying seems so out of place in a blog about aquariums... Anyway... I seriously cannot focus. Right, so in this case, multitasking involves siphoning out things I don't want in my aquarium while I also siphon out the 40 gallons of water to be changed. Siphoning is like water-vacuuming. So, instead of just putting a hose in the tank, starting the siphon, and walking away, I like to vacuum out hair algae and any detritus (undissolved organic waste) buildup I see.

Focus on the gross fuzzy green mess in the middle.

When you let hair algae grow a little bit, sometimes it will make a mat and you can get it all out by just siphoning it. So, I went ahead and sucked it out.

That's "out" not "off" for you adventurous types.

And voila! Most of it is gone. Snails and hermit crabs will eat hair algae, but they usually stay away from dense mats of it. You have to keep it trimmed. (Ok, I can't keep up these euphemisms.) Annnnd here's what it looks like in the dirty waste water.

"Ewwwwwwww"

So before I started the siphon, I shut off my sump pump. The sump pump is the pump that pushes water from the sump tank into the top tank. The water falls into what are called "overflows" and is then transported to the sump via PVC pipes and aquarium hoses. After it's filtered, the sump pump pumps it back up into the main tank. Since we're lowering the water level of the tank by siphoning out 40 gallons, if we let the sump pump continue to run, eventually it would pump the sump dry since no new water is overflowing into the overflows. This could damage the pump and cause unnecessary headaches. So, in short, turn off your sump pump when doing water changes.

"I'm leakinggggg!"

I swear this isn't the same picture as the one above it.

As the water level drops, some of the corals near the top of the tank will become exposed to the air. This really isn't a big concern unless they'll be exposed for a long period of time (30 minutes or more). Now, I just arbitrarily made up that number, but you get the idea. If it's going to take you longer than that to do the water change, I would try and either move the corals to a lower place in the aquarium for the duration of the water change, or siphon water out of your sump instead of the top tank.

Rose birdsnest being exposed to the air.

Spaghetti finger leather falling with the tide.

Fill 'er Up

Once I've siphoned out about 40 gallons, I start pumping the water I mixed earlier into the tank. It's important to make sure the salt is completely dissolved into the RO/DI water. You don't want your water to mix in the tank. Also, if you're doing large water changes (anything over 20% of the total tank volume), you should make sure the temperature of the water you're adding is within 1 degree of the aquarium's water temperature.

"Weeeeeee!"

I need a pump because I add water to the top aquarium as opposed to adding it to the sump. Since gravity only works in one direction, I use a pump to pump it out of the garbage can and into the top aquarium. I could use the sump pump to pump it up into the top tank if I just siphoned the new water into the sump, but since the return pipes for the sump pump are high up in the aquarium, water would splash everywhere. That's not ideal. Now back to multitasking. While the aquarium is filling, I like to empty out the dirty algae-infested waste water that I siphoned out. Being a responsible individual, I dispose of it in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

"Uh, hey... um... so what are we.... what are we doing out here, huh? Wait.. WAIT! WAIT NO!"

The most responsible way possible.

"I ONLY EVER LOVED YOU--"

When the tank is just about full, I'll turn the sump pump back on and add some saltwater if needed. Remember to always make a little extra to compensate for this, and also it's nice to have some extra saltwater in a bucket somewhere. It's useful for replacing saltwater after acclimating a new fish or refilling a filter with aquarium water.

I swear it looks like an angry aquarium face.

Next Time on Fishy Fishy...

I thought I'd be able to fit it into this post, but apparently I rambled for far too long. The next installment of Fishy Fishy will feature my striped hogfish, Mr. Swiss, that loves to get into places he doesn't belong. The things you'll do to rescue your fish...

Water changes can seem intimidating, but really anyone can do them. Over time you'll even start to recognize when your tank needs a water change, and then maybe you'll start writing outrageous aquarium blog posts. Who knows? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post of Fishy Fishy. If you have any questions about water changes, or anything aquarium related, don't hesitate to ask! Until next time.