General info on Aquariums

[vio88]

I reccently started working at a pet store, and thought I would ask for some general knowledge so I know more when customers ask.

I have had an aquarium before so I know some. I understand cycling, and general tank set up. But ya just thought I would ask if you guys had any important advice.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, that's a big order. Good on you for actually trying to know what you're talking about. That sets you way above 90% of pet store employees. Generally, I'd say you should learn your way around the following:
--planted tanks (substrates, lighting, ferts, high vs. low tech)
--unplanted tanks (how to make things reasonably healthy without plants)
--filter options (sponge, canisters, hang-on-back, internal [and undergravel if you're into arcane lore]),
--behavioral compatibility (some fish are aggressive, peaceful, solitary, schooling)
--water condition requirements (especially water hardness)
--fish size and tank size (no goldfish in 10 gallon tanks; no bala sharks in anything smaller than your house)

You can always ask specific questions. Also, learn your way around seriouslyfish.com. Then you can look up any fish's specific needs on your phone and feel really smart talking to customers.

 

[Circus]

I would say have a list of good "beginners" plants. My first tank I had a store employee recommend and sell me some really cool plants - that would only thrive in a higher tech tank. They all melted or rotted and I was devastated.

 

[2tank]

Definitely find out about plants, check tropica for plant difficulty. Also find out a bit about tank sizes and aquascaping, also familiarize yourself with the many small fish in your store.

 

[Callisto405]

The main thing is learning about the fish themselves, their tank requirements and their compatibility with other fish. Also make sure you preach the importance of cycling a tank and doing regular water changes

 

[Callisto405]

Black Skirt Tetras are NOT peaceful fish. These fish are no more better than ciclids. I have seen adults eat neon tetras.

 

[Colin_T]

If people come in asking for help with sick fish, get photos & video or look at their fish, test their tank water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. If your not sure what the problem is, get them to do water changes and gravel clean the substrate and clean the filter. Then try to identify the problem before adding chemicals.

Don't just sell them some medication if you aren't sure what is going on.

The following 3 links have information on fish health. You can work off the info in them if you like.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

Do not use anti-biotics unless you know what the problem is.

This thread is going to be harsh and a lot of people are not going to like what I have to say. But it needs to be said because anyone who uses anti-biotics when they don't know what they are treating, is contributing to the death and extinction of all animals on this planet, and that includes...

www.fishforums.net

If in doubt, water change it out and maybe add salt. Your boss might not like it but most customers prefer not to use chemicals even if the boss is trying to sell them some. Customers will also come back and bring their friends and family into the shop to buy stuff if you are honest and don't sell them stuff they don't need. I used to have a legion of people (customers) that followed me from shop to shop whenever I changed companies. This was simply because I didn't sell them stuff they didn't need and was honest with them. Tell them how to look after their fish and encourage them to keep the tank clean. Avoid selling them sick fish.

 

[vio88]

Black Skirt Tetras are NOT peaceful fish. These fish are no more better than ciclids. I have seen adults eat neon tetras.

Black Skirt Tetras, Ciclids, betas, any other common fish aggressive? Oh Angelfish are right? Can it generally be assumed if its a large fish it may be aggressive?

There is tags on the tanks at work saying community or not and other info but I don't think its accurate on aggressiveness.

 

[vio88]

If people come in asking for help with sick fish, get photos & video or look at their fish, test their tank water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. If your not sure what the problem is, get them to do water changes and gravel clean the substrate and clean the filter. Then try to identify the problem before adding chemicals.

Don't just sell them some medication if you aren't sure what is going on.

The following 3 links have information on fish health. You can work off the info in them if you like.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

Do not use anti-biotics unless you know what the problem is.

This thread is going to be harsh and a lot of people are not going to like what I have to say. But it needs to be said because anyone who uses anti-biotics when they don't know what they are treating, is contributing to the death and extinction of all animals on this planet, and that includes...

www.fishforums.net

If in doubt, water change it out and maybe add salt. Your boss might not like it but most customers prefer not to use chemicals even if the boss is trying to sell them some. Customers will also come back and bring their friends and family into the shop to buy stuff if you are honest and don't sell them stuff they don't need. I used to have a legion of people (customers) that followed me from shop to shop whenever I changed companies. This was simply because I didn't sell them stuff they didn't need and was honest with them. Tell them how to look after their fish and encourage them to keep the tank clean. Avoid selling them sick fish.

Thanks that really helps with the sick fish. So I know aquarium salt can help with sickness but how does it?

Also I know its best to have a sick tank so you can separate sick fish but it seems to me most customers are in it for a cheap fun and wouldn't bother to have a sick tank. Can a sick fish be treated ok in the community tank? Is there any way around not having a second tank?

Ya it is tricky to find a balance between what my boss wants and what we here know to be best for fish.

 

[Colin_T]

The disease organisms die at a lower dose rate of salt and the fish can tolerate the salt for a short period of time. If you get enough salt in the water, it kills disease organisms but hopefully doesn't kill the fish.

Salt doesn't work on all problems but can help with minor bacterial and fungal infections, as well as external protozoan infections (Costia, Chilodonella, Trichodina).

Salt will not always help with advanced bacterial infections or things like Fish Tuberculosis. And salt does not treat white spot.

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If one fish has a disease then all the fish in the tank will have been exposed to it and probably have it. So it is best to leave everyone in the main tank and treat that.

Quarantine tanks should be used for new fish to stop diseases getting into the main display tank, but are pretty much pointless if the main tank gets a problem because everyone in the tank will usually have it.

A quarantine tank can be used to isolate fish that have been bullied or injured but if people choose the correct fish for their tank, there shouldn't be any need to separate fish.

In an emergency, a plastic storage container can be used as a quarantine tank.

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Before treating any aquarium you should work out the amount of water in it and clean the tank and filter. The less gunk in the tank, the better the medications work.

Before you treat the tank, do the following things.
Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[Callisto405]

Thanks that really helps with the sick fish. So I know aquarium salt can help with sickness but how does it?

Also I know its best to have a sick tank so you can separate sick fish but it seems to me most customers are in it for a cheap fun and wouldn't bother to have a sick tank. Can a sick fish be treated ok in the community tank? Is there any way around not having a second tank?

Ya it is tricky to find a balance between what my boss wants and what we here know to be best for fish.

A sick tank can be as simple as a large bowl with a simple airstone. You don't even need a filter, just do a 50% water change daily

A quarantine tank is a little different. The tank should be at least 10 gallons and cycled with a filter due to the fact the fish will be in it for a couple weeks and will need some space to swim. Larger fish will need an even bigger quarantine tank

You never want to treat a whole tank. Medications can be hard on fish. So there's no point in subjecting healthy fish to harsh chemicals if you don't have to.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Other common fish that don't play well with others: Tiger barbs, serpae tetras (big schools can help with both of these), puffers, red tailed sharks, chinese algae eaters. Not all big fish are aggressive (snakeskin gouramis, for example, get quite large and are about as violent as a tree stump), and some of the worst ones (like tiger barbs) are quite small.

 

[mcordelia]

It is definitely possible (and sometimes even advised) to treat the entire tank when a fish is sick. Many illnesses can be contagious and some parasites like ich live in the water column or substrate for many weeks so treating one fish separately may not prevent other fish from getting the same thing. I'll leave it to @Colin_T to answer on the mechanics of salt, but I would comment that one of the most common fish diseases seems to be ich/white spot. It looks like grains of salt stuck to the fish, and the most effective treatment for that is increasing the temperature and many people also add salt (the salt will not kill ich but may prevent simultaneous additional infections).

I think what will serve you the best is preaching patience to new fishkeepers. If you can dissuade someone from walking home with a new tank AND fish in the same day, that is huge. Does your fish store sell ammonia for fishless cycling? If you do not have ammonia for sale, see if your boss is willing to stock Dr. Tim's product line, since it is "meant for cycling tanks" (honestly any ammonia with no additives will do, but your boss probably doesn't want to stock jugs of ammonia). If you do not sell ammonia in store, I think it would be difficult to convince customers to buy ammonia in a separate trip to another store, so your next best bet may be to sell them double the needed amount of bacterial starter (tetra safe start plus works well, and I think the other brands do a reasonable job as well if the product is shipped and stored properly), and guide them how to do a fish-in cycle.

For your info: a fish-in cycle involves testing the water every day for ammonia and nitr_i_tes, and if either read more than zero doing a 50-75% water change and testing again after that to check that it reads zero again. If it is still not zero, repeat until they read zero. This process needs to continue daily for 6-8 weeks unless a bacterial starter is used. A bacterial starter can shorten the time to as little as 1-2 weeks of daily water changes, but more may need to be added with each water change. I'm sure I'll have more ideas too,but have to go make dinner

 

[Utar]

You just can't learn all this stuff in a short amount of time, it will take you a couple of years at least. But you will learn it well enough and become a good shepherd of fish keeping, so stay in there. I just wished there where more people like you working in the pet store industry, those that are willing to learn and care for these wonderful creatures.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yeah, don't get overwhelmed. I suspect the same issues will come up again and again--fish compatibility, cycling, and tank size, especially. Learn as you go and look stuff up as you need to. Thanks for your willingness to learn.