10 Best Background Plants for Beginner Aquariums One of the easiest ways to make your fish tank look less like a glass box and more like a slice of nature is to cover the back wall with a lush forest of tall aquarium plants. Check out these 10 beginner-friendly background plants that grow to 12 inches (30 cm) or more. Before we begin, remember that most of these plants are grown emersed (or above water) at the plant farms, so when you bring them into your aquarium, their original leaves may melt away since the plants must grow new leaves th...

How to Quarantine Fish the Easy Way Many beginners may not know this, but one of the easiest ways to stop your fish from getting sick is to set up a quarantine tank. This separate aquarium is used to temporarily hold newly purchased fish or ailing animals that need a quiet environment to heal. By putting them in isolation, it allows you to closely observe their health, administer any treatments, and prevent illnesses from spreading. Once they are completely healthy and disease-free, you can safely add them to your main display ...

Top 5 Peaceful Gouramis for a Community Tank Gouramis are a unique freshwater fish, often known for their flat, oval-shaped bodies and whisker-like feeler fins. As a type of anabantoid or labyrinth fish, they have a special labyrinth organ that acts like rudimentary lungs, allowing them to gulp oxygen from the surface and create bubble nests for breeding. Gouramis sometimes get a bad reputation for being ornery, so we found our top 5 peaceful gouramis that play nice with other community fish. 1. Female Powder Blue Gourami Dwarf gouramis...

What is Neon Tetra Disease? Neon tetras are a popular nano fish known for their beautiful, red and blue stripes, but sometimes they get a bad reputation for being a “sensitive” fish that is prone to dying. In our experience, these tetras are just as hardy as other danios and rasboras, but there are several factors that may weaken their immunity and make them more inclined to catch illnesses. Let’s discuss why neon tetras get sick, what is neon tetra disease, and how to prevent it. Why Do Neon Tetras Get Sick? The first ...

5 Easy Ways to Get Rid of Aquarium Pest Snails Bladder, ramshorn, and Malaysian trumpet snails are often called pest snails in the aquarium hobby because they reproduce very quickly and are difficult to remove once introduced to a fish tank. They can enter your fish tank by hitchhiking on live aquatic plants or even at the bottom of a fish bag from the pet store. Are pest snails bad for my fish tank? Despite having the nickname of “pest snails,” they are actually quite useful in aquariums and are a natural part of the aquatic ecosystem. T...

How to Treat Parasites in Aquarium Fish When you buy an aquarium fish, did you know that it has traveled from a fish farm to a wholesaler to a pet store before it got to you? That means that there’s a high likelihood that it may have picked up some kind of internal or external parasite along the way. Wild-caught fish are especially prone to carrying parasites, if not multiple types at the same time. Unfortunately, most of the time aquarium fish don’t stay at the store long enough to make sure they are free of parasitic diseases. If...

10 Best Goldfish Foods You Need to Try Goldfish have been bred for hundreds of years to have special features like elegant double tails and egg-shaped bodies. That compact physique can sometimes cause constipation and digestion issues, so goldfish owners devote a lot of time and energy into finding the best foods for their water piggies. After decades of personally keeping and raising goldfish, here are our top 10 foods we love to feed to ensure that our goldfish get a wide variety of essential nutrients, color-enhancing ingredien...

Top 7 Colorful Fish for a 10-Gallon Aquarium 10-gallon aquariums are so popular because of their small footprint and low cost, so what kind of fish can you put in them? As a follow-up to our article on the 7 best fish tank ideas for a 10-gallon stocking ideas, we’ve come up with more suggestions to help you pick the 7 most colorful fish to brighten up your 10-gallon setup. 1. The Killifish Aquarium Killifish are a very colorful, underrated fish that enjoy temperatures below 78°F (26°C) and can live in an unheated aquarium. There are hun...

10 Best Top-Dwelling Fish for Your Aquarium Bottom dwellers are quite popular because they cruise around the bottom of the fish tank and clean up any food scraps from the ground. To balance out your aquarium, try adding some top-dwelling fish that will feed from the surface and fill the upper third of your fish tank. 1. Brown Pencilfish A cheap and easy surface dweller to start off our list is Nannostomus eques, also known as the hockeystick or diptail pencilfish. Their common names came from their slanted swimming style in which the h...

How to Use Airline Accessories in Your Aquarium Aquarium air pumps are quite easy to use – just connect the pump to the air-driven device (like a sponge filter) using some airline tubing and plug it in. Then, why are there so many airline accessories and which ones do you actually need? Keep reading as we briefly explain five of the most common airline parts that can transform the way you use your air pump. 1. Check Valve If you only get one item from this list, a check valve is an essential must-have. It contains a flapper or stopper that...

5 Best Foods for Freshwater Aquarium Shrimp If you’re not trying to breed champion-quality shrimp, then finding the “best” food to feed freshwater shrimp is not as hard as you may think. Aquarium companies know that ornamental shrimp are very popular right now, so they spend a lot of marketing dollars trying to convince you that shrimp have very specialized needs that only their brand of shrimp food can meet. In reality, dwarf shrimp are last on the food chain, serving as scavengers that eat decaying plants, deceased animals, algae, an...

How to Get Rid of Hydra in Your Aquarium Have you spotted a miniature tentacle monster in your freshwater aquarium? Not to worry – it’s a fascinating freshwater creature called hydra that is relatively easy to deal with. Keep reading as we talk about what is hydra and a few natural methods of removing them without harming your animals, plants, or beneficial bacteria. What is Hydra? These tiny, freshwater organisms of the genus Hydra are the distant relatives of jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones. Growing up to 0.4 inches (1 cm), th...

When Should I Dose Iron in My Planted Aquarium? Just as people need certain nutrients to function correctly, aquatic plants require a unique mix of fundamental building blocks to live and grow. Macronutrients (like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous) are nutrients that plants consume in large quantities, where as micronutrients (like iron and boron) are nutrients that plants consume in trace amounts. Many all-in-one liquid fertilizers like Easy Green already contain iron (Fe), so when is it necessary to dose additional iron in your plant...

How to Use Root Tabs to Fertilize Aquarium Plants Is your live aquatic plant not growing or losing leaves, even though you’re giving it plenty of light and liquid fertilizer? Most aquarium plants can absorb nutrients from both the water and the substrate (e.g., gravel, sand, or aquatic soil), but some species prefer one method over the other. If your plant is a “root feeder” that favors consuming from its roots, then we need to give it a nutrient-rich substrate or ground-based fertilizers called root tabs. What Are Root Tabs? Root tabs are d...

Top 5 Nano Fish for a 5-Gallon Aquarium A 5-gallon fish tank is the ideal size for your office desk or dorm room, but it can be hard to find creatures that are small enough to live in it. Check out our 5 favorite fish that are perfect for inhabiting a nano aquarium. 1. Dwarf Pea Puffer Carinotetraodon travancoricus is an adorable, 1-inch (2.5 cm) long pufferfish with a small yellow body, dark spots, and independently rotating eyes. This carnivorous creature loves to eat frozen foods and will go after your live snails and dwarf shri...

7 Best Fish Tank Ideas for a 10-Gallon Aquarium A 10-gallon fish tank is one of the most common “starter” aquarium sizes because it’s small enough for an apartment, a kid’s bedroom, or even your kitchen counter. If you’re not sure what kind of fish to get or how to design the tank, get inspired by 7 of our favorite aquarium setup ideas. 1. The “Centerpiece Fish” Aquarium A centerpiece fish refers to that one aquarium fish that really draws everyone’s attention because it’s usually the biggest animal compared to the other community tank mat...