Fishkeeping is a popular hobby, practiced by aquarists, concerned with keeping fish in a home aquarium or garden pond. It is a practice that encompasses the art of maintaining one's own aquatic ecosystem, featuring a lot of variety with various water systems, all of which have their own unique features and requirements. Fishkeeping primarily serves as a token of appreciation and fascination for marine life and the environment that surrounds such, along with other purposes such as the piscicultural fishkeeping industry, serving as a branch of agriculture, being one of the most widespread methods of cultivating fish for commercial profit.
Fishkeeping has existed for thousands of years, with some of the earliest known fishkeepers being Sumerians around 2500 BCE. During this period, aquarium owners did not fully understand the environmental requirements necessary to sustain marine life. Over time fishkeeping evolved as knowledge of aquatic biology improved, leading to the development of specialized tanks for different species and the incorporation of aquatic plants to create more balanced and natural habitats.
Origins of fishkeeping
Fish have been raised as food in pools and ponds for thousands of years. Brightly colored or tame specimens of fish in these pools have sometimes been valued as pets rather than food. Many cultures, ancient and modern, have kept fish for both functional and decorative purposes.
Ancient Sumerians kept wild-caught fish in ponds, before preparing them for meals. Depictions of the sacred fish of Oxyrhynchus kept in captivity in rectangular temple pools have been found in ancient Egyptian art.
Similarly, Asia has experienced a long history of stocking rice paddies with freshwater fish suitable for eating, including various types of catfish and cyprinid. Selective breeding of carp into today's popular and completely domesticated koi and fancy goldfish began over 2,000 years ago in Japan and China, respectively. The Chinese brought goldfish indoors during the Song dynasty to enjoy them in large ceramic vessels.
In medieval Europe, carp pools were a standard feature of estates and monasteries, providing an alternative to meat on feast days when meat could not be eaten for religious reasons.
Marine fish have been similarly valued for centuries. Wealthy Romans kept lampreys and other fish in salt water pools. Tertullian reports that Asinius Celer paid 8000 sesterces for a particularly fine mullet. Cicero reports that the advocate Quintus Hortensius wept when a favored specimen died. Rather cynically, he referred to these ancient fishkeepers as the Piscinarii, the "fish-pond owners" or "fish breeders", for example when saying that "the rich (I mean your friends the fish-breeders) did not disguise their jealousy of me".Cicero, Letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticum) 1.18Cicero, Letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticum) 1.19Cicero, Letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticum) 1.20
The first person to breed a tropical fish in Europe was Pierre Carbonnier, who founded one of the oldest public aquaria in Paris in 1850,Jacques Teton, "Archives de l'Aquariophilie : L'aquariophilie a-t-elle évoluée considérablement depuis des décennies ?", Revue Aquarama, 1988. and bred the first imported Macropods (Paradise fish) in 1869, and later more species. A pioneer of tropical fish breeding, Carbonnier was awarded the Gold Medal of the Imperial French Acclimatization Society in 1875 for research and breeding of exotic freshwater aquarium fish, and for his success in introducing exotic fish species to France."Séance générale du 7 janvier 1876", in Bulletin de la Société d'Acclimatation, 3ème Série, Tome III, 1876, p.36-37.
Types of fishkeeping systems Fishkeepers are often known as "aquarists" since many of them are not solely interested in keeping fish, but rather for the enjoyment and appreciation of aquatic life. The hobby can be broadly divided into three specific disciplines, depending on the type of water the fish originate from: freshwater, brackish, and marine (also called saltwater) fishkeeping.
Freshwater
Freshwater fishkeeping is the most common of the three disciplines, with even small pet stores often selling a variety of freshwater fish, such as goldfish, guppies, and angelfish. While most freshwater aquaria are community tanks containing a variety of compatible species, single-species breeding aquaria are also popular. Livebearing fish such as mollies and guppies are among those most easily raised in captivity, but aquarists also regularly breed many types of cichlid, catfish, characins, cyprinids, and killifish.
Many fishkeepers create freshwater aquascapes where the focus is on aquatic plants as well as fish. These aquaria include "Dutch aquaria" that mass contrasting stem plants, named for European aquarists who first designed them. In recent years, one of the most active advocates of the heavily planted aquarium was the Japanese aquarist Takashi Amano. A photographer who through his images of his own complex aquariums. He would then proceed to establish his own company "Aqua Design Amano" in 1982 to sell aquarium products "featuring excellent quality and design" to share his vision towards other aquarists.
Garden ponds are in some ways similar to freshwater aquaria, but are usually much larger and exposed to ambient weather. In the tropics, tropical fish can be kept in garden ponds. In the temperate zone, species such as goldfish, koi, and orfe work better.
Saltwater Marine aquaria have more specific needs and requirements to maintain, and the livestock is generally more expensive. As a result, this branch tends to attract more experienced fishkeepers. Marine aquaria can be appealing from an aesthetics perspective, due to the attractive colors and shapes of the corals and the coral reef fish they host. Temperate zone marine fish are not as commonly kept in home aquaria, primarily because they do not thrive at room temperature. Coldwater aquaria must provide cooler temperature via a cool room (such as an unheated basement) or using a refrigeration device known as a 'chiller'.
Marine aquarists often attempt to recreate a coral reef in their aquaria using large quantities of living rock, porous calcareous rocks encrusted with coralline algae, sponges, worms, and other small marine organisms. Larger corals, as well as shrimps, crabs, echinoderms, and mollusks are added later on, once the aquarium has matured, as well as a variety of small fish. Such aquaria are sometimes called reef tanks.
Brackish water Brackish water aquaria combine elements of the other types, with salinity that must stay between that of freshwater and seawater. Brackish water fish come from habitats with varying salinity, such as mangroves and estuaries, and do not thrive if kept permanently in freshwater. Although brackish water aquaria are not a common option chosen by many aquarists, brackish water hosts unique benefits that could be more optimal for traditional species within aquaria, as many species prefer brackish water, including some mollies, many gobies, some pufferfish, monos, and scats.
Aquarium maintenance
Ideal aquarium ecology reproduces the balance found in nature in the closed system of an aquarium. In practice, it is virtually impossible to maintain a perfect balance. As an example, a balanced predator-prey relationship is nearly impossible to maintain in even the largest aquaria. Typically, an aquarium keeper must actively maintain balance in the small ecosystems that aquaria provide. Basic aquarium maintenance should generally be performed weekly to maintain optimum conditions for fish and plants.
Balance is facilitated by larger volumes of water which dilute the effects of a systemic shock. For example, the death of the only fish in a tank causes dramatic changes in the system, while the death of that same fish in a tank that holds many fish may create only a minor imbalance. For this reason, hobbyists often favor larger tanks whenever possible, as they require less intensive attention. This same concept extends to the filtration system as well, external (outside of the tank) systems in particular. Generally speaking, the larger the filtration system depending on its configuration, the more capable it will be of properly maintaining an aquatic environment. External filtration systems provide the added benefit of increasing the overall volume of water and its dilution effect. For example, a aquarium with an external filter that holds creates a aquatic system, an increase of over twenty percent.
A variety of nutrient cycles is important in the aquarium. Imitating natural waves that would be found in natural bodies of water allows dissolved oxygen to be dispersed, causing the release of carbon dioxide. There are plenty of other vital processes and nutrients that are necessary for an aquarium to thrive. Nutritional cycles such as the phosphate and nitrogen cycle allow essential elements to support a stable environment. Consumption and waste both contribute greatly to these systems, including sulfur, iron, and other micronutrients. Appropriate handling of these factors, along with a balanced food supply and consideration of biological loading, is a requirement to keep these nutrient cycles in adequate equilibrium.
Water conditions The solute content of water is perhaps the most important aspect of water conditions, as total dissolved solids and other constituents can dramatically impact basic water chemistry, and therefore how organisms interact with their environment. Salt content, or salinity, is the most basic classification of water conditions. Depending on the water system that an aquarist chooses, maintaining the proper range of salt content is essential for these ecosystems to survive and to properly reflect conditions that exist within a natural system. These ranges and simulations include freshwater (salinity below 0.5 PPT), simulating a lake or river environment; brackish water (a salt level of 0.5 to 30 PPT), simulating environments lying between fresh and salt, such as estuaries; and salt water or seawater (a salt level of 30 to 40 PPT), simulating an ocean or sea environment. Even higher salt concentrations are maintained in specialized tanks for raising brine organisms.
Several other water characteristics result from dissolved materials in the water and are important to the proper simulation of natural environments. Saltwater is typically alkaline, while the pH of fresh water varies. "Hardness" measures overall dissolved mineral content; hard or soft water may be preferred. Hard water is usually alkaline, while soft water is usually neutral to acidic. Dissolved organic content and dissolved gases content are also important factors.
Home aquarists typically use modified tap water supplied through their local water supply network. Because of the chlorine used to disinfect drinking water supplies for human consumption, tap water cannot be immediately used. In the past, it was possible to "condition" the water by simply letting the water stand for a day or two, which allows the chlorine to dissipate. However, monochloramine became popular in water treatment because it stays longer in the water. Additives are available to remove chlorine or chloramine and suffice to make the water ready. Brackish or saltwater aquaria require the addition of a mixture of salts and other minerals.