Setting up a Tropical Aquarium Week by Week - Softcover

Stuart Thraves

4.42

24 ratings by Goodreads

9781554074822: Setting up a Tropical Aquarium Week by Week

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554074827 ISBN 13: 9781554074822

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2009

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A practical guide to setting up and maintaining a new aquatic ecosystem.

New fish-keepers are quite often impatient to set up their aquarium and want to add their new, expensive fish as soon as possible. This common misstep can have disastrous results that may discourage beginners from ever trying again.

Setting Up a Tropical Aquarium Week by Week is an encyclopedic reference that concentrates on establishing and maintaining a viable tropical freshwater aquarium. The book uses detailed photographic sequences to follow each stage of setting up an aquarium in real time over 10 weeks. Setup starts with the installation of the substrate and life-support systems and progresses to when the first fish are added two weeks later. The book then follows the development of the aquarium's environment during the next eight weeks, as the tank turns from an artificial into a living ecosystem.

The book also profiles 50 common aquarium plants and 100 popular warm freshwater aquarium fish. Throughout, the author explains the natural processes as they occur, so that fish-keepers can ensure their ongoing success.

With expert counsel, clear instructions and simple-to-follow illustrations, Setting Up a Tropical Aquarium Week by Week is the essential reference for the first-time tropical freshwater fish hobbyist.

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About the Author:

Stuart Thraves is an author and internationally respected authority on fish-keeping.

Introduction

We are constantly fascinated with other worlds. Apart from outer space, the only other domain we have yet to completely explore is the underwater world. It is a world of sumptuous variety, from the swirling sun-drenched waters of a coral reef to the tranquil shadows of an Amazon stream trickling slowly beneath a canopy of heavy-leaved tropical trees. These are just two examples of many thriving habitats in which plants, fish and invertebrates live together in aquatic harmony.

Since the great age of discovery and invention in Victorian times, we have tried to bring this fascinating spectacle into our homes. The first aquariums were simple boxes with glass fronts in which temperate fish species were kept. With little appreciation of their needs, the fish soon expired and had to be replaced regularly. This approach would be totally unacceptable today with our regard for animal welfare. A greater understanding of how natural cycles work and the technology to sustain them now offers fishkeepers the exciting opportunity to create and maintain aquariums that will thrive for many years.

This book follows the sequence of setting up and running a tropical freshwater aquarium for the first twelve weeks of its life. At logical points along the timeline of practical progress there are profile sections that feature extended selections of suitable plants and fish. Throughout, the emphasis is on explaining how vital life-support systems work, including the basic science behind the processes they depend on. Unlike many hobbies, where learning can be phased and levels of difficulty matched with emerging ability, fishkeeping requires the immediate grasp of a crucial technique -- how to turn a transparent box of water into an environment that will sustain life from day one and beyond. Fishkeepers are pet owners, with all the responsibilities that title entails. How you control that environment dictates whether your display will thrive or deteriorate into an unsightly mess. This book will give you a head start in the quest to be successful.

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