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Environmentally Responsible Fish Keeping

By: Samantha Lee N. Brown

Maintaining your own tank of tropical fish is a delightful pastime. It can be so soothing to see those graceful finned creatures swimming back and forth. Some of us discover that we much prefer to wind down at the end of the day by watching them rather than surfing the net or sitting in front of the TV set. An aquarium can also be seen as a living decoration in a room, an amazing moving display of shapes and colors.

However, people now talk about the environmental problems caused by the commercial aquarium industry. You definitely do not want to be a part of the damaging process of fish harvesting that may be followed in this industry. For example, tropical fish are sometimes captured using cyanide, which kills almost 50% of the fish exposed to this material. Furthermore, using cyanide causes considerable damage to the coral reefs which are considered homes of these beautiful fish.

For this reason, you want to take pleasure from this soothing and delightful pastime in ways which do not cause damage to nature's delicate ecological balance. How do you ensure that your home tank is ecologically friendly? We have some suggestions so that you can populate a lovely aquarium and still not hurt either the environment or the amazing creatures which swim in it.

1) Select for your tank only those fish which were farm raised and not caught in open waters. This means you can ensure that you have pets whose capture did not involve harm being done to their original habitats. The Internet offers a great many sources for locating these sorts of fishes for your home aquarium.

2) If you have a marine/saltwater aquarium, you should contact your local aquarium hobbyist club. Its members can give you tips on breeding tropical fish and plants in captivity, supply you with sources for obtaining captive-bred fish, and provide you with a wealth of useful information.

3) Have you thought about getting a freshwater aquarium as opposed to a marine aquarium? Over 90% of freshwater fish that are kept in an aquarium are bred in captivity, and the aquarium itself is much easier to tend to. The fish that are sold for freshwater aquariums can be every bit as beautiful as their saltwater counterparts.

4) Prior to buying fish, it would be smart to find out where the fish came from. The pet store selling fish should be willing to provide this information. If not, you may want to consider buying fish from another pet shop or a specialty aquarium seller.

For a highly rewarding hobby, many people decide to buy an aquarium and keep fish. If cared for correctly, your fish will give you hours of pure delight and contentment. Another plus is that watching fish is good for both relaxation and reducing stress. Your stress level can be lowered even further by choosing to populate your tank with environmentally friendly fish.

In the creation of an eco-friendly, or "green" aquarium, you can have the peace of mind of knowing that your hobby will not have caused any harm to endangered fish or coral reefs; enjoying them is the whole point of this hobby. Best of luck and have fun with your aquarium!

Article Source: http://www.particlearticles.com

Did you find these tips on maintaining eco-friendly fish tanks useful? Why not visit www.aquariumfishtoday.com for more articles about keeping aquarium fish?

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