Get the latest Flash player.
Summary: Start up your nitrogen cycle! Learn types of starter fish for a freshwater aquarium in this free instructional video clip.
Views: 7,359 | Tags: clean, set, up, fish, aquarium, freshwater, saltwater, tank, maintain, aquariums, fish tank, fish types
About the Expert
Marc Grover Marc Grover is the co-owner of Underwater Depot. He and his business partner, Chris Bernie, have over 30 years of collective experience in the aquarium indust... read more
Hi! My name is Marc on behalf of expertvillage.com and I will talk to you about starter fish. If you have any questions and you need more information about starter fish or any aspect of the aquarium hobby, visit our website at www.underwaterdepot.net. Basically every aquarium for the most part you have to start the biological process and what we call the nitrogen cycle. To do that you want an inexpensive and very tough fish. This may or may not be the fish that you want to build around later but in the beginning the first four or eight weeks of your aquarium, you want it to be able to go through this natural nitrogen cycle, which can be a bit tough on fish, you want a tough, inexpensive fish to go through that part of your aquarium setup. These particular fish here are called tiger barbs and they fit the bill perfectly for freshwater, they are very durable and not very expensive and they tend to go through cycles fairly well. You can keep them in the aquarium after the cycles and build around them or after the cycle is complete, you can remove them and put in the fish you want. It is very important that you do have starter fish that are tough enough to go through that cycling period. Another type of starter fish for freshwater is the opaline or blue drum, again they fit the bill, because they are durable and relatively inexpensive and they tend to go through cycles pretty good.