Many people in the aquarium hobby seek fish that will do a lot of the dirty work for them. While the desire to minimize the amount of cleaning one does around the aquarium is understandable, I would like to stress that no tropical fish will effectively replace a simple gravel vac, an algae pad, and a bit of elbow grease.

Still, many freshwater aquarium hobbyists choose to buy “cleaning” fish and/or snails only to find that many of them end up producing more waste then they consume!

The infamous Plecostomus – variously called “pleco,” “suckerfish,” or “algae-eater” – comes to mind. People often purchase baby Common Plecos only to find that their cute little suckerfish turned into a smelly, small-fish-eating, 1 foot (30 cm) giant just a few months down the road! Yes, these fish do produce more waste than they consume, and, no, I do not recommend that anyone gets one (unless it’s purely for ornamental value).

Fortunately, hobbyists who want to add bottom dwelling fish to their aquarium have an excellent alternative. The Cory Catfish (also known as the Cory Cat) is an excellent addition to most community aquariums.

The Cory Cats are bottom dwelling catfish that originate from South America. These extremely peaceful fish grow to only 2.5 inches (6.25 cm) to 3.5 inches (8.75 cm) in length, and more than a few species are available for the aquarium trade. In fact, it’s common to find variously colored and patterned Cory Cats at a single store. These fish are readily available.

Moreover, Cory Cats are actually pretty good at sucking up uneaten food from the bottom of the aquarium. Any food your other fish will miss, the Cory Cats will quickly consume, thus lessoning the amount of stress put on your biological filter following feeding time. Yes; Cory Cats are excellent bottom feeders.

Because of their specialized feeding behavior, I recommend adding Cory Cats (or any other bottom feeders for that matter) to your aquarium only after a few other fish have been added. Indeed, as I describe in Chapter Nine of The Kick-Ass Aquarium, bottom-feeding fish rely on the presence of other fish – sloppy eaters that provide scavengers with a continuous supply of food – for nutrition. If not enough fish are present in the aquarium, the Cory Cats’ diet must be supplemented with at least one of the foods described below.

I would like to mention again that, although the Cory Cats are wonderful scavengers which will reduce the amount of waste present in the home aquarium, no animal will replace the cleaning power of physical waste removal. Still, the Corys are wonderful little fishes, and are an excellent alternative to the monster mentioned at the top of the article.

Aquarium Care:

Scientific Name: Corydoras spp. and Brochis spp.

Origin: South America

Water Temperature Range: 74-82 °F (23-28 °C)

Water pH Range: 6.0-7.0

Temperament: peaceful (like to live in small groups of 6 or more, though 2 specimens can be kept successfully)

Maximum Size: 2.5 to 3.5 inch (6.25 to 8.75 cm) depending on species

Minimum Tank Size: 10 U.S. gallons (28 liters), though, as I indicate in The Kick-Ass Aquarium ebook, a larger aquarium size is strongly advisable.

Diet: bottom feeder - algae wafers, flake food, frozen brine shrimp, cyclops-eeze

When most people think of a freshwater aquarium, they imagine an aquatic garden-of sorts that houses a diverse group of tropical fish. They think of an aquarium that looks something like the one pictured below. Indeed, most freshwater aquariums are well suited to provide many different types (or species) of tropical fish with a great home. These types of aquariums are called community aquariums.

Perhaps the best way to define a community aquarium is to explain what it is not. So, let’s do just that.

Some types of tropical fish require very specific aquarium conditions, and ones which many other fish are not used to. Discus Fish, for example, do best at low pH and water hardness levels that are beyond the tolerable range of most tropical fish (see January’s Fish of the Month post for a description of Discus Fish care). Moreover, Discus Fish are delicate animals that will not do well with fast-swimming, boisterous, and/or aggressive fish.

For the above two reasons, many hobbyists choose to keep Discus Fish in what’s called a “species tank” – in an aquarium that houses only one type of fish. A “species tank,” therefore, is the exact opposite of a community aquarium.

So, a community aquarium is basically one that houses many types (or species) of tropical fish.

Now, just because a community aquarium, by definition, houses many different types of tropical fish, that doesn’t mean that you can mix and match any fish species you want. No, not all tropical fish will do well with one another, and not all fish will thrive in the same aquarium environment (see Aquarium Care 101: Part 1 for more information).

So, before you go out to buy fish for a community aquarium, be sure to determine whether or not the fish you plan to get will coexists peacefully with one another, and whether or not they like similar water conditions (which include water hardness/softness, pH, and temperature).

Just a bit of planning is well worth the small effort. It’ll make aquarium and tropical fish care simple, easy, and fun. After all, how much fun can watching an aquarium full of expensive fish that fight to the death be?

Also, remember that there’s a Freshwater Fish Compatibility Chart in the Members Area available to all who use The Kick-Ass Aquarium Guide.

Fellow Tropical Fish Lovers:

One of the aquarium care videos (usually available for members only), is up and running at the Kick-Ass Aquarium Information Page. It’s now available for all! Just scroll down through the information page to view this aquarium care *video*.

The video explains how biological filtration works, and how to “jump-start” the biological filtration process. In other words, it explains how to “cycle” your aquarium (”cycling” a new aquarium is also explained in Aquarium Care 101: Part 4).

This bit of knowledge is extremely important to understand, regardless of the type of fish or aquarium filter you have! Let me say it again: The information presented in the aquarium care video is EXTREMELY important to know!

In a nut shell, that’s because the beneficial bacteria, which are responsible for between 60% to 100% of the filtration in your aquarium, need time to multiply to sufficient levels. For the sake of avoiding redundancy, I’ll leave it at that… just check out the video and you’ll understand exactly how biological filtration works, why it’s important, and how you can use it to make aquarium and tropical fish care really simple and easy!

So, I highly encourage all people interested in the aquarium hobby to view this essential aquarium care *video*.

After all, just 10 minutes of your time, which is the length of the video, may very well save you a small fortune and your tropical fish.

Here’s the link again: Kick-Ass Aquarium Information Page

Happy Tropical Fish Keeping,
Luke

The guppy has become a staple of the aquarium trade to the point that its name brings to mind the common, dull, and even boring.

But, the guppy doesn’t deserve this insipid reputation! The guppy’s longtime presence in the aquarium hobby and its ease of breeding has spawned a vast variety of interesting color variations. In fact, most aquariasts now use the term “fancy guppy” to name this colorful tropical fish.

Indeed, today’s guppies exhibit all the colors of the rainbow and a multitude of body markings and patterns. Although the males of this tropical fish species possess distinctive large tails and are far more colorful than are the females, you can often find female fancy guppies that have a flash of blue, yellow, red, and/or orange on their tails.

Caring for these tropical fish in the home aquarium is simple as long as you provide them with clean and stable water conditions (see the Aquarium Care 101 articles on this site). In fact, fancy guppies are exceptionally hardy fish and an excellent choice for beginners.

However, when buying a group of fancy guppies, avoid purchasing only males for they will fight amongst each other if no, or too few, females are present in the aquarium. As with all livebearers, it’s best to keep a ratio of one male for every two females in the home aquarium. Distinguishing male from female fancy guppies is simple, and you can find a diagram that shows how to sex live-bearing tropical fish on this site.

That brings to mind another issue to consider: fancy guppies are prolific breeders and even a small batch of guppies is capable of producing dozens of babies in no time.

So, if you don’t want many baby fish in your aquarium, I advise purchasing no more than three fancy guppies. However, for many hobbyists who enjoy breeding fish, this isn’t a problem. Conversely, it’s an added benefit that makes fancy guppies all the more enjoyable to keep.

Aquarium Care:

Scientific Name: Poecilia reticulata

Origin: Central America

Water Temperature Range: 70-80 °F (21-26 °C)

Water pH Range: 6.5-8.0

Temperament: peaceful

Maximum Size: 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Minimum Tank Size: 5 U.S. gallons (19 liters), though, as I indicate in The Kick-Ass Aquarium eBook, a larger aquarium size is strongly advisable.

Diet: flake food, frozen brine shrimp, cyclops-eeze, frozen bloodworms (not recommended)

Telling the sex of a platy is very easy. In fact, the sex of all livebearers – tropical fish, including platys, mollies, swordtails, and guppies, that produce live young, as opposed to eggs which need time to hatch – can be determined in the following foolproof way.

The most obvious physiological trait that differentiates a male from a female platy is easy to spot …if you know where to look.

If you examine the diagram to the left, you’ll notice that the anal fin of the male platy (the fin circled in red) looks different from that of the female platy (also circled in red). The anal fin of the male platy is called a gondopodium and looks more clamped, flat, and elongated. The anal fin of the female platy, on the other hand, is noticeably more fan shaped.

And that’s all there is to it! That’s how you can tell the sex of your platy.

Again, not only platys, but also mollies, swordtails, and guppies can be sexed in the way described above.

So, what can you do with this information? How can you apply it to practice?

Well, livebearers breed prolifically in the home aquarium. If you want to avoid producing a continuous supply of baby fish, get only female platys, mollies, swordtails, and/or guppies. Male livebearers tend to be aggressive towards each other and, for this reason, I do not recommend getting only males.

However, male livebearers tend to be more colorful than their female counterparts (this is especially true of guppies), so you may want to mix some males into your female population. Needless to say, this will produce offspring.

If you choose to go this route, I strongly advise a livebearer ratio of one male for every two females. If, for example, you have two male mollies in your aquarium, you should also keep four females with them. Doing so will simultaneously curtail aggressive male competition and distribute (and, hence, attenuate) the physical stress of carrying babies among the females.

In other words, a ratio of one male to two females will lesson the stress felt by the females by distributing the “special male attention” that the females receive among more than one fish.

Here again, we see that establishing a balanced aquarium environment is key to successful tropical fish keeping. Indeed, aquarium care is simple when you understand the basic needs of your fish.

In the last installment of this series (Aquarium Care 101: Part 4), we discussed “cycling” your aquarium. In this installment, I’ll cover the safe methods of physically adding new tropical fish to your aquarium.

So, the time has finally come! You’re now ready to add tropical fish to your aquarium!

When you place your newly purchased beauties in your fish-tank, keep in mind that tropical fish are very sensitive to rapid changes in water temperature and to other water conditions (such as pH and hardness/softness).

When you put your tropical fish in your aquarium, you must, therefore, first get them used to their new environment. This process of slowly letting your fish adjust to their new aquarium habitat is called Acclimation.

There are various ways to acclimate fish to your aquarium.

The first involves floating the clear plastic fish bag, in which the fish came, at the water’s surface for a period of about 30 minutes. During this time, the temperature of the water in the fish bag will slowly adjust to match that in the aquarium. This way, your tropical fish won’t suffer from temperature shock when you release them into your aquarium.

After the 30 minutes is up, you can release your fish into the aquarium.

But, if you want to go the extra mile you can also get them used to the pH and the hardness/softness of your aquarium water!

Some of the more sensitive tropical fish, including these cardinal tetras pictured left, do best when acclimated not only to the water temperature, but also to the aquarium hardness/softness and pH.

If you do choose to go the extra mile, you’ll need a clean bucket (one you only use for aquarium maintenance) and a clean disposable plastic cup.

After the tropical fish have been floating in their bag in the aquarium for 30 minutes, take the bag out and release the fish, along with their water, into the clean bucket. Then take the plastic cup, fill it with aquarium water, and add it to the water in the bucket.

Repeat this step every two minutes for a period of 20 minutes.

After you have completed this process, your tropical fish are used not only used to the aquarium temperature, but also to the aquarium water! You can now catch the tropical fish out with a net, and add them to your aquarium.

Note: In the “members area” there’s an Aquarium Care *video* lesson that demonstrates hot to acclimate new tropical fish to your aquarium. The video is based on the expert Aquarium Care eBook found here.

The dreaded cloudy water… it’s a common problem.

Aquarium water may turn cloudy for a variety of reasons (most of which are interrelated).

In this Aquarium Care FAQ article, I’ll talk about cloudy water syndrome in brand new fish-tanks (ones that may not even have fish in them yet).

The cloudy “stuff” in newly set up aquariums is most likely a precipitate. In the home aquarium, a precipitate forms in two major ways.

So, brace yourself for a brief chemistry lesson. I’ll try to make it as painless as possible:

1) A precipitate is caused by a chemical reaction in a solution (in this case, in your aquarium water). When some types of acidic substances mix suddenly with dissolved minerals in the water column, these acids “precipitate” the dissolved minerals - they essentially “un-dissolve” these minerals to the point where you can see them with the naked eye. Basically this chemical reaction makes your aquarium water look cloudy.

2) A precipitate may also form when your aquarium water is supersaturated with a compound. Water can only hold a certain amount of dissolved minerals (think of it as a balancing act), and when your aquarium water is very hard, it may lead to the formation of a precipitate (the stuff that makes your water look cloudy).

So, what does all this chemistry mumbo-jumbo mean, and how do you stop cloudy water?

Well, if your aquarium suffers from cloudy water, your water is likely to be very hard. If you test your tap-water for hardness with a standard test kit, I’ll bet that you’ll find that it is, indeed, very hard.

To solve the cloudy water issue, you can:

1) Add RO (reverse osmosis water) which is pure H2O and which, therefore, has no dissolved minerals in it (see this Aquarium Care FAQ article for more information on RO water).

2) Wait it out until the water clears by itself, by re-establishes that chemical balance.

Most people just wait it out and the problem goes away (…at least, until they do a water change).

Option number 2, however, does not alleviate the hard water issue, a problem that may affect the health of your tropical fish (depending on what type of fish you want to get).

Also, the type of rocks, gravel, and/or driftwood you add to your aquarium influences the chemical make-up of your aquarium water (see this Aquarium Care 101 article). In fact, some types of rocks and gravel may release more minerals into your tank, making the hard aquarium water issue worse.

So, the cloudy water situation is usually a reliable sign of a much bigger problem – very hard aquarium water caused either by poor tap-water quality, or by the addition of mineral releasing rocks and gravel into the fish-tank, or by both!

Hey Everyone,

I’m happy to bring you this first installment of Aquarium Care FAQ - a new TheSmileyFish.com series. I’ve been receiving a lot of emails from people who’ve asked for help with their new aquariums. So, I’ve decided to share both some of the most frequently asked aquarium care questions and the answers with the general public.

“Is tap water harmful to tropical fish?”

Yes; untreated tap water is harmful to all fish. Tap water contains chlorine, chloramines, phosphate, heavy metals, and other harmful impurities, all of which water utility companies add to drinking water to make it “safe” for human consumption.

While the human body can withstand these sanitizing poisons added to tap water, tropical fish cannot!

That’s partly because tropical fish have extremely thin skin which will burn when exposed to chlorine and chloramines.

This is why all tap water intended for aquarium use must be treated with something called water conditioner before being added to the aquarium. There are a variety of water conditioners available on the market and they will all effectively remove chlorine and chloramines.

Most water conditioners need a few minutes to take effect (some need more). When adding fresh water to an aquarium that’s already set up (into one that already has fish in it), I put the tap water into a clean bucket, then add the water conditioner, swirl the water around with my hand to ensure proper mixing, and then wait a few minutes before adding that water into the aquarium.

It’s important to note, however, that water conditioner will not remove phosphate from your tap water.

Phosphate is a compound that’s readily absorbed by problem algae. Phosphate, in effect, promotes problem algae blooms in the home aquarium.

So, if you want to go the extra mile by removing not only chlorine and chloramines, but also phosphate, you can opt to use RO (reverse osmosis) water for your aquarium.

RO water is pure H₂O, so you don’t have to add water conditioner to RO water.

You can usually find Ro water at your neighborhood grocery store or even at your local aquarium shop …or you can make it yourself!

If you want to make your own RO water, you’ll need something called a RO unit – it’s basically a machine that uses a superfine semi-permeable membrane to physically separate “dirty” water from pure H2O.

I bought my RO unit for $240.00 (the picture on the left shows mine in its dingy basement setting;). Yes; that was a bit of an investment, but the machine has paid for itself not only in financial terms, but also by cutting down potential maintenance caused by problem algae growth.

Also, keep in mind that RO water is pure H2O. That means that it’s extremely soft and that it, therefore, cannot sustain high pH levels (for a detailed discussion of hardness/softness, buffering capacity, and pH see pages 30-32 of the Aquarium Care Book).

So, if you use RO water, and only RO water, you’ll have to add trace element solutions to compensate for the loss of beneficial compounds lost during the reverse osmosis process. Adding such solutions will also solve the potentially low pH problem.

Whether you use water conditioner or buy or make RO water, remember that the chlorine and chloramines in tap-water will quickly kill your tropical fish. So, tap-water always needs to be processed by one of the two ways outlined above.

Keep Your Fish Alive From Day One to Day One Thousand and One!

When you set up your aquarium, when you add the gravel and decorations, attach the filter and heater, and add water conditioner (a solution that removes chlorine from tap water) you may want to go out to the nearest aquarium shop and pick out as many tropical fish as you can.

Stop right there! That’s the number one mistake people in the aquarium hobby make!

Remember those beneficial bacteria we discussed in Aquarium Care 101: Part 3? Well, until you provide them with a food source (fish waste), there is no bacteria in your aquarium (because they have nothing to eat). So, a brand new fish-tank has no beneficial bacteria in it!

In fact, during the first month or so of your aquarium’s “life,” the cleanliness of your aquarium water may degrade quickly if you’re not careful.

In particular, any tropical fish you add to a newly set up aquarium will produce more waste than the still growing beneficial bacteria population is able to consume. You, therefore, have to be very careful so as to not add too many fish in at once. In so doing, you’ll give the biological filter time to develop and do its “magic.”

Just to review, let’s take a quick look at the biological filtration process one more time:

Ammonia, the highly toxic substance that all fish release, is converted by a group of beneficial bacteria (known as Nitrosomonas) into Toxic Nitrite. Nitrite is then taken up by another group of beneficial bacteria (Nitrospira) and converted in Harmless Nitrate.

This two-step biological filtration process looks like this:

higly toxic Ammonia → toxic Nitrite → harmless Nitrate

But remember, brand new aquariums have no beneficial bacteria in it!

That’s why you should not add all the tropical fish into your aquarium at once. Doing so would cause a sudden and high influx of Ammonia into your fish-tank. Very high levels of Ammonia will kill your fish!

You should therefore add the fish in batches in order to give the beneficial bacteria time to multiply to sufficient levels – to a population that can handle the amount of waste being produced! Once the beneficial bacteria has multiplied to a healthy level, you’re ready for the next batch of tropical fish. This process is known as ‘cycling the aquarium’ and takes anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks to complete.

You may say, “yeah, but I have a giant filter attached to my aquarium!” Well, keep in mind that no filter (which relies on mechanical and/or chemical filtration alone) can match the cleaning power of nature’s little workers. Let me say it again, NOTHING can substitute the work done by beneficial bacteria!

So, you indeed do have to add your fish in batches. Most aquarists recommend keeping one inch of fish per gallon of aquarium water, though in the Aquarium Care eBook, I recommend a slightly smaller ratio. But, if you go for the one inch of fish per gallon rule, a 40 gallon aquarium, for example, has a maximum stocking capacity of 40 inches worth of fish.

So, how big should your initial batch of fish be? Most people recommend adding 20% of your aquarium’s total stocking capacity. If you have a 40 gallon aquarium, your first batch should not exceed 8 inches worth of tropical fish (again, 8 is 20% of 40).

I don’t mean to scare you, but failure to properly ‘cycle’ your aquarium most likely will result in the death of all your fish! This ‘cycling’ process does require a bit of patience, but it’s well worth the time!!!

Note: In the “members area” there’s a 10 minute *video* that describes exactly, down to every detail, how this biological filtration process works and how you should cycle your aquarium so that your fish don’t die within the first week. The video is based on the expert Aquarium Care eBook found here.

Online aquarium retailers offer every imaginable aquarium product (even tropical fish and other livestock) at a highly competitive cost. Given the recent boom in online retail activity, I think a brief analysis of which aquarium products are best obtained from the internet, and which online offers you should stay away from, is in order.

One of my readers recently emailed me to ask whether or not I would advise buying a canister filter (an Eheim Classic) from the internet. Although he felt a bit uncomfortable with purchasing the filter online, he was nevertheless enticed by the low internet price.

As well he should be! I not only encourage him to buy the canister filter online, but I also got him to get a much needed aquarium heater from the same website. All in all, he saved $43.00 by opting to buy his brand new canister filter and heater online!

Yes; when it comes to dry goods (aquarium filters, heaters, food, books, etc) online retailers are able to provide a very low price that aquarium shops just can’t compete with.

But, that is not to say that every aquarium product found online is worth the cost. In particular, there is a huge difference between buying dry-goods and getting livestock (fish, invertebrates, and plants) from the internet.

I, myself, have saved a fortune by getting my aquarium dry-goods from the internet. At the same time, I’ve had mixed results from getting tropical fish and invertebrates online.

Although I’ve never bought freshwater fish online, and therefore cannot attest (from experience) to their quality, I have purchased a few saltwater fish and coral specimens from the internet. About half the corals shipped to me did not match the photos the site had provided of those specific specimens. In particular, the photo coloration of a Platygyra sp. and a Montipora tuberculosa was apparently “adjusted” by that particular online retailer.

I was a bit peeved and disappointed, but the experience did teach me that it’s best to buy aquarium livestock from your local aquarium shop.

Indeed, when getting your tropical fish from aquarium shops, you can see and observe the particular fish you’ll be taking home. Basically, you see before your eyes your future fish. On top of this, you can (and should) ask the people working at the aquarium shop to feed the tropical fish for you, so that you can determine it’s activity and health (a luxury that an aquarium livestock website just can’t deliver).

Unfortunately, these same neighborhood shops tend to overprice aquarium dry-goods, and they often won’t carry the product that you’re looking for. For these two reasons, I strongly encourage obtaining your filters, food, and books online. In so doing, you’re guaranteed to save big bucks!

So, here’s my simple formula for the most cost-effective aquarium purchases: buy your fish from local stores, and all your other aquarium products (filters, heaters, food, books, etc) online.

Hey Everyone,

I’m writing to let you know that I added a new aquarium care video to the “members area” of TheSmileyFish.com. In this new aquarium care video I demonstrate the proper and safe method of acclimating fish (of carefully introducing new fish to a new environment) to your aquarium.

For those that are new to TheSmileyFish.com, access to the online aquarium care videos and tools in the “members area” is part of the special bonus package included in the Aquarium Care Guide found here. I encourage all to take advantage of this complete aquarium care manual and to benefit from its many features.

Please enjoy the new video, and take care,

Luke

P.S. As always, I’ll notify you the minute I add new aquarium care tools, videos, and other bonuses to the “members area”:)

The word “gourami” brings to mind the image of pale looking, lumbering fish that quarrel amongst each other. In fact, keeping more than one gourami is advisable only in large aquariums – that’s how aggressive these tropical fish can be towards their own species.

To the Gouramis’ credit, not all species of this tropical fish are so temperamental.

In fact, one gourami species, the Dwarf Gourami, is not only peaceful, but also stunningly colorful. While the males of this tropical fish species exhibit vertical blue stripes (markings that the females lack), even the females reddish orange hue will add a vibrant burst of color to your aquarium. On top of this, there are a few color variations – namely, Red, Neon, and Powder Blue – available to the aquarium trade!

In addition to its aesthetic appeal, this beautiful fish is hardy and grows to only 2 inches (5 cm) in length! These attributes make the Dwarf Gourami the perfect fish for the community aquarium and an excellent choice for beginners.

That said, here are a few additional things to consider. As with all tropical fish, you’ll get the most coloration out of the Dwarf Gourami if you provide it with the most suitable environment. Given its peaceful nature and small size, the Dwarf Gourami should be kept in well planted aquariums that contain only peaceful fish (no piranhas, guys and girls;).

In chapters 1 and 8 of The Kick-Ass Aquarium I explain in detail that supposedly “skittish” fish just need the right environment to encourage good health, great coloration, and plenty of activity. In particular, aquariums that resemble the natural environments from which your fish originate – in most cases, this includes little nooks and caves, overhangs, and lots of greenery – provide an environment that makes fish confident. These aquariums look great too!

The Dwarf Gourami, then, will gravitate towards the font of the aquarium for your viewing pleasure if it feels safe and secure, if it has a lot of potential hiding places to dart to should danger arise.

Of course, there’s no such danger in the home aquarium. But, keep in mind that tropical fish are hard-wired to “think” this way, and you can use this knowledge of tropical fish behavior to make your fish-tank look like paradise on earth!

And, the Dwarf Gourami, given its hardiness, is the perfect tropical fish for developing your perfect aquarium setup, the best aquascaping solution.

Aquarium Care:

Scientific Name: Colisa lalia

Origin: South Asia (India, Assam, and Bangladesh)

Water Temperature Range: 74-79 °F (23-26 °C)

Water pH Range: 6.0-7.5

Temperament: peaceful

Maximum Size: 2 inches (5 cm)

Minimum Tank Size: 10 U.S. gallons (38 liters), though, as I indicate in The Kick-Ass Aquarium, a larger aquarium size is advisable.

Diet: flake food, frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms (not recommended)