Way side Amenities and Aquarium - Please visit to know more about fish at Bilaspur town National                                                           Highway No.21 Timing: 10 AM to 5 PM on working days

Aquarium Fish Keeping

Fishes are cold-blooded vertebrates meaning that they maintain the same temperature as that of water. They breath oxygen dissolved in the ambient water through gills, which are leaf-like organs generally four on each side of the neck in a pouch covered by operculum. The gills are richly supplied with blood vessels & water is swallowed from the mouth and forced over the gills. There are two paired viz. pectoral & pelvic fins, three unpaired viz. dorsal, anal & caudal fins. The fish body is composed mainly of a large lateral muscle on each side of backbone, divided by sheets of connective tissues into segments corresponding to vertebrae, which give rise to typical flaking of the cooked fish. This is the main organ for swimming. Fishes also possess a characteristic organ, the air-bladder lying in the body cavity & filled with gas. Its main function is to control the specific gravity of the fish. Careful examination of the majority of the fishes would reveal a line running from the heads along the side of the body. Its function is to detect vibrations of low frequency. Most fish move by body movement and not by fin movement. The fins are mainly balancers with the exception of tail fin which often acts as rudder, propelling the fish. In fast swimming, the action is initiated at the head end of the fish and waves passes down the body, culminating in a flick of the tail. The dorsal and anal fish prevent the fish from turning over in the water, the paired fins also braking and turning functions. Compared to this in slow swimming, the pectoral fins are used. The balance of fish is also controlled by inner ears, muscles and even the eyes. The rate at which fishes consume energy, produce heat and waste products and consumes oxygen is called its metabolic rate. An understanding of the factor, which modify it is a primary importance to the aquarist.

Since fishes are poikilothermal animals, they differ fundamentally from ourselves in that they have increased metabolic rate as the temperature rises and are hungriest when warm. Another factor influencing the metabolic rate is activity. A resting fish consumes less energy than an active fish. The higher the temperature, the more energetic a fish tend to be so that an elevated temperature acts doubly in causing greater energy consumption.

In general, fishes are adopted to the temperature variation of their natural surroundings. However, the sudden exposure to a change in temperature is likely to cause a shock followed by disease. For safety, it is always better to avoid rapid change of more than 2⁰ C in either directions. The usual symptom of chill is very characteristic slow motion, swimming without getting anywhere called shimmies & development of disease called ‘white spot’.

Aquarium keeping is a fairly common hobby in Western World. The keeping of brightly coloured small-sized fishes in small indoor tanks was seriously undertaken only in the middle of last century when in Britain and other Eupropean countries a considerable interest in the subject developed . At the beginning of present century aquarists began to keep tropical fishes, and it was perhaps the essential artificially of so doing that started a new wave of successful fish culture. The aquarists were obsessed with copying nature in the tanks. Thus, aquarium gradually came to be regarded as most of us see today, as an artifact, of a mirror held up in nature.