1. I just started and every time I get a new fish it dies.

Chances are your tank hasn't stabilised "cycled" yet and you've put in too many fish too early and may have introduced diseases.  Get a few test kits (ammonia, nitrates & pH) or have your local fish shop test your water.

Best thing to do for a new tank is get a pair of cheap fish and put them in there.  Having just a few fish in there for a few weeks, that are hardy (live bearers), will help your tank cycle. 

Tropical Tanks.

New and old tanks that have been stripped down require time to mature. It can take 4-6 weeks to mature them so they have a good ecology and be good for fish keeping. You need a natural bacteria to come alive in your filter and gravel to convert the waste’s from the fish and make them harmless in the water and its only when this happens that you can class your tank as mature. (see article on new tank syndrome). During that time losses can and do happen so when starting to stock either of the above do it slowly. You cannot mature a tank without fish in to create the waste that you want the bacteria to remove but at the same time you do not want to overload the system by putting in alot of fish right at the start because if you do you will be feeding the dust bin.
We have always found the best way of starting off either of the above is to set up the aquarium and let it run for 3-5 days with no fish or plants in, so you can check if all the equipment is working right. Once you are sure that everything is ok then move on and visit your dealer and put in a few plants and fish. Quantity of fish depends on size of tank but as a rough guide in a 24”tank start off with about 6 small hardy fish (36”=8,48”=10) these should start the maturing process off. If all goes well then visit again after 3 weeks and do the same thing, leave it for another 3 weeks and you should have a mature tank that you can stock as you wish but one word of warning do not buy a lot of fish in one go or you can overload the best of systems and go back to square one. If you have problems take a sample of your tap and tank water to your dealer who will be able to test it out for you and advise what you need to do. You may have bought water test kits but do you know what to do if they tell you your water is wrong?. Most people do not and most dealers are only to happy to sort out any problems and get you going.
Again with plants when you put them in a new tank there is nothing for them to live off in the gravel, so you want 3 or 4 hardy ones just to start the maturing process off. Don’t rush out and buy a tank full because you will have some that don't take so do it slowly.

Cold Water Tanks

Its really the same as tropical except that all coldwater fish are bigger so as a guide you would start them off as follows: in a 24” tank =2, 36”=4, 48”=6. These must be small coldwater fish like goldfish or fantails and not big ones or you will defeat the object, go putting big ones in and you will waste your time and most likely kill the fish. As I tell the wife small is beautiful so the answer is don't go mad.

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2. What do my fish eat?

That pretty much depends upon the type of fish you have. However, most aquarium fish will eat flake foods bought at any pet shop. Choose one that is at least 45% protein and you may wish to also give them thawed frozen adult brine shrimp, bloodworms, and newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii for a balance variety. Some of the diets of the various fish are in their descriptions, listed on the right border.
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3. What other kinds of fish can I keep with my fish?

This really depends upon the type of fish that you have. In the links in the right border, click on your fish and see if it is peaceful, community or aggressive. Then look at the other species of fish listed in the right border and see what may be compatible with your fish.
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4. What do I do about "snail plague"?

Snails, like algae ,can be both a blessing and a nuisance in tanks. Some species will burrow into the gravel and keep it from being compacted, others will eat Algae. However some will reproduce unchecked and become a pain in the bum.
There are treatments on the market for treating tanks with a snail explosion however care should be taken that in killing the snails you don't pollute the tank as inside the shells they are all meat and killing a lot in one go can cause problems. I normally like to try other methods first and a good tip is to tie a cube of meat to a piece of cotton and put it in the tank overnight, before you switch the light on in the morning pull out the cube and you should have snails on the cube which you can dispose of. Don’t switch on the light first though or they will all drop off and you are back to square one. Needless to say if you have this problem always remove any you see on the glass or ornaments with a fine net and dispose of them.
Clown loach eat snails and I always like to have some in any tank as a natural means of controlling them, however if you put some in your tank remember that clown loach have skin not scales, so if ever you dose your tank with medication only use half doses at any one time.

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5. what do fish tank eat and how often do i feed them?

Most dealers have a good selection of dried flake and granular foods that have been specially produced for fish, however a word of warning fish food manufactures always seem to recommend you feed 3-4 times a day. I have always found if you do in tanks, it’s the best killer of fish going , what you end up doing is polluting the aquarium with uneaten food which sends the ecology Haywire. To avoid this we recommend you only feed once a day just enough as they will eat in 3-4 minutes and it really is a must that you keep a check on how much you are putting in at any one time.

So lets go through the different foods available from any good aquatic dealers, bear in mind the better the food the more it will cost and as a rough guide you can normally see how good it is from the protein level marked on the tins. The higher it is the better the food.

Flake foods:
there are many different types available and here in the UK good ones are available from manufactures like Tetra, Aquarian, King British, etc who have spent both time, money and effort in getting their mixtures right.

Granular and Pelleted Foods:
Again there are many good manufactures of these foods and they are available in floating or sinking types depending on the type of fish you keep.

Live Foods:
These are normally the foods the fish would get in the wild such as Daphnia, bloodworms, tubifex, brine shrimp etc and are a wonderful food for all fish however the fact that they are live means your dealer may not be able to keep them in stock every day of the week and they have to be feed straight away to your fish when you get home, which means you cannot keep them for very long. The answer is see your dealer and get him to put you up some once a week and give them to your fish as a treat.

Freeze Dried Foods:
Again most of the types of foods listed above are available in a freeze dried form so you can keep a stock at home.

Frozen Foods:
Again available in types like the live foods however these can be kept in the freezer part of your fridge, and are normally sold in packs split up into cubes so you can feed one cube at a time. I find these a very good food as they have been gamma ray treated so they carry no pollution yet have lost nothing in goodness during their packing process.
They are also a god send for coldwater fish like fantails, lionheads etc which only have short intestine tracks and can normally suffer from swim bladder trouble if fed only on dried foods. The fact that you can keep them in the freezer means you can feed flake one day and frozen the other.

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