Fishkeeping facts for kids

A beautiful freshwater aquarium with plants, called an aquascape.

Fishkeeping is a fun and popular hobby where people keep fish as pets. People who do this hobby are called aquarists. They usually keep fish in a special glass tank called an aquarium, or sometimes in an outdoor garden pond. People have been raising fish in ponds for thousands of years, often for food, but also for their beauty.

Types of Fishkeeping

Fishkeeping can be split into three main types. These types depend on the kind of water the fish naturally live in. The three types are freshwater, brackish water, and saltwater fishkeeping.

Freshwater Fishkeeping

Freshwater fishkeeping is the most common type of fishkeeping. Many pet stores sell lots of different freshwater fish. Some popular choices include goldfish, guppies, and angelfish. Many aquarists like to create amazing underwater scenes in their tanks. These are called aquascapes, and they often have many aquatic plants along with the fish.

Saltwater Fishkeeping

Saltwater fishkeeping is not as common as freshwater fishkeeping. This is because saltwater fish need very specific conditions to stay healthy and alive. Keeping saltwater fish can also be quite expensive. There are many beautiful types of saltwater fish that people keep in their aquariums.

Brackish Water Fishkeeping

Brackish water fishkeeping is a unique type of fishkeeping. In a brackish water aquarium, the salinity (how much salt is in the water) needs to be carefully controlled. It must be somewhere between the saltiness of freshwater and the saltiness of seawater. Many interesting fish prefer brackish water. These include some types of mollies, many kinds of gobies, certain pufferfish, monos, and scats.

Images for kids

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  Koi and goldfish have been kept in decorative ponds for centuries in China and Japan.

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  Neon tetras are popular freshwater pet fish.

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  A huge aquarium at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. It shows a simulated kelp forest ecosystem.

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  The nitrogen cycle in an aquarium. This process helps keep the water clean for fish.

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  A freshwater aquarium with harlequin rasboras, neon tetras and glowlight tetras.

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  A male whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium.

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  A discus (Symphysodon spp.) guarding its eggs.

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  An Poecilia wingei – also known as a black bar endler.

See also

In Spanish: Acuariofilia para niños