Believe it or not but fish make brilliant pets. They’re a great alternative if you don’t have enough room for a bigger pet like a cat or dog.

Below, you will find a few helpful pieces of advice that revolve around keeping fish as pets. So, if you’re considering it, then give these tips a read:

Choose The Right Fish

The first step in keeping fish as pets is choosing the right fish. Not every fish is suited to life in a fish tank, some prefer living in ponds. Depending on where you keep your fish, you have to think about which ones suit that environment. Generally speaking, you should keep larger fish like Koi in a pond as they have more room to move around and swim.

Then, you can keep smaller fish in fish tanks as they don’t need as much space and it would be a waste to keep them in a pond. Typically, you can find loads of small tropical fish that suit tanks. Also, there are some fish – like goldfish – that are suitable for both environments. Regardless, just make sure you do some research and choose fish that suit the environment best.

Maintain Their Home

You wouldn’t let yourself roll around in filth all day long so why should you let your fish? You must take care of their living conditions and maintain their home. Fish maintenance depends on where you keep your fish. If you have a pond, you’ll need filters to keep the water clean – this also means you have to change and clean filters too. Also, as you can see if you click here, there are pond vacuums that will come in handy when cleaning out sludge and debris to keep your pond nice and clean.

For fish tanks, you have similar tasks, but they’re a lot easier. You need a water filter to keep the pH levels consistent, and this might need changing or cleaning from time to time. But, unlike with a pond, you need to change out the water now and then too. This helps keep the water nice and fresh and perfect for your fishies. If you maintain their home, they will live for a lot longer.

Feed Them Carefully

You have to feed your fish just like you’d feed any other pet. Unfortunately, many people are careless when it comes to feeding fish. For one, they sometimes forget to feed regularly. This is mainly because fish never show they’re hungry like cats and dogs do. Secondly, some people give their fish too much food at once.

You need to feed them carefully and regularly. Don’t pour a whole tub of fish food into their water, this will only make it dirty as they won’t eat it all. Carefully measure out each portion and ensure you check with a professional to see what fish food is meant for certain fish.

Follow this advice if you have pet fish or are thinking of getting some pet fish. Treat them well, and they will last for a very long time.