Marc Morrone - Marc Morrones Ask the Fish Keeper

Original illustrations 2009 by Jason OMalley. Cover photograph 2009 by Mark Smith. Additional photographs 2009 by Gina Cioli/Pamela Hunnicutt I-5 Studio, Clay Jackson, Anthony Terceira, Oliver Lucanus, Mark Smith, Alf Jacob Nilsen, Jay Hemdal, David Miller, Laurence Azoulay, and Shutterstock.com.

Special thanks to the authors two veterinarians, Dr. Jonathan May and Dr. Brian Marder, and to the staff of Aquarium Fish International and Freshwater And Marine Aquarium for reviewing the text and photographs of this book.

Copyright 2009 by I-5 Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of I-5 Press, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Morrone, Marc, 1960

[Ask the fish keeper]

Marc Morrones ask the fish keeper / by Marc Morrone with Amy Fernandez.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-933958-32-3

eISBN 978-1-937049-95-9

1. Aquarium fishesMiscellanea. 2. Aquarium fishesHealthMiscellanea. I. Fernandez, Amy. II. Title. III. Title: Ask the fish keeper.

SF457.M67 2009

639.34dc22

2009009829

I-5 Press

A Division of I-5 Publishing, LLC

3 Burroughs

Irvine, California 92618

Printed and bound in China

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

To Dr. Herbert Axelrod,
my childhood hero in the fish world!

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

BY DR. HERBERT R. AXELROD

For the Love of Tropical Fish

My longtime associate Andrew DePrisco phoned me and said, Hey, Dr. A., I think I found your biggest fan. Youre one of his heroes. His name is Marc Morrone. Hes the pet expert from The Martha Stewart Show!

My initial reaction, which will tell you a lot about my interest in television, was, Martha who? I regret that I had never heard of Marc Morrone, either. As it turns out, Marc Morrone and I have been living parallel lives, separated by several decades and, now, thousands of miles of ocean (in which the fish we both love swim day and night).

Both Marc and I shared a childhood fascination with tropical fish: I, in Bayonne, New Jersey, in the 1930s and Marc, about forty miles away in Long Island, New York, in the 1960s. Just before Marc was born, in the late 1950s, I discovered the cardinal tetra, Paracheirodon axelrodi, one of several popular fishes to bear my name. By the time five-year-old Marc had his first 10-gallon tank, in 1965, I had been publishing Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine for over a dozen years as part of T.F.H. Publications, Inc., a company I had founded and that had become the worlds largest publisher of pet books. Even today, Im still proud that Dr. Axelrods Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes, originally published in 1985 and now in its eleventh edition, remains one of the worlds best-selling titles on tropical fishes. Of the hundred or so books Ive written, it remains a personal favorite, too.

Marc still tells the story about how excited he was when his copy of Tropical Fish Hobbyist arrived each month. Hes been a loyal reader since 1970, when he began following my fish-collecting expeditions in the waters of South America and Africa. To me, nothing else ever has been as exciting as hunting forand occasionally discoveringnew species of fishes, and Im glad that Ive been able to introduce others to the thrill of the chase.

I also discovered that Marc and I both love pet shops! Marc owned his first pet shop when he was just eighteen years old. I met my beautiful wife of fifty-three years, Evelyn, while she was working at her dads pet shop (before Marc was a twinkle in his dads eye!).

Im delighted to be introducing you to Marcs first book on fish keeping. Marc, like me, is a self-taught fish doctor and keeper. Every answer Marc offers in this terrific little book comes from his years of experience working with fish in his home and in his shop. Im highly gratified that the newer generations continue to love tropical fish as much as I have all these years!

Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod

Zrich, Switzerland

March 2009

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever heard the saying Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for the rest of his life? That principle also applies to fish keeping. When I discussed this project with the editors of this book, there was a bit of controversy about what we should include. People who keep reef tanks may care little about salt water fish tanks. People who keep saltwater tanks often have no interest in the freshwater discus fish, and people who keep the egg-laying discus may not want to read about live-bearing fish. In this hobby, everyone tends to focus on his or her own particular area of interest. However, no matter what type of aquatic pets people may have, everyone seems to have questions about what these animals need to stay healthy.

Fish keepers tend to ask the advice of other hobbyists or so-called experts and accept any answer that they get. This book is designed to encourage all aquarists to look at the residents of your aquarium from a different perspective. Many people think of the fish in their tanks as consumer products, computer chips, or CDs: you just pop a fish in the tank and watch. But fish are much more complicated than that. They can see in color and have far greater cognitive powers than most people realize. Anyone who has attempted to catch a savvy largemouth bass can attest to this. Fish recognize each other as well as humans, and they can learn various behaviors through positive reinforcement training just as dogs and cats do.

The first step in finding answers to your questions about your fish is to take the time to observe them. As a child, I would sit in front of my 10-gallon tank, watching my fish for hours. I knew every fish as an individual. Its a pity that more modern-day aquarists dont devote as much time to this. Fish are still pets in our care, and any aquarium is comparable to a little zoo in your living room. You need to be aware of the quality of this environment and the denizens inhabiting it because they are totally dependent on you. If fish keepers spent more time studying their fish as animals and as individuals, they would have far fewer problems.

The next step, especially if you are having trouble with your kind of fish, is to learn something about its natural habitat and diet. Once you do, it becomes your job as a pet keeper to duplicate all of these factors as closely as possible. You must compare the animals natural environment to the husbandry and habitat you have provided in the tank.

Fish are grouped according to family, genus, and species. For instance, majestic angels, blue-faced angels, and imperator angels are in one classification. Butterfly fish such as longnosed butterflies, copper band butterflies, and falcula butterflies are in another classification. The group of tangs includes yellow tangs and purple tangs. Many books provide detailed information on the biology, life histories, ecological niches, and so on of saltwater and freshwater fish. I really think it important that fish keepers study this type of information. If they understand their fish better, they can do much more to provide good habitats and help their fish to thrive. Unfortunately, you cannot not just depend on advice from someone who works in a fish store. Some fish store employees really dont know as much as they should. And there is no guarantee that a pretty fish you see in the pet store will be a suitable resident for your home aquarium. It is your responsibility as a fish keeper to go home and hit the books. Find out where a particular fish fits into the order of nature, so you will know where it fitsand whether it fits at allinto your home aquarium.