Aquarium Owners and Their Fish and Will Love These Holiday Gifts
If you have an aquarist in your life, you might be wondering what gift you can give them to help support their aquarium hobby this holiday season. Likewise, if you’re an aquarist, you may be thinking about what you can get for your fish—and yourself. Here’s a list of some of our favorite aquarium-related gifts!
Tasty Treats
Good food makes everyone happy, people and animals included. Some of the more high-quality fish foods can get a bit expensive, so they make great “once-in-a-while” treats and gifts. A few examples of foods we love to feed our fish include:
- Frozen krill
- Frozen brine shrimp
- Frozen mysis shrimp
- Dried bloodworms
Just make sure the species of fish inhabiting your aquarium can eat the treats you buy!
Sprucing Up the Decor
One of the biggest joys for an aquarium owner is seeing the colors and personality of a vibrant tank. You can add some visual flare to your aquarium with additions like these:
Click for full-size infographic.
- Rocks
- Fake coral
- Decorative castles
- Sunken ships
- Found objects like vases
Just make sure whatever you put in the tank doesn’t contain chemicals that can harm the inhabitants.
New Hiding Places
Fish like having lots of places to hide. Not only is it fun to watch them dart from hiding place to hiding place, but it helps give them smaller territories to consider their own, rather than fight over the entire tank. You can add new hiding spots with things like:
- Aquatic plants and grasses
- Store-bought driftwood
- Hide-aways and cichlid stones
- Decorative pieces like the ships and castles listed above
Avoid seashells, though—they leach minerals that can potentially make the water too hard.
Toys for the Playful Ones
There are other ways to relieve boredom for fish and aquarists alike, as well. Some fish like betta fish are intelligent and playful, and like getting toys to play with, such as:
- A fluval moss ball
- A ping pong ball
- A leaf hammock
- A floating log
- A small mirror (but only for a few seconds at a time)
Books and Guides
Finally, one of the biggest things you can do for the happiness of both the fish and the owner is to arm the owner with more aquarium know-how. There are lots of books on the market exploring every aquarium-related topic in detail. If you’re new to aquariums, a good starting place is with authoritative works, like:
- Bob Fenner’s The Conscientious Marine Aquarist
- Martin Moe’s Marine Aquarium Handbook: Beginner to Breeder
- Scott Michael’s Marine Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species
- Michael Paletta’s The New Marine Aquarium
- Eric Borneman’s Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History
Of course, you can get better gifts with more specific details about the aquarium, its inhabitants, and its owner. Here at Living Art Aquatics, our staff have been designing and maintaining high-quality aquariums for decades. Stop by our office in Crystal Lake or give us a call at (847) 737-5151 and we’ll show you all sorts of aquarium gifts that aquarists and their fish will love!
