Enhancing Welfare for Aquarium Fishes with an Ecologically Relevant Environment

Abstract Aquarium fish keeping is an incredibly popular hobby. Despite this popularity, fishes can suffer poor welfare due to being housed in an inappropriate environment, lack of owner knowledge that perpetuates misconceptions, and our perception of them as “lower vertebrates”. This article examines the complexity of fish biology and behaviour to support appropriate care of fishes within home aquaria. It focuses on the importance of evidence for what fish need and how to use such evidence in the domestic aquarium. In the UK, around 21% of households maintain an indoor aquarium and 13% of households have an outdoor pond. This equates to many millions of individual fish in private households. Approximately 70% of fishes in home aquaria are tropical freshwater species. Although fishes may appear easy pets to keep, being cheap to buy and readily available in different outlets, many common-in-the-home-aquarium species have specific requirements (from their water chemistry, physical environment, and social grouping) that they require to thrive, and owners should be aware of their natural biology and wild ecology when setting up an aquarium and maintaining a social group. Inaccuracies and misrepresentations abound when non-specialists think about fishes; they have no memory, they only grow to the size of the tank they are provided with, they do not feel pain and therefore are disposable. Fishes have complex physiologies that enable them to live in an environment alien to us as terrestrial mammals. They also display a diverse array of behaviours that provide them with fitness benefits within their habitat. Alongside essential aquarium considerations (heating, filtration, water quality), aquarium fish owners need to provide a suitably enriched environment for the species being housed. This case study considers simple steps that owners can take to improve welfare, health, and longevity of aquarium fishes through better knowledge of their natural history, the provision of a more ecologically relevant environment, and the maintenance of correct social groupings. Information © The Author 2024