GoKawiilWhen I was a kid, I owned two goldfish that eventually outgrew the size of their tank. At the time, I didn’t realize just how much actually goes into having fish and keeping them healthy. I’ve learned a lot over the past couple of years while keeping nano fish — a group of five celestial pearl danios and four corydoras habrosus — along with some live plants.
After filling up a 10-gallon tank with water and adding a filter, I was eager to add my first fish, but I soon found out that the tank must run without fish for several weeks to establish beneficial bacteria and create a stable underwater environment. But the work doesn’t stop there. Caring for fish means frequently testing the parameters of their water and performing water changes every couple of weeks, as any chemical imbalance can harm them. Fish are also sensitive to temperature and light, not to mention that you have to be careful not to feed them too much or too little.
Image: Emma Roth / The Verge
Over time, I’ve decided to upgrade parts of my aquarium with some new tech aimed at improving my fish’s underwater environment. My setup isn’t anything fancy — and not everything worked the way I expected it to — but it definitely makes fishkeeping a little less stressful.
I clipped this feeder onto the rim of my tank. Image: Emma Roth / The Verge
This fish feeder from Petbank has become a lifesaver when I go on vacation. While it can only store up to 15 meals, it offers plenty of scheduling options that you can use to choose how often you feed your fish per day, or spread out your feeding schedule so that it only dispenses food every other day. Though I could’ve gone with a feeder that holds a larger amount of food in a single chamber and dispenses a set amount, some of the reviews on these devices suggested that they might dispense too much food at once, which can degrade water quality and harm fish. I wanted more control over how much it actually dispenses, so I went with Petbank’s, which allows me to add the exact amount of food I want in each individual slot.
This feeder can either suction-cup to the top of your tank or attach to the rim, with the dispenser positioned over the water. It comes with a battery that recharges via USB-C, and it’s supposed to last up to two months on a single charge. So far, I’ve left my fish for two weeks without issue — and the feeder still had a full battery by the time I came back.
This fan has several speeds to choose from. Image: Emma Roth / The Verge
Temperature is another key factor to track in your tank. Water that’s too hot or too cold for the type of fish you own can cause stress and potentially even kill them. In the summer, I often notice my tank’s temperature climbing above 80 degrees Fahrenheit — not ideal for my fish, which are happiest in the mid-70s. I began looking for some kind of cooling system and came across aquarium fans on Amazon. While I was a bit skeptical about how well they would work (how could one little fan cool off an entire tank?), I decided to buy one anyway.
This fan clips onto the rim of my tank and can tilt down to point the fan blades toward the water. There’s also a remote attached to the cord, which comes with five speed settings and options for how long the fan should run for. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually works; it cools down my tank by a degree or two in about an hour, and that’s just on the second-slowest fan speed.
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