Pet Care Articles from PETCO

Fish - Behavior

Why Is My Fish Coming to the Surface to Breathe?
If there is insufficient oxygen in the water, your fish will swim to the surface because that's where the concentration of dissolved oxygen is highest. As soon as you notice most of your fish gasping for air near the surface, act immediately. This is a ...

Can I Correct or Redirect an Aggressive Fish?
Unfortunately, this isn't always possible, and if you have a fish that is truly too aggressive for your tank, your only choices may be to try changing the decor in the tank around, adding additional hiding places, returning it to your supplier, or ...

Friendly Fish
Are some fish more people-friendly than others? The answer is yes. Larger fish, as a whole, tend to respond better to humans. Cichlids, like the Red Oscar, though notorious for their fearsome, predatory character, can be tamed by hand feeding. The Pacu, ...

Do Fish Get Stressed?
Yes. Like humans, your fish respond to environmental and physical stimulants by getting stressed. Stress will adversely affect their immune system, making them more susceptible to infection and disease. If your fish contracts or dies of some illness or ...

Sense, Intelligence and Communication
Your fish goes about his daily life with two primary concerns - eating and avoiding being eaten. Propelled by these basic survival instincts, your fish employs all of his senses towards self-preservation and the propagation of the species. At the same ...

Why Is My Fish Shimmying?
He's cold, and it's no fun being a cold fish! When the temperature drops below what is normal for your fish, he will shimmy, or swim in wavy movements, but not really go anywhere. He may also huddle around a tank warmer if one is available. To warm up ...

Oxygen Depletion
Have you ever known a fellow fish enthusiast who got up one morning only to discover that all of his fish were dead? A possible cause of this shocking experience is oxygen depletion. If not treated, fish will literally suffocate to death. Fish cannot ...

Stress
Like virtually every other creature on the planet, fish are subject to stress. But in fish, it translates to a far greater problem. Most of the fish deaths that occur in your aquarium will be the direct or indirect result of undue stress caused by poor ...

Can't They All Just Get Along?
Sometimes, despite the careful planning we put into selecting fish for our tank, an aggressive fish may still taunt and terrorize her tankmates. Is it possible to redirect or retrain an aggressive fish? Not always. And if you have a fish that is truly ...

Fish I.Q.
Your fish goes about his daily life with two primary concerns - eating and avoiding being eaten. Propelled by these basic survival instincts, your fish employs all of his senses towards self-preservation and the propagation of the species. At the same ...

Breathing at the Water's Surface
Understand why your fish are gasping for air.