Fish Tank Ornaments

There aren’t really any boundaries when we consider the addition of ornaments to our fish tank. You can replicate sunken galleons, war planes or abandoned cars or ancient Roman, Greek or Egyptian ruins. Take a look in any local fish store, and you will see shelves lined with imitation rocks, and corals, sunken ships and treasure chests and all manner of items. Fish tank ornaments have been explicitly manufactured to be submerged in aquariums. As a result, the components will not deteriorate when being constantly immersed in water.

When choosing ornaments for your fish tank, there are certainly a few things you should consider. Take a long look at your tank. How big is the bottom? Visualise the placement of the ornaments and how big they need to be. Try to keep in mind a “grand design” of how you’d like your finished aquascape to look, maybe try and sketch it out if possible.

Be careful becasue it can be very easy to overdo your ornament and plant selection. Consequently, you may end up with a tank full of both and no room whatsoever for the stars of the show, the fish!

Try and stay focused on the space you have for the aquascape and remember as with most visually appealing landscapes, less is more!

Is that shipwrecked galleon entirely necessary? Does it even go with the Egyptian ruins? You see what we are trying to convey? In all honesty when it comes to fish tank ornaments, a single large focal piece and a smattering of smaller ornaments are all you really need. This is, even more, the case if you are going to be including silk or plastic aquarium plants.

It has to be said, and some of you reading this may be slightly surprised by this, that some people may be of a mind to augment their aquascape with items that are just not intended to be put in aquariums. Items with sharp edges for example or bits of concrete, copper pennies, and certainly painted plastics. You may ask why that is, well any of the items mentioned above will cause serious problems in an aquarium. First of of all the element of copper is highly toxic to fish and other animals and concrete will percolate unpleasant chemicals. It is quite obvious that anything with a sharp edge can cause harm your fish but paint can fragment and is poisonous to your fish.

Another note of caution; if despite the above warning you ever feel inclined to put something in your tank as a trial and soon notice that it appears to be flaking or the colour is fading then you should get rid of it straight away.

If you are in any doubt about an item whatsoever the rule is; do not add it to the tank. Because you and mainly your fish will live (or perhaps not!) to regret it. Probably better to be on the cautious side than otherwise.

In any case, whatever the provenance of your fish tank ornament we would always advise you to rinse and soak it thoroughly before adding it to your tank.