Yes, guppies do like bubbles because they carry oxygen in them which is required for the survival of fish. Guppies can play around the bubbles in a fish tank because of their movement and oxygen they carry inside them.
Why are bubbles produced in a fish tank?
While most fish will play with bubbles, it is necessary to understand why are bubbles formed in a fish tank?
Many times these bubbles are produced by equipment called as an “air pump” which sits outside of the tank. This air pump forces air in the tank through a rubber tube that goes inside the fish tank. One end of the rubber tube is fixed to the outlet of the air pump outside of the tank.
Forced air is passed through this tube inside the tank and released in the tank. To create the bubbles effect an “air stone” is used that releases tiny air particles in the fish tank water and these rise to the top of the fish tank water in the form of bubbles.
Since air is lighter than water it rises above the surface of the water and get released in the surrounding air.
Why is an air pump necessary in a fish tank?
As mentioned above forced air gets released at the top of the tank and when this is happening the water surface gets agitated encouraging exchange of oxygen in the fish tank water.
Fish survive on this dissolved oxygen in the fish tank water and that is why the main purpose of producing these air bubbles is to agitate the top water surface so that beneficial gases get inside the water column.
Bubbles produced by an air pump also contain air inside them but a tiny percentage of air gets inside the fish tank water directly. When these bubbles reach the top surface they burst and air inside these gets released into surrounding atmosphere.
When these bubble burst, they disturb the water surface expanding its surface area and this is where oxygen gets inside the water tank.
Pros and cons of air bubbles in a guppy tank
Pros –
- Air bubbles agitate and expand the water surface on top encouraging exchange of oxygen. Fish survive on dissolved oxygen and bubble themselves carry tiny amount of oxygen in them.
- Vertically travelling air bubbles create beautifully visual display in a tank. Most people install an air pump simply to produce a bubbling effect because it looks visually soothing
- The sound of bubbles hitting the top surface is naturally soothing sound to human ears. It creates a natural sound of a stream flowing in lake like a small waterfall.
- Bubbles rising from bottom to top stir the entire water column further encouraging distribution of dissolved oxygen evenly in the entire tank. This stirring of water smoothly helps to flow any floating visible solid particle getting sucked in by the filtration system.
Cons –
- The air pump that sits outside the fish tank forces air inside the fish tank through a rubber tube. Most people complain about the annoying sound the air pump produces because it has moving parts inside.
- Many times it is advisable to keep the air pump on rubber padding or a thick towel so that the extra vibrations are minimized so that the sound gets bearable.
Are there any alternatives to air pump?
Unfortunately if you need air bubbles flowing from bottom of the tank to top levels creating awesome visual effects, then there are no other ways to do it. Because bubbles carry air in them which enters the fish tank through the air pump and a rubber tube attached to it.
However if you just want to encourage the exchange of air at the top surface, then you don’t always need an air pump to do this. You can use several other equipments to do this.
Power heads
Power heads are installed in relatively bigger tanks and are used in pairs. One power head is installed at the top of the tank and the other is installed on the opposite wall but at the bottom. When these run they stir the water column making it possible to distribute the dissolved oxygen evenly. In this process of stirring water, it’s surface also gets agitated encouraging oxygen exchange at the top surface.
Spray bars
A spray bar looks like a flute (musical instrument) with holes along it’s length. Spray bars are installed at the outlet of a filter so that the water that falls back into the fish tank gets distributed evenly. When water falls from the tube it stirs the surface of the fish tank making it easier to mix oxygen evenly within the entire length if the tank.
Filters
Many filters successfully clean the water and at the same time are helpful in bringing in fresh air from outside into the fish tank making it habitual for fish.
Precautions to take while buying a bubble machine
An air pump forces air into the fish tank and this air escapes through an air stone in the form of bubbles. You must take precautions while buying a bubbler machine or an air pump. Most air pumps are designed to handle a particular volume of fish tank water.
You must buy the correct air pump so that it can handle the available volume of water in your tank. If the fish tank water volume is too much to handle for the air pump, the bubbles being produce will not be sufficient to agitate enough water surface the resulting exchange of gases will not be sufficient for your fish tank.
At the same time an air pump which is too forceful will produce water currents in your fish tank. For some tiny fish like guppies, water currents will not be comfortable and they will struggle when the food is dropped in the tank.
If the air pump is producing water currents then fish will be forced to stay in a corner spot and will be exhausted quickly. This will lead to stress and eventually they will attract diseases. Same is true with power heads that are responsible for producing water currents in the tank.
Apart from checking the capacity of the air pump to handle the correct water volume it is also necessary check whether it has a knob to control the amount of air that is being released through the rubber tube in the fish tank.
If you find that too many bubbles are being released or by mistake you purchase the wrong capacity of air pump that’s releasing too much air in the tank, you can always adjust the flow and control the flow of air in the tank.
How to reduce noise of an air pump?
Many people who install an air pump outside of the fish tank complain about the annoying sound it produces in the room. Most air pump have an internal diaphragm that vibrates and forces packets of air through a rubber tube inside the fish tank.
This air pump when kept on a wooden or metallic table tends to produce noise because of vibrations and this sound is sometimes annoying to people living in the room. This pump constantly produces “humming” sound which can disturb anyone in a silent room.
The vibrations produced by an air pump can even produce vibrations in the fish tank. This can be a big problem for the fish as well. Since most air pumps are kept on the same platform where the tank sits, it is highly possible that the tank also gets a percentage of vibrations from the table surface.
Aquarium fish are extremely sensitive to any movements or even the smallest of vibrations. Any such unnatural activity can produce stress in fish and stress if harmful for fish that are weak in immunity.
To reduce these vibrations you can try these methods
- Keep the air pump on a rubber pad that can absorb the vibrations.
- If this does not help, try to keep in it on a thick towel so that most of the vibrations are taken care of
- If all these methods fail then you can try hanging the air pump so that no vibrating part touches any surface and the extra noise does not get produced because there won’t be any frictional parts.
- Hanging the air pump won’t be an easy task because you’ll need some extra arrangement to make this setup this way.
Does speed and frequency of bubbles matter in a guppy tank?
Yes, the speed and frequency of bubbles have a place to consider in a fish tank because bubbles rise to the top of the fish tank and agitate the water surface encouraging oxygen exchange.
If the speed of the bubbles is too high it will agitate the water surface too much and this can create unnecessary water currents. When you drop food in such a fish tank with high agitated surface then delicate fish like guppies will have a hard time catching up with the food particles.
While buying the air pump that releases air in the tank make sure it has a knob to control the flow of air in the fish tank. This will ensure that not too much air is being forced in the tank resulting in too many or too frequent bubbles.
Playing around bubbles could be a warning sign!
Fish love to play around air bubbles that flow from bottom to the top of the tank surface, but this could even be a warning sign.
Fish survive on dissolved oxygen in the water column and food. But when oxygen levels start to drop down it becomes difficult for fish to breathe in oxygen from the water and when this happens fish tend to hang out at the top surface of the water because this is where exchange of oxygen takes place most.
Once oxygen gets mixed in the water it gets distributed throughout the water column slowly. But if the levels of oxygen drop, then fish have no option but to take in oxygen from the place where they find it in most quantity and this place is at the top surface of the fish tank.
You must check this behavior of fish regularly. If you see all fish are constantly at the top surface of the fish tank then it could be because of lack of enough oxygen in the fish tank. In that case fish will also try to be in areas where air bubbles are travelling upwards.
However if just one fish is sitting constantly at the top surface of the fish tank then this could be because of attack on an internal parasite and he must be sick. In such cases you can separate him in a quarantine tank and observe his behavior for about 15 days for symptoms of any visible disease.
If you find that oxygen levels have dropped, then you can increase the amount of air and frequency of bubbles in the tank using a control knob that is present on the air pump. This will agitate the surface more and larger quantities of oxygen will be added from top surface of the fish tank water.
That’s why when guppy fish or any other fish in the tank are playing with bubbles it could be because of fun or a warning sign that the oxygen levels are gradually decreasing and fish are getting attracted to places where they are likely to find most quantity of oxygen levels which is around rising bubbles or at the top surface of the fish tank.