Fish Tank Aquarium Separator basically is a unit of material usually made of either glass or plastic placed inside the aquarium to create a partition so that you can house different kinds of fish. The separator usually comes in handy especially when the fish that you intend to keep are those aggressive species that might otherwise ended fighting if they are placed together. For example, it might be a good idea to create a different partition if let’s say you decided to allocate a section to house the Lake Tanganyika cichlids and having the Lake Malawi cichlids in another section or you can have one partition that has neon fish and tetra live in it and the other has gourami fish. Of course, usage of separator is only workable if you have a tank large enough to split up with each having enough room for the fish to live in.Having a separator has several advantages associated with it in the sense that instead of having multiple units of individual fish tank, you only need one large aquarium which shares the same basic equipment like filters, air pumps and lighting. Having a separator also means that you subject all the fish species in it, sharing the same water quality and thus the owner might find it easier to control the water parameters in a single tank system rather than looking after several units of tanks. However, one of the main obvious disadvantage is that if let’s say there is a breakout in disease, this will prove to be a major headache as the pathogen will spread from one species to another infecting the rest of the fish sharing the same confinement.
Fish tank separator also comes in handy especially for those fish breeders who have intention to pair up and breed cichlids species like Midas and Convict Cichlids. Having separate partitions can serve different purposes like for example:
- Putting the male and female species with the intention of dividing them using a transparent separator unit is a good test indicator to find out whether the males and females will form a bonding pair upon mixing together
- It could serve as a solitary confinement to encourage and arouse the fish for mating. Believe me, separating them and them mixing again works to stir up the chemistry
- To observe and study their reactions towards one another in order to find out whether they will mate or end up fighting
