What is the best type of exotic freshwater fish,,?

Question

keep in mind i dont have fifty bucks for one fish. i want to be able to get the at petco or petsamrt, where is better?

Answer 1

Here are some suggestions for community aquaria of different sizes designed for aquarists of different levels of experience.

1) A novice's medium-sized tank (50 litres to 70 litres) housing a mixed community of hardy, inexpensive, active, medium-sized fishes:

One male and two female swordtails. Two schools of six to ten fish each, chosen from: giant danios; rosy barbs; gold barbs; cherry barbs; Boeseman's rainbowfish; or red rainbowfish. Six Corydoras. One Ancistrus.

2) A novice's medium-sized tank (50 litres to 90 litres) housing a mixed community of hardy, inexpensive, quiet, medium-sized fishes:

Two male and four female pearl gouramis. Two male and four female dwarf gouramis. Six angelfish. Six Corydoras. One Ancistrus.

3) A novice's small-sized tank (40 litres to 80 litres) housing a mixed community of hardy, inexpensive, active, small-sized fishes:

One male, and two female swordtails. Two schools of six to ten fish each; chosen from: zebra danios; small tetras; or white clouds. Six Corydoras. One Peckoltia.

4) An advanced aquarist's medium-sized tank (70 litres to 100 litres) housing an Amazonian community of peaceful, small to medium-sized fishes:

Six hatchetfish (delicate). Six angelfish. A school of six to eight medium-sized tetras (e.g. bleeding hearts). Six Corydoras. Six Otocinclus (delicate). One black ghost knifefish (requires night feeding and a hiding place).

5) An advanced aquarist's medium-sized tank (120 litres to 200 litres) housing a West- African community of peaceful, medium-sized fishes:

One pair African butterfly fishes (moderately expensive). Twelve Congo tetras (moderately expensive). One elephant-nose mormyrid (expensive and requires a fine sand bottom and a diet of live tubifex). Two pair of kribs.

6) An advanced aquarist's medium-sized tank (120 litres to 200 litres) housing a Lake Tanganyikan community of relatively peaceful, smaller to medium-sized fishes. (Note, this tank should be almost filled with rocks, and have well rooted-plants with protection around their bases):

Six Neolamprologus elogatus (formerly N.brichardi). Six Neolamprologus leleupi (moderately expensive). Six Julidochromis marleri or six Tropheus moorii (expensive). Two Synodontis multipunctatus (expensive).

7) An advanced aquarist's medium-sized tank (120 litres to 200 litres) housing a Lake Malawian community of relatively peaceful, medium-sized fishes. (Note: this tank should have open sandy areas and some rocks among the plants):

Six electric yellows (Labidochromis caeruleus). Six electric blues (Sciaenochromis fryeri) (moderately expensive). Six blue dolphins (Cyrtocara moorii) (moderately expensive) or peacocks (Aulonocara species).

8) A novice aquarist's medium-sized tank (120 litres to 200 litres) housing a Lake Malawian community of colourful, somewhat aggressive, medium-sized fishes. (Note, this tank should be almost filled with rocks, and have only well protected plantings of Vallisneria or other tough, inedible plants):

Six orange zebras (Pseudotropheus estherae). Six Labeotropheus trewavasae. Six Pseudotropheus socolofi.

9) An advanced aquarist's medium-sized plant tank (120 litres to 200 litres) housing a mixed community of algae-eating fishes. (Note: this tank's main feature would be its plants, with just a small collection of fishes):

Twelve mollies. Six Corydoras. Two Farlowella cats. Two Ancistrus. Six Siamese algae eaters (Crossocheilus siamensis).

10) An advanced aquarist's large tank (600 litres or more) housing larger Amazonian fishes. (Note that the only plants in this tank could be Vallisneria or other tough plants with protected roots, and floating plants):

One silver arowana, Six Geophagus braziliensis. Six Satanoperca leucosticta (requires a fine sand bottom). Twenty Leporinus or Prochilodus (expensive). Five Ancistrus. One large Hypostomus.

Its your call now.

Answer 2

Beta Fish.

Answer 3

This depends incredibly on the size of tank you have now, and what other fish you are currently keeping.

I cant really be much of a help without knowing this info.

Answer 4

well depending on your tank size and what you expect in a fish like color, hardiest, and etc... and your decorations...

i say the easiest, great looking, strongest fishes has to be cichlids... and im talking about both south american and african. go to the pet store ask them for the cichlids and theyll show you...

for the african cichlids they usually like to be kept in large groups so buying them would cost more.

for south american cichlids they usually like to be kept in smaller groups or in singles so they are usually cheaper and will require less maintanence.

Answer 5

The Black Rapper

Answer 6

Anyway, what size tank do you want to go with? I suggest you go with as big as you can afford / accomodate, because it's fun to have more fish ;)

When stocking a tank, you have to look at the levels of your tank. You have the bottom, the middle and the top. Let's start at the bottom, shall we? :)
Bottom is usually where your cleanup crew is. That's algae eaters, plecos, cories, etc.
A school of at least 6 corydoras julii or sterbai is great:
http://cyberaqua.free.fr/reportages/co2/... - you should have at least a 20 gallon tank to get a school of these.
or you can get a school of oto cats: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/...
Get a school of at least 5 of these (tank minimum: 15 gallons). They eat algae.
Or you can get a bushy-nosed pleco:
http://www.peteducation.com/images/artic...
They hit 5-6", so the minimum tank size would be 30 gallons.

For the mid-to-bottom, you can get a school of glass catfish:
http://www.aquascape.co.uk/glass_cat.jpg...
Get at least 6 of these. Minimum tank would be 40 gallons.

Next, you want your mid-to-upper range. A school of tetras is great for this level. If you have a big tank, you can go with two schools, of course. You could put one school of

8-15 fish (depending on what else you have in your tank) for each 20 gallons you have. Some nice fish are:
neon tetras http://www.geocities.com/theslidersmarsh...
cardinal tetra http://filer.case.edu/~jjw2/cardinal.jpg...
lemon tetra http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/ch...
harlequin rasbora http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/harl...
glowlight tetra http://www.solodvds.com/images/fish/hemi...
zebra danio http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/ze...
... the list goes on and on and on.

Next, you want your upper fish, which may also be your centrepiece fish.
A dwarf gourami is ideal for 20 gallons or so http://www.biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/users/na...
2 or 3 angelfish, or a pair of pearl gouramis is ideal for 40 gallons and up http://www.fishlore.com/pictures/profile...
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/fishind...
Or a pair of kribensis for 15 gallons http://www.wetwebmedia.com/cichlidpix/pe...

You'll also want to decide if you want live plants. To grow live plants, you'll need a fluorescent light bulb. They are fairly expensive, depending on the size, 15-40$, but the

plants may be well worth it for you. There are lots of plants out there, they look great, but some great ones are
anubias http://www.aqua-passion.com/fiches_plant...
java fern http://www.neptuneaquatics.com/images/ja...
java moss http://www.aquamoss.net/java-moss/images...
pennywort http://www.british-wild-flowers.co.uk/00...
vallisneria http://aquavisie.retry.org/database/plan...
amazon swords http://naturalaquariums.com/plants/echbl...



OR you could go with cichlids. These require higher pH and hardness, and you can't put any plants in with them .They prefer caves and rock structures. They are also very

aggressive with any other types of fish, so you can only have cichlids. You could put 3 yellow labs: http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/images/thu...
and 3 electric blues: http://www.alloddballaquatics.com/cichli... in a 50 gallon tank.

If you have a very small tank (10 and under) you could get a single betta or dwarf gourami and a school of small tetras or rasboras, or a betta and a group of african dwarf

frogs http://members.aol.com/sirchin/dwarf1.jp...



Whew! I hope that helps with your decision. If you need any assistance, feel free to email me or to join http://www.fishforums.com - in fact, I strongly recommend the latter!

Oh, please please please be sure to PROPERLY cycle your tank! It is a vital step that must NOT be overlooked. Please read: http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/article2.p...

And above all, before you buy anything, go to your local fish store, take a look around and write down the various fish you like. Then come home, research them, ask questions about them, before buying them.

Good luck!