Best Fish For A Beginner?

[gavva1]

Well, 1st off - Hello everone, I'm a noob to fishkeeping, As an experienced contributor on other topical forums, I'll apologise upfront! Hopefully I can share more knowledge in the future.

I've just got a Roma 200l & cabinet, I'm awaiting the arrival of the filter & heater, & substrate, (hopefully 2moro) - I've been pestering the people at Seapets, who say a good way to go for a beginner is Cychlids, due to their hardy nature. I've seen the Jaguar & Convict types, & like these, but was a little baffled by the options, ie - type A is happy with Type B, but will bug / nibble at type C, etc. SO thought I'd share my intentions on here, & see what you guys think.

I'm looking for colourful variety as a starting point, neither the Jags or Cons give this, but I'd like to get as much of it through other (compatible) fish as possible, eventually... I'm aware I need to get the tank in a habitable state first off, and that the fish need adding slowly, but what other fish would be good choices? The shark-looking ones are pretty cool, but colour is essential.

 

[Floyds mum]

Well, 1st off - Hello everone, I'm a noob to fishkeeping, As an experienced contributor on other topical forums, I'll apologise upfront! Hopefully I can share more knowledge in the future.

I've just got a Roma 200l & cabinet, I'm awaiting the arrival of the filter & heater, & substrate, (hopefully 2moro) - I've been pestering the people at Seapets, who say a good way to go for a beginner is Cychlids, due to their hardy nature. I've seen the Jaguar & Convict types, & like these, but was a little baffled by the options, ie - type A is happy with Type B, but will bug / nibble at type C, etc. SO thought I'd share my intentions on here, & see what you guys think.

I'm looking for colourful variety as a starting point, neither the Jags or Cons give this, but I'd like to get as much of it through other (compatible) fish as possible, eventually... I'm aware I need to get the tank in a habitable state first off, and that the fish need adding slowly, but what other fish would be good choices? The shark-looking ones are pretty cool, but colour is essential.

Id have to say white cloud mountain minnows or guppys are colourful and extremely hardy

 

[holidayinn]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

By my calculations you have a 45 gallon tank, which is a great size tank for a noob. However it's way too small for a Jag, Jags need 75g minimum as they get very big. New World Cichlids are hardy but aggressive in their nature, you'd have to be careful with your stocking as buying the wrong fish could easily end up with only that fish left! If color is your criteria have a look at African/Old World cichlids, these dont grow as big, you can overstock (responsibly, to spread aggression) and many colors, of course research before you buy.

 

[KittyKat]

If I was starting out again with a tank that size.. I would either go for Malawis (final stocking of 12 Pseudotropheus demasoni and a trio (1m, 2f) of yellow labs; LOTS of rockwork; no plants) OR for a planted community (final stocking of 15 harlequin rasboras, two trios of platys and a trio of cockatoo cichlids; bogwood; cabomba, elodea, one amazon sword, anubias and crypts).

Before you add fish, don't forget to cycle your filter!

Floyds mum, most of the guppies available in shops are very inbred and while colourful are prone to disease, would you not agree? Also it might be wise to point out to a newbie that WCMM are coolwater fish so should not be kept in a tropical aquarium.

 

[M.R Otter]

here are a biggener fish wich I realy do chrust and believe that they are very easy to keep:
(1)Zebra Danio (also called Zebra fish)
(2)Guppy (also called Millions fish)
(3)Black Tetra (also called Black widow)
(4)Molly
(5)Swordtail
(6)Platy

These fishes are realy easy to keep and breed!! Imagen yourself buying fishes then they give birth!!

 

[Floyds mum]

If I was starting out again with a tank that size.. I would either go for Malawis (final stocking of 12 Pseudotropheus demasoni and a trio (1m, 2f) of yellow labs; LOTS of rockwork; no plants) OR for a planted community (final stocking of 15 harlequin rasboras, two trios of platys and a trio of cockatoo cichlids; bogwood; cabomba, elodea, one amazon sword, anubias and crypts).

Before you add fish, don't forget to cycle your filter!

Floyds mum, most of the guppies available in shops are very inbred and while colourful are prone to disease, would you not agree? Also it might be wise to point out to a newbie that WCMM are coolwater fish so should not be kept in a tropical aquarium.

Wcmm are sub-tropical (wherever you source info from) which means they are ok with a heater as long as its not too high (Although the normal temperature range of the species in the wild is 18–26 °C (64–72 °F), it can survive water temperatures down to 5°C (41°F). sourced from wikipedia) and not all guppys are prone to illnesses, i only reccommended these two fish cos they are notoriously easy to keep and over the years of my dad keeping guppies they have never caught a disease just died of old age.
I gave my opinion based on personal experiences, my wcmm are kept at roughly 24-26 degrees and are zooming about with the emerald eye rasboras.

 

[KittyKat]

Floyds mum, most of the guppies available in shops are very inbred and while colourful are prone to disease, would you not agree? Also it might be wise to point out to a newbie that WCMM are coolwater fish so should not be kept in a tropical aquarium.

Wcmm are sub-tropical (wherever you source info from) which means they are ok with a heater as long as its not too high (Although the normal temperature range of the species in the wild is 18–26 °C (64–72 °F), it can survive water temperatures down to 5°C (41°F). sourced from wikipedia) and not all guppys are prone to illnesses, i only reccommended these two fish cos they are notoriously easy to keep and over the years of my dad keeping guppies they have never caught a disease just died of old age.
I gave my opinion based on personal experiences, my wcmm are kept at roughly 24-26 degrees and are zooming about with the emerald eye rasboras.

In this case, their habitat is both subtropical and coolwater: subtropical describes the geographical location, coolwater describes the temperature of the water. If you are not aware of what coolwater is, it is the range between 15 and 21°C (about 60 - 70°F), i.e. the range between coldwater and tropical. Why am I insisting on mentioning the fact when they will survive in tropical water? Because they will live better in their natural temperature range. Even goldfish will survive in tropical water, but that does not make them automatically suitable for a tropical aquarium.

My sources? Numerous books, articles, collection logs, and even people who live in Guangzhou whom I have asked to go out and measure the temperature of the streams there. And for the record, the temperature range on Wikipedia does not even have a reference as to the source.. you are more likely to find more correct ranges on Fishbase who do rigorous research into every species they have there, backing up information with references to logs and collections.

I did not say all guppies, I was only referring to those available most commonly from the shops. I know that many of those which originate in SE Asia would have been inbred for 10+ generations. That is not the case with all fish and most definitely not with home bred fish if they are crossed out with different bloodlines on a regular basis, as I do myself, to keep the gene pool diluted.

 

[helterskelter]

African cichlids would make a great tank, but their messy fish and need very good filtration systems, and regular cleaning.

WCMM are subtropical in my books, ranging from 5-30C
However they will suffer more in the higher ranges as their metabolic rate. Which can increse to much and cause stress over all.

Ideal temp's is 15-23C for happy and healthy WCMM.

Guppies, shop guppies are quite darn poor to be honest. If you can buy home breed fish local your find these are 10 times better than any shop fish.

One thing though when looking for new tanks is goto a shop and have a look that fish are around u like, make notes of their names and then ask here.
We'll then say yes or no to noobies and whats good to mix with them.

 

[gremlin]

here are a biggener fish wich I realy do chrust and believe that they are very easy to keep:
(1)Zebra Danio (also called Zebra fish)
(2)Guppy (also called Millions fish)
(3)Black Tetra (also called Black widow)
(4)Molly
(5)Swordtail
(6)Platy

These fishes are realy easy to keep and breed!! Imagen yourself buying fishes then they give birth!!

yup

 

[gavva1]

All these replies are very much appreciated thx, I was back in seapets today - Looking at the Jag & Convict Cichlids, the guy informed me as is mentioned above, they do get pretty big, not really what I'm after! (Surely Nutrafin do a supplement to keep them 3-4 inches They shew me a few of the community fish in the tanks, I must admit having done all the setting up & water testing the tank, it can be a bit mind boggling! (I'll certainly be searching for pics of the above-mentioned combo's)

As such I'm in no rush, So far I've got an external filter& heater setup, Washed the gravel & put into the tank, filled the tank, aqua-Pluss'ed & Nutrafin Cycle'd the water, & Half-decorated. (Rocks & plastic plants) I did the first load of tests today, & it all seems to be reading ok (I'll post the results if anybody wants to cast a more experienced eye over them..?)

I've googled various subjects & have to say, I've been directed to various topics on fishforums time & again, being the most concise & readable around. So good work, I'm glad to have found a genuinely clued-up forum so soon, if only my other pastimes allowed me this!

One other thing I did, as instructed by the Fluval manual, was to add a tiny amount of the Nutrafin Max fish-food into the tank, apparently this aids in the cycle? I was a bit concerned to read elsewhere that the food can decay, & cause more harm than good?

 

[discus_lover]

as a beginner you can keep
danio
platy
guppy
neon tetra
cardinal tetra
clown laoch(as a bottom feeder)
pleco
cory...
you can keep some plants too.the plantes are
anubias sp.
echinodorous sp.
hornwort...

 

[fishfreak24]

I would say zebra danios

 

[OldMan47]

The fish food that you have added will start to break down after a couple of days and will form ammonia in the process. That ammonia is the thing that the filter needs to cycle. Until you are feeding in lots of ammonia and getting nothing in the way of measurable ammonia and nitrites on the other end, your filter will not be ready for fish. On this forum we usually suggest that you use simple ammonia, the stuff that they sell as a glass cleaner, to cycle the tank's filter. By using bottled ammonia, you will know how much you are dosing and can readily monitor the cycle progress for the next few weeks. The bacteria that you are trying to develop in the filter have no idea where the ammonia is coming from so decaying plants, decaying fish food, rotting prawns or liquid ammonia, sold at 9.5% concentrations, are all the same on the bacteria end of the water circulation. The prawns will stink long before you are done. The dose using fish food or decaying plant leaves is a bit hard to control.
Your present water should look just great for fish because there has been nothing in it yet to cause it to go bad. Fish produce ammonia constantly so, until you have dosed with ammonia in some form and then found it gone quickly, you will not know the filter is ready to deal with the fish. Another method that we favor much less is to put a few fish into the new tank and hope some of them survive being poisoned while the filter cycles. Water changes are done during the fish-in cycle but the fish are still swimming in their untreated waste the whole time. A convict is far too large to use for that purpose in a tank as small as yours.

 

[darenshan54]

Zebra danios to cycle, then get some dwarf cichlids if you're going for a cichlid tank.

 

[waterdrop]

Zebra danios to cycle, then get some dwarf cichlids if you're going for a cichlid tank.

Yes, before the 1980's many of us used to use zebra danios to "cycle" a tank as they were felt to be a hardy enough fish to do this. Thankfully though, that kind of treatment of fish has fallen more by the wayside since the practical science of fishless cycling has come into the picture. Most knowledgeable forums have now been helping aquarists learn these new techniques for the last few decades.

Our own working article on fishless cycling, the one by rdd1952 here in the Beginners Resouce Center is apparently one of the most popular on the internet. This is the basic how-to of what oldman47 was referring to in the post up above. Using pure aqueous household ammonia (found in the mop&broom sections of stores (!)) give the fishless cycler much, much more control over the process than fishfood or prawns or any other organic material that must first be converted to ammonia by heterotrophic bacteria before the nitrification process can begin.

~~waterdrop~~