Colourful And Interesting And Fun To Watch Fish?

[mrscullen5373]

I recently lost most of my stock in a 20 gallon tank to ich while i was away.
The remaining fish are fine now and have been moved to another tank and i have completely done out the tank ready for some new fish.

Any suggestions are helpful, i would love a fish that you can recommend to me. What was it like when you had it? e.g. playful?

I really dont know where to start when adding new species, please help

I like the look of Sparkling gouramis and panda corys and threadfin rainbows and neon blue rainbows? Has anyone owned them before and if so what were they like??
I would like to know about neon rainbows the most
Thanks alot x x x

 

[Carlovel1]

Nice to see you back!

Amongst the most playful small fish I had were Electric Blue Rams and Kribensis. Both were great fish and had plenty of personality. Also great were Dwarf and Honey Gouramis. Sparkling Gouramis aren't really good centrepiece fish, they are very shy and will stay shy Never kept Threadfin Rainbows. 20 gallons seems a bit on the small side for DNRs, what is the length of your tank?

 

[jbroadway]

id suggest a pair of [font="arial][size="2"]Apistogramma cacatuoides i have a pair and they stay bottom to mid tank and they are lovely fish they are always out and about and they just stay completely still every now and then so you can watch them and they are nice and colourful,[/size][/font]
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[font="arial][size="2"]this is my male apisto[/size][/font]
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[OldMan47]

The panda cories and sparkling gouramis would be a fine combination. Cories are certainly among the most playful of fish when kept in a large enough shoal.
I recently picked up my first Apistogramma after 50+ years keeping fish. I must say they are pretty fish but I had always shied away from them. Mine look just like the cockatoos in that picture JBroadway posted.

 

[mrscullen5373]

Thankyou for the replies

My tank is about 122cm x 31cm x 33cm approx (length x width x height)

The apistogramma you mentioned have been recommended to me alot but i am still unsure about them.

How are they towards other tankmates?
Do you have to buy a trio or is one ok?
Can you tell me abit more about there personalitys?

OH and should i get them or some rams?

Thankyou

 

[myrtle]

I'd always recommend Rainbows! Threadfins are lovely and they display constantly but are difficult to feed sometimes only having tiny mouths. They often do better kept with tankmates that are the same size or smaller or as a species tank although mine are with other fish and are happy. More colourful are some of the blue-eyes like Pseudomugil gertrudae or furcatus. Have a look on Tropical Fish Finder or Seriously Fish for more details/pictures.
My Celebes Rainbowfish (Marosatherina ladegesi) are very active and colourful and are again constantly displaying. They have even bred for me. When the tank lights are off their neon blue stripe and blue eyes still catch the light and glow quite brightly.

 

[creg]

green tiger barbs, i just got some and they are very active and entertaining

would go well with some panda cories i reckon too, heard they are very hard to keep alive though

 

[annaw123]

my 3 bolivian rams are VERY colourful and playful they have plenty of character too!

 

[mrscullen5373]

Thanks again to new replies

Any opinions on the apistogramma cacatuoides?

myrtle - have you ever owned Dwarf Neon Rainbows?

Could you tell me abit more about the Threadfins? e.g. how active, playful, peaceful are they? Good tankmates?

Thankyou x x x

 

[Birch]

All types of Ram are so funny to watch!

Also them Apistgrma usually get sold as a pair, my friend even got them to lay eggs!

 

[myrtle]

I currently have 12 Neon Dwarf Rainbows along with 6 Lake Tebera Rainbows and some others in my 240l. Their main occupation during the day is sorting the pecking order and displaying. They are jumpers though so be warned! You'll need a fair sized shoal for them to feel secure (8 -10) I lost 5 from jumping during maintenance and this stopped once I introduced the larger rainbows and increased the shoal to over 10. You'll also need more females than males as normal. They can look after themselves when it comes to feeding time barging my very large angelfish out of the way!
The Threadfin males spend 99% of their time displaying and trying to coerce the girls into the moss! They are rather small so unless your tank is quite close to where you sit you won't really be able to appreciate them although a large shoal is spectacular IMO. They are quite short lived too (about 2 years) but will spawn readily although the fry is very hard to grow on as the mouths are microscopic. I feed my Threadfins on baby brine shrimp and TetraMin Baby. As I say, Threadfins are best in a tank with their own kind or smaller fish as they can't compete for the food with larger fish.

 

[Faffer1262]

Totally agree with the Rams. I had one a while ago and what a character! Allways swimming about and looking out of the aquarium through the glass! Used to follow me up and down the tank as I walked backwards and forwards

 

[Carlovel1]

My EGBR always flared at me when I went passed

 

[james_fish]

+1 for Apisto's, mine are in my signature

James.

 

[zeke the black ghost knife]

if you have a big enough aquarium, then get a BGK. they are beautiful, and so funny to watch!