Community Fish

[Anareon]

I have recently bought a large (37gal (4'x1'x15")) tank and have all the required equipment (heaters, filters etc), I have not kept tropical fish before (only 2 goldfish) and was wondering if you have any reccomendations for good community fish, which won't eat plants and some nice-looking begginer style plants. Bear in mind that I don't have have an especially high budget, and can't afford expensive fish.

 

[GSD]

mollies-very hardy but like salt in their tank
platys-cute and small and very hardy
guppies-colourful but can be badly bred making them prone to desises and they breed like rabbits
cories-ideal bottomfeers but need an established tank!
swordies-coplourful and hardy

 

[The-Wolf]

do you know about cycling the tank?
there are quite a few good topics on the cycle,
here(beginners forum) if not.
I'd suggest starting there, before adding any fish.

 

[GSD]

yeah cycle the tank first!I would do a fishless cycle
oh and you could try danios as a first fish ive never owned them but im told they are impossible to kill great for people who make alota mistakes(like me!)

 

[The-Wolf]

yeah cycle the tank first!I would do a fishless cycle
oh and you could try danios as a first fish ive never owned them but im told they are impossible to kill great for people who make alota mistakes(like me!)

no fish is impossible to kill, and to suggest using danios, or any ohter fish for that matter, as a fish you can make mistakes with, is very bad advice.

 

[sylvia]

Zebra danios are great fish to start with but need to be in a group of at least 5. Platies and swordtails are another great option and bronze and peppered cories are quite hardy too - though they should never be used to cycle. Three-spot gouramies are also hardy but you should only keep one to begin with as they can be quite aggressive to each other and other gouramies and you need some experience to keep more. Again, you shouldn't realy cycle with them. White cloud mountain minnows and fathead/rosy/feeder minnows are also exceptionaly hardy but tend to preffer slightly lower temperatures than your average tropical. Another hardy little fish is the mosquito fish (heterandria formosa) but its very small size means you can't keep it with bigger fish. Also, don't mix it up with the slightly more aggressive gambusia affinis or 'western mosquito fish'.

Read up on fishless cycling, new tank syndrome and maintainance (there are links in my signature). Good luck!

 

[Seb R]

Trust me you can kill danios, or leave it to themselves lol

Think cories are a definate yes, they are easily the funniest to watch of all the bottom feeders.

You might want to get some type of cichlid later on. They are great but cause as much heart ache and stress as any other animal (though I repeat they are great).

oh and last but not least cardinals are great! Esapecially baby ones!

 

[rdd1952]

One very important thing that no one has mentioned is the pH & KH of your tap water. It is always best, especially for a beginner, to get fish that are suited for your tap water. For instance, if your tap water has a pH of 6.8 and KH of 1 (like mine) you want to go with fish that like slightly acidic water because your tank water will probably level out around 6.4 to 6.6. If you have a higher pH (7.4 or higher) and harder water (KH over 6), you might want to consider fish like AFrican Cichlids that like alkaline water. It is much easier to get fish that suit your water than try to adjust your pH to suit the fish. As already suggested, read the threads on cycling and also research species profiles. Liveaquaria.com is a pretty good site. Their fish profiles are pretty informative.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Living in Surrey, I would have thought you would have hard water with a high PH (trickling through all that chalk!). Livebearers should be fine with this and are also easy-going (and not expensive) fish. People have already suggested swordtails and platies- I would go along with either of those (used to keep them years ago, and have just bought myself some platies, my tank being too small for swordtails, yours should be fine). Platies always seem very pleasant fish to me, inquisitive but not aggressive, and without colour variation to tell them apart. Swordtails are nice to, add a bit more action to a tank.

Danios (again not expensive) are another good idea, you would have room for a shoal in there, which would look good, though you would have to check how they are with your PH.

The hardier corydoras (as suggested in other posting) should also be OK, bronze or peppers. They are great fun to watch if kept in small schools.

Neon tetras are sold very cheap, but they are more sensitive (as I know to my cost ) and they don't like hard water or new tanks, so you're probably better off without them (or rather, they're better off...).

 

[gale]

All of the fish in my signature line are good community fish.

 

[LoachLover]

cories are a very nice bottom feeder enjoyed by begginers and experts

 

[dwarfgourami]

Corrrection to previous posting: I said platies were "without colour varioation to tell them apart". What I meant was "with enough colour variation". ) They're great little fish!

 

[Macracantha]

Good advice from Wolf and Sylvia and others.......

One other thing tho...your tank...48"x15"x12" works out at 30 UKgals to me, not 37???

 

[john5748]

You have got some very good advice on possible fish to buy but one thing I would add is that prior to buying any fish make sure that once your tank is set up how you want it with your filter, gravel, heater etc.

Take a sample of your tank water to your lfs and ask them to test it for you as I made that mistake when I first started, most lfs will test the water for you and once you have the ok introduce fish gradually just a few at a time.

Best of luck and if you have any problems I have found the advice on here to be invaluable and very friendly.