How Do You Pick Fish?

[fshinggrl]

Seriously... how do you figure out what fish to get? Do you just guess to see if they'd get along? Research on the internet? Ask here?

I'm tried asking here but don't get much response. I would love advice from people who actually have fish, vs store clerks who suggest crazy combinations.

Where do you go to get your advice?

 

[chigwellhammer]

Internet and on here. Just ask your questions and someone will know on here

 

[Wills]

I usually do it a mix through here and a few profile sites.

When stocking a tank I usually find one or two fish I love and then the rest of the stock in the tank revolves around them.

What answers are you after? Im more than happy to help out Sorry if I missed the other threads but fire away

Wills

 

[fett999]

For me it's always an equal mix of love at first sight, then research of my own, and then asking people on here.

Like Wills, when I'm starting a new tank I first work out the one or two fish that I must have in there. The ones that I'd always be thinking "It's a good tank but it'd be perfect if I had that in there" about if I missed them off.
Then I do a lot of research online about them and compatible fish.
Then when I have a rough outline of the tank in mind I'll put it on here to see what others think of it.
And if I can help others I will.
If I know anything about the fish you'd like I'll help and give advice.

 

[Ashley1991]

i like to get a idea of what im getting on profile sites then ask here for personal experiance from people that beats any website

ash

 

[emmettbaby]

For me, it's RESEARCH and then re-research until I start calling the fish I want by their scientific names!

As you may have noticed, most of the people are "learning fishkeepers" and then there are a few handfuls of people who dominate specific forums and answer most of the posted questions. These are the people you need to get to, because they are some of the most experienced on the forum for their specific species. The trick is getting your questions into the right forum. For example, don't ask puffer fish questions in the catfish forum, you would probably get more replies in the brackish forum since more people in the brackish forum keep puffers than people in the cats.

Another key thing is LISTS. It's not the best idea to put something like "what fish can go in my 30 gallon?" because you will either A) get a lot of different species that probably can't go together into the tank or B) have few replies because there are large combinations of different species that can fit in the tank. You want to have an IDEA of what you want in the tank. Post the ones you feel like you HAVE to have and then ask if other species you have found can go with the ones you need. Otherwise you can end up getting suggestions like "put 50 neon tetras in it!"

When asking clerks, you have to remember that the store is out to make money and just because you see a fish in a store tank DOESN'T mean that the current tank conditions is what that fish needs. I accidentally got green puffers for my freshwater tank. Even though they were in a freshwater tank at the store and the clerk said they were fine in freshwater, they needed water with some salt in it (brackish) and died. Sometimes you can get lucky and impulse buy fish that work together but most of the time it is best to make a note of the species name and go look it up or ask on here... or both!

 

[Corleone]

Everything mentioned above, but also a little bit of experimentation (with a plan B ready to go at a moment's notice if it doesn't work). Sometimes no matter how much you research or who you ask you'll find yourself in a situation where nobody's entirely sure what will happen, though they think it'll probably be (ok/bad idea). I've been surprised a few times by what worked out without a hitch, and also by what didn't.

 

[snowflake311]

research is #1. Then ask around on forums once you know what you want. I never ask to shop people what to get.