How to Choose Fish for a Freshwater Aquarium

Choosing the right inhabitants for your aquarium requires a bit more thought than simply matching their colors to your couch. Follow these simple steps to fish bliss.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Aquarium Canopies/hoods
• Aquarium Filters
• Aquarium Fish Nets
• Aquarium Gravel
• Aquarium Heaters
• Aquarium Lights
• Aquarium Plants
• Aquarium Stands
• Aquarium Thermometers
• Aquarium Water Test Kits
• Aquariums

1. Determine the number of fish you can house by the size of your tank. A general rule of thumb is to allow 2 inches of fish per gallon of water.

2. Buy your fish from a reputable dealer who will back up his product. You want clean fish that won't get each other sick. A good sign that the seller knows what he's talking about is his show tank. Do the fish seem happy? Is it the way you imagine your tank looking when it's complete? If you see dead things floating in the tanks, look elsewhere.

3. Read about the fish you want. Some have particular needs, whether temperature, chemical, dietary, or compatibility-related.

4. Get school fish. Compatibility problems are minimal and it will be easy to see if any of the fish are behaving oddly (indicating illness). Try neons or cardinal tetras, Corydoras catfish, any of the small barbs, rasboras, loaches, or pearl and zebra danios.

5. Resist the urge to get one of everything you like, particularly with school fish.

6. Try a bristle-nose or clown plecostomus, or a pair of otocinclus catfish to help control the algae.

7. Raise killifish, which are excellent for a beginning aquarium, but difficult to find.

8. Ask your fish dealer about compatibility with other fish in your tank. Be careful of cichlids ' some grow quite large. Angelfish require tanks larger than 10 gallons. Stay away from Oscars, which tend to eat the other fish and are particularly messy.

9. Avoid the urge to impress people with a piranha. This shy fish has the unfortunate honor of eating many of those unhealthy goldfish. This is not only expensive, but unless you want to quarantine every feeder fish you buy, you're likely to have issues with disease and parasites. They are school fish but need to be well-fed or they will eat each other.

10. Think about Bala sharks, which are cool-looking non-sharks. They grow to more than 12 inches, however, so unless you're ready to accommodate that much fish, it's best to leave these alone.

11. Avoid catfish in general. They are nasty predators and tend to grow. And grow. And grow '

Tips & Warnings

• Quarantine every new fish before you add it to your tank.
• When you bring your new fish home, wrap the plastic bag that it's in in something opaque. The easiest way is to put it in a paper bag.
• Be sure to introduce the fish to its new environment slowly. Equalize the water temperature by floating the bag in the tank. Add tank water periodically to the bag water.
• Keep the lighting minimal for the first few days the fish is in its new home.
• Be sure there are plenty of hiding places for your new fish.
• Don't add more than four fish at a time; you don't want to cause a chemical imbalance in the tank.
• Stay away from goldfish, which are not true tropical fish and require cooler temperatures than many other species. They also tend to have many health problems.
• Knife fish are suspicious additions to your new tank. Look to this nocturnal predator when your other fish begin to disappear.

[jbenedek]

on 10/11/2009 Cory catfish are fine, but I had a different kind of catfish that ate the fins off my betta. Those are nice fish, but they chase the other ones around sometimes. Mine used to come out of hiding as soon as he saw me. He took food from my finger too. He was like a dog.

[irishfish12]

on 6/30/2009 I don't support your instruction step 11.
Yeah you can say that the catfishes are predators but what about the cory cats !! they are beautiful community fishes and very good for the beginners. I have never seen or heard about a cory cat ever to kill any other fish.

[sunshineandrose]

on 3/16/2009 Really good article.

on 8/8/2006 Let the tank get a little dirty on the bottom, (about 2 weeks) and then add an algae eater. Apple Snails, Black Mystery snails, and some catfish are okay. Be cautious with catfish and sucker fish, some grow very large (12"+).

on 8/8/2006 Many people have addressed the topic of making sure the fish you have purchased will be polite to the fish one already has. This is a very important part of setting up your tank. Be sure the fish you purchase are compatible.