Best and Worst Beginner Freshwater Fish

Subject: Best and Worst Beginner Freshwater Fish Fri Feb 22, 2008 10:57 pm

I would like to know what you think are the best and worst freshwater fish for beginners? We have all heard the stories of people bringing home fish that they are not ready for or are going to get to large for there tank or eat all the other fish in the tank.
Here is a small sample of both
Worst: large Cichlids, Common plecostomus , Puffer fish, Ghost knife fish
Best: Platy, Bettas, Zebra danio, Barbs
When you make your list type in fish even if you see it on someone else's list.
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Subject: beginners Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:48 pm

IMHO
GOOD:The guppy was a good one for me in my first 10gal tank.Tetras if you have softer water, especially the bigger ones if you have 20gal or more.
I really like the pair of Corydoras (same). White clouds, Trio of gouramii; one male two female.The trio of live bearing swordtails or platys is attractive but prone to ick.
Danios, Giant danios.
WORST: Have been offered a few large South American Cichlids when people don't like buying feeder fish for them anymore.
Any three inch catfish would love neon tetras for lunch.
African cichlids are killers without the devoted tank.
Red tail sharks, tri-colored sharks get very territorial and grow quicker than one might expect.

Subject: Re: Best and Worst Beginner Freshwater Fish Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:20 pm

Best:
Sometimes Guppy- They aren't as hardy as they were, and they are really fragile these days.
Tetras
Corydoras Catfish
Rasboras
Most Cichlids if you have a large tank

Worst:

Platies- Really fragile these days, never had much success in a while
Discus- Really sensitive to temp and pH
Angelfish- Most of them end up dead in the dealers tanks. Only a few dealers have most of there Angels alive. I nursed most of my angels back 2 health. Really difficult
Glass Catfish- Really sensitive to water conditions

Go ahead and disagree with me, but this list is the honest truth.

HTH
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I have been keeping aquariums most of my life. I have kept both fresh and salt water, cichlids, catfish, loaches, clownfish, wrasses, and everything in between. Feel free to ask me any questions!

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Subject: Re: Best and Worst Beginner Freshwater Fish Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:00 pm

in my opinion

Good,

guppies, tetras, algae eaters, swordtails, platies

Bad

pleco's (because people are unaware of how big some of the breeds can get), mollies (who are sold as freshwater but do best in brackish), cichlids, discus, goldfish, knifefish, ropefish,

Angels i'd like to say are good, but with tank conditions i've seen them in at most lfs i have to include them in bad because of the time and med's needed to get them back into a healthy non stressed state.

Rank2 Member Age : 33 Joined : 20 Jan 2008 Posts : 63

My chioses are:
Good
Tetras, Danios, Barbs, Gourmami, Corydoras, Otos, betas and Mollies

Worst
Common pleco, Catfish that get large, some cichlids not all, Gars and other large predator fish.

Subject: Re: Best and Worst Beginner Freshwater Fish Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:06 am

don't give south american cichlids a bad rap...

good starter fish...

south american... krib cichlids, ram cichlids, severums, parrot fish, green terrors, keyhole cichlids, juripari cichlids, apistograma family of cichlids, and angel fish... all of those are excelent starter fish... i know half of them wont fit in a 10g tank, but the kribs, rams, and all of the apistogramas will do fine in them tank...

central american... convicts, honduran red points, hirotilapia (rainbow cichlid), firemouths, eliots cichlid... um... i think that's it for central american...

i'm not going to get into african cichlids... you can't go wrong with yellow labs... but they still aren't for beginners...

more good starter fish... bala sharks, louches, corydoras, bitterlings, mosquito fish, saimese algae eaters, betta's, gourami, and channel cats...

none of them die...

worst fish for beginners... oscars, red tail cats, pikes, midas cichlids, flower horns, discus, pleco's, exotic pleco's, crustations, eels, shuvel noes cats, silver dollars, pacus, RBP, and other tank busters... i can't think right now... i'll add more laters...