What is a good first fish?
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December 26th, 2009
| Tags: Ghost Knife Fish, Liking, Small Fishes
Tezza asked:
I’d like a small fish or small fishes to keep with me and I’ve had next to nothing to do with fish. We went into a pet shop years ago and I took an instant liking to a black ghostfish-which I think is actually a ghost knife fish- but I’m assuming they’re quite expensive and I’m looking for something that isn’t expensive to look after or buy. Any ideas?
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Bettas are the easiest, but boring in my opinion. Black Ghost Knives aren’t just expensive, but they grow 20in+! Good choice not getting them. Goldfish have some personality to them, but you would need a 20g+ tank just for one.
The question is: How big of a tank can you afford?
Guppies are very easy fish to start with, but the only drawback is they will breed like crazy. Betta’s are a good fish for controlling the guppy population, as the they will hunt down the fry so the tank won’t get overpopulated. Betta’s are also fairly easy to keep.
white cloud mountain minnows are great. you can have a school of 6 in a 5+ gallon but a 20+ gallon is the best size. if you have some live plants in there and feed them well you may even have fry.
Any corydoras species (very small catfish) very comical and lively- buy 4 or more! Also zebra danios are very hardy and active mid and top dwellers. They are always swimming around having a great time.
Best bit of advise I can give you – Buy the biggest tank you can afford.
A good size for a beginner is a 15-30gal tropical tank. You should be able to buy a kit with the tank and all the basic gear you need to get started. Get a good book on fish keeping as well, no fish at this stage.
Avoid those tiny ‘beginner’ tanks unless you only want to keep one Betta.
Once you get the tank set up and running (you may want to do a fishless cycle- see link below) THEN you can get some fish. I suggest some small community fish like livebearers, tetras, cory catfish etc. Or you could get a couple of medium sized more agressive fish like small cichlids. But allways check the adult size of any fish you buy, and dont allways believe the store. Many pet shop staff have never seen an adult of most of the fish they sell There are many common fish that grow to over a foot long, you can imagine the tank size they need.
Black Ghost Kniffe fish are very interesting, but they are a medium difficulty and need a large tank as they can grow to 18 long. Not saying you cant get one in the future, but untill you are confident about maintaining a large tank (75gal+) plus I would wait.
Ian
Well if you are going to have about a ten gallon tank you could have a the cory cats as your bottom feeders and a dwarf pleco. Then you could go with the neon tetras. If you do decide to get the neons keep them in a school of at least 5. If you don’t like the neons go with the guppies or any other live bearer for that fact like the mollies and swordtails. If you keep your tank heavily planted or have plenty of fake plants you might have a few fry make out of a bunch of babies.
Best of luck..