wow, It must be hard giving away such a great fish. but try to find a store that specializes in aquatics. Like, in my town, there is a big fish store called "denezins of the deep", and we gave a 8 inch texas cichlid to them. And he was taken care of by them and when we went to see if he was there, he was gone. I think he was sold. so an aquatics store may take him off your hands.

good luck.

PS- thats an awesome bichir in your avator!

I'd also add guppies to the list, like the neon tetras, I find they also die quite easily and are one of the less hardy fish around

isnt it illegal to flush fish down the toilet? i heard it on the news.

On the note of the Pacu, I know a guy who had one in a thirty gallon tank along with an Oscar . After about an hour and a half of fierce arguing about him taking them both back, I showed him this picture of a pacu. He now has a guppy community. Picture of a Pacu, yes the same ones IN YOUR LFS .

In my opinion corys (particularly bronze) are great for beginners as they are so easy to keep. You do need them in groups - the larger the better though so tank size needs to be considered, but in a community tank they stay mainly on the bottom and keep themselves to themselves.

Other generally easy fish are swordtails (ideally kept as one male to two females) although beware that they are livebearers and will almost definitely produce fry.

My main advice would be to find an lfs that you trust (not always easy) and ask them loads of questions. If in doubt - either use this site for advice or buy (or borrow) a book.

Again, as has been pointed out - a lot of it is suck it and see - but beware of small fish in the lfs - some of them grow HUGE!

I'm glad i saw the Pacu mentioned , but i haven't seen the notorious Oscar mentioned. Those guys get big quick with big appetites , and they are well known for the damage they cause in a tank.

I think that zebra danios are the best-i had 9 in a 2 gallon unheated tank with few problems; my last one recently died after more than 5 years.

BEWARE RED-CLAW CRABS! I was sold one and told that he'd only eat my danios if he could catch them-once a couple of them were dead, the store told me that the fish were never safe, even though they're active, because they sleep on the bottom!

My first oto died after a week since I didn't have any algae; however, my next one entered the tank when it was full of algae and lived for between 2-3 years.

Hi Nelly, I'd reccomend mickey mouse platys as a starter fish becuase we still have all four of ours since we first started. They are tropical btw. Stay clear of Neon tetras because they are very delicate. Only go for them when you have a lot of experience. And if you dont like the look of the platys i'd reccomend Guppy fantails which are very beautiful and very strong fish.
Washbelly3 xxx

Wow! I haven't been on here for a while - busy summer working But thanks for all the help and advice! I'm moving soon so hopefully we'll get an aquarium and I'll certainly try and bear your advice in mind when finding something to put in it!

Yeah I'd avoid neon tetras, they prefer more mature tanks and arent very hardy. Mollies are my fave xx

Am I an idiot or are the 3 most popular beginner fish (neon tetras, guppies, and zebra danios) being added to a list of fish that aren't for beginners? ADVIL!!!!!

This post has been edited by tetraman: Sep 14 2006, 08:50 PM

Not just for the newbie, but avoid at all costs:
Melanchromis Auratus.
These fish are murders, even if just the pair the male will strip the females scales off and destroy her tail. Note that in my case he also killed a bristlenose.

sounds simple enough. Thanks

I'll happily agree with that- it's also sometimes referred to as Pseudotropheus Auratus, and it's one of the Malawi Mbuna cichlids. These fish are hardy beasts, and like hard water, no plants and a rocky tank, with preferrably only other Mbunas for company. Only Mbuna and Cichlid specialists need apply. They are aggressive, territorial, and exceptionally vicious to smaller fish, often regarding them as prey.

When I first started in the hobby, my brother gave me one of these thinking it was a golden Julie. (And they do look similar, as the female is golden yellow, and doesn't often display her dark brown stripes.) No word of a lie, but within two DAYS of being introduced to my community tank, it had killed my red-tailed black shark, torn one of my Rams apart, and ate all but three of my Black Widow tetras. (I had a shoal of eight.) I began to wonder what this fish was, saw a picture of the Melanochromis in my book, and put the picture up against the side of the tank. True to form, the fish displayed her brown stripes, and lunged at the glass attempting to attack the picture. Needless to say, I asked my brother to have her back!

There seems to be a lot of newbies with neon tetra related names since I made mine. Copyright infringement!!!

Fish can not be murderers; that term has uniquely human connotations as it suggests malicious intent. I continually hear aggressive, territorial species being given bad raps and referred to as murderers. Chances are if a species that behaves very agressively is killing other fish, it is because it has been placed with unsuitable tank mates (which for many species is ANY tank mate), or feels crowded and could use more space to themselves than the inch-per-gallon minimum - for example, the fish mentioned here is only 4-5in at adulthood, but most sites suggest anywhere from 30-75g for a pair; how probably end up in tanks that size instead of say, 2 in a 10g because someone didn't research and went by inch per gallon?
Remember that Melanchromis auratus, like most Cichlids, is a non-domesticated species. Captivity is stressful on all wild animals, and thus likely to heighten aggressive behaviors - we see it across the species board in everything from mammals to fish. Things like that must be taken into account when considering tank size, tank mates, etc.

I recommend bettas as a beginner aquarium. They can survive in small tanks that goldfish can't, but I recommend a 5 gallon with a filter and heater. (A good betta setup is minimum 5 gallons)

But male bettas DO fight if you put them together. Females can live together most of the time.

my first fish were 6 neons while iv lost 4 guppys the neons seem fine (touch wood)
although 1 neon got wedged in the side of the filter today got him out and hes eating fine but a bit off in general

This post has been edited by 300hp+vr6: Dec 10 2006, 08:21 PM