Are These Easy?

[STEVIE]

I looked for ages at 3 types of tropical fish i've never seen before.They were described as butterfly goodeid ,red finned goodeid and dwarf goodeid.Each type in it's own tank.
They were in the livebearer section and i wondered do they make good community fish? Does anyone keep them?

 

[nmonks]

I don't know these fish specifically, but the butterfly goodeid, Ameca splendens, is relatively widely available. Do a search on the Latin name and you'll find lots of useful links, such as:

http/home.clara.net/xenotoca/ameca.htm

Ameca splendens at least is known to be somewhat aggressive in tanks, so treat it like a dwarf cichlid rather than a guppy when it comes to adding to a community tank. They are also known to be sometime fin-nippers, so don't keep with fish with long fins (angels, guppies, bettas, etc.) and ensure you keep a reasonable number (I'd guess at least 6).

As a very general rule, once you get beyond the "big four" livebearers -- guppies, mollies, platies, and swordtails -- livebearing fish are not especially easy. Having said that, lots of people routinely keep and breed unusual livebearers (I'm into halfbeaks right now) and it's a fun branch of the hobby often overlooked.

Cheers,

Neale