Livebearers...

[OohFeeshy]

Look, lets stop debating about salt. We've been there, done that, got the cheesy neon tank ornament. Anyway...
Genarally it depends on the livebearer. I mean, guppies aren't exactly hardy, are they? I've never got shope bought ones to live past a few weeks, and knowing your average newbie, they'll buy the most brightly coloured with the largest tail. Platies are hardy (well, so I've heard). My friend said she'd had a nitrite spike, and only the platys survived. Obviosly it was only a few weeks ago I wondered why she was having one.... Mollies, not sure on, but I'd assume they are fairly hardy. So, newbie goes out, on advice gets... 5 platies. Even if they ask for all male, the shop assistant isn't nessecarily the brightest crayon in the box. So they will most likely end up with a mix of males and females. The females are most likely already pregnant. So if we go halfs, they'll roughly have 3 f/m and 2m. Lets say the females have 20 fry each. So 60 fry before you even think about it. Then mating again etc... End up as something like a 15g with hundreds of platies in.
Other hardy fish for the newbie are, unfortunately, either large fish, schooling fish or very active, nippy, hyper fish. There isn't a small, hardy fish, colourful as to be appealing, isn't a fry machine and easily available at chain stores that I can think of. If there is, let me know, cos I want some

 

[Opcn]

Another thing to think about is the salt in your water, Hard water already has some salt in it, some areas the ground water has salt and humans dont realise it unless they study water chemistry, Mollies dont need much but they need it, those of you with a condusive chemistry could just be sabatoging others by telling them not to do something that would hel there fish and couldnt hurt.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Other hardy fish for the newbie are, unfortunately, either large fish, schooling fish or very active, nippy, hyper fish. There isn't a small, hardy fish, colourful as to be appealing, isn't a fry machine and easily available at chain stores that I can think of. If there is, let me know, cos I want some

Female bettas make decent community fish and are hardy and don't grow big, so are many tetras like cardinal and black widow tetras and many corys are very hardy too like bronze/albino ones and peppered ones too. Bristle nose plecs and otos are reasonably hardy and and don't grow too big either- none of these fish are fry machines and do well in tanks between 10 and 20gallons+.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Well, female bettas are OK, but are fairly expensive and usually less available than the more colourful males. They can also get very haggy towards each other. Some of the tetras are very nippy. But yes, cories are hardy, however, most people want a fish that is mid-ish dwelling that they can actually see. BN's are quite fickle about ater conditions when they're young, and otos? I thought they were very fragile? Out ofa ll the tanks at the lfs, the only tank that had a lot of deadies in was the oto tank.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I heard otos were alright for beginner tanks but i could be wrong so don't take my word for it, cardinal and black widow tetras aern't nippy to each other at all though and when it comes down to it, are a more risk free choice than livebearers. Because livebearers produce so many fry and all-male groups are hard to stock and many suffer from bacterial deseases and sudden death sydrome, they overall need more responsability than most fish because of these factors in some ways.
Danios are good fish as long as you stock them correctly and with the right tanks mates, they are good fish to keep.

EDIT: i think when it comes down to it, there are no hassle-free "easy" to look after fish- all fish are going to need a minimum of basic responsability i.e good water quality, adequete tank space, good stocking and good diet.
I think fishless cycling is the best way to cycle a tank and i no longer advise people to cycle tanks with fish because with the option of fishless cycling, there is no need to put any fish through the stress of a cycle- if we are talking fish that can be put through a cycle without too much risk, white cloud minnows and various types of danios like zebra danios and posibly mollys are the best fish.

 

[One_Trick_Pony]

oto need established tanks and sometimes will just die but mie ar still oging strogn and they were some of teh first fosh i got

 

[Polardbear]

I fell in love with swordtails 30 years ago and my fellow fish keeping friends always laughed and condescendingly referred to them as "beginner fish". They always figured I'd get bored with them after a few months and move on to something "harder and better". Quite frankly, I've never found any fish that interests me more! The amazing colors and fin variations (most of which you won't ever find in your lfs) are incredibly fun and challenging to work with.

As for being hardy, that was true 30 years ago but sadly is not today. Your lucky if you can get 1 out of 3 to survive the first 30 days. However, if you can get them settled in and make it through that critical first month they are reasonably hardy, but they simply won't tolerate bad conditions. They have become incredibly sensitive to nitrite and if you don't stay on top of your water condition you can count on an outbreak of columnaris.

And just to throw my 2 cents in, I always keep salt in my swordie tanks. Always have and always will.

 

[paulthegreat]

I can not put salt in my larger tank because of the Yoyos but my in my fry tank they seem to do fine with a little salt. I do not add it regulary but a small amount now and then seems to make them a bit more lively. I think the Swordies are a great fish for both beginners and more advanced keepers. One of my females, Fiskis, was very reclusive and avoided the others untill I returned a few of the juvies to the main tank, now she is much more social and now all of the Swords go around like one big happy

 

[Synirr]

a. the MINIMUM tank size for any livebearer is 10 to 15gallons.

What about Heterandria formosa?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Whats that ? did a search on google and nothing came up...

 

[Annastasia]

The tiny Livebearer

Cute little guys, I must say. But (correct me if I am wrong), I think Toxis was talking about the more commonly avalible Livebearers.... Obviously not all the things she listed would apply to stingrays either.

 

[Snowie]

Guppies arent beginner fish. When I had my fist tank guppies where the ONLY fish i failed to keep. If you can get wild guppies I'm sure they are easy but the fancy guppies aren't hardy at all. And some of the males have so big fins they can hardly swim.

I hope the wild guppies get popular some day, I really prefer their look to that of the fancy guppies.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

The two platties I got last week were from a small tank with loads in it! One was preggers and the other doesn't seem to be. There's only one fry but it's possible there's more or they've been gotten by the other fish. Last thing a newbie needs is loads of babes in the tank! Most don't have spare equipment and certainly not the knowledge to cope with such times. I know I don't.
Hugs,
P.