What is your current favorite fish?

[Gertrudae]

One fish per family - that's possible
Anabantoides: orange bushfish
Cichlids: Anomalochromis thomasi
Cyprids: Tanichthys alboallofthem ;-)
Loaches: Pangio curneovigata
Livebearers: Jordanella floridae
Barbs: Danio margaritatus

 

[Innesfan]

One fish per family - that's possible
Anabantoides: orange bushfish
Cichlids: Anomalochromis thomasi
Cyprids: Tanichthys alboallofthem ;-)
Loaches: Pangio curneovigata
Livebearers: Jordanella floridae
Barbs: Danio margaritatus

Nice. But I think you may be conflating Jordanella floridae with another species. Or perhaps you meant another category. The flagfish is not livebearing. It is oviparous.

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

White cloud minnows. I am certain everyone knows via username and logo. But they are just so simple, yet colorful. They are not very well recognized, sadly, but they are the single best beginner fish out there.

 

[Magnum Man]

I used to have mandarin gobies, in my reef tank... I would add a weather loach to one of my tanks, but they are now banned in Minnesota...

my favorite ( too many ) is the next fish I buy...

 

[GaryE]

Oh wait, my entire list has turned over. It has mutated...

 

[anewbie]

Good timing. I've been in the process of scaling down to 'favorite fish only.' As is the case for @GaryE , I have a favorite for each family of fishes:

Brevibora dorsiocellata ("Emerald Eyes") for rasbora

Mine certainly look excellent in very dim light and dang those things are bold. But i've been scaling down to smaller fishes and those tucano sure have wonderful blue eyes.

And this was my first nijjensi (male):

 

[plebian]

My favourite Cichlid is Pelvicachromis kribensis (not the hobby krib, but its smaller, more colourful cousin). I enjoy their complex social lives, their colours and their diversity - one species with many local colour forms, all of which are treasures.

Probably my favorite African cichlid.

 

[jaylach]

Panda Garra.

 

[BanjoFish]

One particular fish I would like is the pygmy corydoras.

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

One particular fish I would like is the pygmy corydoras.

Love those things. I have never tried them, even though I almost did multiple times. Their cousins, the panda cories, are also cool.

 

[anewbie]

Love those things. I have never tried them, even though I almost did multiple times. Their cousins, the panda cories, are also cool.

Well i would consider hastatus their cousin and panda the black sheep of the unrelated family. I.e, there is very little to no relationship between panda and pymgy in behavior or size.

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

Well i would consider hastatus their cousin and panda the black sheep of the unrelated family. I.e, there is very little to no relationship between panda and pymgy in behavior or size.

Yes. That was more like a figure of speech due to both being corydoras. lol

 

[GaryE]

Ah, but they aren't both Corydoras, even if they are. The recent study and reclassification of the Cory group gives us Gastrodermus hastatus for the common pygmy cory, and Hoplisoma panda...

A lot of the easily found (in pet shops) fish are entry points to further favourites. I started as a kid with bronze Corys (Osteogaster aenea) but they led me into cory explorations I couldn't have imagined. I had a cheap old fishbook found in a shed that authoritatively told me there were only 4 cory species. Not.

Common kribs led me into taeniatus and kribensis. Even if they aren't killies, white clouds and their ways opened the world of killies to me. Neons got me looking at tetras, fancy Betta splendens got me curious about wild Bettas, and so on and on. When you have a favourite species or two (or 327) it's interesting to look into what behaves like it, looks like it, is related to it...

The engineers and technocrats can go shrivel on Mars - this is an amazing planet to explore the life on.

 

[Essjay]

Gastrodermus hastatus for the common pygmy cory

Round here, the "common pygmy cory" is Gastrodermus pygmaeus. I've never actually seen any Gastrodermus hastatus in a shop tank.

 

[GaryE]

When I got into stores in London (I haven't seen other British regional stores), I was struck by how many different species seemed ordinary to the fish sellers - species we'd never see in Canada. Likewise, in parts of the US when I used to go there, I saw fish that retailers here don't get. It depends on where and who the wholesalers buy from.

It's one of the problems with my pet peeve, common English names for fish. They get applied to different fish depending on where you are.

Now in my wee backwater coastal town, I see no pygmy cories of any species.