Beautiful Freshwater Aquarium Fish List

A walk through a pet store or through Wal-Mart’s fish department will show you the wide variety of freshwater fish you can place in your new freshwater aquarium. Standard, inexpensive starter fish include goldfish, tetras, and betas. If you are ready to expand your collection and want to choose some distinctive fish, danios, mollies, rasboras, and corydoras catfish are good options.

Don’t buy fish from a pet store where the fish look sick or where the display aquariums are poorly maintained. In addition, before you leave the store with your fish, make sure you get all the requisite instructions for caring for your fish.

What type of food does it eat? Does it need water of a specific pH level or temperature? Is it particularly aggressive?

The general rule for stocking your freshwater aquarium is that for each gallon of water in your aquarium, you can have one inch of fish. In other words, a ten-gallon tank could have two one-inch betas, a six-inch catfish, and a two-inch danio. This rule, however, only applies to tropical fish; an aquarium of cold water fish should have fewer than half that many fish. When in doubt, understock rather than overstock; too many fish can cause serious health hazards for the fish.

In addition to separating your coldwater and tropical fish, you should also separate into different aquariums fish that are either predatory (e.g. oscars) or that are especially shy (e.g. discus fish). If you are going to combine fish into one aquarium, make sure the aquarium water has finished cycling (i.e. the ammonia and nitrite levels are at zero) since the last time you added fish or changed the water.

For the most part, you can take care of your fish by simply feeding them and watching them. The feeding habits of species vary, but in general, you should feed your freshwater fish approximately every other day, making sure to vary their diet. Watch the fish as they eat and as they swim so that you will notice any changes that might be health related. A fish may seem to have trouble swimming or may develop red spots, for example.

You can call the veterinarian or purchase medicine, but in many cases, you may simply need to let the fish die. Remember, they don’t have the same lifespan as humans.