What kind of fish should we get for our aquarium?

We used to have an aquarium. I always like the colorful fish. Neon tetras, mollies etc. e even had a shark and crab. If you don't know what to get, start cheap.WalMart has lost of popular fish as does Petco. We have bought fish at both places. Petco people usually can give you advise.

Tank's too small for bass and crappie :) If you want an active and lively tank, your best bet is to go with a community/tropical set up. I have, I think it's a 35 or a 44 gallon set up with community fish, it's my most active tank. I love watching them swim around. You can go with any of the platies, danios, mollies, swordtails, tetras, rasboras, guppies, killies, even a male betta, or a couple female bettas, almost endless list for them. Just keep in mind though, so you don't overstock it, general rule of thumb-only for community/tropical fish, 1 inch of ADULT size fish per gallon. I'd leave room for at least 3 cory cats to clean the bottom, and 1 either rubber lip pleco or a bristlenose pleco to clean the algae. Those 2 stay small, under 6 inches. Here's a link for different profiles of fish, also has a compatibility chart for them as well. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830 Also, remember to read up on cycling your fish tank before buying all those fish first, otherwise you'll be wasting your money when the fish die off. Go to www.about.com , type in the search box cycling a fish tank, they have lots of good articles on doing a regualr cycle with fish, or a fishless cycle.

Hi! If you like brightly colored fish, you could have an african cichlid tank. They are aggressive fish, so all you could have would be those fish and perhaps a pleco/algae eater, but they are very vibrantly colored. I have blood parrots, which are cichlids, and they are very intelligent and fun to have. Angelfish are beautiful, too. They can grow to be quite large and are very active. I have two and they rarely hide. When my daughter is in the living room playing, they are very often near the glass watching what's going on in the room. Sometimes in a group of 5 or 6 or so, they will all swim together. That's beautiful to watch. I hope these suggestions help. :-)

What's the tapwater like where you live? Is it hard or soft?

I vote for the Bass and Crappie.

The rule of thumb of one inch of fish for each inch of fish is for small fish. I like to take the length of the adult fish (not including the caudal fin) and multiply that time the height of the fish(again not incuding the fisn(. This is in inches and will give you the approzimate number of gallons that the fish should have. Anothe way of loking at it is you could put ten ine inch bass or oscars in a ten gallon tank as long as the stayed only one inch in length but they do grow and one ten inch bass or oscar woudl be brossly overcrowded in that ten gallon tank. Also you sould make sure to change 10 to 20% of the water each week to get rid of nitrates and help add other mineras that are depleted by the fish. This water that yo take out can be used to water plants (as long as the tank is freshwater) but make sure to not over water your plants.

I own a 45 gallon aquarium and I find Gouramis very friendly fish... I also have Bala sharks and spotted leopard catfish... They are all tropical fish and called community fish because they get along in the same tank and do not fight... They also all love 80 degree water since they are all tropical fish... Never mix goldfish and tropical fish... The water temperature is different... Keep a heater in the water if you have tropical fish and get an air bubbler to keep the water moving so it wont get stagnet... Make sure your filters are clean at least every other month and do not over feed the fish, the excess food can clog your filters... If you have those bio wheels do not ever clean them... They keep the good fish bacteria on them... Only clean the bigger blue filters... And always check the PH in the water.. If it is too low or too high you can kill your fish... You can buy testing strips at any fish store...

First I want to echo what's been said about the cycle. You want to be very careful what type of fish you put in there until it is cycled, as quite a few fish can't withstand the stress of a cycling tank. If you know anybody with an established tank you can put your filter's biological media in their tank for 2-4 weeks and give yourself a jumpstart to a cycled tank. There's a wonderful article regarding cycling at http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/119/ and that site has quite a few fish profiles listed under articles, and a helpful and knowledgable forum as well. I recently set back up a 36 gallon after being out of the hobby for several years. It currently has 6 mollies in it and is finishing up a very fast cycle as we used another set up tank for the bacteria. It will also have a school of white clouds (great fish to start with, not too colorful but active), some endlers (cousins of guppies)hets (little tiny native wild livebearers), and a siamese algae eater. I also have a 5 gallon with 2 dwarf platies and several mollie fry. The only thing about the livebearers (mollies, guppies, platies, swordtails, etc) is that they tend to reproduce rather rapidly. Whatever you choose to put in it, just make sure you do your research to see whether its compatible for your water, and for any other fish you have in mine.

Check out www.fish-tank-guide.com they have a list of fish you can get.

We have a 60 gallon tank and until a few months ago had an oscar and a plecostomus (spelling?). I'm afraid our dear oscar named Chance, 12 inches long, passed away so I stocked the tank with 2 smaller oscars, 2 silver dollars, and another I can't remember what it is. The pleco is also 12-13 inches long, much bigger than the others but hasn't bothered the others a bit. I think possibly because he's glad Chance who picked on him alot, is gone.

Is this something to do with fengshui? :P I am not too much into this but I understand that different people require different kinds of fish for good luck. If you want, you can try reading up on this. For me, I wouldn't want to rear fishes - unless I won't be the ones doing the cleaning! ;-)

Here is another site that you can go to that has alot of pictures and you are able to order fish from them directly. WWW.AQUASCAPEONLINE.COM I was searching and reading about fresh water "rays". I hope this is of some use to you.