List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Non puffer freshwater discussion. Don't tell your puffers, they'll be jealous!
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by xrayjeeper83 »

dont know much about this subject, but yall got me thinking how many neons can fit in my 55 once Bloat gets his new tank lol
RTR wrote:Fahakas do not have tank mates, they may have swimming food reserves.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by RTR »

Corydoras are catfish, and all are suitable for tanks at or below 100 gallons. They are also long-lived fish is properly kept and housed. They do have some fairly close relatives which may do better in larger tanks, especially for breeding.

There are also several diurnal schooling catfish species from various families which are also well-suited to mid-range hobby tanks.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by Peacemaker »

Achara catfish. Related to the common pictus, also from the pimelodus genus. Grows to far beyond what most any fishkeeper could hope to house preperly.

Then there are the larger wolf fish, and moosfaced loaches. Feeding habits of both make it impractical to house in anything less than a specially dedicated species tank catered to their every need.

But the number pne fish I think begginners should avoid? Limpit fish, hands down.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by mshill90 »

No one mentioned Knife fish... those things get pretty large- and will eat other fish.

Any bichir other than a senegal.

Tigrinus Catfish- Not only do they get to be about 24+"- they are EXTREMELY sensitive to water parameters, stress really easily, and they can die just like that. Not to mention, they are hella expensive!

Koi- Can get up to 32"- Also very sensitive to water parameters.

***I must say, I kept 4 Hi Fin banded loaches in a tropical tank for about 6 months, and they did absolutely fine. Never once had an issue with them at all. I then put them in my 1500 gallon indoor koi tank, and they became lunch. :(
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by Pufferpunk »

That would only be the Clown knifefish. Other species of knives don't get as large. i'm a huge fan of the ghosts.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by Peacemaker »

Actually, there are many bichirs that have a smaller adult size than polypterus senegalus, and a few that grow only trivially more. Such examples are p. delhezi, p. palmas, p. retropinnis(whose last two syllables are great fun to say). The larger ones, most notably p. ornatapinnis(another fun two syllables) are the ones to avoid without proper setup. :D

Must strongly agree on the clown knife fish part. I live in Malaysia, and have caught quite a lot of these from the Pahang river. They are E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S!
Taste good though, just a bit bony is all.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by FrogSplash »

I wish i had this list when i started lol I would have so avoided the two plecos i bought, 3 tin foil barbs, and 4 rainbow sharks (none of these i have now). but i cant say im learning as i picked up a 12 inch albino chocolate pleco for only 20 bucks...now im waiting for the 120g tank...
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by FADE2BLACK_1973 »

FrogSplash wrote:I wish i had this list when i started lol I would have so avoided the two plecos i bought, 3 tin foil barbs, and 4 rainbow sharks (none of these i have now). but i cant say im learning as i picked up a 12 inch albino chocolate pleco for only 20 bucks...now im waiting for the 120g tank...

I think most of us could had avoided alot of fish deaths if we had a big list. I know I could have advoided most, myself.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by fugu99 »

Okay well I know Im just a newbie, since we've only been keeping fish for about a year. Our first act was to do all the research we could, and from as many sources as we could find as well, Im not talking about just one webpage (or store employee, or magazine). Still, that doesnt make us any more professional than any other newbie, really. Because you learn with experience.

Which brings me to my addition to the list, which I was surprised not to see.

Mollies.
Highly prone to ich, very aggressive and greedy, also prone to velvet. Like us, I can imagine any other newbie fish owner going through a lot of frustration (not to mention fish) attempting to keep them happily and successfully. Black Mollies in particular, always catch the ich first and pass it on. And you go through bouts and bouts of it... you believe you might have attained 'peace' when suddenly a mature male starts bullying the other males and endlessly mating and harassing females, the females start to bully one another, even. They actually ate our guppies, (lesson learned dont assume from the setup at the store that you can keep guppies with mollies or angelfish or swordtails all together). In the end our experience with mollies was frustrating, we couldnt even enjoy watching them any more because we saw all the bullying and even seperating the males the females still fought... and when my favorite molly died that was about it. I can just see a beginner buying these fish, and ending up killing a whole lot of them before just giving up.

We also had a problem with swordtails.. but we quickly learned not to just keep trying if it wasnt working. Im proud to say that we do still have SOME of our original fish from when we started the hobby, relatively easy to keep Platys, two Red Wags and a Panda. I have offspring from our original mollies, which are happy in the puffer tank. And lots of guppy fry, although our original male guppy died recently. His babies will live on though.

Whats most important to us has been the learning experience, and trying not to take on more advanced fish types before we were ready. Yes, a dragonfish looks tempting, but would it work with our tank? Id like to supply one last entry... ANY SALTWATER FISH. They are beautiful and interesting, but no beginner is ready to just jump in and own a lionfish or a Valentini puffer. So as a newbie, I hope I havent overstepped my bounds and that my thoughts on this were still right. Ive still got a lot to learn, after all.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by FrogSplash »

FADE2BLACK_1973 wrote:
FrogSplash wrote:I wish i had this list when i started lol I would have so avoided the two plecos i bought, 3 tin foil barbs, and 4 rainbow sharks (none of these i have now). but i cant say im learning as i picked up a 12 inch albino chocolate pleco for only 20 bucks...now im waiting for the 120g tank...

I think most of us could had avoided alot of fish deaths if we had a big list. I know I could have advoided most, myself.
no deaths...not for a long time now. i got lucky and found a lfs that was really understanding of my "problem" plus they enjoyed the kind contribution i made with no request for store credit
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by FADE2BLACK_1973 »

Oh wow you do like to get it out there...lol..jk. But mollies are very easy to keep with alittle bit of salt. My parents use to have tons of them way back in the old days but with alittle bit of table salt. I know that mollies are BW fishes. I also seen them in SW tanks as feeders. And Dragonfish are another BW fish. Btw, my very 1st SW fish was a lionfish over 18 years ago but yeah not meant for a beginner though.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by FrogSplash »

fugu99 wrote:...So as a newbie, I hope I havent overstepped my bounds and that my thoughts on this were still right. Ive still got a lot to learn, after all.
if you can admit that then you've crossed the newbie line into the world of amateur fish keeping
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by El Scorpio »

My girlfriend has a pleco that they keep in their koi pond that's about a foot and a half long. They bring him inside in a 125 gallon during the winter, though.

I call him Plecosaurus because he's so big. :)
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by RTR »

Livebearers get weaker all the time. They used to be hardy and undemanding other than mostly preferring somewhat hard and alkaline water. They have be so heavily hybridized and over-bred to the point of being severely weakened.

Most current hobbyists have never seen really good livebearers, especially mollies - which IMHO are not community fish.
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Re: List of freshwater fishes to avoid for beginners

Post by fugu99 »

El Scorpio wrote:My girlfriend has a pleco that they keep in their koi pond that's about a foot and a half long. They bring him inside in a 125 gallon during the winter, though.

I call him Plecosaurus because he's so big. :)

O_O ...HUGE...

RTR- I feel slightly encouraged that I was at least on the right track. Not only did we have trouble with mollies, (not only that, nobody ever mentioned they were BW until I came to this forum) we had severe trouble keeping swordtails, (mysterious deaths!) for some reason we had tragedy with Sunset Platys (eventually I assumed they were inbred and weak, none of my other Platys have died)

Problem is, and the petstore encourages misinformation- we assumed all 'beginner' fish (or so they label them at the store) would not require salt to keep. Haha, how foolish! And all the store employees had their own different opinions on how to keep them. Troubling!
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