Aquarium Fish

You have the set up and now all you need is the fish to go in
it, but what to choose? Do you want to start of small? Or do you
want to dive right into the deep end, pardon the pun. The best
thing to do it is to talk it over with your local fish shop. But
they will advise you exactly the same as what I am going to
advise you. If you see this as becoming a really good hobby then
don’t bother will small fish as this is just a waste of time and
money, but if this is just a fad or is for your kid’s or
whatever, then small fish is the way to go.

Small aquarium fish can be anything from tetras to angel fish,
they are usually brightly coloured and tend to eat fish flakes
rather than fish “meat”. The smaller fish tend to be for
decorative purposes as they are very shiny and create a lot of
bright silvers under the right aquarium lights. They are simple
fish with no personality and they are no fun at all! These kinds
of fish are for simple decorative aquarium set ups and suit
people who want a low maintenance tank.

Larger fish however, such as cichlids and African fish are a lot
harder to keep. They are the harder fish in general though, so
your fish mortality rate is pretty low, unlike smaller weaker
fish. The problem or should I say fascination with cichlids is
that they are cannibals. If there is a smaller fish in the tank
then say good bye to it as it won’t be there much longer! They
eat fish meat and don’t try to feed them any less, they will not
be happy. Different types of cichlids are available. They do not
all look the same, there are Oscars (my personal favorite) which
you can have tiger, red or albino. There are black belts, there
are jaguar cichlids and the list does go on. The types of fish
require a lot of filter and gravel cleaning as they have high
amounts of waste. A breeding pair of cichlids is worth a lot of
money! Cichlids in general are more expensive as they tend to be
larger (we have a tank of 5-6 one and a half foot Oscars). Just
remember that these fish like the tank. Set up the tank how you
like but it may not stay that way for long. I could go on
forever about cichlids but Ill leave it there for now.

So depending on what the reasons for your aquarium is depends on
the type of fish for the aquarium that you should get. Smaller
more decorative tanks need smaller more decorative aquarium
fish. But the bigger the tank the bigger the fish! Put in some
big boys and let them do the talking!