List of Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums
84Freshwater Aquariums
When setting up a freshwater aquarium, you want to make sure that you understand which fish will get along. The last thing that you want to do is have your tank proper set up and acclimated, and then a few weeks, or even days, after adding a your initial fish, one or two start to nip and bully the others. This will severely stress out the other fish.
You want to make sure that you keep community fish with community fish, semi-aggressive with semi-aggressive, and aggressive fish with aggressive fish. But, in terms of aggressive and semi-aggressive fish, you want to make sure that you keep similarly sized fish in the tank. With aggressive fish, you want to keep one species per tank, as well.
Check out the following list of fish, so that you can figure out which fish will get along with your current fish, or which fish you want to keep in your freshwater aquarium.
Glowlight and Neon Tetras
- Guppy
- Harlequin Rasbora
- Hatchetfish
- Head & Tail Light Tetra
- Horseface Loach
- Leopard Catfish
- Lyretail
- Molly
- Neon Tetra
- Opaline Gourami
- Pearl Gourami
- Pencilfish
- Penguin Fish
- Platy
- Plecostomus
- Rainbowfish
- Ram
- Rummy Nosed Tetra
- Serpae Tetra
- Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta Fish) **
- Spiketailed Paradisefish
- Spotted Catfish
- Upside Down Catfish
- White Cloud
- X-Ray Fish
- Zebra Danio
Community Fish
Unless marked with a note, the following fish can be housed with other fish on this list without problems or concerns.
- Angelfish
- Australian Rainbowfish
- Bala (Tri-Color) Shark
- Banjo Catfish
- Black Neon Tetra
- Black Phantom Tetra
- Black Shark
- Bloodfin
- Blue Acara
- Blue Danio
- Bristlenose
- Boesmani Rainbowfish
- Boesman's Rainbowfish
- Bumble Bee Goby
- Cardinal Tetra
- Cherry Barb
- Chinese Algae Eater
- Clown Loach
- Congo Tetra
- Corydoras
- Discus *
- Dwarf Gourami
- Dwarf Loach
- Elephant Nose
- Emperor Tetra
- Festivum
- Flame Gourami
- Flame Tetra
- Giant Danio
- Green Catfish
- Glowlight Tetra
* Discus should only be housed with catfish, loaches, neon tetras, and cardinal tetras because discus are very susceptible to disease, require warmer temperatures, and eat slow and will not fight for their food.
** Only house one male Betta in an aquarium, as males will fight till the death. Sometimes two females will be aggressive towards each other, as well. When housing Betta in an aquarium, you want to avoid housing them with other fish who have long fins, such as angelfish and long fin danios. It's best to keep Betta fish with small tropical fish with short fins.
Tiger Barb and Melanistic Tiger Barb
Kissing Gourami
Semi-Agressive Fish
These fish will typically live ok with her fish when they're smaller, but as they age and grow, semi-aggressive fish are prone to nip and chase other fish around. It possible to keep the following list of fish in a community tank, but you want to watch the fish and the tank carefully.
- Archer
- Bleeding Heart Tetra
- Black Widow
- Buenos Aires Tetra
- Bumble Bee Catfish
- Firemouth
- Flying Fox
- Freshwater Puffer
- Green Tiger Barb
- Honey Gourami
- Kissing Gourami
- Red Tailed Shark
- Rosy Barb
- Silver Dollar
- Severum
- Swordtail
- Tiger Barb
- Tinfoil Barb
Jack Dempsey
Aggressive Fish
You do not want to mix the following aggressive fish with any other fist except for fish of similar size of their own kind. IE Red Oscars with Red Oscars and Butterfly Fish with Butterfly Fish.
- Black Paradisefish
- Butterfly Fish
- Convict
- Green Terror
- Jack Dempsey
- Knife Livebearer
- Red Belly Piranha
- Red Oscar
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I have a 10gl tank with five guppys and one powder blue gourami and a small catfish thats a bottom feeder. I noticed my gourami has been really chasing my guppys aggressively whenever they are around him. What should I do? Help! :)
Does pacu fish destroy plants in aquarium?
Some of this imfo is not good. The discus need to grow up with the small fish you plan to have to avoid them eating the little guys. Firemouth need to be in a tank at least 55 gallons. Any fish will eat smaller fish that can fit in their mouth be it on purpose or by mistake during feeding time. If you keep the medium to large tetras, they will nip other fish unless they are in a big shoal of at least 10! The tiny tetras should be bought in a shoal of 6 at a time every week until you have 12-16. "safety in numbers". Molly's are NOT good for most the fish on the list because they require brackish water. Brackish water is between fresh and salt water conditions. If put in fresh water, they will survive, but everyday are dying a slow painful death. They are cool fish and will thrive in a brackish tank! Do your research! Decide on your favorite type of fish, and then build you tank around that fish. Your tank will be a succes!!! Research bio-type and compatibles!!! Good luck!
y dose my water ceep clouding up
I have a red oscar and they are aggressive I think you should add some more aggressive fish to your list like red tailed catfish are not on there and Midis cichlid and about 10000000 more
i have two upsidedown catfish one is a female and a male i think and i think the female is pregnant but im not shere cause she looks like see would be fine but the male has been near her latly and has not left her is she pregnant i would love to take care of her babys i losed my last baby fish to something it was almost an adult it was a guppie
My God,
Blue Acara are evil little chiclids, not comunity fish, along with (slightly more peaceful, but still predetory) Discus, and Angels. This is HORRIBLE advice.
/It took me alot of dead fish before I learned what I was doing, but it's worth it.
Great advice cause we're going to buy some fish.
i have two bettas(well i used to) i put my royal red betta fish with two guppies but he ended up killing the two guppies and then dying himself...does anybody have a list of fish that i can put together with bettas?
Impressive list! Thanks for the nice article, it has some great pictures.
Becarful of plecostomos they r peaceful fish but wen they can't find food such as algae or flakes they WILL HARRAS OTHER FISHES TO DEATH AND EAT THEM so BEWARE!
I have read a lot about aquarium's and my aunt works at New England Aquarium and she and I have been reviewing this page and have found that it has so many inaccuracies.
Even down to basic things like certain fish being categorized as community or aggressive and they aren't.
I hope not too many are paying attention to this page.
So, my fiance and I just got a 10 gal. for my step-son. We have had it all set up for 2 days and we are going to get the fish tomorrow. The woman at the pest store said that we could get these fish that I am going to list as long as me added an 'air stone' so I got a long one and an air pump. These are all of the fishe he wants to put in it: 1 ghost catfish, 3 neon tetras, and 3 zebra danios. Is that too many fish? The woman at the pet store said no since we added more O2 to the tank, but I want to make sure. oh and one more thing, the tank seems to be staying around 74 degrees, I don't have a heater....do I really need one?
one inch theory only applies some of the time and shouldn't be controlling the number of fish. It depends on the amount of waste that particular fish gives out. User1919, TROPICAL FISH SHOULD HAVE A MINIMUM OF 78 DEGREES FARENHEIT WATER TEMPERATURE. I LIVE IN TEXAS YET STILL HAVE A HEATER!!!! so please dont be retarded and get a heater if you plan to continue your fish tank!!
Very thorough hub. I like to use it as a reference when getting new fish to make sure everything is going to work out in the tank. Thanks for sharing all the info:)
For every 1 inch long that the fish is, there should be 1 gallon. If the fish is 3 inches long or is to be a 3 inch long adult, there should be an available 3 gallons of water for that one fish.
I don't get the point of 1 in of fish per gallon. How does this work?
In a way it really depends on the size of the tank and how many fish you have in the tank. The more fish the more often you will need to change the water.
how often to change water
It might be a little too late but for User 1919: Another thing is that for a tropical tank, 75F might be a little to cold for your fish. It's generally 78-82F for tropical fish. Not sure if that will help but it might.
me have this huge tank and me dont kno what going on with thee little gapper they seen to be dieing every day and me dont know what to do it a big tank i tell ya
my tank is 70 to 100 gallons and there is algae growing on the fake plants and the walls of the tank. i have 60 goldfish so what kind of fish, snails, or anything else that i can put in that will get along with my goldfish.
You also need to start leaving some of the algae. You don't have to leave a lot, but some. Many of these fish eat plant matter as part of their regulat diet. You could start using a food that has some plant matter in it as well as algae waffers. You could also use a few live plants like banana plants to give them something soft to nibble on.
I'd take a guess and say that you're cleaning the tank too frequently.
I have a problem, all of my fish are dying and I have no idea what is going on. I think they might be fighting eachother but none are agressive fish. Here is a list:
1-Black Tetra
1-Serpae Tetra
1-Bala Shark
1-Mickey Mouse Platy
1-Swordtail
1-Upside-Down Catfish
11-Ghost Shrimp (Cleaners)
Casualties So Far-
2-Black Mollies
1-Golden Algae Eater
2-Plecostomas
1-Mickey Mouse Platy
1-Swordtail
I change about 20% of my water every week and scrub the algae about every time I change the water. The Ghost Shrimp eat any leftover food so I dont worry about overfeeding (I am carefull about that) The tank was established for a few months before I added the fish so the bacteria isn't a problem, I have a filter, Pump, Heater (set to 75 Farenheight) and plenty of decorations that can be used as cover. It is a 30 Gallon Tank, I obeyed the rule of 1 inch of fish per gallon. Anything I missed? I have had fish since I was 5 and have never lost so many fish this quickly.
Thanks
Interesting...I've never had a semi-aggressive Gourami before, as they (multiple types) have always been timid within the tank's community.
One of the most aggressive fish I've ever owned, are African Cichlids - these boys can fight, and it is not uncommon for them to gang up on individual fish and kill them in no time......and that is in a tank full of of their own species. But, like people, personality varies from one to the next.
You should be aware that Angelfish and Discus are peaceful most of the time. But ANY small fish like Tetras or Guppies are fair game and will be eaten at the first chance.
I'm sorry that it did not work out. On a general basis, discus are a peaceful fish that live well in a community tank.
Other cichlids, on the other hand need to be kept with cichlids alone.
I just looked it up again, and the sources I checked all agreed with discus being peaceful with certain fish, as listed above.
I have had 6 discus and bought 6 little neon tetras thinking that they would bring some variety and fun into my tank.
After 30 minutes or so, my Discus were chasing tetras all around the aquarium, at first I thought they were playing or dunno maybe they were behaving a bit territorial.
But now I have only 5 tetras... :( Appearently Discus are eating tetras. So FYI. Maybe you need to revise this note beautiful.. ;)
i think this list is very good to help you with your tropical fish tank i have a 4 foot fish tank and i have dwarf gourami simese fiting fish neon tetra sword tail ballon mollys guppies baby eals 2 sucker fishes.
wow whitney05 this is a great hub! I agree with bethericksn...I too love the lood of the swordtails and schooling fish...right now am trying out the neons "& platies..and one swordtail....
Hopefully, you have a large aquarium, but either way when starting an aquarium you should NEVER start off with so many fish at once.
Nice hub :) I got my first tropical aquarium on Sunday, bought from ebay. It has 25 (and counting) fish living in it already, but I haven't a clue what they are!! I'm going to make a Hub in the next few days about it, and it would be ace if you could check it out and identify some of my fish for me!!
wow nice list and great chart! I personally like the looks of schools of red sword tails.
funnebone, a chart of men, wouldn't be so bad either. lol
H.C. I've had that problem. Sometimes you can put the semi-aggressive ones in a tank of community without problems, but you really need to make sure that they're the same size. Good luck.
I agree funnebone
Whitney, I've been meaning to get the aquarium going again. Haven't taken the time since last move.
Now I can quit wasting money on fish that eat each other.
Thanks
I need a chart like that for women.
Great advice, makes me want to go get fish.
Samoise 2 months ago
To Happy95... Get yourself a second blue gourami so that they are aggressive toward each other instead of to the smaller ones, I've seen a pearl gourami put a blue in its place for picking on smaller fish. It can all depend on the fish though...