Thinking About First Fish

[MarkInNC]

I set up my new tank seveal days ago. It is a 45 gallon tank and I am giving fishless cycling a try. All looks good so far, amonia at just over 4ppm, ph a bit high but I understand 8 is OK. No friends or other sorces of media so I guess I am waiting, hopfully closer to two weeks than two months.

I have been thinking of the kinds of fish. I raised fancy guppies when I was a kid and still appreciate their appearance. I am planning a look trip to Petsmart today or tomorrow. I was wondering what folks thought of a half dozen Fancy Guppies, a few Swordtails, a couple of Angle Fish, and a couple of Catfish. I have been reading hear and elsewhere about getting started and I understand I will want to have fish that require the same general water and fish that get along.

At this point I am interested in the basics just have some nice looking fish. Not interested in multiple tanks, high tech raising techniques, or intensive care requirements.

thanks for your comments!

Mark

 

[bitbot]

I would say guppies would get a bit lost in a tank that size - I mean visually, not literally. Angel fish are more the right sort of scale (I think a small group might work better, but I don't keep them). Catfish too, although they come in many species of different sizes. If I was going to have guppy-size fish, I would go with a schooling fish like a rasbora.

That's just my opinion though.

 

[gmh]

There is no guarantee the angels would leave the guppies alone. It's a problematic mix I think. At least you would have a good control on the fry population.
They also like different water parameters, but that is not a big deal since most of us keep angels or other softwater fish in hard water.
I would lean toward either keeping guppies with swordtails or other livebearers or keeping Angels with some medium size schooling tetras or rainbows.
What kind of catfish are you interested in? You could go with a nice sized group of coryderas unless you want something bigger.

 

[paperdragon]

I would say guppies would get a bit lost in a tank that size - I mean visually, not literally. Angel fish are more the right sort of scale (I think a small group might work better, but I don't keep them). Catfish too, although they come in many species of different sizes. If I was going to have guppy-size fish, I would go with a schooling fish like a rasbora.

That's just my opinion though.

I've seen much larger tanks with guppies that looked awesome. I'd only worry about the angels trying to munch on them.

 

[Wycco]

Small fish can look good in a medium or larger aquarium too!