Hiya eveyone

As you know I have only git one fish at the min - a lovely male betta.

I'm hoping to get a second fishtank in a couple of months. I have read up on the fishless cycle, and will do that, but I was wondering, what would be the best fish for a newbie? I know there are some lovely pics on here of some beautiful fish, but are they all ok for a beginner. I dont want to go and buy a load of fish and then find that I dont know how to look after them.

any advice please?

depends what you want to behonest i am a newbie and have loads of diferrent fish

kribs tend to be the newbies breeders (i have some)
also have
guppies
endlers
bulldog pleco
clown pleco
otto's
platies
neon & glowlight tetra's
rainbow fish
cherry & five banded barbs
cories

but the best advice i can give is start off with some hardier fish irrc barbs, harlies or similar

also go for fish that can tolorate your type of water

hth

By type of water I guess you don't mean wet! :lol:

I think my PH is about 7.6. Is that ok for most types of fish?

Have a look through the fishcare information section too Cam. Each fish we have put in there has a care rating of either EASY, MODERATE or DIFFICULT and so you should go for easy really. By no means are there loads of fish on there but most of them are the common beginner fish.

Ive had various fish and so have many other on here so if you want to ask about a specific fish let us know and we can tell you form personal experience.

Rob

Thanks Rob, I haven't looked in that bit yet - should've I suppose!

I'll have a look now and see what's there.

What do you like in the way of fish ?

also do you want bottom dwellers or middle or top or a mix of each

also when considering the fish you need to consider what tank would be best for them, what tank were you after dimention wise

i am a bit biased i love my pleco's and plan to get more, but others like rob love their harlies and plan to get more of those


i think the best advice i can give is get the biggest tank you can afford and have space for as it is very adictive and once you find you cant have cirtain fish makes you all the more determined to get a bigger tank for that fish and then all of a sudden you find yourself with MTS (more tank syndrome) like me

also dont listen to what most LFS tell you is good for your size tank or good as a comunity fish as you will find most dont really care (with the odd exception to the good LFS) and just want you to buy more, found this out at 2 diferent LFS one sold me 2 clown loach's for my 2ft tank and the other sold me puffers as a community fish

To my mind, the nicest mix of fish is maybe a small shoal of neons or harlequins, a few larger fish such as Gourami, platies or Rams (depending on water chemistry) and some bottom dwellers such as cories, loaches or a plec. That way, you get a nice mix of fish for all areas of the tank.

Yeah, i think for a beginner then that's a decent mix. its only restriction os the type of tank you get. dont go for a fancy upright tank or anything like that, just get a normal rectangle shaped at whatever size you can manage and then have a look at whether it is big enough for the fish you want.

Hiya Cam! I'm just a newbie too but haven't had any probs so far with my fish. My BN is just lovely. he's only small, but is really active in the tank and its cool to see him stuck on the side of the tank!

BN's when they are small are really lovely - byt they become a really ugly fish (in a rather lovely sort of way ) as they grow bigger.

Mary once posted a pic of a BN that has to be the worst looking fish in the world - straight out of the 'Creature from the Deep' mode!

Oh that's the one Mary - a face only a Mother could love!

But kind of charming in a repulsively ugly sort of way...

A bit like the Charles Bronson of the fish world!