Fish Suggestions To Spice Up Your Tank

Posted by Aquatropic Staff on December 15, 2016

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Looking for some different fish to help spice up your tank? Check out some of these great suggestions

The Odessa Barb is a great semi-aggressive schooling fish to recommend to the beginner hobbyist. The males have exquisite colorations of black and silver with a bright red stripe running down its body. Keeping them happy is pretty simple and they will acclimate to an aquarium setting fairly easily. They prefer planted aquariums with rocks and drift where they can hide and swim through. The Odessa Barb will accept just about any food that is dropped into the tank from freshwater flakes to frozen meaty foods.

The Paska’s Red Neon Rainbowfish is a great, easy schooling fish that will shimmer as they scoot around the aquarium. This rainbowfish has a fairly small adult size, so they are well suited for smaller aquariums. They are an excellent recommendation for planted aquarium enthusiasts and will thrive in an aquascaped setup. This rainbowfish is considered peaceful but use caution if adding to a community tank because they can easily be outcompeted. Feed them a varied diet of flakes, small meaty foods and small pellets.

Are you a hard to please cichlid hobbyist? Try out these beautiful, unique species!

The Electric Blue Acara Cichlid has metallic blue markings that are bound to impress. Their care is pretty simple and straight forward. Provide a large enough aquarium with hiding places and tank mates similar in size and temperament. Do all of that and this hardy cichlid will be quite happy. They can be added to planted aquariums, but use caution since they are known for nibbling on the roots. The Blue Acara is an open mouth breeder and is known for reproducing in home aquariums. The female will lay the eggs on a clean surface and both parents will stand guard. When breeding they can become very territorial and will chase any fish that gets too close.

The Bandit Cichlid has very cool facial markings, which helped give them the name “bandit.” In the wild they are found in harems (2 females to every male) and this can be replicated in home aquariums as long as they are large enough. The Bandit prefers sandy substrates with rocks and driftwood that create caves for them to seek shelter in. Although Bandit Cichlids are relatively peaceful and fairly shy, they are not suitable for placing into a general community tank with small fish. Tank mates should be of a similar size and temperament, and not overly aggressive. Be aware that these cichlids will dig into the substrate to create caves and therefore aquatic plants do not tend to cope very well with such behavior. Offer a variety of meaty frozen foods for continued health.