Somewhat Forgotten, Underappreciated Aquarium Fishes

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:D Great thread Christian. Here's my short list of seldom seen fish. Most of these I had kept at one time or another.

Anableps Anableps - Four eyed live bearer
Anoptichthys Jordani - Blind cave fish
Anostomas trimaculatus - 3 spotted headstander
Brachgobius xanthozona - bumblebee fish
Cichlosoma festivum - Great fish for a cichlid
Datnioides microlepis - Siamese Tiger Fish
Hoplosternum littorale - Hoplo catfish
Monocirrhus polyacanthus - Leaf fish
Parauchenoglanis macrostoma - Spotted African Catfish
Sphaerichthys osphromenoides - Chocolate gourami

Have fun looking these up :D
 
BillD said:
How about the common guppy. Once the mainstay of the hobby, now relegated to being sold as feeders. The other side of the coin is there are lots of fish being kept, that I can't imagine anyone wanting. There is something for everyone in this hobby.

I thought about putting guppies in my tank but the Angels and them probably woundn' tget along :D
 
It's kind of funny as I read this list, because I have seen a lot of these fish at one particular lfs. They have such awesome selection and can order just about anything if you are patient. Brian NY, is it Cichlosoma or Cichlasoma festivum?
 
Cichlasoma :oops: . My fingers must have been ahead of my brain when I entered that. LOL Good catch Apocalypse.

I can't recall the last festivum I've seen at an lfs.
 
Anoptichthys Jordani - Blind cave fish

I've seen these guys for the past 2 months at my local walmart and they always get scooped up pretty quickly. I'd be interested to see them in someone's tank.
 
i have a small school of florida "American-flag fish" in my tank.. i believe that is what you are talking about with florida flag fish. they are very pretty and LOVE algae
 
rubysoho said:
Anoptichthys Jordani - Blind cave fish

I've seen these guys for the past 2 months at my local walmart and they always get scooped up pretty quickly. I'd be interested to see them in someone's tank.

I had some, but I could never figure out how to sterilize their little metal cups full of pencils...

bah-dum-dum!
 
[quote="BrianNY]
Anableps Anableps - Four eyed live bearer
Brachgobius xanthozona - bumblebee fish
Cichlosoma festivum - Great fish for a cichlid
Datnioides microlepis - Siamese Tiger Fish
Monocirrhus polyacanthus - Leaf fish
[/quote]

See, now those species are pretty common around here....even though Dats get stupidly big.

Hoplosternum littorale - Hoplo catfish

Those are uncommon, but I have made a point of personally making Megalechis thoracata common.

Sphaerichthys osphromenoides - Chocolate gourami

Uncommon here, but we do see them a couple of times a year.

Anoptichthys Jordani - Blind cave fish

Now that you mention these, it occurs to me that I haven't seen any in 2-3 years now.
 
Great list, and it is good to keep these less-typical fish in mind, since it seems like everyone keeps the same relatively small group of fish, all over the world!

One that I would add is the Endler's Livebearer, Poecilia sp., which is so incredibly colored and easy to keep, yet you don't see them in the LFS. They are almost exclusively traded among hobbyists.
 
Some fish like guppies and goldfish are seen in every store.

Personally I don't like them because they are way to easy and everybody has one and they are just everywhere.

Datnoids ( tigerfish) are kept by everyone. There are many forums out there with hundreds of people who keep these. Most people don't talk about them on here but go to the more predatory fish sites and you'll hear about them all the time.

Endlers usually aren't seen because theya re more of a season fish and everybody screws the whole species up by breeding them with regular guppies so there are a lot of inbred hybrids out there that most of the time you can't tell the difference. Plus if you buy the actual endler pair at an lfs there are very expensive...heck I could get 3 dozen feeder guppies and end up getting 10 of them...feeder guppies being 10 cents each so yeah theats a lot cheaper. When I tried getting a pair the company said they were a season fish, males ( or I think it was females) were only available at certain times. The lfs accidentally ordered them thinkning I said yeha i want them..they ended up geeting about 10 males when it said 5 PAIRS of endlers.

I've seen and kept paradise fish, supposedly yeah they were the first imported tropical fish and were the second most popular fish, only being beaten out by the goldfish.

Here's some fish that I find most people have never even heard of or are so stunning or cool but nobody bothers with them:

Leopard ctenenopa ( spelling?) I have seen people keeping these (like fruitbat) but not many. Theses are very beautiful and inexpensive fish.

Needlenose fish..once again some people on here have them also. I have a one right now and have had some in the past, also look in my sig for my plans. Personally these are some of my favorite freshwater fish. I see them in a lot of stores lately but the lfs people say that they never sell these.

African butterfly fish: a very beautiful and hardy fish. These are a perfect addition to almost any tank but haven't heard of many people keeping them.

Freshwater lionfish, hijueta gars ( actually characins), and apistogrammas are some others.

Sorry about the long post!
 
This is a great thread! Everyone, it seems, has fish that they would like to see more prevalent in the hobby. It's like any other business, supply and demand, so let's get out there and let the suppliers know what we want.

Endler's are not at all seasonal, like any livebearer (if you can get a guppy year-round you can get Endler's) and if you want some I can hook you up with some wild-type strains.
 
TankGirl said:
Endler's are not at all seasonal,

Agreed, especially since they are no longer commercially collected at all...in fact several strains are probably extinct in the wild.

I will secind the Ctenopoma....I have 8 leopards and several other species myself, and I could not love them more....attractive and fascinating.
 
I would love to have a Ctenopoma but no place ever has 'em around here.
I see bumblebee gobies and festivums occasionally.
 
Seen blind cave fish at local lfs and at Wal-mart
They had an African Butterfly at Petsmart here a couple weeks ago.
Used to see Chocolate Gouramis in Petsmart all the time, but now that I think of it I haven't lately.
Never seen a leaf fish around here, but have always looked for them.
See needle fish at some of the smaller lfs

Have not seen a FW lionfish since I was 10!!!

As for the fish on Toirtis' list... Haven't seen any of those except for the Paradise since the last real lfs closed down here about 12 years ago. :cry:
 
I want Festivums for my tank dammit and I can't find them!

Festivums pop up quite regularly in the local forums and are really cheap.
I imagine shipping would be the only real hassle.

Matt.
 
Got a bunch of Ctenopoma acutirostre coming in Sunday (and possibly licorice gouramis)....I just found out that the reason many Canadian shops are not bringing in blind cave fish is that WC are CITES-listed, and since customs cannot determine between WC and CB, you need CITES paperwork for them (and at $125/permit, you need to bring in a good 300 fish to make it anything like cost-effective).
 
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