The hardiest, bullet-proof community fish for a newbie

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I've never kept them, but I have 4 wide-bodied tetras that have been used to cycle a couple of tanks and are currently in a tank that killed 7/9 inhabitants. These tetras are not the prettiest in the world, but they are doing okay.
 
Some people have said WCMM (White Cloud Mountain Minnow), but I haven't tried it with them, so I wouldn't know. I guess take your pick on which fish you like the looks of better.
 
I started my 26g tank with six Cherry Barbs because my wife did not like Zebra Danios. Two died right away (they were sick when I got them), and I replaced them with two more from a different store so I had 6 to cycle the tank. All 6 are still healthy and swimming around, 6+ months later They have survived cycling twice, Ich, Anchorworms, internal parasites, bad food, and probably some other bad stuff...
 
Discus :lol:

Really, Barbs dianos and such.

A ten gal with a beta and a few barbs would be nice.
 
I can attest to the hardiness of the WCMM. You don't have to heat their water, yet they lived through the great over-heat of 1999, lol.
 
danios and minnows, when I first started, I put mine through hell, and they ares still alive today. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about serpae tetras
 
I have an article from Aquarium Fish on this topic. Here's the five they have:

#1 Hart's Rivulus ( Rivulus Harti)
#2 Paradise Fish (Macropodus opercularis)
#3 Convict Cichlid (Archocentrus nigrofaciatus)
#4 Bronze Cory (Corydoras aeneus)
#5 Buenos Aires Tetra (Hemigrammus caudovittatus)

According to the magazine:

The purpose of this article is to recommend some fish that have proven their ability to survive almost anything, short of the tank being emptied of water. Obviously, we do not condone the intentional abuse of fish, but the fish listed here are very forgiving of a few minor or even major errors on the part of the learning hobbyist.

Please be advised that the needs of these fish can be quite different, and research should be done on the fish before a final decision is made. Good Luck!
 
Interesting list, shawmutt, thanks, but I don't believe I've ever seen Hart's Rivulus or Paradise Fish in my LFSs. Are they community fish? Buenos Aires Tetra does come up quite often in my own research.
 
I think danios are the hardiest...

But it might interest you to know that Paradise Fish (related to dwarf gouramis etc.) were the first fish ever kept in aquariums. Back then (in, I think the early 1800s) of course, the "aquariums" were bottles, returned from "the orient" by collectors. Just a fun fact I picked up in one of the fish magazines a few months ago. So, obviously, these are hardy fish!
 
mikemou said:
Interesting list, shawmutt, thanks, but I don't believe I've ever seen Hart's Rivulus or Paradise Fish in my LFSs. Are they community fish?

Paradise Fish seem to be similiar to bettas and gouramies.

There is very little information available about Hart's Rivulus online, even on the Aquarium Fish web site. I'll give you an overview of what's in the article itself about the actual care of the fish. According to Aquarium Fish:

[Rivulus Harti] ranges across the top of South America from Colombia to the Guianas, and occurs on a few Caribbean Islands. [They] live in mountainous regions and at sea level, so the temperatures can vary from low 60s to high 90s.

Breeding populations have been observed in sewage ditches (these were not collected). If the water hole dries up, they will flip across the ground until they find another one. So long as they can stay damp, they can absorb atmospheric oxygen through their skin.

This species is one of the larger Rivulus, reaching 5 to 6 inches in length, yet an adult pair can be kept in a 5-gallon tank--and will grow and breed there.

They are slow growing, but I have seen them live for as long as 10 years.

The biggest problem with R. harti is keeping them in the tank. These fish love to jump and manage to escape through holes that don't seem large enough for them to squeeze through. Of course, jumping out doesn't necessarily mean the end of the fish. One well-known Canadian aquarist had a breeding colony in his basement in about half an inch of standing water. The fish had escaped a not-quite-perfectly covered aquarium and managed to travel en masse to a hidden corner, where a water leak kept a small puddle on the floor.

Obviously this fish made #1 for good reason. The author doesn't mention what to feed these fish, but he has a section on raising fry and suggests flake food. He also says that these fish are all but impossible to find in a lfs, meaning that the internet is the way to get them. If all he says in the article is true, I don't think transport is an issue. He doesn't mention anything specific about temperment, but from reading his article I'm left with the impression that these fish are relatively peaceful. However, I could be wrong. This fish's Latin name is also spelled Rivulus Hartii. I searched around a bit to see what I could find:

picture: http://dkg.killi.org/starthilfe/stenglein/Rivulus/Rivulus hartii.jpg

LOL...that's it. If someone really wants this fish, they would need to get in touch with a killifish group, like http://www.cka.org/ and see what they have to say.

madasafish said:
Just a fun fact I picked up in one of the fish magazines a few months ago.

I think we are referring to the same magazine :wink: .
 
My 3 danios, 1 leopard 2 zebra have lived through everything, when ever I have added fish in the past 2 years they have always died in 2 months, but these danios I have had the whole time and are doing quite well now in water that got tested yesterday and said to be pretty bad
 
Back
Top Bottom