Hardest feshwater fish to keep.

[Bubble_B0y]

lol i was so sceptical when i got mine but he's doing great in my tank. pH is 7.2ish so i slowly acclimated him.

congrats!

chocolate gouramis have a high-death rate reputation (Even for the experienced aquarist).
They are extremely sensitive and stress very easily - moreso than any other gourami.

Many LFS refuse to stock them because many die during shipping.
I've read reports where some stores received a shipment, and half the fish were dead inside the bag!
The other half died within a week.

 

[Oscarr19]

I guess i was really lucky. It was more of an impulse buy when the owner of my lfs showed me them. I knew nothing about them but really liked them. Once i got home and jumped on google i was a little mad on not researching but i gave the little guy a shot and hes been doing great.

 

[Bubble_B0y]

I guess i was really lucky. It was more of an impulse buy when the owner of my lfs showed me them. I knew nothing about them but really liked them. Once i got home and jumped on google i was a little mad on not researching but i gave the little guy a shot and hes been doing great.

They are really pretty fish!
Chocolate Gouramis feeding - YouTube


I think a major reason for their high sensitivity is because they are so small (max size 2.5 inches).

 

[Mattefect]

Well tetras are tiny as actually easy to keep

 

[itschromesteel]

I noticed someone said neons were hard to keep I have never had a neon die on me and about 5 years ago my bf moved a new place and the was a little fish bowl that was overgrown with algae and had horribly dirty water I went dump it and found 6 neons alive in there. :/
You could try altum angels but I don't think they are any harder than discus IMO

 

[Ickletas]

For me the hardest fish I've kept are Red-stripe Halfbeaks. Really cool looking fish but I couldn't keep them for toffee. I bought 6 and 3 got beaten to death at the rate of almost one a day. I got 3 more to make up the school and the same thing happened until I was left with 2. One of those died the other day so now I have one hanging on in there. I think he'll probably either live cos there are no other halfbeaks there to fight with or he'll die of lonliness as they are schooling fish but sadly I am not prepared to spend more money on these bad boys.

 

[Mattefect]

Shame really sad story

 

[Adastra808]

Chocolate or licorice gouramis, rope fish, altum angels are extremely difficult from what I hear.
Brackish really isn't that difficult as long as you have a hydrometer or light refractometer to measure specific gravity of the water , but you can get some unique fish. Monos, scats and archers are popular for larger tanks, figure 8 puffers have great personalities, and bumblebee, knight, and dragon gobies are all really neat. Chromides and indian glassfish are also brackish fish.

 

[Crepe]

I'd say fish aren't hard to keep. If you're looking for challenges try breeding some loricarids or something. But all in all my list of top things of difficulty to breed in fw are:

1. Lower class shrimp
2. Certain tetras
3. Certain loricaridae

The only reasons you'll ever encounter in keeping fish is water sensitivity and getting them to eat prepared foods. Otherwise it's smooth sailing.

 

[toddnbecka]

IMO hatchets and pencilfish are tough to keep, mainly because I have hard, alkaline water and no suitable live foods like wingless fruit fly cultures.

 

[Mike-portocarrero]

I have my monos and gobbie with a snowflake eel they are all on a salt water tank

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

I am agreeing with the others. Chocolate gouramis are very difficult to keep. My boyfriend picked up chocolate samurais over the summer and everyone of them died within two days. Had his tank going at their perfect parameters and everything prior in anticipation of their difficult nature.

Besides being fascinated by a particular species, why would you specifically want to keep a sensitive animal?

 

[ridewithme38]

I beg to differ, the hardest fish to keep is a Common Goldfish in a 3gallon tank...try to keep one alive for more then a couple months...

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Go for an electric blue ram tank. Would look super cool and they arnt very easy to keep!