What is your favorite species of fish?

What is your favorite freshwater fish species?

For myself, I can't say any one type is my favorite, but in genreal I like colorful fish, and smarter fish. Those fish who can defend their nest, protect their eggs and fry are the smartest ones in my opinion. Fish like Gourami, Betta, Cichlids, Angelfish (still a type of cichlids), all put some level of responsibility into protecting their next generation. So they are all on my favorite list.

I still remember how amazed and amused I was when my first Dwarf Gourami was building a bubble nest with my plants and his bubbles. It was awesome to look at him defending his nest. I tried to pull his nest away from the filter outflow, and he attacked my finger! He hit really hard for his size, too. The level of care he put into picking up each individual egg and fry and then put them back into the bubbles was a cool scene, and would not be expected by most people who know little about fish.

My German Blue Ram would also defend their nest. Even the two of them are both female = no fry.

It seems funny.For me,Betta and Angelfish are better choices.It must be wonderful to see Betta fighting with each other.Then i will imagine the Angelfish trying to mediate those fish lol.But seriously,i will also choose those colorful and smart fish.Look forward to hearing more funny stories about your fish.

When I kept fish many, many years ago, my favorites were black mollies. Then platys and I did like guppies. My favorite single fish was a Red Devil.

(02-24-2012, 12:43 AM)bw Wrote: When I kept fish many, many years ago, my favorites were black mollies. Then platys and I did like guppies. My favorite single fish was a Red Devil.

Molly, Platy, Guppy...
Sounds like you love live-bearers ! They breed like crazy as long as you have a male and a female, and then they will inbreed!

You would have a tank full of them no matter how big the tank is...if you don't have something else to eat the fry lol.

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(02-24-2012, 12:10 AM)Monica9975 Wrote: It seems funny.For me,Betta and Angelfish are better choices.It must be wonderful to see Betta fighting with each other.Then i will imagine the Angelfish trying to mediate those fish lol.But seriously,i will also choose those colorful and smart fish.Look forward to hearing more funny stories about your fish.

It is not wonderful to see betta fighting each other lol. It is a popular game in Thailand, but many others call it animal cruelty. If you want to keep betta, do not keep more than 1 in a single tank. It is also the best do not keep them with any other fish at all except the bottom feeders such as corydoras catfish.

As much as betta are territorial and aggressive, they are still too small to be a match for bigger fish.

Yes, I did prefer the live bearing fish. I kept plenty of plants for the fry to hide in so a great many survived. Then my tanks got snails from the live plants. That made the Red Devil happy. He could grab a snail and spit out an empty shell in a heartbeat. But, alas, there were too many snails for him to keep up with. I ended up taking a gazillion snails to a local pond and setting them free. This was in southern Illinois where the winters are a tad milder. I went back to the pond about a year later and there were some large snails residing there. I will always believe they were the snails I released. Please don't burst my bubble.

The only live bearer fish I have is platy. They are good algae eaters too. I always see them chew on the algae on the plants. As for the pest snails, my Assassin snails took care of them.

Most of my fish were live bearing. I recall having a few swordtails too. I didn't know about Assassin snails, still don't for that matter. That is probably why I had so many of the little snails.

I bought 3 Assassin snails off aquabid.com for... I forgot how much, maybe $14 shipped.

They are actually beautiful, and they do not reproduce that fast themselves because they require a male and a female to make babies and only a few each time, unlike the pest snails.



They eat other snails of smaller sizes than themselves. Nope, they will not eat their own kind.

Bettas are my main focus- they're beautiful and very interesting. They'd probably be my favorites since I work with them so much.

I do like my angelfish, there's just something about the way they move!

I also keep some cichlids that a friend gave me. I'm mixed about them, they're pretty fish but mine are prone to hide, so not flashy at all and I find that tank a little boring right now, LOL!

I do have a tank of mollies that I like. They were fry when I got them, said to possibly be black lyretails. They're juvenile, tails haven't grown out enough to tell how they'll mature. I love the black though, and they keep my tank clean- a tank prone to blue green algae.

From a friend, I plan on getting some japanese sword guppies- I believe I'll enjoy them quite a bit; it's been a while since I've had guppies.

Thanks for the photo of the Assassin snail. It is beautiful.

I will eventually get a betta, once I have a spared tank. It is one of the most popular fish, and I have to have some experience with it first hand. Although I have no plan to add another tank. 4 tanks are enough for me. Trying to to "have more tanks than friends" haha. Heard that saying "before you know it, you have more tanks than friends" in a Youtube video about cichlids.