Essential Tropical Fish: Species Guide

By Anne Finlay

Essential Tropical Fish: Species Guide is the essential guide to identifying and selecting tropical fish for your aquarium, providing a resource for both beginner and enthusiast. 

Compiled from years of experience selling fish in the local pet store and the fish trade, this book contains profiles for the most commonly available tropical fish, answering questions such as how big the fish gets, ideal water conditions, compatible tank mates, recommended tank sizes, tank setup needs, and dietary requirements for each species.

If you’ve ever been in a tropical fish store and unsure what fish to get, what species or what to ask the shop assistant, this book will give you the knowledge you need.

It is our hope that fish keeping will bring you as much fun and enjoyment as it has brought us over the years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elluminet Press
• Release date: Nov 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781911174783

Book preview

About the Author

Anne Finlay has had a life long fascination with tropical fish from an early age, starting off with keeping gold fish then moving on to tropical and marine fish.

This led to studying them further at college and working at a public aquarium maintaining the tanks and advising people on the various species.

Her experience of the hobby and the fish trade keeps her abreast of the latest developments and has become the basis for writing this book.

Fish are fascinating to watch and hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

Table of Contents

Essential Tropical Fish: Species Guide 2

About the Author 3

Table of Contents 4

Introduction 8

Temperament 8

Care Difficulty 9

Water Parameters 9

Temperature 10

Water Hardness (KH) 10

pH 11

Livebearers 12

Platy 12

Guppy 13

Endler’s Livebearer 14

Molly 15

Sword Tail 17

Loaches 18

Bengal Loach 18

Big Blue Botia 19

Burmese Polkadot Loach 20

Clown Loach 21

Dwarf Chain Loach 22

Horse-face Loach 23

Kuhli Loach 24

Skunk Loach 25

Yoyo Loach 27

Zebra Loach 28

Weather Loach 29

Cory Catfish 30

Banded Corydoras 30

Blackstripe Bondi Corydoras 31

Blue Corydoras 32

Bronze Corydoras 33

Dwarf Corydoras 34

Hognosed Brochis 35

Emerald Cory 36

Elegant Corydoras 37

Julii Corydoras 38

Bandit Corydoras 39

Panda Corydoras 40

Peppered Corydoras 41

Salt & Pepper Corydoras 42

Schwartz’s Catfish 43

Sixray/False Corydoras 44

Sterba’s Corydoras 45

Albino Corydoras 46

Plecos 48

Bristlenose Plec 48

Common Plec 49

Gold Nugget Plec 50

Leopard Sailfin Plec 51

Zebra Plec 52

Albino Sailfin Plec 53

Royal Plec 55

Blue Phantom Plec 55

Clown Plec 56

Other Catfish 58

Otocinclus Catfish 58

Panda Garra 59

Pictus Catfish 60

Whiptail Catfish 61

Featherfin Catfish 62

Striped Raphael 63

Banjo Catfish 64

Characins 66

Black Phantom Tetra 66

Black Neon Tetra 67

Bleeding Heart Tetra 68

Blood-fin Tetra 69

Buenos Aires Tetra 70

Congo Tetra 71

Emperor Tetra 72

Glowlight Tetra 73

Golden Pristella Tetra 74

Lemon Tetra 75

Neon Tetra 76

Penguin Tetra 77

Red-eye Tetra 78

Red Phantom Tetra 78

Rummy Nose Tetra 79

Serpae Tetra 80

Silver Dollar 81

Labyrinth Fish 84

Chocolate Gourami 84

Dwarf Gourami 85

Giant Gourami 86

Paradise Fish 87

Pearl Gourami 88

Three Spot Gourami 89

Golden Gourami 91

Pygmy Sparkling Gourami 92

Silver/Moonlight Gourami 93

Kissing Gourami 94

Siamese Betta Fighting Fish 95

Cyprinids 96

Black Ruby Barb 96

Checker Barb 97

Cherry Barb 98

Clown Barb 99

Flying Fox 100

Golden Barb 101

Odessa Barb & One-spot Barb 102

Red Line Torpedo Barb 103

Tiger Barb 104

Tinfoil Barb 105

Bala Shark 106

Red-Tailed Black Shark 107

Ruby Rainbow Shark 109

Siamese Algae Eater 110

Harlequin Rasbora 111

Danios 112

Giant Danio 112

Pearl Danio 113

Glowlight Danio 114

Zebra Danio 115

Glofish Danio 116

Angels & Cichlids 118

Altum Angelfish 118

Koi Angelfish 119

Gold Angelfish 120

Green Terror Cichlid 121

Oscar 122

Rams 123

Convict Cichlid 124

Jack Dempsey Cichlid 125

Bumblebee Cichlid 126

Blue Dolphin Cichlid 127

Kribensis Cichlid 128

Discus 130

Common Discus 130

Royal Red Discus 131

Red Checkerboard Discus 133

Rainbow Fish 134

Red Rainbowfish 134

Boeseman’s Rainbowfish 135

Neon Rainbowfish 136

Neotropical Electric Fish 138

Black Ghost Knifefish 138

Elephant Nose 139

Miscellaneous Fish 142

Common Hatchet Fish 142

Three-lined Pencil Fish 143

Butterfly Fish 145

Panchax Killifish 146

Parrot Cichlid 147

Introduction

Throughout this book, each fish is categorized according to its temperament and difficulty of care or care level. This should hopefully help you when selecting fish for your tank.

This book contains the most common species found in most aquatic stores and is by no means exhaustive. A lot of species of the same family are very similar, they just have different markings so their needs and requirements are the same. If a particular fish is not in the book, look for a similar species.

First things to take into consideration are, the fish’s adult size, its temperament, compatibility with other tank-mates, and care difficulty. These are indicated in the book.

Temperament

Peaceful: Species within this category do not pose a real threat toward other fish, and are very passive and sometimes reclusive in nature.

Semi-Aggressive: Species within this category are normally active fish, and may occasionally chase or show aggression towards one another or similar shaped tank mates.

When placing Semi-Aggressive species in your aquarium, be sure to introduce them after the smaller, more passive fish have been established.

Aggressive: Species within this category are normally territorial and bold fish that should be housed with fish that are of the same demeanour.

Aggressive fish should be housed in a species only aquarium, and if you’re adding them to displays with semi-aggressive tank mates, they should be the last fish introduced into the display.

Care Difficulty

Easy: The fish in this category are not too demanding in the care that they require.

Most of these fish do not have any special feeding requirements and can tolerate a wide range of water conditions.

Moderate: Fish in this category demand a bit more care and attention. Some of these fish may have special feeding, lighting parameters and may require water conditions closer to those found in their natural habitat.

Difficult: Fish in this category demand a higher level care and attention with pristine water quality. Many of these fish have special feeding, water and lighting requirements.

They should only be added to an aquarium that is well established and running for many months. These species should be among the last additions to your collection.

Water Parameters

One of the easiest ways to keep your fish healthy is to maintain their ideal water conditions.

Make sure your aquarium has the correct water parameters and environmental requirements for the particular species you are interested in keeping. We have included some general water parameters for each species covered in this book. You can test these parameters using a test kit, which is readily available in most pet stores that stock fish.

While most aquarium species can tolerate a broad range of water conditions, keep in mind that certain delicate species of fish have very specific water parameter requirements.

Temperature

The water temperature of your aquarium plays a vital role in the health of your fish.