- Hey everyone.
Cory from Aquarium Co-op.
Today we're talking about the best fish
if you're a beginner.
I got 10 of them for you.
Not in any specific order but we're gunna give
some basic care and hopefully give you
some ideas for your new tank.
Alright, the first idea I've got for you is rasboras.
In general, you can get them in any pet store.
Rasbora hets are very, very common and super sturdy.
You get that orange color on 'em
and there are some other variants as well.
They get about 2.5-3 inches
and some stay a little bit smaller,
some get a little bit bigger.
Like a scissor tail rasbora, something like that.
They handle a wide range of PH
and they like to be in schools of six or more
and, in general, pretty peaceful.
So they can go with most of the other suggestions
on this list.
Next up I've got the common goldfish.
Now you might go, hey,
that's not necessarily a beginner fish.
The common goldfish, I do believe, is a beginner fish.
With a little bit of research
they're very easy to take care of.
In general, giving them at least
30 gallons of water per fish.
So, in a 55 you could have, kind of, a couple of them,
They get to about a foot, maybe 14 inches
and one of the good things is you can usually
put them into a pond later.
Maybe a family member or something like that.
But, in general, feed 'em a diet with a lot of spirulina
and veggies in it and they're pretty easy to take care of.
Change a bunch of water and they're really forgiving
in terms of PH, hardness and all that
and so, you don't want to mix them with other community fish
but a tank of just them is super cool
and that's why they're one
of the most popular fish in the world.
Next up I've got tetras for you.
Now, seems common, it is common, but there's hundreds
of types of tetras and it's probably the most
well represented species at your local fish store.
When you walk in you're gunna be like, hey,
there's neon tetras, cardinal tetras, Congo tetras,
black neon tetras, you know, there's gunna be tons
and, so, they're all pretty easy to take care of.
They like a neutral PH.
Kind of 7-7.8 you can go a little bit higher
on some of the African tetras.
You can go a little bit lower, maybe,
on wild caught cardinal tetras.
So, do a little bit of research before you're buying them
but keep them in groups of six or more.
They like to school around.
Safety in numbers.
Could go with the rasboras we mentioned earlier
and a bunch of others in this list.
Next up, we've got corydoras.
Now, think of them like the rasbora or the neon tetra
of the bottom dwellers.
They like to be in groups.
Ideally six or more, but, I say bare minimum three
and they usually are in every pet store
if not, at least albino and bronzes,
some of the more, you know, common ones.
All the way up to very expensive laser or delphi
or some that just have numbers.
Sometimes you go corydora cw056, what's that?
But, in general, they're all catfish that get, about,
2.5-3 inches, school around the bottom
and they eat off the bottom.
Now, that doesn't mean they only eat leftovers
or they clean your tank.
You still have to dedicated feed them, but,
they swim down low, kinda, you can inhabit that area
without having to put them up in the middle
with tetras and rasboras and all that kind of stuff.
So, they're a great little addition to your community tank.
Next up we've got platies.
Now, if you know me you know that I love live bearers
and I couldn't leave live bearers off this list
so I had to find one that I thought was really hardy
for a beginner and that is the platy.
Guppies, a lot of people would suggest that,
but they're so bred now that they're pretty weak.
Platies, on the other hand, tend to be nice and robust,
can handle a wide range of PH all the way from 6.8
to probably 8.5, they give birth to live young,
they like the water to be a little bit hard
but they don't care that much if it's not super hard.
They'll eat almost anything.
They get about 3.5-4 inches and they come in any color
you can imagine.
My personal favorites are a slight variant on a platy
known as the variatus platy.
I personally keep them in my fish room
and they're one of my favorite fish of all time.
Out of everything I own at the store and home,
they're still probably in my top five favorite fish ever.
Next up I've got bettas.
I know, there's a lot of controversy on that
but, in general, I do think
they are a good beginner fish for people
if they keep them appropriately.
So, get yourself like, a ten gallon aquarium,
get a filter with slow flow, maybe a sponge filter
or a small hang on back, plant it up
and then mix it with, probably,
some of those tetras and things
we've been talking about earlier
and you're finally like, wait,
I can keep them in a community.
All of our bettas in our store here
are kept in community tanks and I would say
85% or more of our customers do the same thing.
It doesn't always work out but it is one
of the easiest fish to keep
because they breathe from the surface.
They eat lots of meat so you can feed them
high quality pellets, frozen blood worms,
things like that and they typically
do get along with other stuff.
You actually worry more about other stuff picking on them
in a large aquarium.
In smaller tanks they get very, very territorial
and sometimes will lash out on other things
but in a big tank not so much
and, you know, just don't forget
don't keep more than one betta by itself.
They're very territorial against each other.
Next up we've got barbs.
So, they can be semi-aggressive.
I would say things like tiger barbs, Odessa barbs,
cherry barbs, there's lots of barbs.
Tinfoil barbs, they get huge.
In general, most of them get about 3ish inches,
it depends, but the ones that I would sell
and we would keep, or you see most in your store
are smaller three in version and they school around
so groups of six or more and, usually, the more you have
the more active they are
but the less they nip and chase other things.
So, if you have a group of 15 tiger barbs,
they usually are, kind of, laid back.
I wouldn't mix barbs with long finned things
like a nice, big, long finned angel or something like that
but you could mix them with rasboras, corydoras,
neon tetras, and a couple other things on the list.
Sometimes you just gotta have a cichlid
and what's a good beginner cichlid?
I like the Bolivian ram.
So, not the German ram which is, kind of, delicate
but the Bolivian ram gets about 3.5 inches,
doesn't have quite as much color
but has that cichlid behavior.
It's gunna be that show piece in your tank
and it will handle a wide variety all the way from seven
to eight PH, you can breed 'em,
you can keep them with, you know, the neons,
the rasboras, the barbs, all that kind of stuff
and their temps are in the same range, that 78
with all that other stuff, so it's really easy
to mix into your community tank
and they're really hearty and they'll eat
a wide variety of food, so, it's a great introductory
cichlid species if you're a beginner.
Next up we've got a bottom dweller, kuhli loaches.
Now, as long as they look okay at the store,
typically you do okay with them.
You don't get to see them a whole lot.
They're very nocturnal and reclusive.
They live in plant roots and under pieces of wood
and decorations, but, when you do get to see 'em
they're super cool.
They look like little worms and eels
and they're great little scavengers.
They eat little leftovers between the rocks
and that kind of thing.
You still gotta feed 'em, cause, they eat leftovers
but, you know, just because like we eat leftovers,
we still have to cook once in a while
to make leftovers.
Same deal with them.
Gotta feed 'em, but, get a group of three or more of them
at least and they can go in tanks as small as five,
all the way up, as many as you want to keep.
Alright, my last fish, an angelfish.
So, yes, they do get large, they get the size of,
you know, a small saucer but, keep them in, like,
a 55 gallon or larger, they're pretty darn easy to keep.
You can keep them with rasboras, barbs,
as long as it's not a long fin variety of the angelfish.
Barbs and neons, er, not neon tetras
but tetras in general, all those community fish.
It's your big, big, big show piece fish.
It's also a cichlid and, you know,
so you can even keep it with that Bolivian ram.
It's kind of, the easiest way,
my advice, is to keep just one.
Don't buy wild caught, buy stuff that's been tank raised.
Hopefully even locally to your water
and, just put one showpiece in that 55 gallon.
It's really easy.
When you start adding more,
that's when you can get fighting going on.
Then you can get breeding going on and all that stuff
and they get a lot more territorial
but one is very, very easy to keep
in a tank that's 55 or larger
in your general community tank.
So, hopefully that gave you 10 ideas
of what way could I go, I'm new to fish
or I want to just add something
and, you know, you can weigh in.
Leave a comment down below and let me know
what you think is a great beginner fish.
I could have come up with another 20 of them, I'm sure,
but leave it down below so that someone that's new
reading the comments goes ooo, let me research that one,
let me research that one and we'll crowdsource this thing
and we'll see you in the next video. Thanks guys!