There are several fishes that are recommended for planted aquariums. These fishes have proven to be very nice and effective in planted tanks. They don’t rearrange the aquariums and most often they swim together. There are times; they breed naturally in planted tanks especially when conditions are right. They stay small in size and are really pretty to look at.
1. Neon Tetra- Distinguished by neon blue coloration on the upper body and the lower body is a combination of silver and red.
2. Cardinal Tetra– Looks almost the same as the neon tetra but the difference is in the lower body coloration. It has plain red and no silver at all.
3. Rummy nose tetra- There are 3 kinds of rummy nose tetra but we will not go into details on that because they look almost the same anyway. It has a white body and red head. Red head only appears if the water is in very good condition. If there is something wrong with the water, the rummy nose will turn into all white color. This fish is not really a good beginner fish because it is quite sensitive to water condition.
4. Other Tetra’s- There are some other fishes in tetra family like the black neon tetra, serape tetra etc. The fishes I discussed above are the most colorful on this family.
5. Harlequin Rasbora- It is orange in color with a black triangular patch on the body. One thing you will really like on this fish is they always stick together.
6. White cloud mountain minnows- Great fish even without heater. Very hardy and really good for beginners.
7. Danio Zebra- These fish are very hardy as well. Make sure you keep at least 5 of these in the aquarium because there is a tendency for them to harass other slow swimming fishes if the numbers are kept small.
8. Siamese Algae eater– This is the most effective algae eater I have ever seen. It has elongated body with a black stripe on the middle of the body from head to tail. I would recommend one Siamese algae eater in every 20 gallon tank.
9. Platy – a hardy fish and a live bearer. These fish is fun to watch but it is recommended to keep males only because these fish breed easily and you won’t get enough room for all of them in just few months.
10. Swordtail– The female of this kind of fish looks almost the same as the platy. The male however have a very long tail that forms like a sword.
11. Molly– another hardy live bearer. Commonly used as an algae eater though not very effective.
12. Guppy– Known as the million fish. Million fish because they breed like crazy. Given a few months, you can have 2 dozens or more from one pair.
Leave a Reply