Fish to avoid as a newbie

yeah the fact that they work their way through a nicely planted tank as munchies is also a nice to know before you spend hundreds on plants and wonder where they're going to - and yeah the size surprised me too as a newbie. I'm down to 2 silver dollars after the initial 5 - if all 5 had made it to their current size i'd have to turn my spare room into an aquarium.

 

sd's...they ferocious eaters like their cousins pirhana and grow very fast. Should be put on the newbie blacklist with bala sharks, tinfoil barbs, discus and the like.

 

ferocious eaters yes, cousins of the piranha yes. i would like to point out that altho related, these 2 fish have very different diets, while piranha are specifically meat eating carnivors, silver dollars are technically vegetarians. i have to say tho, the one's that i've seen, eat everything and anything, bloodworm, cucumber, small fish lol

@Ziphex, may i suggest, that along with compiling the list, perhaps it would be a good idea to add a very brief reason as to why the particular fish should be avoided?

i know that for us with a bit more experience, we mostly know why. a noob may not understand.

eg, tinfoil barb - reason: grows very large (in excess of 30cm), requires very large tank (minumum 500L), needs to be kept in a school (minumum 5), eats plants can not be kept in a planted tank.

or something like that?

 

@mydummyname the same was said about the pacu till it started attacking ppl in new guinea , its a very oppourtunistic species i think

 

@KennyG, i can assure you the Pacu is a different kettle of fish completely, its known for its aggression silver dollars are a bit boisterous, but very peaceful, only small fish need worry

silver dollars, along with tinfoil barbs, have a very special quality when it comes to the home aquarium.. they are often referred to as "dither fish" they are used to calm down nervous fish like bala sharks, etc, and even calm down aggression in malawi tanks, even tho i would never recommed keeping them in malawi tanks as the water requirements are totally different for the 2 types of fish.

 

German blue rams because they die easily.

 

@DewaldC - Or we don't know how to keep them? :blink1:

 

@MarcHawke Or they don't know how to kepte?:suspicious:

 

I have noticed no one has mentioned the legal fresh water stingrays or fresh water moray eels?

 

Illegal fish are found here on the freshwater blacklist.

Not all freshwater stingrays are illegal (but all the more common ones are), and freshwater morays are not illegal. True eels, genus Anguilla, are illegal, and as a newbie, definitely the last fish you'd want to keep anyway - grow massive, are predators, master escape artists etc. I guess that those might apply to many eels, though.

 

south american leaf fish....big mouth big apatite....abbit too chilled when you see it when you look again every ones gone!!!!

 

Do you know if any of these are on the BL?

• Anarchias seychellensis
• Echidna leucotaenia
• Gymnothorax fimbriatus
• Strophidon sathete
• Thyrsoidea macrura
• Uropterygius concolor
• Uropterygius micropterus

 

Check the BL on the forum think its under rules and regulations. Its in alphabetical order

 

Mhmm... eel lover I presume?

 

@Frank007301

Those are primarily marine fish, even though they might enter brackish waters. The blacklist we have only covers freshwater and a handful of marines - you'd have to search elsewhere on the legalities of those fish.

I don't quite see why you'd want those anyway. It's clear you're interested in these because of their brackish tendencies, but those are much better suited to marine setups (if at all - one of those is the longest growing moray in the world!). There are already a handful of brackish morays that are already readily available and much better suited to most fishtanks.

 

@SalmonAfrica Are there any smallish species of brackish moray that would go with F8 puffers and mudskippers?

 

@Xandoz

Not that I know of. I've only ever seen 2 kinds of brackish moray in SA, and both attain at least 60cm, if not more. This puts them out as tankmates for those, as they'll likely attempt to prey on the other fish at some point. There is the "pink-lipped moray", Echidna rhodochilus, which is said to not attain too large a size and occasionally is seen in the hobby. I've never kept this, so I can't comment on compatibility. Research around the web indicates that larger fish may be alright, but what a 'larger fish' is is not clear.

Apologies - this thread has seemed to have derailed slightly into a convo about brackish morays, which I feel I can say are not good fish for a new hobbyist. If anyone feels they wish to discuss this more, you may start a new thread Again, apologies for entertaining the derail.

 

Haha, cool, thanks

 

I dont know if anyone else had added this but stone fish are very hard to keep. Def not for a newbie..

Also freshwater moray, always died with me when I first go into fishkeeping. HAd no idea about care....

 

african butterfly isnt that bad , just requires about 10 to 15 minutes of bug hunting but doesnt phase me and i'm quite a noob